While creating the groups in Office 365, there will be an option to decide whether to create a private group or to go ahead with a public group.Where as in Office 365 groups, it can be restored for up to one-month period after the deletion of group. Once the distribution group is deleted it cannot be restored.Office 365 groups also supports a shared Calendar for scheduling group meetings and events.In Distribution lists instead of shared mailbox, emails are distributed to all the group members. This means, whenever an email sent to this group, it is not only distributed to the group members, but also stored in the shared mailbox. Unlike Distribution lists, Office 365 groups are associated with a shared inbox.To send mails to non-members of the groups you need to set some permissions. Both Office 365 groups and Distribution lists are capable of sending mails to all the members of the group as well as non-members.Unlike Distribution lists, Office 365 groups are featured with OneDrive storage for storing the files and a dedicated calendar.

Both Office groups and Distribution lists are associated with a dedicated Email address for sending mails to the group.Distribution lists are specific for sending mails to all the members of the groups where as Office 365 groups along with the distribution lists functionalities also integrated with Shared document libraries such as SharePoint and OneNote, Yammer etc.Comparison between Office 365 groups and Distribution lists Where as in Distribution lists, new members of the groups cannot access the previous mail threads. It is helpful for the new members of the group to discover when they join the group. Unlike Distribution list, office 365 groups store previously distributed emails as email threads. Once they are into the group, they can share any files or communicate with the other group members. Users are able to create a new group or find the group which is already exists and join the group from their inboxes. Office 365 group is a medium to communicate, collaborate, scheduling an event and sending the invitations to the group members. Along with that it also includes Shared Document to store and work on folders and Group files, Planning tool to organize and assign the task for getting the updates, and OneNote notebook. Office 365 group includes all the features of the Distribution list. Members for this group can be selected from either Global Address list or Local Outlook Contacts. It is also possible for the user to create their own distribution list in Outlook and it is named as Contact Groups. Other advantage using distribution list is that, you will be able to set certain options so that emails can sent to external users in the group. Instead of mailing them individually, create a distribution group for those set of people and send the mail to that group. These distribution lists are useful whenever you want to send a mail to a set of people who are working in the same department. By doing that, all members of the group will receive a copy of the mail. You can send an email address to this Distribution list by using the Group name or the dedicated email Id. Each Distribution list has its own email address associated with it. People who are exist in the Global Address List can only be added to the Distribution list. Office 365 Distribution list is a mail – enabled group of two or more people. Hence, Distribution lists are becoming outdated. Though, Office 365 groups and Distribution lists share same purposes, Office 365 groups are referred as Distribution lists with more improved features. Scalable and High performance Office 365 migrationĮdbMails – Office 365 Migration can accomplish your existing Office 365 tenant to another Office 365 tenant migration project effortlessly.

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