Google Workspace Updates

Use Virtual Private Cloud Service Controls to create security perimeters around Google Cloud Search data

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

What’s changing We’re introducing support for Virtual Private Cloud Service Controls (VPC-SC) for Google Cloud Search. You can use these controls to define a service perimeter around Google Cloud Search resources and create policies to grant access based on contextual attributes, such as:

IP Address: You can grant an access level based on the IP address of the originating request
Device type and operating system: You can grant an access level based on user devices, including operating system and version
User Identity: You can grant an access level based on the user identity

This ensures that:

Resources within a perimeter are accessed only from users with authorized VPC networks.
Clients with access to resources within a perimeter don't have access to resources outside that perimeter.
Data cannot be copied to unauthorized resources outside the perimeter.
Internet access to resources within a perimeter are restricted using allowlisted IPv4 and IPv6 ranges.

For more information, see this overview of the VPC Service Controls.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

Data security is paramount for every enterprise.. VPC Service Controls help you restrict public network access to your sensitive data while using Google Cloud Search’s fully managed document indexing and search capabilities.

With this managed service, you can configure private communication between cloud resources and hybrid VPC networks. By expanding perimeter security from on-premise networks to data stored on Google Cloud Search, you can feel confident indexing and using sensitive data on Cloud Search.

Getting started

Admins: This feature is OFF by default and can be enabled at the domain level. Use the VPC Service Controls Quickstart guide to learn more about setting up a service perimeter using VPC Service Controls in the Google Cloud Console.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on April 21, 2021

Availability

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

Resources

Google Meet now gives you more space for content and control over layouts for a more flexible experience.

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

What’s changingInspired by your feedback, we’re rolling out a refreshed Google Meet desktop/laptop experience with updates to video feeds, the viewing and presenting experience, and the bottom bar.
Video feeds

Hover over your video feed for options between a tile in the grid or a floating picture. You can also resize, reposition, and hide it to concentrate on the call.
Your self-view appears in the bottom right of the grid to put more video feeds at eye-level as you look into the camera.

Viewing and presenting experience

See what you are presenting while in Google Meet.
Unpin the content you or others share to see more and larger video feeds.
Participant names are always visible regardless of meeting size.

Bottom bar

Meeting dial-in codes, attachments, the participants list, chat, and other activities are at the bottom right to create more vertical space for seeing people and content.
Controls are consolidated in one place with descriptions available upon hover.
Leave call button is moved away from the microphone and camera buttons to prevent accidental call hang-ups.
Bottom bar is always visible, while not covering cover captions and bottom video feeds.

Other visual updates include

When someone speaks, their tile is outlined in blue.
Mute indicators are subdued to reduce visual distraction.
When there are more participants than can be shown on the grid, a tile is added so you always remember who’s on the call.

Unpin shared content

Hide your own self-feedWho’s impactedEnd users

Why you’d use itEnjoy a simpler, more flexible experience that lets you participate with confidence in Google Meet calls as a presenter, attendee, teacher or student, knowing you have more control over your video feed, layouts, and content.

Additional details

Users will see a banner before joining a call that says “Meet has a new look” when this refreshed user interface is enabled for them.
Use of Chrome extensions (including the Grid View extension) could impact your experience. Uninstalling any extensions that interact with Google Meet could resolve this.
For better presentations and to avoid mirroring, share a different window or a specific tab instead of the meeting window.
In some cases, your self-view could appear with gray bars at the top and bottom to show you everything your camera sees. Other participants might see a cropped version of your video feed.

Getting startedAdmins: There is no admin control for this feature.End users: This feature will be ON for everyone.

Rollout paceRapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 3, 2021Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 17, 2021

Availability

Available to all Workspace users. Also available if you're using Google Meet with a personal Google account.

ResourcesGoogle Meet Help (with an enterprise or education account)Google Meet Help (with a personal account)

Reminder: Website creation in classic Google Sites will no longer be available starting May 15, 2021

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

What’s changing As previously announced, we are replacing classic Sites with new Sites. All Google Workspace customers will have until the end of 2021 to complete this transition.

We’d like to remind you that starting May 15, 2021, users will no longer be able to create new websites in classic Google Sites. We recommend that you turn off site creation in classic Sites for your domain before May 15, 2021.

