We know that to best protect your organizations and better serve your employees, you need increased control over the applications running on their mobile devices. With this launch, we’re doing just that. Going forward, G Suite admins can manage permissions that Android apps request at runtime, as opposed to at installation time (also known as “runtime permissions”). Note that this feature is only available for apps running in work profiles or on company-owned devices.

Generally, an app requests permission at runtime when it’s attempting to access sensitive data, like a user’s location, contacts, calendar, microphone, or storage. These permissions have to be explicitly granted by the user at that moment, and not just when the app is installed. See below for an example.


To help you better manage runtime permissions for Android apps*, we’re introducing two new settings in the Admin console for customers using Google Mobile Management.

The first will give G Suite admins three options for management of all runtime permissions on all Android apps: (1) allow runtime permissions automatically, (2) deny runtime permissions automatically, or (3) prompt the end user to choose whether to grant runtime permissions. The last setting is the default; it can be changed in the Admin console under Device Management > Android Settings > Apps and Data Sharing.


The second setting can be found under the App Distribution and Configuration options provided when an Android app is whitelisted. This setting will allow admins to manage runtime permissions for that specific app. For example, an admin can forbid the app to access the device’s location or contacts. Where there are conflicts, this setting will take priority over the app-wide setting mentioned above.



*IMPORTANT: Android apps will only request permissions at runtime if the device is running Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) or higher and the app itself targets API level 23 or higher. The second setting mentioned above will be greyed out in Admin console if the app doesn’t target API23+. If you’re unsure of whether an app will request runtime permissions, we recommend contacting the app developer.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Manage apps on mobile devices
Help Center: Apply settings for Android mobile devices


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Last year, we introduced a new resource for admins: What’s new in G Suite? Don’t forget to visit the page regularly for a list of the most recent launches across G Suite.

Feedback? Let us know.

(Cross-posted from The Keyword)

Eric Zhang, Software Engineer, Google Drive
Birkan Icacan, Product Manager, Google Drive


Google Drive makes it easy to store and share files in the cloud so you can collaborate securely with your teams and clients while on the go. And we understand that teams work with all kinds of files and tools to get things done. Starting today, we're making it possible to comment directly on more file types including Microsoft Office files, PDFs and images—without having to convert them into Docs, Sheets or Slides.

When you're collaborating with an external agency, negotiating a contract with a client or coordinating a sales agreement with a supplier, chances are you're dealing with multiple file formats. With this update, you can now comment on those files in Drive the way you're used to in Google Docs. In the Drive preview pane, comment, assign tasks, or mention coworkers and the people you work can reply back, even if they’re not using G Suite. Let’s say your coworker opens a file on her Windows laptop using MS Word, she will see your comment in the file and can reply right from there.


With commenting in Drive preview, you won’t need to open up other tools to complete tasks. Instead, open Microsoft Office files, like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, in Drive preview and give feedback in comments then get back to work.

AODocs, a company that helps enterprises replace their legacy document management applications and automate business processes integrated with Drive, has been testing the new Drive commenting feature for the past few months. As AODocs helps companies transition from legacy systems, they often collaborate across various licensed software.

“We frequently use the comments feature in Google Docs and Slides when preparing specification documents, reviewing project proposals and creating marketing materials,” says Stéphane Donzé, chief executive officer and founder of AODocs. “With commenting in Drive Preview feature, we can now extend the same collaboration, review and validation processes to Microsoft Office Applications, images and PDFs.”



The ability to comment in Drive preview mode is just one example of interoperability between G Suite and Microsoft Office products. You can also use a Drive plug-in for Outlook to make it easier to insert files stored in Drive to an Outlook email and save incoming attachments to your Drive from Outlook. Our help center has more specifics on how to enable the plug-in for admins.

Of course, you can also convert Microsoft Office files into Docs, Sheets or Slides. In Google Drive, right click on an Office file and click Open with and then select Docs (or Sheets or Slides). Lastly, you can choose to edit Microsoft files without converting them fully using Office Compatibility Mode (OCM).

With G Suite, you can work the way you’re used to working. Get started.

Additional information for G Suite admins

As a part of this launch, we will also change the “Can view” permission setting for MS Office files. This creates further interoperability between Google Drive, Microsoft Office and other popular applications. What is changing?:

• Users with “Can view” access to MS Office files will start seeing any comments added after the launch of this change, but they will not be able to reply to those comments or create new comments.
• MS Office files with comments added before this change (i.e. using the Google Drive API, or from an older version of this feature) will not be affected.
• Comments, actions items and suggested edits in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings files will continue to remain invisible to users with “Can view” access.

