What are the Different Office 365 Mailbox Types – Their Features & Significance

Office 365 is a cloud-based software-as-a-service productivity suite offered by Microsoft. Mainly a business-centric service and email solution provider, however, individuals can also use it for accessing emails and other data. In addition, there are different types of mailboxes in Office 365, however, many users only know about user and shared mailboxes.

Table of Content

• What are the Different Types of Mailboxes in Office 365?
  1. Regular / Primary Mailbox in Office 365
  2. Shared Mailbox in Office 365
  3. In-Place Archive Mailbox
  4. Distribution Groups
  5. Office 365 Groups
  6. Resource Mailbox
     1. Equipment Mailbox
     2. Room Mailbox
• Conclusion

What are the Different Types of Mailboxes in Office 365?

There are many Office 365 mailbox types, and we will discuss them in the following points. The valuable thing to remember is that some of these mailboxes require purchasing them while others are free. Without further waiting, let’s begin!

1. Regular / Primary Mailbox in Office 365

Also known as User Mailbox, these mailboxes come as default after purchasing an Office 365 subscription having Exchange Online. They are the most commonly used mailbox type, Thanks to being the primary mailbox for many Office users. Moreover, they are designed for personal mail with a rich collaboration platform, and users can maintain a task list, schedule meetings, and get voice messages delivered to their mailboxes. 

They are the primary mailbox type assigned to employees in companies. You can create a specific email address domain for your mailbox that ends with your company’s or any other name. 

Features of User or Regular Mailbox in Office 365:

• Sending, receiving, and organizing emails.
• Accessible through various email clients, such as Outlook, web browsers, and mobile devices.
• Calendar integration for scheduling and managing appointments.
• Contacts management for storing and organizing contact information.
• Task management for creating and tracking to-do lists.
• Attachment support for sending and receiving files.

2. Shared Mailbox in Office 365

A Shared Mailbox is one of the Office 365 mailbox types that allows multiple people to send, receive, and manage emails from a single email address. It supports shared collaboration on incoming emails from respective mailboxes. A shared mailbox offers clear accountability and enables unified project collaboration from their mailboxes. With a welcome free storage of 50 GB, shared mailboxes are a great way to avoid primary mailbox cluttering because of unrequired and spam emails.

They are easy to monitor and send emails from a shared email address in a group. They are advantageous for businesses requiring multiple people to access a single email address, thus saving the need to buy individual licenses. Moreover, these mailboxes can be used as customer service or departmental mailboxes to cater to customers or colleagues. Moreover, you can easily convert a shared mailbox to a user mailbox in Office 365.

Features of Shared Mailbox:

• Collaboration among multiple users by accessing and managing a shared pool of emails.
• Shared mailbox email address for receiving emails from external sources.
• Users can send, reply to, and delete emails on behalf of the shared mailbox.
• Conversation history and shared mailbox calendar for improved coordination.
• Accessible to authorized users across different devices and email clients.

3. In-Place Archive Mailbox

An archive mailbox provides additional storage space for users who need to retain large amounts of email data. It serves as a secondary mailbox and is typically used to store older emails, preserving them for reference or compliance purposes. Archive mailboxes are especially useful for users who frequently deal with a high volume of emails or need to retain communications for an extended period. Moreover, with separate storage capacity, archive mailboxes help optimize the performance of primary user mailboxes.

Features of Archive Mailbox:

• Additional storage space for retaining large amounts of email data.
• Segregation of older emails from the primary mailbox to optimize performance.
• Long-term retention and preservation of email communications.
• Search functionality for retrieving archived emails.
• Compliance and legal requirements adherence by storing important data.

4. Distribution Groups

Distribution Groups are created to add specific team members and send them emails. They are also used for communicating with clients or customers through one email. Every member will receive the emails sent to the distribution group in their primary inbox. Moreover, they are used for one-way communication only, mainly by companies that have mailing lists to be updated with frequent product updates. Hence, they are also beneficial for internal communication in companies for urgently contacting several members with decisive updates.

