This official feed from the Google Workspace team provides essential information about new features and improvements for Google Workspace customers.
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New updates 

There are no new updates to share this week. Please see below for a recap of published announcements. 


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.


Google Meet hosts can pin multiple tiles for all meeting participants 
If you’re a meeting host or co-host, you can now pin up to three specific tiles for all meeting participants. By doing so, you can help ensure the meeting is focused on key presentations and speakers. | Learn more about pinning multiple tiles in Meet.

Share spaces smart chips in Google Chat
You now have the ability to search for and insert a smart chip that links to a space. These new smart chips will make it easier to share and collaborate on content related to specific spaces. | Learn more about space smart chips.


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.


Rapid Release Domains: 
Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

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

  
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What’s changing

Last year, we expanded smart canvas by introducing smart chips in Google Chat on web. Since then, you’ve been able to share information in a more usable, structured way by accessing and previewing rich, context-setting information and files directly in your message threads. 

Today, we’re announcing the ability to search for and insert a smart chip that links to a space. These new smart chips will make it easier to share and collaborate on content related to specific spaces. 

When composing a message in Chat, typing “@” will now display a list of suggested spaces to include as a smart chip, based on your membership. You can search for a space by typing the space name, and the results will be determined by spaces you’ve accessed most recently. Once a space is selected, you can insert the space smart chip into your message. You can also paste the link (URL) of a space into a message and press the Tab key to convert it into a space smart chip. 
Share spaces smart chips in Google Chat

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • In Google Chat on web, you can choose from the following options: 
      • Type “@” followed by a space name to search for the space and insert the space smart chip directly into a message. 
      • Paste a link to a space (or link to a message within the space) into a message and press the Tab key to instantly convert it into a space smart chip. 
    • Mobile users can receive and click on space smart chips, but cannot insert them on the Chat mobile app at this time. 
    • You must be a member of a space to search for and share that space smart chip. 
    • A recipient of the space smart chip must be a member of the space to access it. If they are not a member, they will not have access.  

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts

Resources

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What’s changing 

If you’re a meeting host or co-host, you can now pin up to three specific tiles for all meeting participants. By doing so, you can help ensure the meeting is focused on key presentations and speakers. This is especially helpful for large meeting scenarios like webinars where hosts need to focus everyone on particular content. Note that meeting participants can unpin these tiles on their screen if they wish.



This feature will be available for Google Meet on the web and mobile devices.


Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers


Resources


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3 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.


New ways to work with filters in Connected Sheets for Looker and Connected Sheets for BigQuery 
  • With Looker: Connected Sheets for Looker users will now be able to see whether Looker-defined filters, always_filters and conditionally_filters, are applied in their Google Sheets. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains now. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about always_filter and conditionally_filter in Looker. 
  • With BigQuery: Connected Sheets for BigQuery users can now right-click any value in the Connected Sheets preview and filter rows in the preview on that specific value. As a result, a new query will be sent to BigQuery to re-fetch the preview. This new option provides an additional way to easily explore data in the Connected Sheets preview for BigQuery. | This is now available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about sorting & filtering BigQuery data in Google Sheets.

Latest improvement for page setup in Google Docs 
We’re introducing a new menu item within the Format option that enables you to easily switch between pageless and pages mode in Google Docs. | Rollout to Rapid Release domains is complete; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for February 5, 2024. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about changing a document’s page setup. 
Latest improvement for page setup in Google Docs


Developers can now choose which calendar events to be notified about 
Developers using the Calendar API can now subscribe to specific changes in users’ calendars — this includes event types such as working location, out-of-office, or focus time. This update reduces the amount of notifications down to those that are most relevant to the developer. | Use our Developer Documentation for more information about subscribing to alerts for specific calendar event changes. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains. | The Calendar API is available to all Google Workspace customers, however Calendar features may vary across Google Workspace editions.



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.


For Google Meet Hardware, ‘Auto-Update Expiration (AUE)’ will now be referred to as 'end of Meet support' 
We’re making changes to the terminology that refers to when a Meet hardware device is no longer supported. | This update impacts all Google Workspace customers with Meet hardware devices. | Learn more about 'end of Meet support'.

Local data storage exports your organization's Workspace data into the geographic location of your choice, launching in beta 
We’re introducing Google Workspace’s new feature, local data storage. This feature allows admins to export their organization’s Workspace data into the geographic location or locations of their choice. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers with Assured Controls add-on only. | Learn more about the local data storage exports beta.

Improving the Google Calendar appointment scheduling experience with new features 
We’re improving upon the current appointment scheduling experience with four new features. | Co-hosts, secondary calendars and delegate access features are 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 only. Check Calendars for availability feature is available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Nonprofits, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts only. | Learn more about the appointment scheduling features. 

Shareable class templates and classwork in Google Classroom are now generally available 
Last year, we announced a Google Classroom beta that simplifies lesson planning with shareable class templates and classwork. We’re excited to announce that this is now globally available for Google Workspace for Education Plus customers in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. | Available to Education Plus only. | Learn more about shareable class materials. 

Pin chat messages in Google Meet 
You can now pin messages to the top of the meeting chat. Pinned messages will appear for all users, even if they join the meeting after the message was initially sent. | Learn more about messaging pinning.


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains: 

Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

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

Read More

What’s changing 

You can now pin messages to the top of the meeting chat. Pinned messages will appear for all users, even if they join the meeting after the message was initially sent. This makes it easy to ensure that important messages - like links to presentations - are displayed prominently and easily accessible by meeting participants.


Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: 
    • Meeting participants can pin and unpin their own messages. Meeting hosts can unpin anyone’s message.
    • You can pin a message by hovering over it in the chat window and selecting the pin icon. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending chat messages.
 
Use the pin icon to pin or or unpin a message.



Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts

Resources


Read More

Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

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Learn about more Google Workspace launches

On the “What’s new in Google Workspace?” Help Center page, learn about new products and features launching in Google Workspace, including smaller changes that haven’t been announced on the Google Workspace Updates blog.

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