In addition to making and replying to file-level comments while previewing a file in Google Drive Preview, users can now make new inline (a.k.a. anchored) comments, for example:

• Draw a rectangle on a PDF, or PowerPoint (.pptx), or image file and make an anchored comment.
• Select a sentence in a MS Office Word (.docx), or PowerPoint (.pptx), or PDF file and make an anchored comment (similar to comments in Google Docs).
• Select a cell in MS Office Excel (.xlsx) file and make a cell-based comment.

This new feature also supports importing and exporting comments to the underlying file for certain OOXML file formats such as MS Office file formats(.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) and PDF files. This means that existing comments available in those file formats will be imported and displayed in Drive Preview. Additionally, comments made in Drive Preview will be exported to the underlying file so that when you open up the file using the local client application, you will be able to see the comments made in Drive Preview.

Launch Details
Release track:
- Web: Launching to Rapid Release, with Scheduled Release coming in 5 weeks
- Mobile: Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:

• Web: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)*
• Mobile: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)

*On web, we’ll roll out these features to Rapid Release domains over the course of three weeks. Two weeks after we complete the rollout to Rapid Release, we’ll begin the rollout to Scheduled Release. We anticipate it will take up to three weeks after that point to roll out to 100% of Scheduled Release domains.

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Comment on Microsoft Office files, PDFs, images, and other files in Google Drive

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Update (March 28, 2018): Jamboard is now available for purchase in eight additional countries: Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France, Spain and Finland.




(Cross-posted from The Keyword)

TJ Varghese, Product Manager, G Suite
Katie Roberts-Hoffman, Product Manager, G Suite




We’re working closely with customers and industry experts to shape the role of technology in meetings, and we want to make it easy for teams to work together face-to-face, anytime, anywhere. A big part of getting this right is working closely with IT, AV and facilities leaders to understand how we can solve some of their challenges which is why this week, we’re at the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) conference in Amsterdam to learn from AV and systems integration experts about how we can help them make meetings easier.

Over the past few years, our team has worked diligently to evolve Google Hangouts, create cost-effective, reliable meeting hardware and reimagine how teams brainstorm. Today at ISE, we’re announcing updates to make these meeting solutions even better for enterprises, including:

• Expanding Jamboard and Hangouts Meet hardware to new countries
• Adding AI-powered autodraw to improve your jams
• Offering more Hangouts Meet hardware options for larger rooms

Here’s what’s new.

Jamboard updates: EU expansion and adding AI-powered AutoDraw

Businesses in North America and the UK are using Jamboard to collaborate, and now teams in Europe can jam together, too. Next month, Jamboard will be available for purchase in eight additional countries: Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France, Spain and Finland.

Along with expanding Jamboard to new markets, we’re also adding an AI-powered feature called AutoDraw. AutoDraw is a new drawing tool in Jamboard that auto-detects sketches you make and pairs them with images. This gives teams the ability to make their ideas even more visual—whether you’re a creative designer working with clients or even a teacher working with students.



We also recently welcomed the Jamboard app as a core service in G Suite. For everything else Jamboard, check out google.com/jamboard.

Hangouts Meet hardware updates: more options for larger rooms

Fast video meetings are the most effective when they’re available everywhere. Today, we’re also expanding Hangouts Meet hardware—our latest meeting solution—to two additional countries: the Netherlands and Denmark, bringing the total to 14 countries.

Until now, the Hangouts Meet hardware kit has consisted of a touchscreen controller, speakermic, ASUS Chromebox and 4K sensor camera, great for capturing small rooms. While this has made it easy for some businesses to collaborate straight out of the box, we want to ensure the kit is scalable to any room size. So today, we’re adding options for larger rooms:

• A new Hangouts Meet room kit that comes with a Logitech PTZ Pro 2 and accommodates up to 20 people. The camera can capture details with 10x optical zoom, and you can pan and tilt to focus on participants.
• A standalone Meet speakermic to keep audio quality crisp in bigger rooms. Custom designed and built by Google, the speakermic intelligently reduces echoes and manages background noise. It’s easy to daisy chain up to 5 speakermics together to bring great quality audio to every corner of a room.

To learn more about Hangouts Meet hardware, check out our website or reach out to your Google Cloud representative or your reseller.

And if you’re attending ISE, stop by our booth at B200 in Hall 15.


Launch Details
Release track:

• Hangouts Meet room kit: Available for pre-order
• Hangouts Meet speakermic: Available for pre-order
• Jamboard additional countries: Available for purchase in March 2018

Editions:
Jamboard and Hangouts Meet hardware are available to all G Suite editions

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Install your Meet or Chromebox system
Help Center: Where are Chrome devices for meetings sold and supported?

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Check out the latest "What's New in G Suite" launch recap [pdf] for a roundup of all G Suite launches from January 2018.

Archive & Translated Versions (coming soon for January issue)


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