Google Workspace Updates

Embed content as a full page in new Google Sites

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Quick summary Site editors using new Google Sites can now add content as a full page from the following sources: custom code, other websites, and Google apps, such as Maps and Docs. Previously, editors could only add these elements as part of a page. This update provides more flexibility to organize and display embedded content on your site.

Embed content as a full page in new Google Sites

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: In a new Site, navigate to Pages > New page > Full page embed. Name the page and then add a URL, embed code, or embed content from another Google app. Visit the Help Center to learn more about adding Google files, video & more.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 24, 2022
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on June 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: Add Google files, video & more

Add shared drives to specific organizational units

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

What’s changing For select Google Workspace editions, admins can now place shared drives into sub organizational units (OUs). Doing so enables admins to configure sharing policies, data regions, access management, and more at a granular level.

This feature is available now as an open beta, which means you can use the feature without opting-in to a specific program.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it matters

Currently, all shared drives reside in the “root” OU. As such, all shared drives are subject to the same policies. This update gives admins the option to move shared drives to sub OUs within their organizations, such as Marketing or Legal, which allows for more control over the privacy and security of the shared drive's contents on a case-by-case basis. For example, admins can restrict sharing of a shared drive belonging to the legal department because it contains highly confidential information. Additionally, this also gives admins more flexibility over applying default sub OUs to newly-created shared drives, assuring each new shared drive subject to appropriate security policies.

With this update admins will have greater control and more options to control how their data is accessed and shared on a case by case basis.

Getting started

Admins: Admins can assign shared drives to various OUs using the new “Organizational Unit” column found in Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Manage Shared Drives. Visit the Help Center to learn more about shared drives and managing shared drive users and activity.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature — the ability to access or share certain files contained in a shared drive will vary. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sharing files in Google Drive.

Availability

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

Resources

Take action on multiple text selections in Google Docs

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Quick summary In Google Docs, you can now make multiple text selections at once, and apply actions such as delete, copy, paste, or format to all selections. This will make formatting and editing documents faster by eliminating the need to make repetitive changes, increasing your overall productivity.

Formatting adjustments are made to several pieces of selected text

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin impact.
End users: This feature will be available by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using keyboard shortcuts for Google Docs.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 25, 2022

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Keyboard shortcuts for Google Docs

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming release.

Add personal tasks from Google Chat

Monday, May 23, 2022

What’s changing

In Google Chat, you can now create personal tasks from individual or group messages. These will then be viewable by you in Google Tasks, the quick-access side panel, and Google Calendar if the task has a set date.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

This feature allows you to more easily stay on top of tasks that come out of conversations with your coworkers via Chat. Once you’ve created a personal task, you can add a due date and description, then quickly navigate back to the conversation.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about adding or editing a task.

Rollout pace

Android & Web:

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

iOS:

We anticipate this feature to be available for iOS in the coming months—we will provide an update on the Workspace Updates Blog once available.

Availability

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

Resources

Send group membership information in outbound SAML responses

Monday, May 23, 2022

Quick launch summary We’re adding the ability for admins to configure and send group membership information as part of SAML responses.

Currently, you are able to configure SSO to send user attributes in the SAML response when a user logs in to an app using SAML SSO. With this launch, admins can configure SSO to send group membership information to the application. Apps can then use these attributes to assess user authorization and to implement other business logic.
Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about group membership mapping and how to set up SSO via SAML for Apteligent.
End users: No end user impact.

Rollout pace

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

Availability

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

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - May 20, 2022

Friday, May 20, 2022

New updates
There 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.

Migrate your classic Google Sites before December 1, 2022 We’re extending the previously announced timeline to give Google Workspace customers more time to migrate from classic Google Sites to new Google Sites:

Starting December 1, 2022 (previously June 1, 2022), you will no longer be able to edit any remaining classic Sites in your domain.
Starting January 1, 2023 (previously July 1, 2022), Classic Sites will no longer be viewable unless they are converted to new Google Sites.

Learn more here and here.

New and updated third-party DevOps integrations for Google Chat, including PagerDuty There are now a variety of additional DevOps integrations that allow you to act on common workflows directly in Google Chat. | Learn more.

Export log data in near-real time to BigQueryExported log data streams are now in near-real time (under 10 minutes), improving upon the previous process which returned log data that could be up to three days old. | Learn more here and here.

AppSheet Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus available as add-ons to Google Workspace editionsGoogle Workspace customers can now purchase AppSheet Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus as add-ons by contacting their Google Cloud sales representative or through the Google Workspace Partner network. | Learn more.

