Google Workspace Updates

Control the display of user availability across Google Workspace products with a new admin control

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Quick launch summaryWe’re introducing a new Admin setting that controls whether a user’s Google Calendar status is displayed across Google Workspace products. For example, when the setting is turned OFF, end users will no longer see if their colleagues are out of office in products such as Google Chat or Gmail.
We hope this new setting gives admins greater control over what user information is displayed across Google Workspace products.
Getting started

Admins: This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled at the domain or OU level. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting Calendar user availability display.
End users: If enabled by your admin, your Calendar status will be visible across Google Workspace products. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting your availability in Google Calendar or how to stop sharing availability information with other apps.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 1, 2021

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus
Not Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

Assign SSO profile to organizational units or groups with the SAML Partial SSO feature, now generally available

Friday, November 19, 2021

What’s changingEarlier this year, we announced a beta for assigning SSO profiles to organizational units or groups. This feature is now generally available and allows admins to specify groups or organizational units (OUs) to authenticate a subset of your users using Google.Who’s impactedAdminsWhy it’s importantCurrently, when you configure SSO with a third-party identity provider, the setting applies to your entire domain. However, there are some instances where you may want a subset of your users, such as vendors or contractors, to authenticate with Google instead. The Partial SSO feature gives you the flexibility to specify the authentication method for various users in your organization as needed.

Getting started

Admins: In the Admin console, navigate to Security > Settings > Set up single sign-on (SSO) with a third party IdP > Manage SSO Profile assignments. Visit the Help Center to learn more about assigning SSO profiles to organizational units or groups.

End users: No action required.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on November 19, 2021

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available to all Cloud Identity customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials customers

Resources

Use new immersive backgrounds and styles for Google Meet on the web

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Quick launch summaryWe’re adding five new immersive backgrounds for Google Meet on the web. The backgrounds feature subtle animation that give your background life or change your lighting. Cafe and condo interiors will have various iterations, such as snowy or rainy weather, which will help dispersed teams better represent their current time zone and climate.

Various lighting and weather effects will be available

Additionally, we’re giving you more options to customize your video with various light and color filters and more stylized backgrounds.

The new backgrounds and styles are available on Google Meet on the web and can be added before joining a call or during a call using the recently launched effects settings panel.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout to eligible devices (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 17, 2021
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout to eligible devices (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 2, 2021

Availability

There are three immersive backgrounds available to all Google Workspace customers, G Suite Basic and Business customers, as well as users with personal Google Accounts
Five additional immersive backgrounds, along with several new light & color filters and stylized backgrounds are available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. These features are not available to Google Workspace Individual customers.

Resources

View richer information about colleagues and stakeholders using people chips in Google Sheets

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Quick launch summaryYou can now add people chips directly into a Google Sheet. These chips allow you to quickly view more information about colleagues or contacts, including their location, job title, and contact information. You can also take actions such as booking a meeting, starting a Chat, sending an email, and more, directly from a smart chip. This feature is already available for Google Docs.

To insert a people chip, type “@” in any cell to search your directory or by selecting Insert > People chip.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be available by default. To insert a smart chip in a cell, press “@” or by selecting Insert > People Chip. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using smart chips in Google Sheets.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 17, 2021

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available to users with personal Google accounts

Resources

Google Help: Insert smart chips to get information on people, files, dates & events
Google Workspace Updates Blog: Mention a user directly within a Google Doc

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming release.

Spaces in Google Chat can now be deleted

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

What’s changing We’re bringing the ability to delete a named space in Google Chat to the Google Workspace Business Standard and Business Starter editions. We plan to extend this capability to more Google Workspace editions next year. With this capability, creators of a space can fully delete it from Chat, which includes all owned contents of the space, room tasks, and files and attachments not saved elsewhere. In addition, members will no longer be able to access the space, its files, or the member list after it has been deleted.
Deleting a space from the drop down menu

Deleting a space from the drop down menuWho’s impactedEnd users Why it’s important Through deletion, you can more easily navigate to and stay on top of your most relevant spaces and eliminate clutter in Google Chat. Additional details Important note: This feature is not available for Google Workspace editions that have Google Vault. If you upgrade from Google Workspace Business Standard or Business Starter to an edition that supports Google Vault, you will lose the ability to delete named Spaces. We anticipate that this feature will be available for all Google Workspace editions in 2022. We’ll provide an update on the Workspace Updates Blog when that becomes available. Getting started

Admins: There is no admin setting for this feature

End users: This feature will be available by default. To delete a space, from the dropdown menu press "Delete Space". Only the creator of the room has this ability and will delete the space for everyone.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains:: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility starting on November 16, 2021

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, G Suite Basic and Business Starter customers

Not available to Google Workspace, Google Workspace Essentials, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as Business customers

Host Google Meet meetings with up to 500 participants

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Quick launch summary For select Google Workspace editions, users can now host meetings in Google Meet with up to 500 participants. See below for more information on availability.

500 participants in a meeting

We hope that by increasing the meeting size, it will be easier to connect and collaborate with your colleagues, clients, and customers.

Getting started

Admins: No action required.
End users: No action required. The new participant limits will occur automatically for all meetings in your domain. If you need to host an even larger meeting, you can enable live streaming, allowing up to 100,000 viewers to watch at once.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on November 16, 2021

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, Nonprofits, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, or G Suite Basic and Business customers

Visit the Help Center to learn more about the participant limits for other Google Workspace editions.

Resources

Updates to the transition timeline for Classic Google Sites

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

What’s changingIn 2017, we announced that we would replace classic Google Sites with new Google Sites. We’re extending the previously announced timeline to make the migration process easier for Google Workspace customers. The new timeline is:

Starting June 1, 2022 (previously December 1, 2021): You will no longer be able to edit any remaining classic Sites in your domain.

