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

What’s changing

Now, when you have an Out of office (OOO) entry on your calendar, a notice of that OOO status will appear in Gmail and Hangouts Chat when people try to contact you.

In Gmail, we’ll show a banner about the recipient being out of office and when they’ll be back in the email compose window.




In Hangouts Chat, you’ll also see a small notification in the chat compose window alerting you that the person you’re trying to message is out of office.




Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

With this launch, before people even hit “send,” your time out of office is visible in more places across G Suite, meaning you get more uninterrupted time away. As a sender, you’ll also have more confidence that you’re messaging people at an appropriate time.

How to get started

  • Admins: No action required. 
  • End users: No action required. These notices will automatically start showing up when anyone whose calendar you have access to has an out of office event scheduled.

Additional details

If you’d like to disable sharing of availability information to other G Suite apps, you can do so in Calendar under Calendar settings > Access permissions. Just deselect “Show calendar info in other Google apps, limited by access permissions.”

Helpful links



Availability

Rollout details
Notification in Gmail and setting in Calendar


Notification in Hangouts Chat


G Suite editions

  • Available to all G Suite editions


On/off by default?

  • This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled in your Calendar settings.


Stay up to date with G Suite launches
Read More

What’s changing

In the coming weeks, we’ll move all Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms add-ons and Google Drive apps from the Chrome Web Store to the G Suite Marketplace. See our Cloud Blog for more details on this change. If an add-on’s developer hasn’t taken action to migrate their listing, new users won’t be able to install it. We’re calling these add-ons “unmigrated add-ons.”


Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it matters

Existing users of unmigrated add-ons will continue to be able to use them. However, if they uninstall Editors add-ons or Drive apps, they won’t be able to reinstall them. Moreover, if an existing user creates a template with one of these add-ons, any users who don’t already have the add-on installed won’t be able to use the add-on within the template.

How to get started


  • Admins and end users: No action is required. To check whether an add-on has been migrated, search for it in the G Suite Marketplace. 
  • Developers: Drive apps and Editor Add-ons must have a G Suite Marketplace listing prior to September 9, 2019. For more information on how to migrate your add-ons, see here for Drive developers and here for Editors developers.

Helpful links



Availability

Rollout details

  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 28, 2019
  • Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 28, 2019

G Suite editions

  • All G Suite editions


Stay up to date with G Suite launches
Read More

Update (September 12, 2019): The looping and auto advance time features have resumed rollout for Rapid domains. For Scheduled domains, a full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) will begin on September 30, 2019.

---

Update (August 28, 2019): We have encountered an unexpected issue with the looping and auto advance time features. We’ve paused rollout for those specific features and will advise on updated rollout details for Rapid and Scheduled domains as soon as they’re available.

Quick launch summary 

We’re adding two new features in Slides Present mode to help you better control and customize your presentations:

Keyboard shortcuts to switch to a blank screen 
Using new keyboard shortcuts, you’ll now be able to change to an all white or black screen while presenting. This can be helpful when you want to pause a presentation to answer a question or further a discussion without any material on screen.


While presenting, press “B” to turn your screen black or “W” to turn your screen white. You can resume presenting by using any other keyboard or mouse action. To see more keyboard shortcuts for Google Slides, see this article in our Help Center.

Looping and auto advance time options for presentations 
New options allow you to set auto advance time in present mode and presentation looping. You can access these options by clicking Settings (gear icon) in the presentation navigation bar. Your settings will be applied once you hit play and begin your presentation.


With these settings, you can easily set your presentation to loop, which is useful when presenting at a conference or for displaying information on a kiosk. To learn more about presenting in Slides, see our Help Center.

Availability 

Rollout details 

G Suite editions 
  • Available to all G Suite editions 

On/off by default? 
  • These features will be ON by default. 

Stay up to date with G Suite launches
Read More

What’s changing 

We’re making some updates to the alert center for G Suite. The new features will make it easier to find, collaborate, and take action on potential issues within your domain. Specifically you can now:

  • Assign alerts to other team members or yourself 
  • Manage and track alert workflow status 
  • Prioritize alert triage and investigations by severity 
  • See related alerts for the same user 
  • Add new search attributes 
  • See alert change history 
  • Find and manage alerts more easily 


Some of the updates were previously available in beta and are now generally available. Read more about these changes below.

Who’s impacted 

Admins only

Why you’d use it 

The alert center already provides a single place to see notifications about potential issues within your domain and take action to resolve the issues. We hope these enhancements will make it easier to use the alert center, make it easier to find important and actionable alerts, and improve collaboration between admins and related teams.

How to get started 




Additional details 


  • Set status, assignee, and severity of alerts: Add key information to help your team take ownership of, assess, and collaborate as you work through security investigations. 
  • Use a more powerful search: Find alerts more easily by searching for alerts that contain a specific email address when researching an incident. 
  • See related alerts: The alert detail view will show other alerts related to the same actor or user to help discover possible related security incidents. 
  • See alert change history: See the history of metadata or content updates to that alert. This includes when status, assignee, or severities have changed. 
  • Find and manage alerts more easily: Bookmark specific alert URLs, bulk delete alerts, and sort alerts by factors such as last updated time. 





Search, filter, and sort to find alerts more easily 


Helpful links 




Availability 

Rollout details 



G Suite editions 
Available to all G Suite editions

On/off by default? 
This feature will be ON by default

Stay up to date with G Suite launches
Read More

What’s changing 

We recently updated the Vault API to reflect the renaming of “Team Drives” to “shared drives.” You can see more details on the name change here.

The new fields in the API are detailed below. Currently, both the old and updated fields are available. However, we will stop supporting the old fields in the API on June 1, 2020. You will need to migrate any app(s) that use the affected fields before June 1, 2020, to make sure they continue to work.

The specific changes to the API are:


Who’s impacted 

Admins and developers only

Why you’d use it 

Google Vault is the eDiscovery and compliance solution for G Suite, allowing customers to retain, hold, search, and export their data. The API means you can programmatically manage your organization's eDiscovery operations. If you’ve developed apps that use the API, you may need to make minor updates to make sure they keep working as intended.

How to get started 




Helpful links 




Availability 

Rollout details 
  • New “shared drives” fields are available today.
  • We will stop supporting the old “Team Drives” related API fields on June 1, 2020.


G Suite editions
  • Google Vault is available to G Suite Business, Enterprise, Education, and Enterprise for Education editions, as well as other G Suite customers with the Vault add-on license.


Stay up to date with G Suite launches
Read More

Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

In the Google Cloud Community, discuss the latest features with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like you. Learn tips and tricks that will make your work and life easier. Be the first to know what's happening with Google Workspace.

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.

Learn about our customers

Discover how a diverse range of organizations, from small businesses and nimble startups to globally recognized Fortune 500 corporations, leverage the collaborative power of Google Workspace. Explore examples of how teams of are streamlining workflows and driving productivity by utilizing Google-Workspace.