--- title: "Guest users" description: "A guest account has no organisation-wide access. What a guest can reach is fixed by the access scope chosen when the invitation was sent." category: administration-security section: users-and-access tags: [admin] type: Reference lastUpdated: 2026-08-06 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/administration-security/guest-users --- # Guest users ## Guest users A **guest** is an account that gets none of the organisation-wide access a member has. Nothing in your organisation is visible to a guest by default. What a guest can reach is decided by the **Access scope** picked when the invitation was sent, which is why two guests in the same organisation can see very different things. You recognise a guest by the `Guest` badge in the **Role** column of **Administration > Users**, and by **(Guest)** printed after their name in the **Members** app. ## Guest is not a rank below member Behind the interface, an account is either a member or an administrator, and "guest" is a separate restriction carried on top of that. The **Role** column shows it as a third value, but an account can never be a guest and an administrator at the same time. The practical consequence is that a guest cannot be promoted straight to administrator. Set them as **Member** first, then as **Administrator**. [User roles and permissions](/administration-security/user-roles) covers the ladder and the row menu. ## What a guest can reach The **Access scope** on the invitation decides everything: - **See the holarchy** gives the guest read access to the organisation's structure, every circle and every role, view only. It is the option the invitation dialog offers first. - **Access 1 group** and **Access more than 1 group** confine the guest to the groups you pick and nothing else. | Where | Guest invited with **See the holarchy** | Guest confined to groups | | --- | --- | --- | | **Structure** | Whole structure, read only | Not offered | | **Members** | Whole directory | Whole directory | | **Groups** and **Newsfeed** | Only their own groups | Only their own groups | | **Projects**, **Goals**, **Meetings** | No access | No access | | **Home**, **Cockpit**, **Chat**, **Calendar** | Yes | Yes | | **Library** | Only if guests are allowed in it | Only if guests are allowed in it | So the common belief that a guest only ever sees the groups they were invited to is true of the two group scopes and wrong about the third. A guest invited with **See the holarchy** browses your whole organisation chart. If that is not what you want, invite them into groups instead. App names can be changed for your organisation under **Administration > Terminology**, so the labels above may read differently on your screen. ### Every guest sees the whole member directory This one surprises people, so it is worth stating plainly. The **Members** app is open to every account, guests included. A guest can browse every person in your organisation and open any profile. There is no setting that hides the directory from guests. If someone must not see who else is in the organisation, a guest account is not the right answer. ## What no guest can do Whatever their access scope, a guest cannot: - **Create a project, a meeting or a goal.** Guests are excluded from creating all three, and from reading them. - **Open a group they do not belong to**, including open ones. A member sees every group that is not secret; a guest sees only their own. - **Create a group.** - **Invite anyone.** The invitation is refused even when **Allow members to invite new members** is switched on. - **Be an administrator**, either of the organisation or of a delegated app in classic Talkspirit. Guests can be suspended, restored and anonymised like any other account. ## How do I recognise a guest? You need administrator rights for this route. 1. Go to **Administration**, and under **People** click **Users**. 2. Click **Filter** at the top right. 3. Under **Quick filters**, click **Guests**. ![The Users page in Talkspirit Administration with the Filter panel open, showing the Members and Guests quick filters above an Add filter control](/images/administration-security/guest-users/01-administration-users-guests-filter.png) **Add filter** then offers a **Role** filter with the same three values, which you can combine with a status filter. The **Members** app carries the same **Guest** quick filter, so any member can tell who is a guest without opening Administration. ## Turning a guest into a member On a guest's row in **Administration > Users**, the actions menu offers **Set as Member**. That single step removes the restriction and gives the person full member access. It is covered step by step in [Changing a member to a guest or a guest to a member](/administration-security/making-a-member-a-guest-or-making-a-guest-a-member). Two things to know before you use it in the other direction: **Set as Guest always creates the most restricted kind of guest**, whatever the person had before. If you set a guest as **Member** and later as **Guest** again, they come back confined to groups even if they used to see the structure. There is no control that widens an existing guest's scope. To give a guest structure access, invite the person again with **See the holarchy**. **Making someone a guest removes their delegated administrator rights** over every app in classic Talkspirit. Setting them back to member does not return those rights, so you have to grant them again. ## Are guests free? No, and any figure you may have read about free single-group guests belongs to the old pricing grid. Guest capacity is part of your subscription, and how many you get depends on your plan. Check your plan or ask your account manager rather than assuming a quota. ## What's next? - [Inviting new users, members, or guests](/administration-security/inviting-new-users-members-or-guests) - [Changing a member to a guest or a guest to a member](/administration-security/making-a-member-a-guest-or-making-a-guest-a-member) - [User roles and permissions](/administration-security/user-roles) - [Members and guests settings](/administration-security/members-and-guests-settings)