By default, only users on your Google Workspace domain or Microsoft tenant can access AODocs on your domain. Learn more: Who can access AODocs?
External users are users who don't belong to your Google Workspace domain or Microsoft tenant, but who have been given permissions to access either the AODocs interface or specific attachments on your domain. Learn more: Manage external users.
Learn more about the external user experience:
This article lists the different types of external user and explains what they can access.
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External users with access to AODocs
The following types of external user can access AODocs:
- External Google users with one of these accounts:
- Google Workspace account
- non-Corporate Gmail account, such as <yourname>@gmail.com
- non-Corporate non-Gmail account, such as <yourname>@hotmail.com, linked to a Google Account – learn more: Sign in to your Google Account with another email address
- External Microsoft users with one of these accounts:
- Azure Active Directory account
- non-Corporate Microsoft account, either Outlook or Hotmail, such as outlook.com or hotmail.com
- Users with any non-Corporate email account
The table below indicates the external users and groups who can be given access, according to the type of domain or tenant and license.
Google Workspace |
Google Workspace |
Microsoft tenant |
|
with an active AODocs Content Services subscription |
without an active AODocs Content Services subscription |
with an active AODocs Content Services subscription |
|
Individual external Google users |
|
|
|
Google groups containing external users |
|
|
|
Individual external Microsoft users |
|
|
|
Microsoft groups containing external users |
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Sign in by email without a Google Account |
A green checkmark means that external users can access the AODocs interface.
Users who sign in with an email account that isn't linked to a Google Account can work with Google files from the AODocs interface but can't access Google Drive directly. Learn more: Access AODocs with any type of email account not linked to a Google Account.
Important:
– External users using AODocs are counted as licensed users. Learn more: Manage user licenses.
– If you add Google groups containing external users, the Google groups must be on the Google domain where AODocs is installed. All external members of the group will be considered as being part of the external users allowlist.
External users with access to attachments only
You can add external non-Google users to the additional Drive permissions in Secured Folders and Document Management libraries on your domain. This lets contributors share Google attachments with external users, who access the attachments via Google Drive.
These permissions aren’t managed by AODocs. They’re managed by Google Drive.
Additional permissions in AODocs leverages Google's visitor sharing feature.
Only attachments are shared using the additional Drive permissions. Additional users can't access the document from the AODocs interface or use the Smartbar features on the attachment.
If you set up additional permissions in Secured Folders you don't have to allowlist external users.
If you set up additional permissions in Document Management libraries the external users must be allowlisted.
Note: Team Folders use Google Drive permissions, so contributors can give external users who aren't allowlisted access to Google Drive attachments by simply adding them to the permissions.