Google Workspace Updates: May 2017

New built-in Gmail protections to combat malware in attachments

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

(Cross-posted from the Google Security Blog)

Posted by Sri Somanchi, Product Manager, Gmail anti-spam

Today we announced new security features for Gmail customers, including early phishing detection using machine learning, click-time warnings for malicious links, and unintended external reply warnings. In addition, we have also updated our defenses against malicious attachments.

Let’s take a deeper look at the new defenses against malicious attachments. We now correlate spam signals with attachment and sender heuristics, to predict messages containing new and unseen malware variants. These protections enable Gmail to better protect our users from zero-day threats, ransomware and polymorphic malware.

In addition, we block use of file types that carry a high potential for security risks including executable and javascript files.

Machine learning has helped Gmail achieve more than 99% accuracy in spam detection, and with these new protections, we’re able to reduce your exposure to threats by confidently rejecting hundreds of millions of additional messages every day.

Constantly improving our automatic protections

These new changes are just the latest in our ongoing work to improve our protections as we work to keep ahead of evolving threats. For many years, scammers have tried to use dodgy email attachments to sneak past our spam filters, and we’ve long blocked this potential abuse in a variety of ways, including:

Rejecting the message and notifying the sender if we detect a virus in an email.
Preventing you from sending a message with an infected attachment.
Preventing you from downloading attachments if we detect a virus.

While the bad guys never rest, neither do we.

These protections were made possible due to extensive contribution from Vijay Eranti (Gmail anti-spam), Timothy Schumacher (Gmail anti-spam), Harish Gudelly (Google anti-virus), and Lucio Tudisco (G Suite anti-abuse)

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI
More Information
The Keyword: Gmail blog
Anti-virus scanning attachments

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A new Gmail security feature that improves the early detection of phishing attempts for G Suite users

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

As part of Gmail's continued efforts to make email more safe and secure for our users, a new advanced security feature is being added to Gmail. Last year we announced the inclusion of security warnings when users attempt to access a dangerous site. With this new feature, we are improving the timeliness of phishing identification.

Delayed delivery of email messages with suspicious content

Phishing attempts follow a predictable pattern when you look at them in aggregate, and Gmail’s security experts have developed a new algorithm that flags and delays potentially suspicious messages.This selective delay facilitates additional checks on the content of the message prior to delivery and benefits from real time updates to the spam filter — as well as up to date phishing protection from Google’s Safe Browsing technology.

Considerations

Because Safe Browsing must test the results of the link, emails can be delayed by up to 4 minutes.
This feature is not a replacement for anti-malware/phishing software, and we do not recommend using it in place of your organization’s existing security software.

Opting out: This feature can be controlled from the Admin console, and is launching as as default On. If you do not wish to delay email to your users for any reason, you can disable the feature from the Admin console. Learn more

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI
More Information
Help Center

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Unintended external reply warnings in Gmail to mitigate unintentional data loss

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Update: In an earlier version of this launch announcement, the new Gmail security feature was described as launching default off. This feature is actually launching default on, with the ability to turn it off in the Admin console. This announcement has been updated to reflect this.

This release adds a new Gmail security feature to warn G Suite users when responding to emails sent from outside of their domain and not in their contacts. This feature can give enterprises protection against forged email messages, impersonation, as well as common user-error when sending mail to the wrong contacts.

How does it work?

When a user hits reply in Gmail, Google scans the recipient list, including addresses in CC to determine its risk level. If a recipient is external to the user’s organization, not present in their Contacts or not someone the user interacts with regularly, we will display the warning.
We treat secondary domains and domain aliases like primary domains, so your users will not be warned when emailing users at your subdomains.
If the recipient is intended, the user can dismiss the warning and proceed with the response. We won’t show the warning again for that recipient.
Unintended external reply warning is controlled from the Admin console control in the Advanced Gmail settings and is launching default on. It can be toggled on or off by organizational unit or for your entire domain.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid and Scheduled release.

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested. The Help Center article below outlines the expected behavior, and can be used to help effectively communicate these changes to users.

