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How to create a Group in Salesforce

Groups are user-driven collections that wrap a set of Salesforce users for collaboration purposes — Chatter Groups for discussion, Personal Groups for private sharing, Public Groups for sharing rule targets. The slug "group" usually refers to the Group object covering all of these flavors.

By Dipojjal Chakrabarti · Editor, Salesforce DictionaryLast updated Apr 20, 2026

Groups are user-driven collections that wrap a set of Salesforce users for collaboration purposes — Chatter Groups for discussion, Personal Groups for private sharing, Public Groups for sharing rule targets. The slug "group" usually refers to the Group object covering all of these flavors.

  1. Pick the kind of group you want

    Public Group (Setup → Public Groups, for sharing rules), Chatter Group (App Launcher → Groups, for collaboration), Personal Group (your own list).

  2. For Public Group: Setup → Public Groups → New Group

    Used as a target in Sharing Rules, Queue membership, list-view sharing.

  3. For Chatter Group: App Launcher → Groups → New

    Pick Public / Private / Unlisted. Members post, share files, hold discussions.

  4. Name the group and add a description

    Description is searchable — make it specific.

  5. Add members

    Mix of Users / Roles / Roles + Subordinates / other Groups (for Public Groups). Just Users (for Chatter Groups).

  6. Save

    The group is now usable. Public Groups can be referenced in Sharing Rules and queue assignments; Chatter Groups appear in the user's Groups feed.

Gotchas
  • "Public Group" and "Chatter Group" share the slug but are entirely different objects with different uses. Don't confuse them — Public Groups for security model; Chatter Groups for collaboration.
  • Personal Groups (created from a user's own settings) are visible only to the creator. Useful for ad-hoc sharing but not for org-wide policy.
  • Adding a deeply-nested Public Group to a sharing rule slows recalculation. Keep group hierarchies shallow — 2-3 levels max.

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