At this point, you will be the only member of your new group (unless you sent invitations to others to join the group when you were creating it). Before the group has many more members, consider “test driving” some group features so you can check that they are working as expected, and to help you get familiar with them if you are new to Groups.io overall. You might want to ask one or two other people to join your group now and help you test it.

Tip: If you have an additional email address, consider joining your group at that email address as well. It will have a separate Groups.io account. Through that other account, you can be a regular member of the group in addition to being the group’s owner through the account you used to create it. Having a way to experience the group as a regular member can be helpful if you need to do any troubleshooting to help members of your group. Sometimes it can be challenging for members to accurately describe issues they are having, especially if they are new to Groups.io. If you have a separate “regular member” account, you might be able to see the issues from those members’ perspectives and more easily determine how to help them.

Note: In Free groups, only topic and message functions are available. Additional features are available in Premium (trial or paid) and Enterprise groups. If you created a Premium free trial group but opt not to continue with a paid plan at the end of the trial period, any subgroups you created during your trial will be locked and other Premium features will become inaccessible. (Nothing will be deleted in case you decide to upgrade the group in the future.)

Suggestions for some features to try before your group gets fully up and running include:

• Experiment with topics and messages. For example:
  • Send test messages to the group by email, and post test messages using the group’s website. If you created hashtags for your group, include hashtags in some topics.
  • Edit the content of messages in the archive.
  • Edit the properties of topics (such as subject line and hashtags) in the archive.
  • Pin a topic (make it sticky) on the Topics page.
  • Delete test messages from the archive.
• In the calendar, add, modify, and delete some test events. Try the RSVP feature.
• In the Files section, create folders and upload some files. Update and delete files and folders. Check that the #file-notice system hashtag behaves as you expected, especially if you created it before it was generated systematically.
• In the Photos section, create albums and upload some photos. Edit and delete photos and albums. Check that the #photo-notice system hashtag behaves as you expected, especially if you created it before it was generated systematically.
• If you plan to use databases in your group, create a table in the Databases section.
• In the Wiki section, create, edit, and delete some wiki pages. Check that the #wiki-notice system hashtag behaves as you expected, especially if you created it before it was generated systematically. Try pinning a wiki page (making it sticky) on the Topics page.
• Create a subgroup.

Now go to Step 10: Invite or add members to your group.