Google Workspace Updates

New security alerts for highly sensitive changes to Google Workspace configurations

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

What’s changing In the Alert Center, admins will now be notified of select critical and sensitive changes made to their Google Workspace configurations. Specifically, we will issue an alert when any of the following events are surfaced in the audit log:

Changes to the primary admin
SSO profile added: when a third-party SSO profile has been added and enabled for your organization.
SSO profile updated: when a third-party SSO profile has been updated for your organization.
SSO profile deleted: when a third-party SSO profile has been deleted for your organization.
Password reset for super admins: when a password was reset for a super admin account.

We plan to introduce alerts for more high risk actions over time — we will provide updates here once available.

Who’s impacted Admins

Why it’s important These additional intelligent alerts will closely monitor several sensitive actions, making it easier for admins to stay on top of high risk changes to their environment and potentially malicious actions being taken by bad actors.

For each alert, admins and super admins will receive an email notification with key information regarding the event. Once the alert is received, admins can use the security investigation tool to further investigate the incident.
Getting started

Admins: Alerts and their associated email notifications are ON by default and cannot be turned off. Visit the Help Center to learn about configuring who should receive email alerts, the alert center and viewing alert details, and admin audit logs.
End users: There is no end user impact.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 28, 2022

Availability

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

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: View alert details
Google Workspace Admin Help: Configure alert center email notifications
Google Workspace Admin Help: About the alert center
Google Workspace Admin Help: Admin log events

Updated timeline for the new integrated view for Gmail

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

What’s changing

Earlier this year, we introduced a new, integrated view for Gmail, making it easy to move between critical applications like Gmail, Chat and Meet in one unified location. We’d like to share some additional updates regarding the rollout of this feature.

Beginning today, we are rolling out the opt-out experience to a segment of Gmail users. This means that select users will see the new Gmail experience by default, but they will still have the option to revert to classic Gmail via the settings menu. As we continue to roll out this new experience, the new Gmail view will also continue to be available for users who want to enable it via Quick settings.

As always, we will carefully monitor and address feedback from users during this rollout period and in the future.

Who’s impacted End users

Why it matters When enabled, the new navigation menu allows you to easily switch between your inbox, important conversations, and join meetings without having to switch between tabs or open a new window. We hope this new experience makes it easier for you to stay on top of what’s important and get work done faster in a single, focused location.

We’d like to note that the new experience will vary based on your Google Workspace edition. Specifically, if you only have Gmail, you will continue to have a Gmail-only configuration in the new navigation:

The new Gmail view for users with Gmail only

Users who use Gmail, Chat and Meet, can specify which apps they would like included in their new view by customizing their apps in quick settings. They also have the option to use a Gmail-only configuration.

Additional details Additionally, you’ll notice the new navigation now features Material You, our updated, fresh look and feel for your Google apps. See here for more information about Material You.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about the new integrated Gmail layout.

Rollout

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for visibility) beginning on June 28, 2022

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
Also available to users with personal Google accounts, as well as Google Workspace Individual users.
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials customers

Resources

Google Help: Learn about the new integrated Gmail layout

Start meetings more efficiently with the Calendar guest list in Google Meet

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Quick summary In Google Meet, you can now see participants who were invited to the meeting but have yet to join the call. These participants can be found under the “Also invited” heading. Additionally, you’ll also be able to see the RSVP status of everyone on the invite, including “optional” attendees and RSVP notes.

From here, you can reach out to those users via Chat to confirm whether they will be joining directly from Meet, eliminating the need to open additional tabs or switch to another app.

We hope this feature makes it easier for you to start meetings more efficiently by quickly determining who has not joined and sending them a nudge via Chat directly from Meet.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: For users in eligible Google Workspace editions, this feature will be available by default for Meet calls with a Calendar event.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 29, 2022

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, the Teaching & Learning Upgrade, Education Plus, Non profit customers, and legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Individual customers and users with personal Google Accounts.

Rich text formatting in Google Forms titles and descriptions

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Quick summaryIn addition to new options for styling fonts, rich text formatting is now available in Google Forms, enabling you to customize and add emphasis to your forms. This highly requested feature allows you to use bolding, underlining, italicizing, hyperlinks, and lists in titles, question titles, and descriptions.

Rich text formatting in Google Forms titles and descriptions_v2

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: To access rich text formatting, create a Form > add or edit text > select the desired formatting option. Visit the Help Center to learn more about formatting text in your form.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 28, 2022
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) starting on July 19, 2022

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Format text in your form

Offline syncing available for opened Microsoft Office documents

Monday, June 27, 2022

What’s changingIn 2019, we announced Office editing to make it easier to work with Microsoft Office files in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides and launched better features allowing you to work anywhere with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides in offline mode. Starting today, you can work offline with Microsoft Office files on your desktop.

