---
title: "Understanding Group Types"
slug: "understanding-group-types"
updated: 2026-06-29T13:17:29Z
published: 2026-06-29T13:17:29Z
canonical: "docs.smarsh.com/understanding-group-types"
stale: true
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.smarsh.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Understanding Group Types

Capture Mobile supports archiving messages from three types of WeCom (Enterprise WeChat) chat groups. Knowing the differences between them is essential for managing data ownership, API access, and company assets.

WeCom classifies chat groups by who creates them and who participates:

- **Internal groups** are created by your company's WeCom users and contain only employees from your organization.
- **External groups** are created by your company's WeCom users but include both employees and external users, such as customers or partners.
- **Third-party groups** are created by an external user and cannot be transferred to your company's data ownership.

Internal and external groups are company assets and remain under company management even after the employee who created them leaves. Third-party groups are owned by the external creator. Data access for archiving is limited, and your company can lose access to the group entirely if the participating employee leaves before another employee joins.

## Group types comparison

| Attribute | Internal group (内部群) | External group (外部群) | Third-party group (微信群) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Definition** | Enterprise-owned group containing only internal users. | Enterprise-owned group containing both internal and external users. | Group created by an external user. Typically a WeChat group, but can also be a WeCom group from another company. |
| **Creator** | A WeCom user from your company. | A WeCom user from your company. | An external user, a WeChat user or a WeCom user from another company. |
| **Members** | Employees of your company only. | A mix of your company's employees and external users. | A mix of your company's employees and external users. |
| **Data ownership** | Company asset. | Company asset. | Asset of the external user who created the group. Cannot be transferred to your company, even if group management is later reassigned. |
| **Data access** | Accessible through the WeCom API. | Accessible through the WeCom API. | No API access. Archiving capability is limited. |
| **Group management** | Transferable between employees of your company. | Transferable between employees of your company. | Management can be reassigned to one of your employees, but data ownership cannot be transferred. |
| **Use case** | Internal collaboration, announcements, and project coordination. | Customer support, sales channels, and partner collaboration. | Not suitable for company-managed operations. |
| **Verification requirement** | Real-name verification is not required to participate. | Real-name verification is required to participate. | Real-name verification may be required to participate. |

### Terms to disambiguate

**External group versus third-party group:** The name external group refers to the presence of external users in the group, not to who owns the group. An external group is still a company asset.

**Data ownership versus group management**: Data ownership is set when the group is created and cannot be changed. Group management, sometimes called *group ownership* — can be transferred to another employee.

## Best practices for WeCom groups

Follow these practices to maintain data security, ensure compliance, and keep communication channels under company ownership.

- Do not rely on invitations from external users: Avoid joining existing groups created by customers or partners. These are classified as third-party groups, and their archiving capability and continuity are limited because they are not company assets.
- Create groups from an employee's WeCom account: Always create the group from within WeCom, then invite external clients or partners to join. This ensures the group is classified as an external group and gives you:
  - Asset ownership. The group belongs to your company, not to an individual employee or external user.
  - API access. Archiving, analytics, and automated management through the WeCom API are enabled.
  - Continuity. If an employee leaves, your company retains control of the group and can reassign ownership, preventing loss of customer connections.
- Complete real-name verification early: Employees can chat one-on-one with external users without real-name verification, but verification is required to participate in external groups. Complete verification early to avoid delays when external users need to be added to a conversation. This is the key difference between internal and external groups.
- Reassign groups when an employee leaves: When an employee leaves your organization or their WeCom account is deactivated, the company administrator must reassign the employee's customer contacts and group chats both internal and external groups, to an active employee for follow-up.