More Information
Help Center: Unintended external reply warnings

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Upcoming change: Admins now have more control over Profile fields, and changes to the Contacts On/Off setting

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Update Aug 4: This rollout has begun and will be going live gradually over the coming days. Apologies for the delayed rollout

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Update 6/26: This rollout is being rescheduled to late July in order to further improve the speed of account profile updates. Apologies for any inconvenience this might have caused you. We will update this blog post once it's live. Please continue to monitor the What's New calendar for updates.

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On June 26, 2017, we’re releasing some changes that will bring user profile management under the direct control of G Suite admins, starting with the Name, Photo, Gender, and Birthday fields. Whereas end users could previously only edit these fields if they had upgraded to Google+, these new controls let admins decide which profile fields can be edited by end users, independent of Google+ status. Additionally, we are renaming the Contacts setting to Directory in order to better describe the functionality and, as such, the Contacts on/off setting within it will be removed.

More about this change

If you want to enable or disable your users’ ability to modify their Name, Photo, Gender, or Birthday, you can now do so from the Admin console. You will continue to be able to set these fields directly yourself where supported in the Admin console, or sync values using Google Cloud Directory Sync.

Profile editability can be toggled for your entire domain or by organizational unit (OU).

Editability settings are respected across Google. Once editability is enabled, your users can modify their profile information from My Account, About Me or other surfaces where profile editing is supported. If editing is disabled, users will be directed to you, the administrator, if they need to make changes.

This is the first in several launches that will grant admins better control over the editability of user profile data. Stay tuned for additional profile, directory, and contact management improvements in the future.

Service setting for Contacts On/Off: As part of this launch, we are removing the Contacts service on/off setting from the Admin console starting on June 26, 2017. Today, this setting only controls access to the Web contacts manager at contacts.google.com. It does not control any other user access to contacts, such as the contacts manager in Gmail, the Contacts Preview, API access to contacts, or the Directory functionality.

Once the Contacts on/off setting is removed from the Admin console, we will retain the the Web contacts manager on/off preference you’ve already specified. Please review whether this setting needs to be changed, and if so, make such change in the admin console before June 26, 2017 if required.
You can review your own Admin console settings from the Admin console.

Contacts on/off controls access to	Contacts on/off does not control access to
Web Contacts Manager at contacts.google.com	Web Contacts embedded in Gmail Web Contacts Preview API access to contacts Directory functionality, including autocomplete

When Contacts Preview eventually replaces the current Web contacts manager, the setting will no longer have any effect, and will be fully deprecated.

Default editability settings: At launch, editability behavior will be consistent with pre-launch behavior. For example, if Google+ was disabled for an Organizational Unit, which restricted editing pre-launch, then your editability settings will be “off”, not allowing users to edit their name, gender, photo, or birthdate. For domains with Google+ enabled, we will respect and migrate over the name editability control that existed in the Google+ settings. This design choice was made to keep the impact to your domain minimal, giving you flexibility for when you’d like to make changes.

Current OU/User status	Profile editing default
G+ enabled, name editing disabled	Name editing disabled. Other fields enabled.
G+ enabled, name editing enabled	Editing enabled
G+ disabled	Editing disabled
Newly created domain after launch	Birthdate editing enabled. Other fields disabled.

Special behavior for Education domains: Education domains will not have an editability control for birthdate. For those domains, birthdate will never be editable by end users, except in the Google+ upgrade flow, if Google+ has been enabled.
Special behavior for domains with existing profile photos: Some domains have users with profile photos, despite not having G+ enabled. Those domains will have photo editability enabled on launch, in order to not interfere with existing photos. Admins may change the setting after launch.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release on June 26 2017
Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions
Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)
Impact:
Admins and all end users
Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Managing directory profile changes

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Calendar email notification logs in Admin Console

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

When users collaborate using Google Calendar, they depend heavily on email notifications that are generated while they manage events and calendars. For example, event invitations, event updates, RSVPs and calendars sharing can all generate email notifications that are sent to event guests or calendar subscribers.

