This official feed from the Google Workspace team provides essential information about new features and improvements for Google Workspace customers.
rss_feed

Google Apps Password Sync allows Google Apps admins to synchronize their users' passwords from Active Directory to Google Apps as they are changed.

What’s new:
- Sync passwords as they are changed - no need to wait for a scheduled sync
- Secure - passwords aren't saved anywhere except on your Active Directory and Google Apps, and are transmitted hashed and encrypted
- Quick to set up - installation takes only a few minutes per server

Editions included:
Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
English

For more information:
Download Page
Configuration Guide

whatsnew.googleapps.com
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
Read More

End-users can now select Welsh and Latin American Spanish as the default language in Gmail Settings.

Release track:
Rapid

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
All languages supported

For more information:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/gmail-now-available-in-welsh-and-latin.html

whatsnew.googleapps.com
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
Read More

The following features are now available to domains following the Scheduled Release track:

-Docs: Research pane which allows you to look up information and search from inside your document.
-Gmail: Quick access to contact details: When searching for an email address, the results will now show you contact details in addition to that person's profile photo and the emails sent from and to them. From here, you can start a chat, call their phone and more. Plus, if your contacts have a Google+ profile, this information will stay up to date automatically.
-Gmail: More circle integration and circle search: Users on Google Plus will also now see profile photos of people in their selected circle and circles are now supported in search and filters.
-Contacts: Contacts delegation allows users to delegate full access to the contacts in their “My Contacts” group without granting access to their mail or anything else in their accounts.

The following features are intended for release to these domains on June 5th:
-Gmail: Graduation of the "Nav bar drag and drop" lab, which allows the user to reorder gadgets inside the gadget pane.

Release track:
Scheduled*

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

*Scheduled Release track: Domains with ‘Scheduled Release’ option enabled in the administrator control panel. Learn more.

whatsnew.googleapps.com
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
Read More

A reminder that Google will enable IPv6 permanently on June 6th, 2012 at 12am UTC.

The countdown to IPv6 was announced back on January 17th, 2012 here. This was done for 24 hours a year ago and we did not notice any major disruptions for Apps customers.

Customers with SSO IP Whitelists and IPv6 capable equipment need to ensure that their SSO whitelist configuration contains their IPv6 network segments (if applicable). The SSO Help Center article is linked here.

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

For more information:
http://ipv4.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=1299266&topic=8995&hl=en

whatsnew.googleapps.com
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
Read More

The following features are now available to domains following the Scheduled Release track:
- Docs: Comments and discussions available to Government Edition domains.
- Gmail: Graduation of three labs: Message translation, Smart Mute and Title Tweaks.


The following features are intended for release to these domains on May 29th:
- Docs: 
Research pane which allows you to look up information and search from inside your document.
Gmail:
- Quick access to contact details: When searching for an email address, the results will now show you contact details in addition to that person's profile photo and the emails sent from and to them. From here, you can start a chat, call their phone and more. Plus, if your contacts have a Google+ profile, this information will stay up to date automatically.
- More circle integration and circle search: Users on Google Plus will also now see profile photos of people in their selected circle and circles are now supported in search and filters.
Contacts: 
- Contacts delegation allows users to delegate full access to the contacts in their “My Contacts” group without granting access to their mail or anything else in their accounts.


Release track:
Scheduled


Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education


For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2012/05/find-facts-and-do-research-inside.html
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/continuing-to-bring-people-front-and.html


whatsnew.googleapps.com
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
Read More


The following new features are now available to Google Apps domains:
- Quick access to contact details: When searching for an email address, the results will now show you contact details in addition to that person's profile photo and the emails sent from and to them. From here, you can start a chat, call their phone and more. Plus, if your contacts have a Google+ profile, this information will stay up to date automatically.
- More circle integration and circle search: Users on Google Plus will also now see profile photos of people in their selected circle and circles are now supported in search and filters.
- Improved autocomplete predictions based on the content in your email.

Release track:
Rapid

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
Autocomplete: US English only
Other items: All languages supported

For more information:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/continuing-to-bring-people-front-and.html
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/improved-search-in-gmail.html

whatsnew.googleapps.com
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
Read More

The following features are now available to domains following the Scheduled Release track:

- Sites: Keyboard shortcuts in Sites editor
- Docs: Migration of documents to the newer documents editor
- Drive: The rollout of the “opt-in” phase of Google Drive to scheduled track domains. The “opt-in” phase consists of the following:
  • Users can visit drive.google.com where they can opt-in to Drive. 
  • As part of opting in, they will be shown an interstitial which includes this video. 
  • If an opted in user visits docs.google.com, the user will be redirected to drive.google.com. 
  • The “Documents” navigation item will change to “Drive.” 

The following features are intended for release to these domains on May 22nd:

- Docs: Comments and discussions available to Government domains.
- Gmail: Graduation of three labs: Message translation, Smart Mute and Title Tweaks.

Release track:
Scheduled*

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

*Scheduled Release track: Domains with ‘Scheduled Release’ option enabled in the administrator control panel. Learn more.

whatsnew.googleapps.com
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
Read More

You can now search the web for information directly from Google Docs using the new research pane. From the research pane, you can look up maps, quotes, images and add them directly to your document.

Release track:
Rapid

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

How to access what's new:
Access the research pane from the 'Tools' menu by right clicking on a selected word that you want to learn more about, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+R on Windows or Cmd+Alt+R on Mac.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2012/05/find-facts-and-do-research-inside.html

whatsnew.googleapps.com
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
Read More

Version 3.1 of Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook® is rolling out over the next 2-3 weeks with the following new features:
- New registry key for hiding the Synchronization Status dialog for new users
- Disabled services are now indicated in the Synchronization Status
- "Error reported" fix

Editions included:
Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
US English Only

How to access what's new:
1. Update Google Apps Sync
- If you installed Google App Sync: Updates are checked for and downloaded to your computer automatically.
- If your administrator installed Google Apps Sync: Updates are downloaded to your computer automatically, if your administrator enables automatic updates.

