Google Workspace Updates

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - February 26, 2021

Friday, February 26, 2021

New updatesThere are no new updates to share this week. Please see below for a recap of published announcements.
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.
Improvements for locating new comments and important conversations in Google DocsWe’ve added two new ways that make it easier to find comments that require your attention and action in Google Docs on the web. New comment activity since the last time you viewed a document will be “badged” with a blue dot. Additionally, when you hover over the blue dot, you’ll see a “New” banner. | Learn more.

More options for sharing your availability in Google CalendarWe’re adding two new options in Calendar, which will help you better communicate your work availability to your colleagues. Specifically, you can create repeating out of office entries and split your working hours into multiple segments each day. | Learn more.

End a Google Meet video call for everyone at onceWhen a Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals or Education Plus host leaves their meeting, they can now choose to keep others on the call or to end the call instead, ejecting everyone else. | Available to Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals and Education Plus customers only. | Learn more.

Easily locate the source file for embedded Drive video and audio files in Google SlidesIt’s now easier to find the original source file for Google Drive-stored video or audio files embedded in a Google Slides presentation. | Learn more.

Reminder: Ending support for IE11 for all Google Workspace apps on March 15Last year, we announced that Google Workspace will officially stop supporting Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) on March 15, 2021. To avoid any possible disruptions in service, such as degraded performance or security vulnerabilities, please be sure to switch to a different browser before that date. | Learn more.

Let Google Calendar automatically book a replacement room for your eventsIf a room declines your event, Google Calendar can now find a similar room to replace it, automatically. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, and Education Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more.

Admin control for AppSheet now fully availableIn December 2020, we announced the availability of an admin control for AppSheet in the Additional services section of the Admin console. This rollout of this control is now complete. | Learn more.
For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

Let Google Calendar automatically book a replacement room for your events

Thursday, February 25, 2021

What’s changingIf a room declines your event, Google Calendar can now find a similar room to replace it, automatically.
Who’s impactedAdmins and end users
Why you’d use itIn the past, when a room declined a Calendar meeting, your users may not have noticed until the last minute, leaving them and their guests without a room. This was especially common with recurring meetings, where a room may have declined on some dates but not others.
When this new feature is enabled, your users will save time and effort as Calendar automatically tries to find and book a replacement room that is a similar size, is in the same building, and has the same equipment.

Additional details The organizer and guests of the event will receive an email informing them of the newly booked room. Visit the Help Center for more information.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled at the domain level by going to Admin console > Building and resources > Global Room Settings and deselecting “Automatic room replacement.”Please note that for this feature to work, the setting must be enabled and you must have structured resources added in the Admin console. Make sure your resources are all classified correctly to prevent incorrect room replacements.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about automatic room replacement.

Rollout paceAdmin setting

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (up to 3 days for feature visibility) starting on February 25, 2021

Feature rollout

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 11, 2021

Availability

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

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Autoreplace declined meeting rooms
Google Help: Add a room to an event

Reminder: Ending support for IE11 for all Google Workspace apps on March 15

Thursday, February 25, 2021

we announced
Getting started

Admins: We recommend you encourage IE11 users in your organization to switch to a supported browser as soon as possible.
End users: To prepare for this change, we recommend using a supported browser with Google Workspace.

Availability

Impacts 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

Google Help: Supported browsers for Google Workspace

Easily locate the source file for embedded Drive video and audio files in Google Slides

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Quick launch summary insertshare
Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: When editing a Google Slides presentation, click on an embedded Drive-stored video or audio or file and then click on the ‘link to Drive’ button to open the original Google Drive file.

Visit the Help Center to learn more about inserting or deleting images and videos in Slides.

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

End a Google Meet video call for everyone at once

Monday, February 22, 2021

What’s changingWhen a Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals or Education Plus host leaves their meeting, they can now choose to keep others on the call or to end the call instead, ejecting everyone else.

We’ll launch this feature to additional Google Workspace editions in the coming months.
Who’s impactedEnd usersWhy you’d use itIn some cases, a host may not want people to continue a meeting without them present. For example, teachers may want to prevent students from having unsupervised meetings.
Additional detailsWhen a host is done with a meeting and wants to leave, they now have two options:

Leave meeting: The host will leave the meeting, but the meeting will continue.
End meeting for all: Everyone, including people in breakout rooms, will be ejected from the meeting. Participants will be informed that the host has ended the meeting. Once the meeting has been ended, people will not be able to rejoin, unless the host rejoins first.

We recommend that, after ending a meeting, if a host wants to meet with a new group of people, that they create a new meeting. This can help prevent previous participants from joining.
Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals and Education Plus customers
Not 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, and Nonprofits customers

Resources

Google Help: Add or remove people from a Google Meet video call

More options for sharing your availability in Google Calendar

Monday, February 22, 2021

What’s changing We’re adding two new options in Calendar, which will help you better communicate your work availability to your colleagues. Specifically, you can:

Create repeating out of office entries.
Split your working hours into multiple segments each day.

At the moment, working hour segments will only be available on the web and repeating out of office entries on the web and Android devices. See below for more information on these features, including rollout details.

Who's impactedEnd users

Why it’s important As many people have experienced changes to their working environments in the past year, their work schedules have also changed—and are now often mixed with personal commitments and other obligations. We hope that with the addition of repeating out of office entries and segmentable working hours, you can better organize your time and communicate availability to your colleagues.
You can use segmentable working hours to indicate when certain blocks of time are outside of your working hours. Working hours are visible on your calendar when someone schedules a meeting with you.
In addition to using repeating out of office entries for vacation time, you can use them to indicate time when you need to handle personal commitments—like childcare, exercise, and more. They can also be used to better communicate part-time availability or certain days when you're consistently unavailable.

Additional details Repeating out of office entries and declining meeting behavior If you create a repeating out of office entry and select “Automatically decline meetings,” a decline meeting notification will be sent to the organizers of any meetings scheduled during your repeating out of office entry. If the declined meeting is a recurring meeting, those organizers may get multiple notifications—these emails are bundled for Gmail users, but not always for users of other email services.

Getting started

Segment your working hours in Google Calendar

Creating repeating out of office entries in Google Calendar

Rollout pace Working hour segments

Repeating out of office entries

Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 1, 2021
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 15, 2021

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Set your working hours & availability

Improvements for locating new comments and important conversations in Google Docs

Monday, February 22, 2021

Quick launch summary

A blue dot emphasizes the new comment activity since the last time you viewed the document.

In the Comments history dialog, we added new filtering options. You can sort comments by: “For you”, “All comments”, or “Resolved”.

Select “For You” in the comment history dialog to view the comment threads and action items involving you.

We hope these improvements make collaboration easier by enabling you to quickly navigate to and take action on important comments and conversations.

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 using comments and action items.

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
Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Help: Use comments & action items

Useful Links

Updates