Group room
Communities your members run themselves
Member-run communities with open or closed privacy, join and leave controls, and their own feed and roster. Built for ERGs, guilds, clubs, and every community that isn't a project.
Not everything at work is a project. Group gives ERGs, guilds, book clubs, and interest communities a home of their own: each group has its own feed for conversation and its own roster so members can see who's in. Members run it; nobody files a ticket to start a climbing club.
Privacy is a choice per group: open groups let anyone join and leave freely, closed groups control membership. Company communities get real infrastructure instead of squatting in a chat channel that IT keeps threatening to archive.
What you get
Everything inside Group
Member-run
Groups are run by their members, not routed through admins. Communities form and grow because people want them to.
Open or closed
Open groups welcome anyone; closed groups control who joins. Match the privacy to the community.
Join and leave freely
People opt in and out on their own. Membership reflects genuine interest, which is what keeps a community alive.
A feed of their own
Each group gets its own feed, so the running-club conversation and the ERG discussion each have a proper home.
Roster
Every group shows its members. See who's in, find your people, and put faces to the community.
Inside your workspace
Groups live in Openbook alongside work, under the same roles and permissions, with no separate community platform to buy.
Made for moments like these
- Give each ERG a closed group with its own feed and roster
- Run an engineering guild where practices get debated across teams
- Start an open group for the office runners before the spring relay
- Host the new-parents community somewhere more private than a chat channel
One less tool to pay for
Teams typically use Group to replace:
See how Openbook stacks up in our comparison guides.
FAQ
Common questions
What's the difference between a group and a chat channel?+
A channel is a message stream. A group is a community: its own feed, its own roster, open or closed membership, and member-run governance. Channels work for quick talk; groups give ERGs and clubs a durable home with an actual member list.
Who can create and manage groups?+
Groups are member-run by design; the people in the community manage it. Your workspace roles, Owner, Admin, Member, and Viewer, still apply around them, so admins keep oversight without running every club themselves.
Can we make a group private?+
Yes. Choose closed privacy and the group controls its membership. Open groups let anyone join and leave freely. Pick per group, so the running club is open while the ERG stays closed.
Why host communities in a work tool?+
Because that's where the people already are. Groups sit inside your existing workspace, with the same login, notifications, and directory. Communities get discovered by coworkers who'd never install a separate app for them.
Add a Group room in seconds
Every room type is included on the free plan. Compose the workspace your team deserves.