Use Connected Sheets with VPC-SC protected data, improved Cloud Audit Logs for Connected Sheets events BigQuery datasets that are behind a perimeter created by VPC Service Controls can now be accessed using Connected Sheets. We’ve also made improvements to the Connected Sheets logging in the Cloud Audit Logs. | Learn more.

New banners in Google Chat protect against malicious links In Google Chat, you can now see banners warning against potential phishing and malware messages coming from users with personal Google Accounts to help protect users against malicious actors, keeping data safe. | Learn more.

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

New banners in Google Chat protect against malicious links

Thursday, May 19, 2022

Quick summary In Google Chat, you’ll see banners warning against potential phishing and malware messages coming from users with personal Google Accounts. These warning banners, which are already available in Gmail and Google Drive, help protect users against malicious actors, keeping data safe.

Additional details In Gmail, warning banners are displayed when responding to emails sent from outside of your organization. Now, Android warning banners are also displayed as you add new external recipients. Admins can turn these specific warning labels on or off for their organization.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin action required. Visit the Help Center to learn more about advanced phishing and malware protection.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about how Google Chat keeps you safe.

Rollout pace

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

Use Connected Sheets with VPC-SC protected data, improved Cloud Audit Logs for Connected Sheets events

Thursday, May 19, 2022

What’s changing BigQuery datasets that are behind a perimeter created by VPC Service Controls can now be accessed using Connected Sheets.

We’ve also made improvements to the Connected Sheets logging in the Cloud Audit Logs. See the “Additional details” section below for more information.

Who’s impacted Admins and end users

Why you’d use it This change gives VPC Service Controls Admins and Editors the ability to allow members of your organization to access, collaborate on, and generate insights from VPC Service Controls protected data via Connected Sheets.

Additional details By default, Connected Sheets cannot access BigQuery data that is protected by VPC Service Controls; however, VPC Service Controls perimeters can now be configured to allow queries issued through Connected Sheets to succeed. This configuration can only be changed by VPC Service Controls Admins and Editors.

Improved Connected Sheets logging Whenever BigQuery data is accessed in Connected Sheets, entries are recorded for who accessed the data and when in Cloud Audit Logs.

Now, the Cloud Audit Logs additionally includes the ID of the spreadsheet that generates the BigQuery data access. Every spreadsheet has a unique ID containing letters, numbers, hyphens, or underscores, which can be found in the Google Sheets URL. Use this documentation to learn more about where to find this additional information in the Cloud Audit Logs.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers
Available to users with personal Google Accounts
Not available to legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Use Connected Sheets in your organization Google Help: VPC Service Controls
Google Help: Get started with BigQuery data in Google Sheets
Google Sheets API overview

AppSheet Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus available as add-ons to Google Workspace editions

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Quick summary Google Workspace customers can now purchase AppSheet Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus as add-ons by contacting their Google Cloud sales representative or through the Google Workspace Partner network.

AppSheet allows users to maximize Google Workspace by building custom applications on top of Google Workspace and other services in their environment, all without writing any code. With AppSheet Enterprise, customers can enable advanced scenarios, adding advanced connectivity, more scale, and strengthened governance.

Getting started

Partners can use the Partner Sales Console, Reseller APIs, and Rep-Assisted Buy Flows to add AppSheet Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus to their customers Workspace editions.
Use the Partner Advantage Portal to learn more about how your customers can leverage AppSheet in their organizations and AppSheet's subscription plans.

Developers: Visit the AppSheet Help Center to learn more about getting started with AppSheet.

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers.

Resources

Getting started with AppSheet

Export log data in near-real time to BigQuery

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Quick summary Currently, you can export Google Workspace logs to Google BigQuery for customized and scalable reporting. Exports take place as a daily sync, returning log data that can be up to three days old. With this launch, exported log data streams will be near-real time (under 10 minutes), ensuring fresh data for your export. This helps you stay on top of security threats and analysis with the most up-to-date activity log data.

Stream activity log data in near-real time when using BigQuery export

Getting started

Admins: This feature works automatically if you have set up service log exports to BigQuery. There is no additional admin control for this feature.
End users: There is no end user impact.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 18, 2022

Availability

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

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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.

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Updates

Embed content as a full page in new Google Sites

Add shared drives to specific organizational units

Take action on multiple text selections in Google Docs

Add personal tasks from Google Chat

Send group membership information in outbound SAML responses

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - May 20, 2022

New banners in Google Chat protect against malicious links

Use Connected Sheets with VPC-SC protected data, improved Cloud Audit Logs for Connected Sheets events

AppSheet Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus available as add-ons to Google Workspace editions

Export log data in near-real time to BigQuery

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Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

Learn about more Google Workspace launches