1. Google Apps Administrator Group - set-up by the school Apps domain administrator, this has a unique email address - e.g. group@myschool.org - and the domain administrator controls who is part of the group and the permission levels.
2. Google Apps User-managed Groups - these are like Administrator groups, but can be managed by non-administrators. They are essentially discussion lists that users can create and manage. Each group will have a unique email address.
3. Mail Contact Group - this is set-up by individual users with school Apps accounts. While the group is named, it does not have a single unique email address. Instead, the group is a 'name' in the address book which when selected, will populate with individual email addresses of the group members.
4. Google Group - this is a product that is not included with Google Apps Education Edition that allows for individuals to create groups of interest. Learn more about Google Groups.

In this section, we will review how to create the third type of group, the Mail contact group - one that will only be available in your individual mail account. 

Please note: These contact groups will not be associated with your domain, only your account. If several people will be using the same group of contacts, please notify your school Apps domain administrator and request that a 'Group' mailing list be created for your domain.

You can assemble custom contact groups to simplify mass emails in your Apps mail account. For example, instead of typing the email address to everyone in the budget committee - simply create a "Budget committee" contact group that you can use in the 'To:' field when you compose a message.

Other useful contact groups could include faculty (different groups by subject/grade), students or classes (again by subject/grade), organizations, extended family, etc. 

To create a contact group:

1. Click Contacts along the side of any page.
2. Click the New Group button  located in top portion of the Contact Manager. 
   
3. Enter the name of the group.
4. Click OK.

If after creating the contact group, you wish to change the name, you can access the settings in the Contact Manager

To edit a contact group name:

1. Click Contacts along the side of any page.
2. Click the name of the group in the left panel.
3. Click the edit button.
   
   
4. Enter the name of the group.
5. Click OK.

Please note: You will not be allowed to change the name of any of the default contact groups including: My Contacts, Friends, Family, Co-workers, and Most Contacted.