Sometimes these notifications are inadvertently triggered by third party calendar clients or go missing (because of incorrectly configured Gmail filters, accidental email deletions, etc.) With this launch, we’re exposing calendar email notification logs in the Calendar audit section of Admin Console, so you can easily investigate issues related to calendar email notifications. Each log entry provides insights on the type of calendar notification, its sender and its recipient as well as information on the calendar client that triggered it. You can also obtain the notification’s Message-ID which can be cross-referenced with the Email Audit logs, in order to confirm whether the notification was successfully delivered to its intended recipients. See our Help Center for more information on the new calendar notification fields.

We hope that by enriching the existing calendar audit logs, we will make it easier for helpdesk admins to troubleshoot issues for their users.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release.

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information

Calendar audit log

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Improving the publication experience in the new Google Sites

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

When you click “Publish” in the new Google Sites, you allow other people to view your site. If your organization allows you to publish sites on the web, you see options to (1) allow anyone at your domain or anyone on the web to visit your site, and (2) allow your site to appear in search results.

You’ve told us that the “Allow my site to appear in search results” setting is confusing, and that it’s not entirely clear how it impacts the availability of your site. With that feedback in mind, we’re making some changes to the setting. Following this launch,

if you’ve chosen to allow anyone on the web to visit your site, you’ll see an option to “Request public search engines not to index my site.” This option will not be selected by default, meaning that public search engines (like Google) will be able to index your site. This option will be labeled as a “Search setting” to distinguish it from the enforced permissions above it—by checking it, you indicate only your preference that search engines not index your site.

if you’ve chosen to restrict viewing of your site to your domain only, you will not see the “Request public search engines not to index my site” option, because no one outside of your domain will be able to visit your site anyway. Depending on your configuration, your site may appear in your organization’s internal search engine and on Google Cloud Search.

Please note that today’s launch will not impact the settings of any already-published sites, unless they’re unpublished and republished.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release, with Schedule release coming on June 6th, 2017

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Preview and publish your site on the web

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Let’s jam—Jamboard is now available

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Today we announced that Jamboard, our cloud-based, collaborative whiteboard, is available for purchase in the United States.

You can purchase Jamboard for $4,999 USD, which includes 2 styluses, an eraser and a wall mount. We’re also running a promotion—if you order on or before September 30, 2017, you’ll receive $300 off of the annual management and support fee, as well as a discount on the optional rolling stand.

Keep in mind that a G Suite plan is required to use Jamboard so that you can access files from Drive, use them in your brainstorms and come back to your work later. Also, we’re teaming up with BenQ to handle fulfillment, delivery and support. Check out pricing details below.

Jamboard is available in the U.S. to start, and will be available for purchase in the UK and Canada this summer, with more countries becoming available over time. Contact your Google Cloud sales rep or visit google.com/jamboard to learn more about how you can start jamming with colleagues today.

Additional info for G Suite admins
In addition to the Jamboard device, a Jamboard app will be available on Android and iOS for all G Suite customers globally starting this week. When used on a tablet, the app allows users to experience similar features as they would on the Jamboard device. On a smartphone, the app functions as a companion for the Jamboard device.

Usage of the Jamboard app will be controlled by a service on/off switch in the Admin console, and will be off by default.

Check out the Help Center for more information, including an FAQ section.

Launch Details
Release track:
Jamboard service on/off switch and app launching gradually to both Rapid release and Scheduled release, starting this week. Jamboard devices now available for purchase in the US only.

Editions:
Jamboard devices and app available for G Suite Basic, Business, Enterprise, and Education* customers.

*G Suite for Education customers will need to satisfy certain requirements in order to purchase Jamboard devices. See the Help Center FAQ for more information.

Rollout pace for Jamboard service on/off switch and app:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only (Jamboard service is defaulted off in the Admin console)

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center
FAQ

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Quick Access in Google Drive now available on the web

Thursday, May 18, 2017

In September 2016, we launched Quick Access for Google Drive, which uses machine learning to intelligently predict the files you need, before you’ve even searched for them. Originally available on the Drive Android app, and later iOS, we’re now launching Quick Access on the web.

