Google Workspace Updates: July 2022

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - July 29, 2022

Friday 29 July 2022

New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are fully launched or in the process of rolling out (rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete), launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time (if not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete), and available to all Google Workspace and G Suite customers.

Support for two simultaneous calls now available on Google Voice

As part of our efforts to further improve our core calling features, Google Voice now offers the ability to place or receive a second call when you are on an ongoing call. You can quickly decide if you would like to take the second incoming call by placing the current call on hold or by hanging up the current call. You can also reject the second incoming call if you would rather not be interrupted right now.The feature is currently rolling out on Web and will roll out on Android and iOS in the coming weeks. | Available to Voice Starter, Standard, and Premier customers and all Voice users. | Learn more.

The new integrated view is now the standard experience for Gmail

At the beginning of 2022, we announced a new integrated view for Gmail, bringing critical applications like Gmail, Chat, and Meet in one unified location. By August 5th, users who have not opted-in will begin seeing the new experience by default, but can revert to classic Gmail via settings. Within the next two months, this will become the default experience with no option to revert back. We will share an update on the Workspace Updates Blog at that time. | Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers only. | Visit the Help Center and The Keyword to learn more.

Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

Improving the Google Workspace experience on large screen Android devices

We’ve added several new features and functionality to products like Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Keep on Android devices as part of our mission to provide a top-class user experience on large screen devices. | Learn more.

Migrate unmanaged accounts to your domain using new “UserInvitation” API functionality

We’ve introduced new API functionality that allows you to automate the process of finding conflicting accounts and inviting them to join your organization. | Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise, Cloud Identity Premium and Cloud Identity Free customers only. | Learn more.

Working Location enabled by default

You are now able to set your working location without having to first enable this feature in your Calendar settings. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Business customers only. | Learn more.

Use the Cloud Search Query API to set Suggest Filters to enhance Cloud Search results

We’ve introduced Suggest Filters for Cloud Search. Using the Cloud Search Query API, admins can specify a filter condition that will be pre-applied to keyword suggestions as user types a query. This will surface more relevant suggestions, helping reduce the time users spend searching. | Available to Google Cloud Search customers only. | Learn more.

Assignments audit data now available in the Admin console

Google Workspace for Education admins can now view Assignments data in their audit logs. Using this data, admins can find and act on Assignments related events such as who removed a student from a video call, when assignment files were created or submitted, and more. | Available to Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, and the Teaching and Learning upgrade customers only. | Learn more.

Better search and suggestion options in Gmail

Gmail has more accurate and circumstantial search suggestions with better customization as a result of our new machine learning models. | Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more.

New integrated email marketing tools for Gmail

We’ve added two new features in Gmail that you can use to easily send professional-looking emails to large audiences: layouts and multi-send. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus, Nonprofits, Workspace Individual, and legacy G Suite Basic customers only. | Learn more.

For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

New integrated email marketing tools for Gmail

Thursday 28 July 2022

What’s changingFor select Google Workspace editions, we’re adding two new features in Gmail which you can use to easily send professional-looking emails to large audiences:

Layouts: You can select from a predefined set of email templates, which include images, text elements, and buttons. You can further customize these templates with your own color schemes, logos, images, footer text, and links.
Mail merge: This feature allows you to send mass emails without the need to BCC all recipients. You can add merge tags like @firstname or link a Google Sheet to use custom merge tags. You will also get replies in separate threads, making conversations easier to manage. By default, mail merge emails include an unsubscribe link unique to each recipient — any external recipients who unsubscribe are automatically excluded from future mail merge emails from you.

Additionally, we are introducing an Admin setting to control whether these features are on or off for your users. The admin settings are rolling out now, allowing time to configure availability for their end users in advance. See below for more information.

These features are only available for Gmail on the web at this time.

Who’s impacted Admins and end users

Why you’d use them We hope these features allow you to quickly and easily create announcements, newsletters, and other mass-email scenarios. Additionally, your recipients will have the ability to unsubscribe from future mail merge emails.

Getting started Admins:

Layouts: This feature is ON by default and at the domain level. You can turn layouts on or off for specific domains, OUs, or groups.
Mail merge:

For Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, and Education Plus customers, this feature is restricted to internal recipients by default
For Google Workspace Business Standard and Business Plus customers, mail merge is available by default for external recipients
For all Google Workspace editions, you can turn mail merge ON for external recipients at the OU or Group level

Note:

These feature launches do not impact the existing send quotas for users.
If your organization has disabled Google Drive, Gmail layouts are turned off automatically.

Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing Gmail settings for your users, customizing access policies for different organizational units or groups.

End users: If enabled by your admin, visit the Help Center to learn more about using layouts and mail merge in Gmail.

Rollout pace Admin Controls

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 28, 2022

End user functionality

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 8, 2022
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 22, 2022

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus and Workspace Individual customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Education Teaching & Learning, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials and Frontline customers

Resources

Better search and suggestion options in Gmail

Wednesday 27 July 2022

Quick summary Over the years, we’ve made advancements to the search capabilities and suggestions in Gmail through search filters, search operators, search chips, and more.

