The invention relates to dynamically creating talk groups in a communications system. A new dynamic group is created by a user who defines a group definition message in his subscriber station. This group definition message uniquely identifies the new group in the system, and can be distributed to the intended group members using the usual messaging facilities available in the specific communications system. The recipients of the group definition message can store the message in their subscriber stations for subsequent use. Thus, group creation and membership management are handled at user level without interacting with the system. The role of the system is restricted to establishing a means for communication in the group whenever there are users who have activated the group for communication.