Guest accounts: a new way to work with external collaborators

We are launching guest accounts as another way for customers to collaborate with external partners on Workplace.

Guest accounts make it easier to collaborate with someone outside of your organization who may not have access to Workplace. You can invite guests to any new or existing group, and manage their content and data within your Workplace.
This guide will walk you through the steps to enable guest access in your Workplace groups, briefly highlight the benefits of using guest accounts, and share the answers to frequently asked questions.
The benefits of guest accounts

The benefits of guest accounts

Guest accounts let you invite people from outside of your Workplace into one or more of your groups, regardless of whether or not they have their own Workplace. Once they’ve been added to the group, they can comment, post and interact with everyone else in the group just like other group members can. Guest accounts can be used to work with vendors and customers, or even for building Workplace communities.
There are three main benefits to enabling guest accounts for your organization:
  1. No Workplace needed: Guests aren’t required to already have Workplace. They will be able to use their personal or work email, and choose a password to join a group.
  2. Invite guests to a group: You can invite guests to a group (excluding multi-company groups), as long as the group’s guest access setting is enabled.
  3. Clear content management: The company inviting the guest owns and manages the content of the group.
The admin panel

The admin panel

Guest accounts are disabled by default, and only a System Admin can enable them.

To enable guest accounts, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Settings section of your Admin Panel and scroll down to Externals.
  2. Under External collaboration preferences, you can choose between enabling guest accounts or allowing new multi-company groups to be created (but not both)
When guest accounts are enabled, new multi-company groups can’t be created, but existing multi-company groups won’t be affected. If guest accounts are disabled while there are active guests in groups, new guests can’t be added but existing guests won’t be affected. This setting can be changed at any time.
After guest accounts are enabled in Workplace, you will need to decide who can enable guest access in individual groups. There are two options:
  • Only Workplace System Admins or Content Moderators can create groups with guests, and anyone can invite guests.


    This option will give the organization more oversight into which groups allow guest access. If you expect a high number of requests to create groups with guest access, this option may prove to be labor-intensive for System Admins and Content Moderators.
  • All members of the organization’s Workplace can create groups with guests, and anyone can invite new guests.


    This option can make it a lot easier for users to create groups when they’re needed, but may give System Admins less control over the process.
Workplace members can invite guests to a group where guest access is enabled or create such groups themselves if their Workplace settings allow for that.
Groups with guest access enabled

Groups with guest access enabled

Once a group has guest access enabled, guests can be invited the same way other members are invited. You can use the same Add people button in the upper right corner of your group, but instead of adding them by name you will add them by a personal or work email address. Your guests will receive an email inviting them to join your group, and they will have 30 days to accept the invite and create a guest account.
Guests are limited to seeing content and collaborating only in the groups where they’ve been added, and won’t be able to communicate with anyone who isn’t also a member of those groups. Guests can participate in the group chat and message individual users in their group, but they cannot start new group chats.
Workplace uses a flag to indicate when guest members are present in a group: a small flag with the number of guest members will show up next to the group’s name, the cover image will display a short message indicating there are guests present, and a small guest flag will also appear next to each guest’s name.
Removing guest access

Removing guest access

Removing guest access from either a specific group or your Workplace can be easy.

An admin in a group can add or remove guest accounts from that group by following these steps:

  1. Click on More (under the group name)
  2. Select Members from the drop down menu
  3. Click on next to a group member’s name
  4. Select Remove
An admin with permission to add and remove profiles (System Admins, Content Moderators and Account Managers) can deactivate guest accounts from their Workplace.

To deactivate guest accounts, follow these steps:

  1. Visit the Admin Panel
  2. Select People
  3. Select the Guests tab
  4. Click on on the far right of the guest’s name
  5. Select Deactivate account
Once deactivated, the content guests have created will be retained, but they will no longer be able to access your Workplace groups. In addition, new invitations sent to deactivated users will fail.
The guest experience

The guest experience

Once a guest receives an email invitation, they will need to claim their account and follow the setup instructions. If they already use Workplace, they'll have the choice to use that same login to access their guest account.
If a user is a guest in multiple Workplaces, they can use the account switcher. The account switcher allows guest users to visit the various Workplace accounts they have, and the groups they have joined as guests with each organization. The account switcher is located above the profile badge in the bottom left corner of Workplace, and it will alert guests to unseen notifications. To see the group’s posts, messages, and notifications, guests need to switch to that group’s Workplace.
To switch between accounts, follow these steps:
  1. Select the account switcher badge
  2. Select switch to another Workplace
  3. Select the Workplace you would like to access
  4. Select the group you would like to access
Helpful resources

Helpful resources

Check out these educational materials for more information on how to make the most of groups and guest accounts:
Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions

What are multi-company groups (MCGs)? What should I know about them?

  • With MCGs, you may easily collaborate with people outside of your organization that already have access to Workplace. That means that your notifications, groups, and chats are in one place. You can learn more about MCGs here.
  • You can only choose to make a multi-company group when you are first creating it. You cannot modify existing groups and turn them into MCGs later.
  • Guest accounts can’t be added to MCGs.
  • Organizations using MCGs are able to agree upon the ownership of data in an MCG.
  • You can select either guest accounts or multi-company groups for your organization’s external collaboration and change this setting at any time.

My organization already collaborates via multi-company groups (MCGs). If I enable guest accounts, can we continue collaborating via MCGs too?

  • Your existing MCGs will continue to work as normal, including adding new members.
  • If you enable guest accounts in the Admin panel, you won’t be able to create new MCGs. This setting can be switched back at any time.

If I disable guest accounts in my group’s settings, will the guests I already added lose access?

  • No. If you disable guest accounts in a specific group, guests already there can continue collaborating with that group’s members and see the group’s content. However, no new guests can be added to that group.
  • If you are looking to remove guests from your group, click on More (under the group name) and select Members from the drop down menu. Click the three dots (...) next to a group member’s name to remove the member from the group.

If I change my mind and decide to disable guest accounts in my Workplace, how will that impact existing groups with guests?

  • You will no longer be able to create new groups with guest accounts or add additional guests to existing groups, but the existing guests will not be affected.

How do I stop guests from viewing content once they no longer need access to it?

  • Remove a guest: Admins in a group can add or remove guest accounts from that group. Click on More (under the group name) and select Members from the drop down menu. By clicking on the three dots (...) next to a group member’s name, you will be able to remove them from the group. Removing the guest will not remove the content they created while in the group(s).
  • Deactivate a guest: System Admins, Content Moderators and Account Managers can deactivate a guest via the Admin Panel. Click on People settings and select the Guests tab. Click on the three dots (...) on the far right to deactivate that guest account. Once deactivated, the content guests have created will be retained, but they will no longer be able to access your Workplace groups. In addition, new invitations sent to deactivated users will fail.
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