Manage User Groups

Organize members into groups, such as Legal, Sales, or Research, and control each group’s settings and how each group's meetings are shared.

Teams in the same company often have different needs. Some share meetings widely, while others, like Legal, Compliance, or Finance, need tighter control over who can see their conversations. With User Groups, you can:

Control who a team's meetings are shared with. For example, limit auto-sharing to calendar guests who are in the same user group.
Configure each group differently. Each group can have its own settings. To learn about other admin controls, see the Enterprise Admin Controls Overview, or contact us if you need additional settings to differ by group.
Manage it all in one workspace, without creating a separate workspace for each department.

User Groups are available on the Enterprise plan and managed by workspace admins.

How User Groups work

You don't have to create a User Group to use Otter. Members who aren't in a group follow your workspace settings.

When you create a group, its settings apply to its members instead of the workspace settings. A member can be in more than one group. If groups' settings conflict, the group with the highest priority (the lowest number) applies.

Create and manage groups

You can create groups by syncing them from your identity provider, or manually in Otter. If your workspace uses Directory Sync (SCIM), syncing is the easier path.

Sync groups from your identity provider (SCIM)

If your workspace uses Directory Sync (SCIM), groups from your identity provider sync into Otter as User Groups, and membership stays up to date as you make changes in your identity provider. Synced groups show a sync indicator in the group list.

Before you sync

Review which groups are assigned to the Otter app. Any group assigned to the Otter SCIM app appears in Otter as a User Group, including groups you use only to assign the Member or Admin role.
Use clear group names. Synced groups are named in your identity provider and can't be renamed in Otter.
Groups don't need a role. Groups you want to use as User Groups don't need a Member or Admin role assignment.
Keep an admin-role group. Keep your Admins group assigned to the Otter app, and keep every admin in it. If an admin is only in groups with no role, a later profile update from your identity provider may change their role to Member.

If you already use Directory Sync

New groups you assign to the Otter app sync into Otter automatically. Groups you assigned before, such as your role groups, aren't added automatically.

What you can and can't change in a synced group

Name and members: Manage these in your identity provider. You can't rename a synced group or edit its members in Otter.
Settings: You can change the group's settings in Otter.
Deleting: You can't delete a synced group in Otter. Deleting the group in your identity provider removes it from Otter.

Create a group manually

If you don't use Directory Sync, or you want a group that isn't in your identity provider, create it in Otter.

Open your workspace admin page and select the Groups tab.
Select New group.
Enter a Group name. Group names must be unique in your workspace.
Under Copy settings from, choose where the new group's settings start. The default is Workspace default. You can customize the settings afterward.
Select Create.

Rename, reorder, or delete a group

Rename: Open the group and select the pencil icon next to its name. Groups synced from your identity provider can't be renamed in Otter.
Reorder: Drag a group by the handle that appears on hover to change its priority. When a member is in more than one group, the settings of the group with the highest priority applies.
Delete: Select the ... menu on the group's row, then Delete. The confirmation shows how many members will remain in their other groups and how many will be in no groups. Members in no groups go back to workspace settings. Groups synced from your identity provider can't be deleted in Otter.

Add members to a group

On the Groups tab, open the group.
Select Add member.
Search by name or email, or choose people from the suggestions. Each person's current groups are shown next to their name, or "No groups".
Select Add.

Edit a member's groups

You can also change groups from the Members tab. The Groups column shows each member's groups, or None.

On the Members tab, select the member's group name in the Groups column.
In Edit groups, check or uncheck groups under Add to group, or remove a group from Current groups.
Select Confirm.

Changes to group membership appear in your admin logs.

Control sharing by group

Open a group and select the Settings tab. Under Sharing & Permissions, you can set two controls for the group. Members who aren't in a group follow your workspace's sharing settings.

Default auto-share setting

This controls which calendar event guests members can automatically share meetings with.

Next to Default auto-share setting, select the current value.
Under Select the calendar event guests that workspace members can automatically share meetings with, check the guests you want to allow:
- All calendar event guests
- Calendar event guests with an otter.ai email address
- Calendar event guests who are members of your workspace
- Calendar event guests who are in your user group(s)
If nothing is selected, auto-sharing to calendar guests is disabled for members of that user group.
Under Choose default audience, pick the audience that's selected by default for calendar events. Members can still change the audience for individual events.
Select Apply changes.

External sharing

This controls who the group's members can share conversations with.

Next to External sharing, open the dropdown.
Choose who members can share with:
- Share with anyone: Members can share with anyone, including people outside your organization.
- Share with their domain only: Members can share only with people who have an email address on your workspace's domain.
- Share with their user group only: Members can share only with other members of their user group.

For more about how external sharing works, see the Enterprise Admin Controls Overview.

FAQ and troubleshooting

A group's settings aren't applying to a member.

Check that the member is in the group. Members in None follow workspace settings. If they're in more than one group, the group with the highest priority applies.

A member can't share a meeting.

Check the External sharing setting for their group. If it's set to Share with their domain only or Share with their user group only, members can't share with people outside that boundary.

I can't rename or delete a group.

Synced groups can't be renamed or deleted in Otter. Make the change in your identity provider.

An admin's role changed to Member after a sync.

Confirm they're in a group assigned the Admin role in your identity provider, and that the group is assigned to the Otter app.

A synced group isn't showing in Otter.

Confirm the group is assigned to the Otter app. Groups that existed before User Groups was available aren't added automatically.