Quick Access intelligently predicts and surfaces files based on, among other things:

who specific files are frequently shared with
when relevant meetings occur
what files are used at specific times of the day

Check out Quick Access on the Drive home page today.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming on June 20th, 2017

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Find files in Google Drive

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Save time with Smart Reply in Gmail

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

(Cross-posted from The Keyword Gmail blog)
Posted by Greg Bullock, Software Engineer, Gmail

It’s pretty easy to read your emails while you’re on the go, but responding to those emails takes effort. Smart Reply, available in Inbox by Gmail and Allo, saves you time by suggesting quick responses to your messages. The feature already drives 12 percent of replies in Inbox on mobile. And starting today, Smart Reply is coming to Gmail for Android and iOS too.

Smart Reply suggests three responses based on the email you received:

Once you’ve selected one, you can send it immediately or edit your response starting with the Smart Reply text. Either way, you’re saving time.

Smart Reply utilizes machine learning to give you better responses the more you use it. So if you're more of a “thanks!” than a “thanks.” person, we'll suggest the response that's, well, more you! If you want to learn about the smarts behind Smart Reply, check out the Google Research Blog.

Smart Reply will roll out globally on Android and iOS in English first, and Spanish will follow in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more languages coming soon!

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
The Keyword: Gmail

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Updating developer identity guidelines and registration processes to protect users

Monday, May 15, 2017

(Cross-posted from G Suite Developers)

Posted by Naveen Agarwal, Identity Team

Recently, we took immediate action to protect users from a phishing attack that attempted to abuse the OAuth authorization infrastructure.

We’re now supplementing those efforts to help prevent these types of issues in the future. These changes may add some friction and require more time before you are able to publish your web application, so we recommend that you plan your work accordingly.

Updating app identity guidelines
As our Google API user data policy states, apps must not mislead users. For example, app names should be unique to your application and should not copy others'.

To further enforce this policy, we are updating our app publishing process, our risk assessment systems, and our user-facing consent page in order to better detect spoofed or misleading application identities. You may see an error message as you’re registering new applications or modifying existing application attributes in the Google API Console, Firebase Console, or Apps Script editor as a result of this change.

New review processes and restrictions on web apps requesting user data
We have also enhanced our risk assessment for new web applications that request user data.

Based on this risk assessment, some web applications will require a manual review. Until the review is complete, users will not be able to approve the data permissions, and we will display an error message instead of the permissions consent page. You can request a review during the testing phase in order to open the app to the public. We will try to process those reviews in 3-7 business days. In the future, we will enable review requests during the registration phase as well.

You can continue to use your app for testing purposes before it is approved by logging in with an account registered as an owner/editor of that project in the Google API Console. This will enable you to add additional testers, as well as initiate the review process.

We also recommend developers review our earlier post outlining their responsibilities when requesting access to user data from their applications. Our teams will continue our constant efforts to support a powerful, useful developer ecosystem that keeps users and their data safe.

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Upcoming changes to chat in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Monday, May 15, 2017

Chatting in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides makes collaboration easier, as users can discuss a document while they work on it—without leaving the document itself. As many of you know, the current Docs Editors chat functionality is built on Google Talk, which we previously announced will be shutting down at the end of June.

We want to be sure you can continue to use chat in Docs, Sheets, and Slides, so—over the course of the next few weeks—we’ll make a few small changes and decouple the feature from Talk. As of June 7th, 2017, shortly before the Talk shutdown, organizations on the Rapid release track that have the Google Hangouts service enabled will have chat available in the Docs Editors; organizations on the Scheduled release track with Hangouts enabled will have chat in the Docs Editors starting on June 21st.*

If you currently have the Hangouts service enabled but Talk disabled, chat in Docs, Sheets, and Slides is not available to your users at this time. After June 7th or 21st (depending on your release track), however, your organization will begin to be able to use chat in the Docs Editors.* We encourage you to communicate the new feature to your users ahead of time. There will be no in-app promotion; users will simply see the chat button below appear in Docs, Sheets, and Slides when collaborators are in the document.

If a user clicks on that button, a chat window like the one below will appear on the right side of the screen, allowing him or her to chat with others in the document.