Starting today, Gmail has more accurate and circumstantial search suggestions with better customization as a result of our new machine learning models. When searching for a conversation, file, or a colleague’s contact information in the Gmail Search Box, you will notice:

Better and more contextual contact suggestions with intent matching for names and email addresses. For example, suggestions are reordered to more likely match contact queries with first names or email addresses rather than last names.
Personalized suggestions based on historical exchanges, such as how often you interact with a colleague via Gmail.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about Search in Gmail.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 27, 2022

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits customers
Available to users with personal Google Accounts
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Enterprise Essentials customers, and legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming release.

Assignments audit data now available in the Admin console

Wednesday 27 July 2022

Quick summary Google Workspace for Education admins can now view Assignments data in their audit logs. Using this data, admins can find and act on Assignments related events such as who removed a student from a video call, when assignment files were created or submitted, and more.

Getting started

Admins: Audit logs can be found in the Admin console under Reporting > Audit > Investigation > Admin log events. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Admin log events.
End users: There is no end user impact

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now.

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, and the Teaching and Learning upgrade.
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers.

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Admin log events

Use the Cloud Search Query API to set Suggest Filters to enhance Cloud Search results

Tuesday 26 July 2022

What’s changing We’re introducing Suggest Filters for Cloud Search. Using the Cloud Search Query API, admins can specify a filter condition that will be pre-applied to keyword suggestions as user types a query. This will surface more relevant suggestions, helping reduce the time users spend searching.

Who’s impacted Admins, developers and end users

Why it’s important With suggestion filters, admins can configure suggestions based on the use cases for a given search application, reducing irrelevant suggestions. For example, admins can add a suggestion such as a country, which will surface suggestions based on documents that align the filters.

Getting started

Admins: See our developer documentation here and here for more information about creating a suggestion filter.
End users: There is no end user action required, you will automatically see relevant suggested filters as you type a query.

Rollout pace

This feature is available now for all users.

Availability

Available to Google Cloud Search Customers

Resources

Working Location enabled by default

Tuesday 26 July 2022

Quick summaryEarlier this year, we announced an improved user interface for sharing your working location in Google Calendar. Starting today, you will be able to set your working location without having to first enable this feature in your Calendar settings.

Getting started

Admins: Working Location is ON by default and can be disabled at the domain or OU level. Current settings for your domain will remain the same unless updated in the Admin console. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning working location on or off for your organization.

Note: Business Standard admins cannot disable Working Location in the Admin console.

End users: Unless disabled by your admin, this feature will be ON by default. There will be no major visual changes to your calendar unless you set your working location. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting your working location.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 26, 2022
Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility starting on August 10, 2022

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Business customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials, and Frontline, as well as legacy G Suite Basic customers
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Migrate unmanaged accounts to your domain using new “UserInvitation” API functionality

Monday 25 July 2022

What’s changing We’re introducing new API functionality which allows you to automate the process of finding conflicting accounts and inviting them to join your organization.

Who’s impacted Admins, end users, and developers

Why you’d use it When employees create a Google account using one of your organization’s domains to access Google services, this is known as an unmanaged account. Unmanaged accounts are not ideal for managing users and keeping their work data secure.

Additionally, should an admin try to create a managed account with the same name, this conflict will prevent a managed account from being created. Using the UserInvitation API functionality, you can send a request to convert their personal account to a Google Workspace account.

While the same action can be manually performed with the Transfer Tool, the API allows unmanaged accounts to be identified and remediated programmatically, using logic that best suits your needs.

Getting started

Admins and Developers:

End users:

If you accept the request from your admin to transfer their account, your admin will be granted access to their data and the ability to manage your account.
If you don’t accept the invitation, you will have to rename your account. Your administrator can create a new, managed account for you.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 25, 2022

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Cloud Identity Premium and Cloud Identity Free customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials,, Enterprise Essentials, Education Standard, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

Improving the Google Workspace experience on large screen Android devices

Monday 25 July 2022

Quick summaryAs part of our mission to provide a top-class user experience on large screen devices, we’re adding several new features and functionality to products like Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Keep on Android devices.
We hope these updates enhance flexibility by giving you more ways to work with, display and organize your content across Google Workspace. Specifically, the new abilities include:

Drag & Drop in Docs, Sheets & Drive: Easily drag text or images from other apps, such as Chrome, and drop content into an existing document or spreadsheet cell. For Drive, quickly upload files by dragging and dropping them into the app. You can also add links to Drive files by dragging the file into an open app like Keep.

Dragging & Dropping from Sheets into Docs and vice versa

Dragging & Dropping from Keep into Drive

Dragging & Dropping from Drive into Keep

Keyboard support for Drive, Docs & Slides: When using an attached keyboard, use simple and familiar shortcuts to quickly navigate around Drive, Docs, and Slides, without needing to slow down and take your hands off of your keyboard.

Multi-instance support on Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides: Get better insight into your files by having two windows open side-by-side.

