Quick launch summary

Google Voice is now available in Gmail when using Chrome or Firefox browsers on your computer. This allows you to make and receive calls without switching tabs. Google Voice in Gmail looks similar to the call panel in the Voice web application, allowing you to answer calls, make new outbound calls, and easily transfer calls.


In addition, you can now transfer calls using the Google Voice mobile and web apps. In a few simple steps, you can send a call to the appropriate person, whether that’s an intelligently-suggested contact, searching in your directory or a manually entered phone number.


Call transferring is available in Voice on Android, iOS, and the web.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.

End users: These features will be available to Voice customers by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about transferring calls or using Google Voice in Gmail.

Rollout pace

Google Voice call transfer

• Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 19, 2020

Google Voice in Gmail

• Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on June 3, 2020

Availability

• Available to all G Suite customers with Google Voice licenses

Resources

• Google Help: Transfer a call
• Google Help: Use Voice in Gmail

Roadmap

• These features were listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

What’s changing

We’ve launched a new Google Chat standalone app. The app is a Progressive Web Application (PWA), which provides a fast, reliable, and engaging way to use Chat on any desktop device with the Google Chrome web browser.

See more details below, or visit our Help Center to learn more about the Google Chat PWA.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

The Chat PWA offers a simple and powerful way to communicate through Chat. Once users install the app, it integrates with their device’s operating system to function like a native app and offer the simple and efficient Chat experience users know. For example, they can:

• Quickly find and communicate with people, rooms, and bots through the app.
• Communicate quickly with a simple and intuitive interface.

The Chat PWA also offers simple app deployment and management. It’s:

• Secure: The app is kept up to date with Chrome, so the updated app has the latest security patches.
• Fast and simple: Auto-updates also mean users have the latest version without extra process or keeping track of separate updates.
• Easier to distribute: Admins can deploy the app to all of their users in the Admin console.
• Broadly compatible: The PWA runs on any device with Google Chrome browser version 73 and up. Version 73 was released in March 2019. This means it works on Windows, MacOS, Chrome OS, and Linux devices.

Additional details

What happens to the existing desktop app? We recommend that admins uninstall the existing electron based app or ask users to uninstall it in favor of installing the new app.

New Chat PWA

Getting started

Admins: Visit our Help Center to learn more about the Google Chat PWA and understand the steps to deploy the PWA app to all users through the Admin console.

End users: This app will not be available until installed on a user’s device. Visit our Help Center to learn how to install the PWA.

Rollout Pace

• This app is available now for all users to install.

Availability

• Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

• G Suite Admin Help: About the new Google Chat standalone app
• Google Help: View and configure apps and extensions

Roadmap

• This feature was listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

What’s changing 

We’re adding a quick settings menu that helps you easily find and use different layouts, settings, and themes to make Gmail look and feel right for you.

When you click on Settings, you’ll now see different interfaces, inbox types, and display options alongside your real inbox. When an option is selected, the inbox will immediately update so you can compare choices and see how settings work in real time.

The full settings menu is still available by clicking the “See all settings” button at the top of the new quick settings menu.

Who’s impacted 

End users

Why it matters 

Gmail has many options to customize layout, look and feel, and other details to make sure the interface is personalized and optimized for how you like to work. These include:

• Customizing the density of text and information displayed 
• Choosing a different inbox type to help intelligently prioritize and organize emails 
• Adding reading panes to quickly see email contents 
• Applying themes to personalize the look and feel of your inbox 

We’re making these options easier to find, and letting you explore them in real time, so your actual inbox will update immediately to show you exactly what the setting will do. We hope this makes it easier to set up Gmail the way that works best for you.

Additional details 

Note that this update just adds an easier way to access settings that already exist in the full Gmail settings menu. There are no new settings, and users’ existing settings won’t be changed with this update. You can still see the full settings menu by clicking the “See all settings” button at the top of the new quick settings menu.

Getting started 

Admins: There is no admin control for the feature.
End users: This feature will be ON by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about customizing Gmail settings, or how to help users switch to Gmail from Microsoft Outlook.

Rollout pace 

• Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 26, 2020 
• Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 22, 2020 

Availability 

• Available to all G Suite customers as well as users with personal accounts. 

Resources 

• Google Help: Switching to Gmail from Microsoft Outlook
• Google Help: Change your Gmail settings

What’s changing 

We’re making the new Google Groups generally available - featuring an updated interface and more streamlined controls that make it easier to create, manage, and use. The modern interface is similar to other G Suite apps, such as Gmail, and makes Groups more efficient for new and existing users. It was previously available in beta.

We’ll introduce new Groups according to this timeline:

• May 26, 2020: Setting to turn new Groups on or off will begin to appear in the Admin console. This setting will be on by default. If turned off, users will not be able to access the new interface. If left on, users will be migrated to the new interface on the dates below. 
• June 9, 2020: Users in Rapid Release domains will start seeing new Groups, unless their admin has turned it off. Individual users will have the option to revert to classic Groups. 
• June 23, 2020: Users in Scheduled Release domains will start seeing new Groups, unless their admin has turned it off. Individual users will have the option to revert to classic Groups. 

See more details on these stages and changes below.

Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it 

New Groups has a more efficient, streamlined UI, which makes it easier for users to create and manage groups. It includes the most used features from the classic interface, along with:

• Read group conversations and write messages 
• Consolidated settings for improved navigation 
• Quick, simplified group creation 
• New filtering and search options to help you find content quickly 
• Improved group member management and more 

Use our Help Center to learn more about the improvements in new Groups.

