Google Workspace Updates: April 2021

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - April 30, 2021

Friday, April 30, 2021

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.Edit details in line with Google Tasks on the web
You can now add additional information to your personal tasks without opening the “Details” dialog box. | Learn more. Admins will now be alerted when there is an issue with their Google Voice auto attendants or ring groups
Admins will now receive an alert in the Admin console’s Alert Center when an issue is detected with their auto attendant or ring group configuration along with instructions on how to quickly resolve the issue. | Learn more.
Google Vault now supports Google Sites
Google Vault now supports new Google Sites. You can use Google Vault to set retention policies for Google Sites, perform searches of Google Sites data, and export Google Sites content. | Learn more. Apply context-aware access policies to mobile and desktop applications
Admins can now assign existing or new context-aware access levels to Google desktop and mobile applications. | Learn more. Email threads with recipients outside your organization will be labeled “External”
We’re adding a new “External” label to email threads that include recipients outside your organization. This adds to the existing external recipient warning banner and can be turned on and off by admins. | Learn more. For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

Email threads with recipients outside your organization will be labeled “External”

Thursday, April 29, 2021

What’s changing We’re adding a new “External” label to email threads that include recipients outside your organization. This adds to the existing external recipient warning banner, which is displayed when responding to emails sent from outside of your organization.

The “External” label will be visible on Gmail on the web and Android devices. We will provide an update when this feature becomes available on iOS.

Important Note: Admins can turn these warning labels on or off for their organization.

The external label and warning banner appears when interacting with individuals outside the domain.

Who’s impacted Admins and end users

Why it’s important The “External” label and the reply warning banner and label are helpful reminders for users to treat external messages with caution. This can help avoid unintentionally sharing confidential information with recipients outside of their organization.

Additional details Secondary and alias domains are exempted from being labeled as “External”.

Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning external recipient warnings on or off in Gmail. Note: This setting controls both the “External” label and warning banner.
End users: No action required. When enabled by your admin, you'll see "External" label and warning banner when interacting with or replying to email threads with recipients outside your organization or contacts.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 29, 2021

Availability

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

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Turn external recipients warnings on or off in Gmail

Apply context-aware access policies to mobile and desktop applications

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

What’s changing Admins can now assign existing or new context-aware access levels to Google desktop and mobile applications.

Applying context-aware access levels to mobile and desktop applications

Who’s impacted Admins and end users

Why it’s important With context-aware access, you can set up different access levels based on a user’s identity and the context of the request (location, device security status, IP address). Expanding these policies to other Google Workspace entry points—such as the Google Drive for desktop app or using Gmail on a mobile browser—gives admins greater control over how, when, and where users can access Workspace resources.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the domain, OU, and group level when assigning an access level. Visit the Help Center to learn more about context-aware access, creating context-aware access levels, and assigning access levels to apps.
End users: No action required.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 27, 2021.

Availability

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

Resources

Google Vault now supports Google Sites

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

What’s changingGoogle Vault now supports new Google Sites. You can use Google Vault to set retention policies for Google Sites, perform searches of Google Sites data, and export Google Sites content. If you already use Vault to hold Google Drive files, sites files will now be covered by those holds. You can set Sites-specific retention rules if you want to manage sites retention.
Who’s impactedAdminsWhy it mattersThis provides you with expanded control over your organization’s data, and can help you meet regulatory or legal obligations for your Google Sites data.
If you have Drive retention rules set to purge data after a retention period, sites will be purged according to those rules.
Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about supported Sites data, how to Retain Google Sites data with Vault, use Drive search to find sites, and work with sites in Drive export files.

End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout paceRapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 27.
Availability

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

ResourcesGoogle Workspace Admin Help: Supported services and data typesGoogle Help: Google Vault Help

Admins will now be alerted when there is an issue with their Google Voice auto attendants or ring groups

Monday, April 26, 2021

Quick launch summary Admins will now receive an alert in the Admin console’s Alert Center when an issue is detected with their auto attendant or ring group configuration along with instructions on how to quickly resolve the issue. These issues include:

No valid members in a ring group,
No valid auto attendants or ring groups to forward the call to,
No voicemail recipients.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be ON by default, with email notifications default ON for super admins. You can configure the email notification distribution list in the Rules section of the Admin console. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Google Voice configuration problem alerts and using the Alert Center.
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 April 26, 2021

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace and G Suite customers with Google Voice standard and premier licenses

Resources

Edit details in line with Google Tasks on the web

Monday, April 26, 2021

Quick launch summary You can now add additional information to your personal tasks without opening the “Details” dialog box. We hope this change makes it faster and easier for you to add descriptions, assign dates and times, and organize your tasks.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about editing tasks on the web.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on April 26, 2021

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Add or edit a task

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - April 21, 2021

Friday, April 23, 2021

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.

More ways to work with and analyze BigQuery data using Connected Sheets 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. | Learn more.

Use Google Maps in the quick access side panel You can now use Google Maps in the quick access side panel. With Maps in the side panel, you’ll be able to see more information without switching contexts or using multiple tabs. | Learn more.