We’ll be making further improvements to chat in Docs, Sheets, and Slides in the future, so stay tuned for additional updates.

*IMPORTANT: Please see the Help Center for a list of exceptions.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release on June 7th, with Scheduled release coming on June 21st

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins and end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Chat with others in a file

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Adding nine third-party applications to the G Suite pre-integrated SSO apps catalog

Friday, May 12, 2017

Single-Sign-On (SSO) is one of those rare features that enhances security while also increasing convenience for end users. Google supports the two most popular Enterprise SSO standards, OpenID Connect and SAML. There are over 800 applications with pre-integrated SSO support in our third party apps catalog already, and we are constantly adding more. With today’s launch, we are adding SAML integration for these nine applications: Asana, Dialpad, Evernote Business, Expensify, Keeper, Lucidchart, Pagerduty, RingCentral, and Trello.

You can find our full list of pre-integrated applications, as well as instructions for installing them, in the Help Center.

Note that apart from the pre-integrated SAML applications, G Suite also supports installing “Custom SAML Applications” which means that admins can install any third-party application that supports SAML. The advantage of a pre-integrated app is the installation is much easier. You can learn more about installing Custom SAML Applications in this Help Center article.

Differences between G Suite Marketplace and the SAML Apps Catalog

You may notice that some of the applications we are launching today to the SAML catalog - namely Asana, Dialpad, Expensify, Lucidchart, RingCentral, and Trello - are already available in the G Suite Marketplace. When installed via the Marketplace, these applications provide rich integration with G Suite products. In addition to these deep integrations, the applications typically provide a separate ‘Google SSO’ option, which is authentication via OpenID Connect protocol, for users to access their accounts on the application’s website.

The SAML catalog version, on the other hand, only provides SAML-based authentication so that your users can access their accounts in the third party app’s website using Google as a SAML IdP (Identity Provider). Some enterprises prefer the SAML approach, and in fact, we see many admins installing these as Custom SAML Apps even today. This launch is all about giving our customers more choice to integrate their applications using a method that suits them.

If you do not have a corporate requirement to use SAML, Google recommends using the G Suite Marketplace application.

Launch Details

Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Using SAML to set up federated SSO

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Upcoming change: Encouraging more users to use work profiles on personal Android devices

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

As the use of mobile in the enterprise proliferates, and more and more enterprises are embracing mobile first strategies and policies, it is important that our G Suite customers who use Google Mobile Management as their enterprise mobility management tool (EMM) determine the policies that best protect their mobile users. This includes ensuring that corporate data stored on mobile devices is kept separate from end user data via the use of Android work profiles.

Making work profiles the default enrollment option for Android devices

To ensure a BYOD policy that is end-user friendly without sacrificing corporate security, we would like to encourage Google Mobile Management customers to employ a mobile policy that keeps personal and corporate data safe.

To that end, starting with Google Apps Device Policy v7.55 and above, the default enrollment process will utilize a work profile for those customers that have enabled Android at work and are whitelisting apps in managed Play, and for those devices that do support work profiles.

Enrolling a corporate account allows your end users to access the managed Play store for curated and whitelisted apps, and provides a clear separation between corporate data and personal data to ensure that IT does not accidentally remove personal data from the device.

Your users will still be able to opt-out of using a work profile and continue with the previous method of enrollment, if your corporate policy allows this.

For more details on whether this change will apply to your organization, or if you would like details on how to prevent work profiles from being used in your mobile deployments, please see the FAQs below and refer to the Help Center.

This change will start rolling out on June 5, 2017 along with the release of Google Apps Device Policy app v7.55+.

-- FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS --

Will this enrollment change be the default for all Google Mobile Management customers?

No. This change will only apply to your organization under the following conditions:

Your organization is using Google Mobile Management for Android (more details)
Android advanced management has been enabled for the entire organization, or organizational unit (more details)
Your organization has whitelisted Android apps in the managed Play store (more details)

This change will also only be shown to your users under the following conditions:

The Android device to which your user is adding their account supports work profiles
The Google Apps Device Policy app that is being used for enrollment is version 7.55+

How do we know if the Android device supports work profiles?