Who’s impacted End users

Why you’d use it This feature brings the collaboration benefits of Google Workspace to Microsoft Office files. At times when your device is offline, you’re now able to edit, comment, and collaborate on Office files using Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Any changes made to files while offline will then sync to Drive once you are connected again.

Additional detailsThis change only applies to files that have already been opened in Office editing mode.

Getting started

Admins: Offline access is allowed by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up offline access to Docs editors.
End users: Offline access must be enabled by the user. Visit the Help Center to learn more about enabling offline access and working on Google Docs, Sheets, & Slides offline.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 27, 2022

Availability

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

Resources

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming release.

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - June 24, 2022

Friday, June 24, 2022

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 legacy Google Workspace and G Suite customers.

Frictionless sharing across Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides In the effort to make collaboration simpler for users, we've introduced a new sharing experience in Workspace. Now, when you click the "Share" button in the top-right corner of your file, you'll see a streamlined design that makes it easier to share files with others and/or specific groups of people in your organizations, control whether your file is searchable to groups with access, and to copy the file link. | 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.

Data Loss Prevention for Drive helps protect sensitive data when users upload files to external Google Forms, now generally available Users can now respond to external forms that contain file upload questions, while also helping to prevent the leak of sensitive and confidential information. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, and Education Plus customers. | Learn more.

New options for styling fonts in Google Forms We’ve added additional font style and sizing options, and the ability to customize header, subheader, and body text separately in Google Forms. | Learn more.

Adjust spacing between content in Sites using new density theme setting Site editors can now adjust the spacing between the content on their site with a custom theme setting that offers Compact, Cozy, or Comfortable spacing options. | Learn more.

Easily print your Tasks List You can now print personal and Chat spaces Task lists on web, making it easier for you to track assigned items offline or plan with pen and paper if that’s your preference. | Learn more.

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

Easily print your Tasks List

Thursday, June 23, 2022

Quick summaryYou can now print personal and Chat spaces Task lists on web. We hope this makes it easier for you to track assigned items offline or plan with pen and paper if that’s your preference.

Getting started

Admins: Google Tasks must be turned ON for people in your domain to access and print Tasks lists. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Tasks on or off for users.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about printing your Google Tasks.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 23, 2022

Availability

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

Resources

Adjust spacing between content in Sites using new density theme setting

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Quick summarySite editors using new Google Sites can now adjust the spacing between the content on their site with a custom theme setting that offers Compact, Cozy, or Comfortable spacing options. By default, all newly created sites will start with the Comfortable setting.
We hope this highly requested feature provides you with more visual control over your site, especially for complex sites with a lot of content.

Adjust the visual density setting in Sites

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: In a new Site, navigate to Themes > Custom > Edit > Spacing > Density. Visit the Help Center to learn more about creating a custom theme.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 22, 2022
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) starting on July 13, 2022

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Change how your site looks

New options for styling fonts in Google Forms

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

What’s changing We’re adding additional font style and sizing options, and the ability to customize header, subheader, and body text separately in Google Forms.

Who’s impacted End users

Why it matters This highly requested feature allows you to easily change the look and feel of your forms. You can use different typefaces and sizes for different parts of your form.

Getting started

Admins: No action required.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about changing the theme or font of your form.

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

Google Workspace Help: Change the theme or font of your form

Data Loss Prevention for Drive helps protect sensitive data when users upload files to external Google Forms, now generally available

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Quick summary In April, we announced a beta that allows users to respond to external forms that contain file upload questions, while also helping to prevent the leak of sensitive and confidential information.
This feature is now generally available and will apply your domain’s existing Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for Drive policies to files that your users submit to Google Forms, without creating new rules or updating any existing ones.

Getting started

Admins:

DLP for Drive rules defined for your domain will be applied to files submitted to file upload questions in Google Forms outside your domain.
If you are not using DLP for Drive, you can create DLP rules at the domain, OU, or group level in the Admin console under Security > Data protection. You can apply block, warn or audit actions. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Workspace DLP on for your organization.

End users:

End users can respond to forms as usual, but can now respond to forms outside their domain, including forms that have file upload questions.
If a form violates DLP for Drive rules for their domain, end users may see warnings or be blocked from submitting.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, and Education Plus customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Frontline, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Use DLP for Drive to prevent data loss
Google Workspace Updates Blog: New beta for data loss prevention helps protect sensitive data when users upload files to external Google Forms

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

New security alerts for highly sensitive changes to Google Workspace configurations

Updated timeline for the new integrated view for Gmail

Start meetings more efficiently with the Calendar guest list in Google Meet

Rich text formatting in Google Forms titles and descriptions

Offline syncing available for opened Microsoft Office documents

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - June 24, 2022

Easily print your Tasks List

Adjust spacing between content in Sites using new density theme setting

New options for styling fonts in Google Forms

Data Loss Prevention for Drive helps protect sensitive data when users upload files to external Google Forms, now generally available

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