Multiple email services offer the feature to create contact groups, but today we’re concentrating on creating them in Gmail and why they are useful. One of the things I don’t like about Gmail is that when I go to compose an email, there’s no way to have my contact list pop-up so that I can select the contacts that I want to send the email to from the compose screen. Sure, I could go to the contacts first and do it, but that’s not always convenient, especially when I want to forward a message to multiple people. If you use Gmail, you’ll know what I’m talking about. So the solution to the problem? Create contact groups!
It occurred to me yesterday that some of you may not know that this is something that you can do. It’s simple, and it’ll save you some time. So here’s how to create a contact group in Gmail:
- Click contacts (on the left side)
- Click “new group” button (top-left corner)
- Choose the name of the group
- Click OK
Now it’s time to add contacts to a group:
- Go to your contacts list and select all of the contacts that you’d like to be part of a group
- Then go to the groups drop-down menu and under “Add to” you’ll click on the group you want those contacts to be a part of
That’s it! Then when you go to compose an email, you can just type in the name of the group in the “To” field and it will automatically send it to all of the people that are a part of the group. For example, I created a group called “family” that includes all of my family members. When there’s something I need to send to them, I simply type “family” in the address box and then all of their email addresses are added. Keep in mind that you can create as many contact groups as you’d like. Just remember to name the groups something that will be easy to remember, otherwise it defeats the purpose. 
So they’re essentially distribution lists? New Y!Mail removed groups, but kept dist lists, which I like but many are upset about.
Just append group names with a symbol on the front and then type that symbol in the to field and all your groups will pop up, no need to remember
I’ve been using this feature since from the beginning but you know what the problem is? The email address of each member of the group is visible to the other members when they get the email. I don’t like it very much and I do hope that Gmail team will asap change something this way.
I always tend to forget about the shortcuts as helpful as they are! Thanks for the reminder.
That’s what the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) field is used for. People who receive the email will not be able to see who else it was sent to.
Yeah, that’s not a fault with Gmail, its the same in every mailing client ever made and part of the email standard. As Ryan said just use the BCC if you want to do that.
I just discover new things on your site every day. I knew about the groups but had not used this function yet, but now after reading this it’s time to get started. Sounds much like the distribution groups I setup on a Microsoft Exchange server, only I am sure it’s much easier to use. Thanks.
This is incredibly easy to use, and it can save you so much time.
I love groups in gmail….but is there a way to have some as TO and some as CC within the same group? I know this can be done in desktop programs such as outlook, but I would love to have that ability in gmail.
For instance, in a given group, there are 2 names I need to go into the TO field and 3 names I need to go in the CC field. Can this be done, or do I need to create separate groups?
Thanks!
Unfortunately I don’t think that’s possible. The easiest thing to do would be to create two separate groups. You can type one into the “TO” field and another into the “CC” field.