Starting July 1, 2022 (previously January 1, 2022): Classic Sites will no longer be viewable unless they are converted to new Google Sites.

Additionally, the bulk conversion tool in the Classic Sites Manager will be temporarily unavailable as we make improvements to conversion fidelity for sites settings. We will update the Google Workspace Known Issues page when the feature is re-enabled. In the meantime, end-users and admins can still convert individual classic Sites to new Google Sites and use other tools in the Classic Sites Manager to make progress on migration. Note: This timeline change does not impact the transition for users with personal Google accounts. Who’s impactedAdmins and end-users Getting started

Admins:

We recommend notifying your end-users about the updated timeline.
Use the Classic Sites Manager to help your users make the transition.

Google Workspace end-users:

Create an archive of your classic Sites in the Classic Sites Manager so that you can refer to them later, if needed.
Since sharing settings work differently in new Sites than in classic Sites, always check your sharing settings after conversion:

Note: We recently changed how this setting is set during conversion. All converted sites will now have this setting disabled.

If your domain’s classic Sites sharing options are different from its Drive sharing permissions, confirm that access is correctly set for any users outside your domain.

End users with personal Google accounts: This timeline update is not applicable to users who use Google Sites with a personal account — visit the Help Center to learn more about the transition timeline from classic Sites to new Sites.

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

Stay up to date with new Product updates and Alerts cards in the Admin console

Monday, November 15, 2021

What’s changingWe’re adding two new cards to the Admin console homepage:

Product updates: showing the latest posts from the Google Workspace Updates blog
Alerts: showing recent account-specific alerts from the alert center

These new cards help organizations stay up to date with the latest Google Workspace product updates and improvements along with easy access to new administration and security notifications— bringing together critical information for a more dynamic and insightful landing page experience.

Admin console home page, now with Product updates and Alerts cards

Who’s impactedAdminsWhy you’d use itPreviously, updates on new Google Workspace feature releases and updates were only accessible by visiting or subscribing to the Google Workspace Updates blog, but now you can directly access recent posts from the Admin console.
Before this change, to see the latest alert center notifications, you would have needed to navigate to the alert center to check for new notifications. Now these notifications will be visible directly from the homepage as well.
We hope these cards make the Admin console an even more centralized location for all the information you need to best manage your organization.
Additional detailsGoogle Workspace Updates CardThis card will display the latest blog posts from the Google Workspace Updates blog.

Clicking on an announcement will open that blog post for more information
Clicking on ‘View all’ will open the Google Workspace Updates blog.

Please note that this card is currently only available in English.

New Product updates card

Alerts cardThis card will automatically update with the latest alerts from the Admin console alert center.

Clicking on an individual alert will open the details of the alert
Clicking on ‘View alert center’ opens the alert center for a more robust view of open alerts

Note that the card will only display open alerts with “Not started” or “In progress” status. “Closed” alerts will not be displayed, but can be accessed in the alert center by using the status filter for closed.
Visit our Help Center to learn how to create custom alerts.

New Alerts card

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 15, 2021

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Admin console map

Indicate whether you’ll join a meeting virtually or in person, now on Gmail

Monday, November 15, 2021

Quick launch summaryIn July of this year, we introduced new RSVP options for Calendar invitations to make Google Calendar more flexible in the hybrid workplace. We’re now adding this same functionality to RSVPs in Gmail.

Dropdown menu showing new RSVP methods in Gmail

New RSVP options in Gmail

With these RSVP options, you can indicate how you plan to join a meeting—in the meeting room, or virtually. Then, both the organizer and guests will be able to see how attendees are planning to attend the meeting in the event detail. This will help meeting attendees know what to expect when joining a meeting, and prepare accordingly.
Note that if you select the new RSVP options, the join method details (e.g. “joining virtually”) are not shared with contacts on other platforms, such as Microsoft Outlook.
Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

Copy a single page or subset of pages in new Google Sites

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Quick launch summaryIn new Google Sites, we’re adding the ability for editors to copy a single page or subset of pages into a new site. Previously, it was only possible to make a copy of an entire site. This feature gives site editors more control, allowing users to reuse part of a site or easily break up a large site into smaller sites. We hope this feature, in addition to other recent site editing capabilities such as restoring a specific page from a site, make it easier for site editors to collaborate on large sites.Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.

End users: From the three-dot overflow menu, select Make a copy > Pages > Selected Pages — select the pages you want to copy and then select "OK". You’ll receive an email notification with the link to your new site. Visit the Help Center to learn more about copying a site, using Google Sites, finding what’s changed in a Site, deleting or restoring a site, and reviewing the latest changes before publishing your site.

To copy specific pages in Google Sites, select Make a copy > Pages > Selected Pages from the three-dot overflow menu.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 10, 2021

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

In the Google Cloud Community, connect with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like yourself. Participate in product discussions, check out the Community Articles, and 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.

______________

Updates

Control the display of user availability across Google Workspace products with a new admin control

Assign SSO profile to organizational units or groups with the SAML Partial SSO feature, now generally available

Use new immersive backgrounds and styles for Google Meet on the web

View richer information about colleagues and stakeholders using people chips in Google Sheets

Spaces in Google Chat can now be deleted

Host Google Meet meetings with up to 500 participants

Updates to the transition timeline for Classic Google Sites

Stay up to date with new Product updates and Alerts cards in the Admin console

Indicate whether you’ll join a meeting virtually or in person, now on Gmail

Copy a single page or subset of pages in new Google Sites

Filter by product

Filter by date

Subscribe by feed

Subscribe by email

Localized Google Workspace Updates

Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

Learn about more Google Workspace launches