Microsoft Adds Guest Access Functionality to Office 365

There are certain times when we need outside help while completing our work. This help can be from anyone outside the company, be it suppliers, consultants, or someone else. As these people are not part of your Office 365 group, you have to usually forward each and every mail concerned with the project, which can be a tiring task. Now Microsoft has decided that you won't have to deal with this sort of a problem anymore.

The Redmond-based company has added guest functionality to its email client, starting with the Web version of Office 365, allowing the group owners to invite people from outside to get the emails that are being sent to the group.

"Once added, guests receive a welcome email, are granted access to group files in SharePoint Online, begin receiving email messages and calendar invites sent to the group, and can access the group in Office on the web and the Outlook Groups mobile application," the company said in its official blog post announcing the feature.

The company says that guests will have automatic access to cloud-based file attachments and will also have the option to leave the group whenever they wish to do so. Microsoft has said that there will be visual indicators at all times that will inform Office 365 users across all platforms of the guest user(s).

The guest access will work for both corporate and consumer domains, and the guest user will be required to have a Microsoft account in order to gain this type of access.

The company has said that this feature will be rolled out in phases, and therefore can be expected to show up on other platforms soon.