Android work profiles are supported on Lollipop (5.1), Marshmallow (6.0), and Nougat (7.0) devices, and any yummy future versions of Android. If you are looking to purchase new devices, please see the recommended list of Android Enterprise devices, or contact the OEM manufacturer of the device you are interested in.

Our organization currently does not use work profiles, what are the advantages of using a work profile?

We recommend work profiles for several reasons:

End users can use one Android device and keep corporate data and personal data separate
Administrators can curate and whitelist applications that are needed for corporate use
IT administrators cannot erase personal emails, photos, or other personal data; they can only wipe the content within the work profile itself

For more details on work profiles and Android within the enterprise, please refer to the Android at work home page.

We provide our employees with Company Owned Android devices. Does this change impact us?

No. If you are already using Company Owned devices within Google Mobile Management, then this change will not be relevant to those devices. This change only applies to personal Android devices.

We are upgrading our mobile deployment at the moment. Can we opt out of this change?

Yes you can disable this feature immediately (without waiting for the new version of the Google Apps Device Policy app to be available).

To do this, follow these steps:

Log in to Admin Console
Click on Device Management
Go to Android Settings > Work Profile and set the Work Profile Setup field to be “Disable”

Note that this will prevent any user from enrolling in a work profile, and we encourage you to view the benefits of using work profiles in your organization as a way to keep corporate and personal data separate.

Can my users access their corporate apps without a work profile?

Yes. However, if your user has a device that supports a work profile, but does not use a work profile, they will not be able to access the managed Play store from their Android device. Thus these users will not be able to see the recommended apps that have been whitelisted for their organization.

For more details on how users with legacy Android devices can access work apps, please see the following announcement: Users with legacy Android devices can now access work apps in Google Play

Launch Details

Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release on June 5

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
End users who are setting up eligible Android devices and whose organization policies allow it.

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: What is a work profile?

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Invite all the right people to your Communities all at once

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

(Cross-posted from the Google+ Product and Feature Updates Collection)

Communities are a great way for groups of people to share around a topic. But when you’re creating a Community for a group you’re a part of, like a book club, parent-teacher association, or work team, the last thing you want to have to do is invite each member one-by-one.

Since so many groups already have a way to get ahold of one another, whether that’s through email, chat, a newsletter or something else, we’ve created a new Community invite link so you can invite all the right people at once.

With the Community invite link, Community owners and moderators can share an invite link with their group however they choose. People with the link will be able to directly join both private and ask-to-join public Communities, and anyone who doesn’t have a Google account or Google+ profile will be able to create one along the way. Communities that are restricted to a given G Suite organization will continue to only be accessible to members of that organization.

If something changes, you can easily disable a shared link or generate a new one at any time. To share an invite link to your Community, just open the invite menu on Google+ web, turn on the “Allow invites by link” option, and grab the link that appears.

Launch Details

Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

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Web clipboard to be removed from Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings on September 13th, 2017

Thursday, May 4, 2017

The web clipboard in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings was originally developed to improve the copy and paste experience in browsers with fidelity issues. As these issues have become less prevalent across many browsers, we’re looking to simplify the user experience by removing the web clipboard, which is rarely used, on September 13th, 2017. We’re also planning enhancements to the traditional copy and paste functionality in Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings, so stay tuned for more info.

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Google Apps Script and App Maker metrics now in the Admin console

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Apps Script lets you do more with Google, like create add-ons for Docs, develop custom functions for Sheets, and manage responses in Forms. Traditionally, G Suite admins have had little or no visibility into the extent of the Apps Script usage in their organizations. With this launch, however, admins will be able to view Apps Script metrics, including number of users and number of active projects, in the Aggregate reports section of the Admin console. Admins currently participating in the App Maker Early Adopter Program will see App Maker metrics listed as well.

For more details, please visit the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Aggregate reports

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Making email safer with anti-phishing security checks in Gmail on Android

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

This week, we’re introducing a new security feature in Gmail on Android to help you keep your email safer.