Getting started

Rollout pace Keyboard support for Drive, Drag & Drop in Drive, and Multi-instance support on Drive:

These features are available now

Keyboard support for Docs & Slides and Drag & Drop in Docs & Sheets:

These features are available now

Multi-instance support on Docs, Sheets & Slides:

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on Sept 7, 2022

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - July 22, 2022

Friday 22 July 2022

New updates

Rollout improvements for future Google Chat launches Going forward, all major user-facing feature changes and improvements to Google Chat will follow a rollout schedule in which accounts under Rapid Release will see new features first, followed by accounts under the default setting of Scheduled Release, at least 1 week later. We hope this change makes it easier for you to plan for new Google Chat updates. As a reminder, Admins can choose which release track they want their accounts to follow. | Learn more.
Series One Desk 27 now in production In September 2021, we announced Series One Desk 27, a premium all-in-one touchscreen Google Meet collaboration device. These devices are now in production and will be available for shipping soon. Contact Avocor for more information on ordering the Series One devices. | Learn more.

Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

Making Google Chat active user metrics more detailed in the Admin console We’ve rolled out a new method for calculating active users in Google Chat across your organization that ensures greater accuracy for detecting a user's reading and sending actions in Chat. This will provide admins more accurate reporting. | Learn more.
Control access to experimental Google Workspace apps with a new admin setting Admins can use the new Experimental Apps Control setting to grant or deny their users access to emerging or experimental Google applications and whether those applications can access core service data. | Learn more.
Building larger spaces in Google Chat We've increased the amount of members you can add to a space in Google Chat from 400 to 8,000. | Learn more.
Stay on top of changes to document content with edit notifications In Google Docs, you can now choose to receive email notifications for document changes on a per file basis. Edit notification emails detail what changes were made, when the changes were made, and who made them. | Learn more.
Allow Google Meet participants to ask questions or respond to polls anonymously In Google Meet, meeting participants will now have the option to ask questions or participate in polls anonymously. | Q&A is available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Business customers only. | Polls are available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Business customers and Google Workspace Individual users only. | Learn more.
Delete Chat spaces and their content, now generally available You can now delete a named space in Google Chat. With this capability, a space manager can delete a space, which completely removes all owned contents of the space, space tasks, and files and attachments not saved elsewhere. | Learn more.
Prevent spam by adding invitations from known senders only to your calendar You can now select an option to display events on your calendar only if they come from a sender you know to help keep your Calendar free from spam. | Learn more.
Live stream Google Meet events via YouTube Google Workspace users can live stream meetings publicly via YouTube. |Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade customers only and Google One Premium plan members in select countries. | Learn more.
Easily access your most used emojis in Google Chat In the Google Chat emoji picker, your most frequently used emojis can be found under the new “Frequently Used” section | Learn more.
Programmatically manage and apply Drive Labels using new API functionality Developers can now programmatically manage labels at scale via Drive APIs. In addition to supporting the ability to read Drive Label taxonomies, new functionality in the Drive API can be used to apply labels, set fields on files, and find files by label metadata. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Education Standard, and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more.

For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

Programmatically manage and apply Drive Labels using new API functionality

Friday 22 July 2022

What’s changing Many of our customers already take advantage of the Drive Labels capabilities to classify content and implement policies on their Drive files for governance and Data Loss Prevention.
Today, we’re happy to announce a highly requested update that will enable you to programmatically manage labels at scale via Drive APIs.

Who’s impacted Admins and developers

Why it’s important The new Drive Labels API supports reading Drive Label taxonomies. New functionality in the Drive API can be used to apply labels, set fields on files, and find files by label metadata. As a whole, these new API features enable numerous use cases including, bulk-classification, Apps Script driven workflows, third-party integrations, and other organizing and finding needs.

Additional details

We’re also announcing a Beta version of the Drive Labels API that supports creating and modifying labels, which was previously only supported in the label manager.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on July 22, 2022

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Education Standard, and Nonprofits customers
Not available to Business Starter, Education Fundamentals, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Frontline, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Easily access your most used emojis in Google Chat

Thursday 21 July 2022

Quick summary In the Google Chat emoji picker, your most frequently used emojis can be found under the new “Frequently Used” section. We hope this improvement makes it easier for you to find and insert your favorite emojis when writing or reacting to messages, or setting a custom status.

"Frequently used" emojis in Google Chat on the web

"Frequently used" emojis in Google Chat for Android devices

This update is available now on the web and Android devices. Availability for iOS is anticipated in the coming weeks— we will share an update on the blog to confirm.
Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: You’ll notice this improvement automatically when using emojis in Google Chat.

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Live stream Google Meet events via YouTube

Thursday 21 July 2022

What’s changingOnce enabled by an Admin, Google Workspace users can live stream meetings publicly via YouTube.

You can initiate a live stream in Meet by navigating to Activities panel > Live Streaming and selecting your channel from the list.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

Live streaming is useful in situations where you want to present information to large audiences outside of your organization, giving them the opportunity to pause and replay as needed, or view the presentation at a later time.

Additional Details

To initiate a YouTube live stream through Meet you should have your YouTube channel approved for live streaming in advance. Note that it can take up to 24 hours to get your channel approved for live streaming — Visit the Help Center to learn more about live streaming Google Meet events.