Guest List Only Access

For an added level of security, you can limit access to your Space to a guest list. Only logged in users whose email is on the guest list can enter the Space. This article covers how to add or update a guest list for your Space, as well as tips and troubleshooting for this feature.

Create a Guest List

The first step is to create your guest list. You can do this in Google Sheets, Excel, Numbers, or any program that allows you to save/export a file as .csv (comma separated values). Create the following columns:

Column A = email (required).
Column B = name (optional; sets the guest's name in Gather. If you provide a name in the .csv, the person cannot change their name once in the Space. Leave the name field blank if you want your guests to be able to set their own names.)
Column C = role (optional to describe the person's role in the Space; this field is for your internal use only and does not actually assign a user role in the Space.)
Column D = affiliation (optional; displays information below the person's name in the user info card available from the Participants list. See example in screenshot below.)

Note: Column A must contain the email address. Data is optional in Columns B, C, and D.

Save the file as a .csv.

An annotated view of a spreadsheet file. Column A lists several email addresses, Column B lists names, Column C lists roles, such as guest, staff, and speaker, and Column D includes a few affiliations. The view of a guest's info card shows as an example of where affiliation displays when added from a guest list. In your spreadsheet, add email addresses in Column A. Optional data can be added for display name, role, and affiliation. Affiliation info shows in the guest's info card (available by selecting a name in the Participants list).

Tip: Use the affiliation field to provide helpful details about a person, like identifying help staff or the guest speaker's organization!

Upload a Guest List

Open the Space dashboard. Select Space Access in the Left Nav Menu. Select Upload .csv. Browse to your .csv guest list file and select Open from your computer's file explorer.

The Space dashboard with the Space Access section active. The Upload csv button is outlined in red. From the Space dashboard, select Space Access, then in the Guest List section, select Upload .csv.

Your guest list is added, and a new read-only Parsed Guest List section will display.

After uploading a guest list, the contents display in the Parsed Guest List section.

Add More Guests

To add additional guests, select Add more .csv. Browse to your new or updated .csv file and select Open in your computer's file explorer. (This can be an updated copy with the original file name or a completely different file name.) The Parsed Guest List section displays the updates to your guest list.

Note: If you need to remove guests completely, delete them from your .csv file, save the file, and select Upload .csv to overwrite the existing file.

Set Guest List Help Contact

Enter an email address for visitors to contact if they try to enter your Space and are not on the guest list. Select Save. (See the guest view of this message below.)

Download Guest List

To download a .csv file of your current guest list (including any additions you've made with Add more .csv), select Download.

Remove Guest List

To delete your guest list, select Remove.

What Guests See

When a guest visits a Space with a guest list, they see a message prompting them to sign in.

A message with the heading The message a visitor sees when they visit a Space with a guest list and they are not signed in.

When they select Sign In, they are prompted to sign in with Google credentials or to enter their email address. After entering their email address, they will receive a one-time use 6-digit authentication code in their email. They can then use this code to enter your Space.

If the email they sign in with is not on your guest list, after they enter the authentication code, they see a message that they do not have access to the Space. If you have provided a guest list help contact email, this email displays.

A message with the heading The message a signed-in visitor sees if they visit a Space with a guest list and their email is not on the guest list.

Tips and Troubleshooting

Guest lists are tied to individual Spaces, not accounts.
Having a guest list overrides password protection.
You can add email domain restriction prior to adding a guest list, and the two will work together. However, you cannot add email domain restriction after adding a guest list.
Can't access the Space? Make sure your email is on the guest list! (Yes, you must add your own email as the Space Admin/Owner.)
Can't change your name in a Space? Ask the host to change your name in the guest list, or to leave the name field blank so you can change it yourself!
Occasionally, you may see an error message that says, "line undefined: Unable to auto-detect delimiting character; defaulted to "," that looks like this:
This may happen if some of the e-mail addresses in your CSV contain multiple periods and you only have two columns/categories. The quickest way to get around this is to add in an additional column for "role" in your file.