Note that the timeline for this transition varies for users with personal Google accounts — see the “Getting Started” section below for more details.

Who’s impacted Admins and end users

Why it’s important If you haven’t already, we strongly recommend enabling new Sites creation for your users today, to ensure all newly-created websites use the new Google Sites. If you want your organization’s classic Sites content to continue to be viewable without interruption, make sure all of your existing classic Sites are migrated by December 31, 2021.

Starting May 15, 2021: New website creation will no longer be available in classic Sites. This means that any new websites created in your organization will only be in new Sites.

Starting December 1, 2021: Editing of any remaining classic Sites will be disabled.

Starting January 1, 2022: When users try to visit a classic Site, they will no longer see the website content. Any remaining classic Sites will automatically be:

Downloaded as an archive and saved to the website owner’s Google Drive.
Replaced with a draft in the new Google Sites for site owners to review and publish.

details on the Classic Sites migration.

If you don’t take any action, the changes outlined in the transition timeline above will automatically be applied to your domain. Use our Help Center to learn more about the transition from classic Sites to new Sites.

Getting started

Admins: Follow the disable creating classic Sites instructions to turn off site creation in classic Sites before May 15, 2021. This change will help ensure all newly-created websites are using the new Google Sites experience.

Use the Classic Sites Manager to help your users make the transition. Using this console, admins can:

View all classic Sites in your domain with the option to export to Google Sites for project management.
Convert, archive, or delete your websites.
Bulk delete and restore sites.
Bulk update ownership of sites.

Google Workspace end users: Users need to transition from classic to new Sites according to the timeline outlined above. Learn more about how to use the Classic Sites Manager tool, or visit our Help Center to learn how to convert a classic Site to a new Site.

End users with personal Google accounts: 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.
Available to users with personal Google accounts.

Resources

Use Google Maps in the quick access side panel

Monday, April 19, 2021

Quick launch summary You can now use Google Maps in the quick access side panel. This means you can use Google Maps to see and research place information on the same screen, which can make it easier to:

See place details such as location, opening hours, and user reviews.
Make sure you’re adding the correct location to a Calendar event.
Get travel times and directions to plan ahead your trip to an upcoming event location. You can add trips to your Calendar to help arrive on time by knowing when to leave. Predicted traffic and transit at the future time of the event is used for a better estimate of travel time.

The quick access side panel can already help you view your Calendar while in other Google Workspace apps, take notes, manage your tasks, and more. With Maps in the side panel, you’ll be able to see more information without switching contexts or using multiple tabs. This will make it easier to plan and participate in timely events.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be on by default for all users with Calendar and Maps enabled. If Maps is disabled for a user, there will be no change to their experience and they will not see Maps in the side panel. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning services on or off for your users.
End users: If your admin has enabled Maps for your domain, click on the location of any Calendar event to start using this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using the side panel.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 19, 2021.
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 3, 2021.

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Use Google products side by side

More ways to work with and analyze BigQuery data using Connected Sheets

Monday, April 19, 2021

What’s changing We’re adding several new features that will give you more ways to work with, display, and organize your BigQuery data when using Connected Sheets. Specifically, the new abilities and improvements are:

Column stats
Filter by value
Calculated fields for pivot tables
Pivot table grouping
Slicers

See below for more details on these features. If you’re new to BigQuery and Connected Sheets, check out this video demo.
Who’s impacted Admins and End users
Why you’d use it Column stats This new feature allows easy access to aggregated insights about the data in any column of your BigQuery table. These insights help you understand the shape of your data and include sum, average, median, unique count, max, min, list of most and least frequent values and distribution of the values in the column.

Filter by value In addition to the ability to filter a column “by condition”, you can now filter a column “by value”. Connected Sheets will retrieve the list of values for any column that you can access for your analysis. Use the Help Center to learn more about filtering columns by value when using Connected Sheets.

Calculated fields in pivot tables Calculated fields for pivot tables allow for custom aggregation of formulas in pivot table buckets. Use the Help Center to learn more about how to use calculated fields.
Pivot table grouping You can now group numeric values from your source data into buckets of equal size in Connected Sheets pivot tables. This is useful when you’re working with a pivot table with numerous unique values—grouping can better narrow down your data by a minimum, maximum, and interval. Use the Help Center to learn more about using pivot table grouping in Google Sheets.