Features of Distribution Groups:

• You can use email distribution lists for sending messages to a group of recipients.
• Simplifies the process of sending messages to multiple people by using a single email address.
• Allows members to communicate and collaborate efficiently.
• Can include both internal and external recipients.
• Messages sent to the distribution group can be received by all members simultaneously.
• Administrators or individual users can create and manage them.
• Can be used to send messages, share files, and schedule meetings with group members.
• Provides a centralized address book for easy communication.

5. Office 365 Groups

Microsoft introduced Office 365 groups to enhance collaborative work in teams. As a member of Office 365 groups, you have full access to the mailbox, shared calendar, planner, etc. What makes them unique is the allowance to invite external guests for conversations. Furthermore, the groups can be accessed through mobile apps and provide specific users with the right to send emails on behalf of others.

 Office 365 Groups come with individual conversation threads and document libraries – allowing team members to unite and efficiently work on projects by having all resources in a single place rather than searching for them across many locations and chat threads.

Features of Office 365 Groups:

• Collaborative workspaces that bring together people, conversations, and resources.
• Combines email, calendar, file sharing, and collaboration tools into a unified platform.
• Allows members to share and co-author documents in real-time using Office Online applications.
• Provides a shared mailbox, calendar, and document library for the group.
• Simplifies communication and collaboration among team members.
• Offers a group-centric approach to collaboration and information sharing.
• Integrated with other Office 365 services like SharePoint, Teams, Planner, and more.
• Supports discussions, announcements, and notifications within the group.

6. Resource Mailbox

Resource mailboxes are one of the Office 365 mailbox types, these are resource-centric mailboxes for reserving rooms and equipment in a company for a specific time. They have an associated Active Directory user account like all the mailboxes, but in this case, the Active Directory user account is disabled. Additionally, these mailboxes don’t require licenses, available for free with your Office 365 subscription plan. 

Resource Mailboxes are of two types: 

1. Equipment Mailbox – Used for non-location-specific resources like microphones, computers, etc. These resources can include projectors, vehicles, audiovisual equipment, or any other items that need to be reserved or scheduled by users. Equipment mailboxes facilitate the booking and coordination of these resources, ensuring their availability and preventing double bookings.
2. Room Mailbox – Assigned for meeting locations like conference rooms, training rooms, and auditoriums. When scheduling a meeting, users can check the availability of the room mailbox and ensure it is free for their desired time slot. Moreover, the Room mailboxes can automatically accept or decline meeting requests based on their availability settings, which helps streamline the booking process and avoid conflicts.

They are used mainly in companies that require resources like projectors or auditoriums assigned by request but don’t require these requests to go through individual user accounts. Another thing highlighting their importance is that the resources can be set for automated or delegated approval within the company.

Features of Resource Mailbox:

• Represents a resource, such as a meeting room, equipment, or any other shared asset.
• Allows users to book and schedule the resource for meetings or events.
• Provides availability information to avoid conflicts.
• Automatically accepts or declines meeting requests based on availability settings.
• Helps optimize resource allocation and utilization.
• Authorized users for resource reservation can access and manage.
• Simplifies the process of booking shared resources within an organization.
• Reduces the chance of double bookings and improves coordination.

Must Read: Types of Mailboxes In Exchange 2016 / 2013 / 2010 and How to Use Them

Conclusion

Microsoft 365 offers several types of mailboxes to cater different needs of businesses and individuals. Understanding these mailbox types accurately can help organizations choose the right mailbox type for their respective needs. 

Hence, in this detailed write-up, we have discussed all the different types of mailboxes in Office 365, their features, and their significance. It’s important to note that some of the mailboxes come with basic business plans, while for others you might need to upgrade your current plan or you can add them separately.

In addition to this, Microsoft 365 despite being safe and secure, it is always the best idea to have a local copy of these mailboxes to keep an extra layer of data security. Additionally, you can use a professional solution to download Office 365 emails or other mailbox data locally, one such solution is SysTools Office 365 Backup Tool. If you are wondering – Does Microsoft Backup Office 365 Data? Then you should check it out.