Create & respond to messages

You can start or join conversations in Google Groups by posting a new message or responding to posted messages in your groups.

Start a new conversation

Start a group discussion about a topic you’re interested in.

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. Click the name of a group.
3. At the top left, click New conversation.
4. Enter your message.
5. Click Post message.

Read and respond to messages

You can read and respond to messages using Google Groups or email, depending on how the group is set up.

Respond via Google Groups

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. Click the name of a group.
3. Click the message you want to read.

4. Choose whether to reply to the group or individually:

   • To reply to the group, below the message text, click Reply all. Compose your reply👁 and then
     click Post Message.
   • To reply only to the person who posted, below the message text, click Reply to author. Compose your reply👁 and then
     click Send. 
   • To forward a message, below the message text, click Forward. Enter some message text👁 and then
     click Send.

Respond via email

1. Click the message in your email inbox. You can select any email in the conversation thread to reply to.
2. To respond only to the person who posted, select Reply. To respond to the whole group, select Reply all.

Send prewritten messages with message templates

Tired of typing the same reply every time you receive a message with a common question? Compose your reply once and save the message as a template. You can also include your signature. Later, you can open the template and send it with just a few clicks.

Template limitations

• Maximum of 100 templates
• Maximum of 30 characters for the template name
• Maximum of 30,000 characters per template
• No 2 templates with the same name

Create or change a template

1. Sign in to . 
2. Click the name of a group.
3. Either start a new conversation or begin a reply to an existing conversation.
4. Click Email templates 👁 Image
   .
5. Compose a message that you want to save as a template.
6. Choose an option:

• To create a new template, click Save draft as template👁 and then
  Save as new template.
• To change a previously saved template, click Save draft as template and for Overwrite Template, choose a template and click Save to overwrite it.

7. (Optional) To send an email, compose your message and click Send.

Insert a template

1. Sign in to .
2. Click Email templates 👁 Image
   .
3. For Insert template, choose a saved template to insert in your email.
4. (Optional) Compose the rest of your message and click Send.

Delete a template

1. Sign in to .
2. Click Email templates 👁 Image
   .
3. For Delete template, choose a saved template to delete.

Choose who will receive your messages

Requires the Owner or Manager role.

You can decide whether members can reply via email to the entire group or only to certain members of the group. You can also choose to have every message sent to a specified email address. 

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. Click the name of a group.

3. On the left, go to Group settings👁 and then
   Email options.

4. For Post replies to, click the displayed option👁 and then
   choose the option you want.
5. Click Save changes.

Deleting messages from other members requires the Who can moderate content permission.

You can delete messages you posted and possibly messages from other group members.

1. Open the message you want to delete.
2. In the message entry, click More👁 Image
   👁 and then
   Delete.
3. In the confirmation box, click OK.

Note: If a post is inappropriate, you can delete it and report it as abuse.