Create & manage distribution lists in Outlook Office 365

How do distribution lists work in Office 365?

In Office 365 Outlook app, members have the ability to create their distribution lists, add themselves to desired distribution lists, or invite others to join the groups.

An admin is capable of making all changes, which comes in handy when members should be added or removed, or when group ownership changes. These changes can only be performed by an Exchange administrator, global administrator, or Group administrator.

Remember that even as you create the distribution list in Outlook 365, you can choose to hide from the address book. Doing so changes the distribution list to “unlisted” and it will not show up in searches.

For a hidden distribution, you will have to type the complete email address when sending an email to it.

You can allow members to add or remove themselves as members of a distribution list. The default setting is that distribution lists have closed membership. You can also control who can send to your distribution list or let everyone to send to the distribution list. By default, all employees of the organization can send to the distribution list.

It goes without saying that whoever created the distribution list is the default owner. It is possible for this ownership to change.