Mention a Whole Group in Slack and Teams: User Groups and Tags
Mentioning five designers one by one gets old fast. Slack calls the fix a user group and Teams calls it a tag. Both let you notify a set of people with a single mention, but they are set up differently and have different rules about who can create them. Here is what the help pages say.
Miles Crawford
The quick version
In Slack, a workspace Owner or Admin creates a user group from Directories, gives it a handle such as @designers, and anyone who mentions that handle notifies the whole group. Slack lists user groups as available on paid plans. In Teams, team owners (or members, if allowed) create tags from Manage tags, and you @mention the tag name in a channel to notify everyone in it. Teams also supports shift-based and automatic tags.
Slack: create a user group
From the Home tab, click Directories, then User Groups, then Create user group. Choose a name and handle, and optionally add a purpose, default channels and a shared sidebar section. Click Next, search for the members to add and click Create Group. Slack says a group can have up to 100 default channels that members are added to automatically, and you can add a user group to a channel the same way you add one person. By default Workspace Owners and Admins can create and edit workspace-level groups, though they can make the feature available to all members. If you do not see the option, an admin has restricted it.
Slack: edit, deactivate and limits
To change members, open the user group under Directories, select Edit Members, make changes and save. The three dots menu has Edit group details for the name, handle or default channels, and Deactivate group. Slack says a deactivated group's handle can no longer be mentioned and its members cannot be viewed, but the group stays in your list and members stay in it unless removed. Guests and people in Slack Connect channels and DMs cannot be added to your user groups and cannot mention them. Enterprise plans also have org-level user groups, which Org Owners and Admins create from the admin dashboard.
Teams: use and create tags
In a channel, type @ and the tag name, then select the tag from the list. Everyone assigned that tag gets a notification, and you can see the mention under Tag mentions in Quick views or in Activity. You can also start a chat with a tag: select New message, type the tag name and pick it, and everyone in the tag is added to the To field. To create tags, hover over the team, select More options, choose Manage tags, then name the tag, add a description and assign people. If you cannot create tags, your organization may not have the feature enabled, and your team owner controls permission.
Teams: three kinds of tags
Microsoft lists custom tags, which team owners create and manage (or members, if allowed) and which work in channels and chats. Shift-based tags come from schedules in the Shifts app and also work in channels and chats. Automatic tags are based on job title or department, are set up by your IT admin and can be used in channel conversations. Team owners choose who can use team, channel and group mentions, and whether members can create tags, under Manage team, Settings. For shared channels, only direct members of the channel can be added to a shared channel tag.
Which one for what?
Our read: both are worth setting up for any group you ping more than a few times a month, such as an on-call rotation, a design team or a launch crew. Name the group for the role, not the person, so it still makes sense when membership changes. Remember that a group mention notifies everyone in it, so save it for things the whole group needs to see. For the basics of mentioning, see our mentions guide.
What to be careful about
- Slack user groups are a paid feature. Slack lists them as available on paid plans.
- Guests cannot join Slack user groups. Slack Connect contacts cannot be added or mention your groups either.
- Deactivating a Slack group hides it. The handle stops working and members stay in the group until removed.
- Teams tags may be switched off. If you cannot create one, your org may not have the feature enabled.
- Automatic Teams tags need your IT admin. They come from job title or department data.
- Everyone in the group gets pinged. That point is our own reminder.
Sources
Checked October 20, 2026. Limits, steps and features follow each product's own help articles. The which-one-for-what advice is ours.