When you click on a suspicious link in a message, Gmail will show a warning prompt helping you keep your account safe. Here’s what you’ll see:

While not all affected email will necessarily be dangerous, we encourage you to be extra careful about clicking on links in messages that you’re not sure about. And with this update, you’ll have another tool to make these kinds of decisions.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested.

More Information
Help Center: Avoid and report phishing emails

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Upcoming changes to Brazilian account recovery and 2SV phone numbers for G Suite users

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

As the number of global mobile phone users continues to grow, countries have begun modifying their existing telephone numbering plans in order to expand the set of available phone numbers. When this happens, all impacted phone users gain a modified or appended digit on their mobile or landline phone numbers. After a period of time, their old numbers are no longer able to receive messages or calls.

As announced by ANATEL, Brazil recently completed a modification to its telephone numbering plan and affected numbers now contain an extra digit.

To prevent G Suite users with affected Brazilian phone numbers from being locked out of their accounts, Google will be updating their account recovery and two-step verification (2SV) phone numbers to include the extra digit in the coming weeks. These numbers will be updated based on the scheme published by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). No action is required on the part of the user, and they will receive email and phone notifications describing the changes, including their updated numbers. Note that users can update their phone numbers anytime in their phone number or two-step verification settings.

Moving forward, to ensure continued access to accounts, Google plans to continue to make these modifications on behalf of G Suite users when they are impacted by changes to telephone numbering plans in their countries.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release in the coming weeks. Please monitor the G Suite release calendar for specific timing.

Editions:
Applicable to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users with impacted Brazilian phone numbers

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

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Group items vertically in the new Google Sites

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

We’ve heard that you need to caption photos, arrange content in columns, and do more vertically in the new Google Sites. With your feedback in mind, we’re adding the ability to create “vertical groups” in the new Sites on the web. Once created, you can move and edit these groups as a single entity, as well as drag items in and out of them easily. For more information on grouping items vertically in the new Sites, check out the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Edit and format text and photos

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An update on the classic Google Sites deprecation timeline

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

When we launched the new Google Sites last year, we promised to share more information in 2017 on how to migrate from the classic version of Sites. Today, we want to give you a better sense of what’s coming and when, so you can effectively plan for the eventual shutdown of the classic Sites product.

Migration tools*

In Q1 2018, we’ll launch an admin preview of features in the classic Sites that will help site owners migrate their content to the new Sites. Later in 2018, we’ll open up these features for site owners and provide a management dashboard to G Suite admins that will enable them to effectively manage the migration process. Stay tuned for more details on these features and tools as they become available.

Deprecation timeline

We plan to take your feedback on these migration tools into account when scheduling the deprecation and shutdown of the classic Sites. With that mind, we’ll only announce a firm timeline after the migration process is underway for many customers.

A few things to note:

Once announced, the deprecation schedule will include at least one year of unchanged operation followed by three months of read-only operation. Migration will be possible throughout, including during the read-only phase.
When the read-only phase ends, all unmigrated sites will be preserved as a takeout archive.
Before deprecating the classic Sites, we’ll ensure that the new Sites includes several features necessary for team sites, portals, knowledge bases, and intranets. These will include at least the following:

Search a site
Restrict access to published sites
More granular access to different sections of sites
Embed URLs and code in sites
Notifications of site updates
Create larger sites, including deeper hierarchy
Corporate themes
More text formatting options
Custom web addresses
API capabilities

Follow the G Suite Updates Blog for additional details when these new features and migration tools launch.

* Dates and details adjusted on Dec 20, 2017

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New iOS enterprise security features now available, including corporate contacts

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

A recent Gartner surveyfound that more than two thirds of employees are using personal devices at work, and we're seeing similar stats with our customers: enterprises are embracing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) devices. That's why we're giving more control to G Suite admins with enhancements to Google Mobile Management, adding several new iOS featuresfor enterprise security, including the popular feature request for managed corporate contacts.

