Microsoft Graph Equivalent of EWS Contact Groups / Personal Distribution Lists

1. Microsoft Graph does not expose an Outlook personal contact-group / personal distribution-list resource equivalent to the EWS contact-group object. The Outlook contacts API in Microsoft Graph supports CRUD on individual contact items and contactFolder objects, but the context does not document any API for creating or managing personal contact groups as first-class objects.
2. Group membership in Microsoft Graph is limited to directory objects as defined for Microsoft 365 and security groups:
   • Supported member types are: user, security group, device, service principal, and organizational contact, depending on the group type.
   • Microsoft 365 groups and security groups do not accept Outlook mailbox contact items (from contactFolder) as members.
   • The membership matrix explicitly shows that only directory objects (user, security group, device, service principal, organizational contact) can be members; mailbox contacts are not listed and therefore not supported as members.
   • Nested group membership is supported only for security groups (a security group can be a member of another security group). Microsoft 365 groups cannot contain other groups as members.
   Specifically:
   • Microsoft 365 Groups: can contain users as members; cannot contain security groups, Microsoft 365 groups, devices, service principals, or organizational contacts as members.
   • Security Groups: can contain users, security groups, devices, service principals, and organizational contacts as members.
   • Distribution groups and mail‑enabled security groups are read‑only in Microsoft Graph; membership changes are not supported via Graph.
3. The context does not document any supported Microsoft Graph API for:
   • reference-based contact memberships
   • reusable mailbox contact references
   • many-to-many contact-folder relationships
   • linked/shared mailbox contacts beyond standard sharing/delegation semantics
   The Outlook contacts API supports:
   • CRUD on contact and contactFolder
   • categories, flags (preview), photos, open and schema extensions
   • access to contacts in the signed-in user’s mailbox and in shared/delegated mailboxes
   But it does not describe any model where contacts are referenced as reusable membership objects across groups or folders.
4. The following understanding is consistent with the provided context:
   • Mailbox contacts are not directoryObject instances. The context only lists directory-based objects (user, device, service principal, organizational contact, groups) as valid group members; mailbox contacts are treated as Outlook items in a mailbox, not as Entra ID directory objects.
   • Graph groups only support directory objects as members. The membership table for Microsoft 365 and security groups lists only directory objects as valid members.
   • Outlook personal contact groups are not documented as being exposed through Microsoft Graph APIs. The Outlook contacts overview describes contact and contactFolder, but not personal contact-group constructs.
5. The context does not provide an official, prescriptive migration path from EWS contact groups to an equivalent Microsoft Graph feature. It only provides an EWS→Graph mapping table for Groups-related EWS APIs, and those mappings target Microsoft 365 groups and their directory-based membership, not personal contact groups. The documented mappings show how to move from EWS “Unified Groups” operations (for Microsoft 365 groups) to Graph (for example, GetUserUnifiedGroups → user-list-memberof, CreateUnifiedGroup → group-post-groups), but there is no mapping for EWS personal contact-group APIs.
6. The context does not mention any roadmap items, preview APIs, or future plans for:
   • Outlook personal contact group APIs
   • mailbox contact memberships as group members
   • reusable mailbox contact references
   The Outlook contacts API overview and the groups overview focus on existing capabilities only; no future or preview features in these areas are described.

Given the provided information, the supported architecture in Microsoft Graph for group-like constructs is based on Microsoft 365 groups and security groups with directory-object membership, plus independent Outlook contact items and contactFolder organization. Personal contact groups implemented as mailbox-level distribution lists are not represented as first-class, group-member-manageable resources in Microsoft Graph.

References:

• Outlook personal contacts API overview
• Microsoft Graph REST APIs for mail, calendars, and contacts
• Manage groups in Microsoft Graph
• Exchange Web Services (EWS) to Microsoft Graph API mappings