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Overview of group settings

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Group settings (also called directory settings in beta) are a collection of settings that allow you to configure either tenant-wide or object-specific allowed behaviors for specific Microsoft Entra objects like Microsoft 365 groups.

Microsoft Entra ID defines the following eight groups of setting templates that are read-only. Each setting template includes a collection of individual settings.

The setting templates are available through the groupSettingTemplates resource type in v1.0 and directorySettingTemplates resource type in beta.

Initially, Microsoft Entra ID assigns the default configuration to the tenant and there are no setting objects. To change the default settings, you must create a new settings object from a settings template.

From the setting templates, you can configure tenant-wide settings or settings for individual objects. Use the groupSettings resource type in v1.0 or the directorySetting resource type in beta and their associated APIs.

For groups, only settings for Microsoft 365 groups are available. The following article describes only settings that are available for Microsoft 365 groups.

Group.Unified

This object specifies Microsoft 365 group settings for your tenant.

Unless otherwise indicated, these features require a Microsoft Entra ID P1 license.

Setting name Type Description
AllowGuestsToAccessGroups Boolean Indicates whether a guest user has access to Microsoft 365 groups and their data. This setting doesn't require a Microsoft Entra ID P1 license.
AllowGuestsToBeGroupOwner Boolean Indicates whether a guest user can be a Microsoft 365 group owner.
AllowToAddGuests Boolean Indicates whether a Microsoft 365 group can have guest users as members. This setting can be overridden and become read-only if EnableMIPLabels is true and a guest policy is associated with the sensitivity label assigned to the group. If this setting is false at the tenant-level, it overrides the corresponding group-level setting when it's true. To enable guest access for only a few Microsoft 365 groups, set AllowToAddGuests to be true at the tenant-level, and then selectively disable this setting for individual Microsoft 365 groups to exclude.
ClassificationDescriptions String A comma-delimited list of classification descriptions. A valid value has the following format: "Value:Description" where Value matches an entry in the ClassificationList setting. This setting doesn't apply when EnableMIPLabels is true. Maximum character limit is 300 and commas can't be escaped.
ClassificationList String A comma-delimited list of values that can be applied to classify Microsoft 365 groups. This setting doesn't apply when EnableMIPLabels is true. For more information, see SharePoint "modern" sites classification.
CustomBlockedWordsList String Comma-separated string of phrases that users aren't permitted to use in group names or aliases. For more information, see Enforce a naming policy for Microsoft 365 groups.
DefaultClassification String The default classification for a Microsoft 365 group if none was specified during group creation. This setting doesn't apply when EnableMIPLabels is true. For more information, see SharePoint "modern" sites classification.
EnableGroupCreation Boolean Indicates whether nonadmin users can create Microsoft 365 groups. The default setting is true. This setting doesn't require a Microsoft Entra ID P1 license. This setting corresponds to the Users can create Microsoft 365 groups in Azure portals, API or PowerShell setting in the group settings menu in the Microsoft Entra admin center.

Note: The Users can create security groups in Azure portals, API or PowerShell setting is configured through the allowedToCreateSecurityGroups property of the defaultUserRolePermissions object of the authorizationPolicy resource type.
EnableMSStandardBlockedWords Boolean Deprecated and retired.
EnableMIPLabels Boolean Indicates whether information protection sensitivity labels published in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal can be applied to Microsoft 365 groups. For more information, see Assign Sensitivity Labels for Microsoft 365 groups.
GroupCreationAllowedGroupId GUID Identifier of the security group for which the members are allowed to create Microsoft 365 groups even when EnableGroupCreation is false. This setting doesn't require a Microsoft Entra ID P1 license.
GuestUsageGuidelinesUrl String The URL of a link to the guest usage guidelines.
NewUnifiedGroupWritebackDefault Boolean A tenant-wide setting that assigns the default value to the writebackConfiguration/isEnabled property of new groups, if the property isn't specified during group creation. This setting is applicable when group writeback is configured in Microsoft Entra Connect. The default value is true.

Updating this setting to false changes the default writeback behavior for new Microsoft 365 groups, but doesn't change writebackConfiguration/isEnabled property for existing Microsoft 365 groups. For more information about this setting and the group's writebackConfiguration property, see group resource type
PrefixSuffixNamingRequirement String Defines the naming convention for Microsoft 365 group names and mail nicknames. Maximum character limit is 64. For more information, see Enforce a naming policy for Microsoft 365 groups.
UsageGuidelinesUrl String A link to the Group Usage Guidelines. The default is an empty value.

Group.Unified.Guest

The settings in this object specify whether guests can be added to all or specific Microsoft 365 groups in the tenant. Only one setting is available in this collection.

Setting name Type Description
AllowToAddGuests Boolean Indicates whether guest users can be added to all or specific Microsoft 365 groups. The default setting is true. This setting can be overwritten when:
  • EnableMIPLabels is true and a guest policy is applied when a sensitivity label is assigned to a group
  • AllowToAddGuests is false at the tenant-level, then the group-level setting is overwritten

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