Additional details 

Features not available in the new Groups UI 
Most commonly used features are available in new Groups, and the new interface will improve the experience of using Groups for most users. However, not all features from classic Groups are currently available, including collaborative inboxes, tags, and categories. Use the Help Center to see which features aren’t available in the new interface. We’re working to add many of these features to new Groups, but organizations and users that rely on these features should continue to use classic Groups for the moment.

We’ll announce when features are added to new Groups on the G Suite Updates blog.


If you leave new Groups turned ON in the Admin console 

Starting on June 9, we’ll begin redirecting users in Rapid Release domains to the new interface when they visit groups.google.com. On June 23, users in Scheduled release domains will begin seeing the new experience.

Individual users will have the option to revert to the classic UI by going to Settings > Return to classic Google Groups. If they opt-out, they will see the classic interface when they visit Groups next. Users can switch between classic and new Groups as many times as they like.

If you turn new Groups OFF in the Admin console 

If you turn new Groups OFF in the Admin console, your users will not be able to access the new UI and will see the classic interface whenever they go to Google Groups. Note that users who have new Groups turned off by their admin will also not be able to access any new Groups URL, even if they’re sent a direct link by another user that is using the new interface.

If your organization participated in the beta 

Organizations participating in the alpha or beta will start to see the setting to turn new Groups on or off in the Admin console starting on May 26. If an alpha or beta Admin uses the Admin console setting to turn off new Groups, that will take effect within 24 hours. All users currently using new Groups through the beta would be reverted back to classic Groups.

End users at organizations that are part of the alpha or beta program and who are currently using the new interface will continue to see the new user interface throughout, unless their admin turns off new Groups at a domain level.

End users at organizations that are part of the alpha or beta program who have previously reverted to classic Groups will continue to see the old interface, and will have the option to use new Groups if they want.

Getting started 

• Admins: The new interface will be ON by default and can be disabled at the domain level by going to Admin Console > Apps > G Suite > Groups for Business > New groups. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing new Google Groups for your organization. 
• End users: The new interface will be ON by default and can be disabled or enabled by the user on each browser. 

Rollout pace 

Admin console setting 

• Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 26, 2020. We expect the rollout to be complete in 7 days. 

End user rollout: 

• Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 9, 2020. 
• Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 23, 2020. 

Availability 

• Available to all G Suite customers. 

Resources 

• G Suite Admin Help: About the new Google Groups release 
• G Suite Updates Blog: Experience the new Google Groups, launching in beta

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What’s changing 

We’re launching a new beta program that allows you to share folders in shared drives. The beta is now closed. 

Who’s impacted 

Admins, end users, and developers

Why you’d use it 

Shared drives are a powerful way to empower teams and organizations to store, access, and collaborate on files. Until now, all permissions were set at the shared drive level or the individual file level, and it wasn’t possible to share specific folders within a shared drive.

With this beta, you can share a specific folder with other users, or upgrade member access to provide users with additional permissions on specific folders within shared drives. Examples of how you can use this include:

• For a marketing department, you can have a shared drive accessible by all internal employees, with a specific folder for advertising materials that’s also accessible to an external agency. 
• For a sales department organized by region, you can have a shared drive that enables team managers and directors to see all activity, with regional teams only able to see the information relevant to their specific area of focus in a shared folder. 
• For a shared drive used to prepare for a specific event, you can give all members view access to all files, while providing each specific team with edit access to the documents relevant to their part of the event. 

Additional details 

Manager access level needed to share folders 
Folders in a shared drive can only be shared by managers of that shared drive. Other shared drive access levels (e.g. content manager and commenter) are not eligible to share folders, because they are not allowed to control broad access to content. Folders in shared drives have the same access levels as the shared drives themselves, with the exception of the manager.

These access levels include: Content manager (default), Contributor, Commenter, and Viewer. Note that a Contributor on a folder is an Editor on a file in that folder.

See more details on shared drive access levels.




Folder access levels can only be expanded, not reduced, from the shared drive level
Access levels assigned at the shared drive level represent the minimum level of access users will have to all files and folders within that shared drive. This ensures transparency, predictability, and scalability. As a result, the access level of a user for a folder within a shared drive can only ever be greater than the access level of that user for the shared drive itself; it can’t be more restrictive.

For example, a Commenter on a shared drive cannot be just a Viewer of a folder within that shared drive. However, a Viewer on a shared drive can have their access level expanded to Commenter or Contributor for specific files and subfolders within that shared drive. Therefore, if permission on a file or folder is downgraded, the action will take place on one or more parent folders where the permission was inherited from.




What happens with file and folder moves 
When shared files or folders are moved in, within, or between shared drives, inherited access to content will be updated accordingly, and direct access will be preserved. The same is true when shared files or folders are moved from a shared drive to a user’s My Drive.

For example, imagine a document was originally in the Sales team shared drive. All members of the Sales team have Viewer access to the shared drive and so have Viewer access to the document. Additionally, five individual Sales team members have Editor access to the specific document. If that file was moved out of the Sales team drive, the Sales team would lose their inherited Viewer access, but the five individual users would still have Editor permissions.

As these (shared) folder moves can make broad changes to content access, folders moved into or between shared drives are only allowed for users who are managers on both the original as well as the target location.

Note: We will start to enforce the manager requirement with this beta program, and on September 1, 2020, for all G Suite customers. Going forward, it will no longer be possible for Contributors or Content managers on the target destination to move folders in or between shared drives.

Getting started 

Admins: This beta is now closed.