Slicers for Connected Sheets You can also use a slicer to filter your Connected Sheets tables, charts, and pivot tables. A slicer is based on a column/field from the BigQuery data source. The slicer influences all the Connected Sheets charts, extracts and pivot tables in the same tab. Use the Help Center to learn more about using slicers with Connected Sheets.
Additional details In the coming weeks, we will introduce improvements for scheduled refresh, allowing you to automate refresh at a specified frequency with more granular scheduling options. These options include:

Hourly refreshes
Specific start dates
Frequency options such as every five days, every two months, etc.

When this feature becomes available, we’ll provide an update on the Workspace Updates Blog.
Getting started

Admins: Connected Sheets will be ON by default. To use it, you must have set up BigQuery for your organization, and users must have access to tables or views in BigQuery. Use our Help Center to learn more about how to set up Connected Sheets.
End users: These features will be available by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about analyzing and refreshing BigQuery data in Google Sheets using Connected Sheets.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: These features are available now for all users.
We’ll provide an update when the scheduled refresh improvements become available.

Availability

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

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - April 16, 2021

Friday, April 16, 2021

New updatesUnless 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.
Improved suggestions when inserting links in Google DocsNow when you insert a link to selected text, you’ll see intelligent suggestions for Drive files, section headings, and bookmarks within your document based on the context of your selection. This makes it easier to link to the most relevant content faster, without switching applications.
Q&A and polls now available for Google Meet on mobile devices and tabletsMeeting participants can now see and respond to Q&A and polls on their Android and iOS devices. Q&A and polls are already launched on the web. | Learn more about Q&A and Polls in Meet.
Adding present and chat Meet safety locks for education users on mobileWe’re giving hosts Google Workspace education meetings new meeting safety controls on Android to manage who can share their screen and who can send chat messages within the meeting. These controls were previously available on the web. | Available to Google Workspace Education Fundamentals and Education Plus customers only. | Learn more.
Previous announcementsThe announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.
New Google Meet Hardware Admin console features: peripheral status, default volume, and static URLsWe’re adding three new features to the Google Meet Hardware section of the Admin console: peripheral status, default volume, and static URLs | Learn more.
New Rules homepage in the Admin console makes security simplerWe're making some updates to how you create, view, and manage rules in the Admin console. We hope this information makes it easier for admins to decide which rules to proactively implement, easier to maintain with centralized management, and easier to investigate with direct Investigation tool integration. | Learn more.
School matches are available in originality reports for Education customersIn addition to checking student work for matches across billions of web pages and books, originality reports can now check for matches against a repository of student work within your domain. | Available to Google Workspace Education Plus customers. Also available with the Teaching and Learning Upgrade only. | Learn more.
For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

School matches are available in originality reports for Education customers

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

What’s changing In addition to checking student work for matches across billions of web pages and books, originality reports can now check for matches against a repository of student work within your domain.
Once school matches are enabled by your admin, submitted assignments will automatically be added to your school-owned private repository after an originality report is run. If a match is detected amongst other documents in the repository, the match is included as a flagged passage for the educator to review. This can make it easier for instructors to evaluate the academic integrity of the student’s work and provide them with constructive feedback.

Who’s impacted Admins and end users

Why it’s important School matches allow educators to compare student work within their school without compromising student privacy--with originality reports, you own your school’s repository of papers. Admins can also manually add or remove work from their school’s repository.

Getting started

Admins: School matches are OFF by default and can be enabled for your organization. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to enable school matches and manually add or remove work from your school’s repository.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about using originality reports.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: This feature is available now for all users.

Availability

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

Resources

Useful Links

Updates

Use Virtual Private Cloud Service Controls to create security perimeters around Google Cloud Search data

Google Meet now gives you more space for content and control over layouts for a more flexible experience.

Reminder: Website creation in classic Google Sites will no longer be available starting May 15, 2021

Use Google Maps in the quick access side panel

More ways to work with and analyze BigQuery data using Connected Sheets

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - April 16, 2021

School matches are available in originality reports for Education customers

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