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 

We’re expanding the number of allowed Gmail delegates from 25. In addition, to help with delegate management, delegation for Contacts is now available via the Contacts API. 

Who’s impacted 

Admins, end users, and developers 

Why you’d use it 

We’ve heard from you that allowing more than 25 users to access a single mailbox can sometimes help manage the messages. For example, in certain cases, the volume and variety of inquiries necessitated having a larger group of individual users be able to read and respond to them. To address this need, we‘ve enabled higher limits. 

Additionally, we’re now offering programmatic access to managing Contacts delegation, similar to how Gmail delegation can be managed via the API. Note that delegation limits for Contacts delegation are not changing. 

Additional details 

Where previously we advised that a technical limit of 25 delegates applied for email delegation, our updated guidance is as follows: 
  • With typical usage, up to 40 of those configured users may concurrently access the account. However, please note that 
    • All other Gmail limits and policies continue to apply. 
    • Heavy usage by any user will reduce the overall concurrency limit. This will most commonly occur if automation or scripting (e.g. via Chrome extension or API) is used to engage with the mailbox via high frequency actions. 
  • Up to 1000 delegates may be configured as delegates for the purposes of setting up access control. 
  • For high-volume operations such as sales or support teams, we continue to recommend the use of a dedicated ticketing system. Gmail is not intended to replace a ticketing system for scaled operations. 
  • Contacts delegation is still limited to 25 delegates per user.  

Getting started 


Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers 
  • Not available to users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Read More

What’s changing 

You can now deploy and manage Google Credential Provider for Windows (GCPW) in the Admin console. Previously, you had to edit registry entries to manage GCPW. The new, organization-specific installation file and setting management in the Admin console makes it easier to deploy and manage GCPW in your organization. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins 


Why you’d use it 

GCPW is an aspect of Enhanced desktop security for Windows that makes using Windows 10 devices with Google Workspace easier and more secure. Once set up, users can: 
  • Sign in to a Microsoft Windows 10 device using their Google Workspace Account. 
  • Take advantage of security protections on Windows 10 devices, including 2-step verification (2SV) and login challenges. 
  • Access Google Workspace and other single sign-on (SSO) apps without the need to re-enter their credentials. 
With this launch, you can configure and manage GCPW in the Admin console instead of in each device’s registry settings. This can make setting up and updating GCPW deployments less manual and time-consuming for if you don’t have standard software deployment tools. 


Additional details 

Device setup and management: To set up GCPW on a new device, download a GCPW installation file customized for your company from the Admin console. After GCPW is installed, you can manage GCPW settings in the Admin console. When a user signs in to a device managed with GCPW, GCPW fetches and applies the settings from in the Admin console. GCPW settings in the Admin console may take up to one hour to be implemented on the device. If you already installed GCPW on a device, you can set a token to manage GCPW from the Admin console. 

Settings available in the Admin console: You can manage most of the settings in the Admin console that you can in registry settings, including offline access, multiple account management, and more. 

Working with existing registry settings: Admin console settings supersede registry settings. To continue to use registry settings instead of Admin console settings, leave GCPW settings in the Admin console as “not configured.” 



Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers. 

Resources 

Read More

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.


Google Voice now generally available in Germany and Italy
Google Workspace customers based in Germany and Italy can now sign up for Google Voice. These customers, as well as international customers with Google Voice Premier edition, can assign and port numbers with Germany country codes (+49) and Italy country codes (+39) to users. | 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.


Smart compose and spelling autocorrect available when adding comments in Google Docs
Smart compose and spelling autocorrect are now available when adding comments in Google Docs. | Learn more.


Join a meeting with new options on the Google Meet landing page
We’re changing the options for a more tailored experience when Google Workspace users join or start a meeting from meet.google.com. | Learn more.
Read More

Update

January 25, 2021: We updated this post to reflect a change in the rollout timing for both Rapid and Scheduled Release domains. Rollout to Rapid release domains will now start today, January 25, 2021, with Scheduled release domains planned for February 8, 2021.

Quick launch summary

We’re changing the options for a more tailored experience when Google Workspace users join or start a meeting from meet.google.com.

When you click “New meeting,” you’ll now see the following three options:

  • Create a meeting for later: Generate joining information for a new meeting. You can save this information to use later.
  • Start an instant meeting: Join a meeting in one click, without first going to the Meet greenroom. Once in the meeting, you can add others or copy the joining information to share. Please note, your camera and microphone will be on automatically if you select this option. You can turn them off once in the meeting.
  • Schedule in Google Calendar: Go to Calendar in a new tab to create an event with Meet conferencing details automatically populated.
New options to start a meeting from meet.google.com


Users will still be able to enter a meeting code or nickname to join a meeting.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about joining a video meeting.

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers. Also available to users with personal Google Accounts Google
  • Workspace Essentials customers will not see the “Schedule in Google Calendar” option, but will have the other two options available.

Resources

Read More

Quick Summary

Smart compose and spelling autocorrect are now available when adding comments in Google Docs. These features help users compose comments quickly and with confidence by reducing the chance of spelling and grammatical errors and suggesting relevant contextual phrases. 



Smart Compose suggestions will appear in light grey when typing—to accept a suggestion, press “tab.” 

Smart compose suggestions will appear in light grey while typing a comment. 



Misspelled words will be automatically corrected while typing and denoted with a grey dashed underline. As you continue typing, this dashed line will disappear. 

Misspelled words will automatically be corrected. The corrected word will appear with a dotted grey underline. 



Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Smart compose in Google Docs comments 

Spelling autocorrect in Google Docs comments 

Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers 

Resources 

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.