---
title: "Understanding Groups"
description: "Learn about groups on Talkspirit, dedicated spaces to communicate and collaborate on specific topics or projects."
category: communication
section: groups-and-rooms
lastUpdated: 2026-08-06
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/communication/groups
---

# Understanding Groups


## Understanding Groups

Groups are dedicated spaces where you communicate and collaborate on a specific topic, team or project. Each group has its own members, its own privacy level, and its own set of enabled apps: Newsfeed, Chats, Drives, Calendar and Projects.

> **In summary:** A group is the audience you publish to. It is open, private or secret. Group managers run each group, and groups administrators manage all groups for the organisation.

Open **Groups** in the navigation bar to browse the groups directory. From there you can join groups, follow or unfollow them, and create a new one if you are authorised. Administrators can organise the directory with [Group topics](/en/communication/groups-topics).

![Groups directory showing a group card with its member count, follow switch, favourite star and Leave link](/images/communication/groups/01-groups-directory.png)

## Privacy levels

Every group has one of three privacy levels, chosen when it is created:

- **Open**: accessible to all members. Anyone in the organisation can see the group and join it directly.
- **Private**: accessible to its members only. Other members see the group in the directory and can request access or be invited.
- **Secret**: a private group that is invisible to everyone except its members. It does not appear in the groups directory, and access requests are disabled.

![Create a group dialog with the three privacy options: open, private and secret](/images/communication/groups/02-create-a-group-privacy.png)

## The General group

Your organisation starts with an open group named **General**. It is a default group: new members join it automatically when they activate their account, which makes it the natural place for announcements that concern everyone. Administrators can change which groups new members join automatically: see [Configuring default, source and locked groups](/en/administration-security/configuring-default-source-and-locked-groups).

## What you can do in a group

- **Publish and read posts** on the group's newsfeed
- **Share files** in the group's drive
- **Schedule events** in the group's calendar
- **Chat** with other members in the group's rooms
- **Track tasks** with checklists and the group's projects
- **Follow or unfollow the group**: the switch on the group card shows or hides the group's posts on your newsfeed
- **Mark the group as a favourite** to keep it at the top of your lists
- **Leave the group** at any time, unless administrators have locked it

What is available in a given group depends on the apps its managers have enabled and on the group's permissions.

![General group page listing its enabled apps, group managers, follow switch and membership menu](/images/communication/groups/03-general-group-page.png)

## Group roles

| Role | Scope | What they do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Member** | One group | Reads the group's content and, when permissions allow, posts and comments |
| **Group manager** | One group | Configures the group: information and privacy, permissions, enabled apps, members |
| **Groups administrator** | The whole organisation | Manages every group and the organisation-wide group settings |

> **Note:** Don't confuse **group manager** (runs one group) with **groups administrator** (manages all groups). Organisation administrators hold groups administrator rights automatically.

## Permissions: defaults and overrides

Administrators set organisation-wide defaults for what group members can do: post, comment, add and remove members, manage integrations, labels and drive files. For several of these, administrators also decide whether group managers may adjust the setting in their own group. When no override is allowed, the corresponding control does not appear in the group's settings panel. If you manage a group and a permission control seems missing, that is the expected behaviour: ask an administrator to allow the override.

## Creating and deleting groups

- Administrators decide, separately for open, private and secret groups, whether all members can create them. When creation is reserved, only groups administrators can create that kind of group.
- Whether members can add or invite other people to a group depends on the group's **Add and remove group members** permission. Inviting new guests also requires the organisation to allow guest invitations.
- **Archiving** a group hides it and can be undone. **Deleting** a group permanently removes the content of all its enabled apps. The group's managers, groups administrators and organisation administrators can archive or delete a group.

## Next steps

- [Creating a group](/en/communication/creating-a-group)
- [The General Group](/en/communication/the-general-group)
- [Joining or requesting access to a group](/en/communication/joining-or-asking-for-access-to-a-group)
- [Inviting members to join a group](/en/communication/inviting-members-to-join-a-group)
- [Leaving a group](/en/communication/leaving-a-group)