You can also download the latest version at any time from the Google Apps Sync download page.

2. For the update to go into effect:
If you have Windows XP: Restart your computer.
If you have Windows Vista: Restart Microsoft Outlook®.

For more information:
http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=153463
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync

whatsnew.googleapps.com
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
Read More

The following features are now available to domains following the Scheduled Release track:
- No new features to announce

The following features are intended for release to these domains on or around May 15th:
- Sites: Keyboard shortcuts in Sites editor.
- Docs: New version of Google Documents rolling out on May 16th.
- Drive: On 5/14 we will start the rollout of the “opt-in” phase of Google Drive to scheduled track domains. The “opt-in” phase consists of the following:
  • Users can visit drive.google.com where they can opt-in to Drive.
  • As part of opting in, they will be shown an interstitial which includes this video.
  • If an opted in user visits docs.google.com, the user will be redirected to drive.google.com.
  • The “Documents” navigation item will change to “Drive.”

The rollout will start on 5/14 and take 1-2 weeks. Once Drive is fully rolled out to a domain, new users in the domain will be Drive users. Even once a user has opted into Drive, they can revert to the Docs look via a setting in the Drive user-interface (although they will remain on drive.google.com).

Domains can disable both the Drive for Mac/Windows and use of the SDK via the Drive / Docs settings page settings in the Google Apps control panel. Note this is not a forced migration, simply an opportunity for schedule track users to try the product.

Release track:
Scheduled*

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

*Scheduled Release track: Domains with ‘Scheduled Release’ option enabled in the administrator control panel. Learn more.

whatsnew.googleapps.com
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
Read More

We completely redesigned Google Groups from the ground up to offer a new and improved user interface, collaborative inbox, take and assign topic functionality, multi-domain support, advanced search operators, new ways of viewing group content, and much more.

Release track:
Rapid

Editions included:
Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
All supported languages

How to access what's new:
Beginning May 15, Rapid Release users who navigate to the Google Groups page will see a horizontal blue bar toward the top of the groups page saying, “The old Google Groups will be going away soon. Switch to the new Google Groups.”

Scheduled Release users who navigate to the Google Groups page will simply see a notification that Groups will be changing soon.

*Google Apps domains on the Scheduled Release track will see the old Google Groups but will also see a notification informing users that the old groups will soon be going away.

whatsnew.googleapps.com
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
Read More

Version 4.05 of Google Apps Device Policy is now available for your Android users with the following improvements:

- Multiple Account support: Google Apps Device Policy app allows users to register with multiple Google Apps domains.
- New supported settings for Android in the Google Apps control panel Settings > Mobile > Org Settings:

  • Number of days before password expires for Android 3.0+
  • Number of expired passwords that are blocked for Android 3.0+
  • Allow/block camera for Android 4.0+

    • NOTE: If a Google Apps domain is enforcing policies that are not supported by a user’s Android device, the affected users will be blocked from accessing their accounts. Learn more about enforcing device policies.

    Editions included:
    Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

    Languages included:
    All languages supported

    How to access what's new:
    Download Device Policy on Google Play

    For more information:
    Device Policy Administration
    Device Policy Overview for Users
    Mobile Management: Org Settings

    whatsnew.googleapps.com
    Get these product update alerts by email
    Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
    Read More

    Starting Wednesday, May 16th, we will begin the process of migrating legacy Google documents (those created before July 2010) to the new document editor. The new editor has the following features:

    - Real time collaboration: See updates from other collaborators as they edit the document.
    - Higher-quality imports: More consistent imports from your desktop into Google Docs.
    - Ruler: Google documents have a ruler for setting margins, indentations, and tab stops.
    - Chat with other collaborators: As you make your edits, you can chat with other document editors about the changes, from within the document.

    Release track:
    Rapid & Scheduled

    Editions included:
    Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

    Languages included:
    All languages supported

    For more information:
    https://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=176442
    http://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2398701
    http://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=183813

    whatsnew.googleapps.com
    Get these product update alerts by email
    Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
    Read More

    Gmail now has the following new features:
    - Automatic language translation
    - The text in the browser tab now reads "Inbox (20) - user@example.com - Gmail" instead of "Gmail - Inbox (20) - user@example.com.”
    - A change to the way "Mute" works

    Please see the blog URL below to read which labs have been retired.

    Release track:
    Rapid

    Editions included:
    Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

    Languages included:
    All supported languages

    For more information:
    http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/say-hello-or-ola-or-halo-or-salam-to.htmlhttp://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=47787

    whatsnew.googleapps.com
    Get these product update alerts by email
    Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
    Read More

    The following features are now available to domains following the Scheduled Release track:

    - Gmail: Compact conversation view becomes more compact
    - Gmail: New Google Plus people widget

    The following features are intended for release to these domains on May 8th:
    - No new features to announce

    Release track:
    Scheduled*

    Editions included:
    Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

    *Scheduled Release track: Domains with ‘Scheduled Release’ option enabled in the administrator control panel. Learn more.

    whatsnew.googleapps.com
    Get these product update alerts by email
    Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates
    Read More

    Useful Links

    Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

    In the Google Cloud Community, discuss the latest features with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like you. 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.

    Learn about our customers

    Discover how a diverse range of organizations, from small businesses and nimble startups to globally recognized Fortune 500 corporations, leverage the collaborative power of Google Workspace. Explore examples of how teams of are streamlining workflows and driving productivity by utilizing Google-Workspace.