Manage iOS Settings in Google Mobile Management

About Managed Corporate Contacts

Easy setup of contacts during MDM setup. The user’s corporate contacts are synced automatically when an iOS device is compliant, and no longer available when device goes out of compliance.
Searching and calling contacts from the global address list (GAL) is possible from the native iOS phone app. Additionally, native email, calendar, contacts iOS apps can look up your GAL contacts.
Caller ID is supported when receiving a call from a user's corporate contact.
If your organization requires your users to use 2-step verification or you use a 3rd-party SSO provider, your users will no longer need to use an App password when accessing their corporate contacts on the iOS device
If the admin blocks or wipes the account, the user's corporate contacts are no longer available and they no longer have access to the GAL.

In addition to these changes, we're also adding or updating the following device restriction policies:

Managed apps: Manage app author, settings and storage
Account configuration: Automatically configure Google account on iOS to sync contacts, calendar
Safari: Manage Safari browser settings
Photos: Manage photo sharing on iOS
Advanced security: Allow screenshots and screen recording, Siri, Apple Watch, and more

We hope this makes it easier for G Suite admins to manage iOS users in their domain. Look out for more exciting MDM updates in the future.

Launch Details

More Information
Help Center: Apply settings for iOS mobile devices

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What's New in G Suite - April 2017

Monday, May 1, 2017

Check out the latest "What's New in G Suite" launch recap [pdf] for a roundup of all G Suite launches from April 2017.

Archive & Translated Versions (coming soon for April issue)

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Move Google Drive files and folders into Team Drives

Monday, May 1, 2017

Following the launch of Team Drives in March, it’s likely you and your users have existing content that needs to be moved from traditional Google Drive locations (e.g. My Drive) into these new shared spaces. As a G Suite admin, there are three ways you can do this:

1. Allow users to migrate files
If you enable this setting in the Admin console (Apps > G Suite > Drive and Docs > Migration settings > User options > Allow users to migrate files to Team Drives), users in your domain will be able to move individual files into Team Drives, as long as they have Edit access to those files and the current file owners are members of the destination Team Drive.

2. Migrate folders as a super admin
If you’re a super admin and have view access or higher to an existing My Drive folder, you can move that folder to a Team Drive yourself. Check out the Help Center for detailed instructions.

3. Delegate admin migration rights to individual users
If you’re a super admin, you can delegate the admin rights described in option 2 to any user in your domain. He or she will then be able to move My Drive folders into Team Drives. For a step-by-step guide to granting these admin migration rights, see the Help Center.

No matter which option you choose, there are a few important things to remember when moving files and folders into Team Drives:

Any file moved to a Team Drive will then be owned by the Team Drive—not an individual.
Moved files will remain in the user’s Shared with me and Recent locations, but they’ll be removed from all other Drive locations (e.g. My Drive).
A file’s permissions and sharing link will not change when it’s moved into a Team Drive. People who aren’t Team Drive members will still be able to access that file with their previously granted permissions.

For additional details and key considerations, please visit the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to G Suite Business, Education, Nonprofit, and Enterprise editions only

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins and end users

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Migrate content to a Team Drive

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Updates

New built-in Gmail protections to combat malware in attachments

A new Gmail security feature that improves the early detection of phishing attempts for G Suite users

Unintended external reply warnings in Gmail to mitigate unintentional data loss

Upcoming change: Admins now have more control over Profile fields, and changes to the Contacts On/Off setting

Calendar email notification logs in Admin Console

Improving the publication experience in the new Google Sites

Let’s jam—Jamboard is now available

Quick Access in Google Drive now available on the web

Save time with Smart Reply in Gmail

Updating developer identity guidelines and registration processes to protect users

Upcoming changes to chat in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Adding nine third-party applications to the G Suite pre-integrated SSO apps catalog

Upcoming change: Encouraging more users to use work profiles on personal Android devices

Invite all the right people to your Communities all at once

Web clipboard to be removed from Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings on September 13th, 2017

Google Apps Script and App Maker metrics now in the Admin console

Making email safer with anti-phishing security checks in Gmail on Android

Upcoming changes to Brazilian account recovery and 2SV phone numbers for G Suite users

Group items vertically in the new Google Sites

An update on the classic Google Sites deprecation timeline

New iOS enterprise security features now available, including corporate contacts

What's New in G Suite - April 2017

Move Google Drive files and folders into Team Drives

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