--- title: "Exchange - How to create contact groups" description: "Find out how to manage mailing lists in Exchange" url: https://docs.ovhcloud.com/en/guides/web-cloud/email-and-collaborative-solutions/microsoft-exchange/feature-groups lang: en lastUpdated: 2025-04-28 --- # Exchange - How to create contact groups ## Objective Exchange groups enable multiple participants to communicate by sending emails to a unique group address. With this collaborative feature you can create and manage mailing lists that include Exchange users as well as external contacts. **This guide explains how to use Exchange groups via the OVHcloud Control Panel and Outlook Web App (OWA).** ## Requirements - an [OVHcloud Exchange solution](https://www.ovhcloud.com/en-gb/emails/hosted-exchange/) already set up *** ### OVHcloud Control Panel Access - **Direct link:** Exchange - **Navigation path:** Web Cloud > Exchange > Select your platform *** ## Instructions ### Creating a new group Click on the `Groups ` tab in the horizontal menu. ![contactgroups](/images/web-cloud/email-and-collaborative-solutions/microsoft-exchange/feature-groups/exchange-groups-create01.png) Clicking on `Create a contact group ` will open a new window where you can define the group's settings: ![contactgroups](/images/web-cloud/email-and-collaborative-solutions/microsoft-exchange/feature-groups/exchange-groups-create02.png) - **Email address**: Set a new address that will send messages to the mailing list. Please note that you cannot enter an existing email address. - **Group name**: The display name that appears in your OVHcloud Control Panel and in your [OVHcloud webmail](https://www.ovhcloud.com/en-gb/mail/) (OWA). - **Max size incoming / outgoing**: You can specify the maximum size of incoming and outgoing emails. - **Hide in Outlook**: If this box is ticked, the group address will not appear in the Exchange service's list of addresses. - **Authentication required**: If this box is ticked, only users on the same platform will be able to send a message using the group address. Click `Next ` to continue. On the second page, select the **Contacts** for the group and designate the **Administrators**. The choices will only include email addresses and external contacts that are already created on the service - **Administrators**: Email accounts authorized to send an email to all group contacts. - **Contacts**: Email accounts that will receive emails sent to the group by administrators. :::info Please note that administrators must be configured as **Contacts** in order to receive group emails. ::: ![contactgroups](/images/web-cloud/email-and-collaborative-solutions/microsoft-exchange/feature-groups/exchange-groups-create03.png) Click `Next ` to continue and click `Confirm ` to finalize your choices. ### Managing groups After your group is created, you can adjust the settings described above by clicking `... ` to the right of the group in the table. ![contactgroups](/images/web-cloud/email-and-collaborative-solutions/microsoft-exchange/feature-groups/exchange-groups-options01.png) #### Managing users in a group To add `Contacts` to your group or define `Administrators` , click the `... ` button, then `Configure users `. Select the attributes that you want to attach to the email addresses in the `Email account` column. :::info A group can contain a maximum number of 10,000 contacts. ::: ![contactgroups](/images/web-cloud/email-and-collaborative-solutions/microsoft-exchange/feature-groups/exchange-group-options-users01.png) #### Managing group delegations Additionally, the menu item `Manage delegations ` will be displayed. This option allows you to delegate access in the same way as for an Exchange account. Find all the details in [this guide](/en/guides/web-cloud/email-and-collaborative-solutions/microsoft-exchange/permissions-delegation.md) . ![contactgroups](/images/web-cloud/email-and-collaborative-solutions/microsoft-exchange/feature-groups/exchange-groups-options-delegation01.png) :::info Please note that any changes to this service may take a few minutes to be applied. You can check the status of most operations by selecting the `More ` and `Recent tasks ` options from the horizontal menu. ::: ### Messaging a group in OWA You can now test your mailing list via [OVHcloud webmail](https://www.ovhcloud.com/en-gb/mail/) (OWA): simply send an email to the group address. ## Go further [](#) [Delegating permissions on an Exchange account](/en/guides/web-cloud/email-and-collaborative-solutions/microsoft-exchange/permissions-delegation.md) [Using the Outlook Web App with an Exchange account](/en/guides/web-cloud/email-and-collaborative-solutions/using-the-outlook-web-app-webmail/email-owa.md) [Sharing calendars in OWA](/en/guides/web-cloud/email-and-collaborative-solutions/using-the-outlook-web-app-webmail/owa-calendar-sharing.md) For specialised services (SEO, development, etc.), contact [OVHcloud partners](https://partner.ovhcloud.com/en-gb/directory/). If you would like assistance using and configuring your OVHcloud solutions, please refer to our [support offers](https://www.ovhcloud.com/en-gb/support-levels/). Join our [community of users](https://community.ovhcloud.com/community/en).