Reminder: Website creation in classic Google Sites will no longer be available starting May 15, 2021 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. | Learn more. | See more details on the classic Sites to new Sites migration timeline.

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

Use Virtual Private Cloud Service Controls to create security perimeters around Google Cloud Search data 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. | Learn more.

Control your data usage and improve device performance with new data saver setting for Google Meet on mobile You can now limit Google Meet data usage on Android and iOS mobile devices. When enabled, this will help to limit data use, conserve data on your mobile plan, conserve battery power, and lower the demand on your phone’s CPU. | Learn more.

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

Control your data usage and improve device performance with new data saver setting for Google Meet on mobile

Thursday, April 22, 2021

What’s changingYou can now limit Google Meet data usage on Android and iOS mobile devices. When enabled, this will help to:

Limit data use, conserving data on your mobile plan
Conserve battery power
Lower the demand on your phone’s CPU

Who’s impactedEnd users
Why you’d use itGoogle Meet automatically adjusts to your device, network and set-up to provide the best possible meeting experience. However, you may want to adjust the quality of your meeting to reduce impact on your mobile device. The data saver setting can help:

Minimize cellular data usage
Maximize battery life
Free up your device's CPU and memory for other tasks

When needed, you can use Google Meet in higher quality by simply toggling the data saver setting off.
Getting startedAdmins: There is no admin control for this feature.End users: This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled by the user. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Meet saver mode on or off for your account.

Turning on Limit data usage in Google Meet Settings on Android
Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 22, 2021

Availability

Available to Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Frontline, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Nonprofits, Cloud Identity Free, Cloud Identity Premium. Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

ResourcesGoogle Meet Help: Meet saver mode

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

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

Update

[May 13, 2021]: We have updated this post to reflect a change in rollout. For Rapid release domains. rollout will begin on May 24, 2021. For Scheduled release domains, rollout will begin on June 1, 2021. See the below for more information.

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 pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 24, 2021
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 1, 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

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

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

New Rules homepage in the Admin console makes security simpler

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

What’s changingWe're making some updates to how you create, view, and manage rules in the Admin console. Specifically we're:

Making the Rules homepage available to all Google Workspace customers.

Consolidating the rules and security rules pages to make rule discovery and management easier.

Introducing a rule templates page, available to Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus customers, which helps quickly set up rules for common use cases.

Adding one-click rule analysis via the Investigation Tool, available to Enterprise Plus customers.

The new Rules homepage in the Admin console
See below for more information.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why you’d use it

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.

Additional details

On the new Rules homepage, admins can find information about:

The benefits of enabling rules with use-case based guidance for managing alerts and email notifications for Google-provided rules.
The benefits of creating custom rules for other use cases including defining alerts for specific audit log events, protecting sensitive content, automating actions on specific activities, and securing devices.

For Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus admins:

We’re introducing a new Rules Templates page. You can customize these pre-made templates to quickly set up rules for common use cases based on best practices. This includes scenarios such as preventing the sharing of sensitive personal, financial, or health information.

For Enterprise Plus customers, we’ve enabled one-click rule analysis of activity and data protection rules with investigation tool integration directly from the list view.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 13, 2021

Availability

New Rules homepage

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

Data protection

Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, and Education Plus customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Frontline, and Nonprofits customers

Device management rules

Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits customers

Activity Rules

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

Investigation tool integration

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

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Manage rules to set up alerts and actions
Google Workspace Admin Help: View and manage alerts in the alert center
Google Workspace Admin Help: About the security investigation tool
Google Workspace Updates Blog: Create rules to automate actions and alerts through the security center
Google Workspace Updates Blog: New DLP Rules help protect sensitive data
Google Workspace Updates Blog: Custom alerts moving to consolidated Security rules list
Google Workspace Updates Blog: Improved mobile device management rules experience in the Admin console
Google Workspace Updates Blog: Adding more data sources and OU controls to the security investigation tool

New Google Meet Hardware Admin console features: peripheral status, default volume, and static URLs

Monday, April 12, 2021

Quick launch summary We’re adding three new features to the Google Meet Hardware section of the Admin console:
Peripheral status: In addition to the “Device status” column on the Device list page, we’ve added columns for connection status and peripheral status. These new columns will help you filter your device list in order to easily discover and troubleshoot issues, and identify devices with missing peripherals.
Additionally, there is a new column management widget which you can use to quickly create customized views and sort through your devices faster.

Default Volume: There are two new options for setting the default volume behavior on Meet Hardware devices:

Preset volume mode: You can set a numerical value between 0 and 100 that devices will automatically use at the beginning of every call.
Smart volume mode: This mode will automatically determine the best volume for the room by averaging the volume set by users in the five most recent calls.

The default volume behavior for a single device can be set on its Device detail page. For a group of devices, use the bulk action option from the Device list page.
Note that end users can still modify the volume on a device according to their preference regardless of the default volume selection.

Static Device list URLs: Device list filters will now be uniquely encoded into the page’s URL. This makes it easy for admins who are responsible for specific organizational units or devices to bookmark a customized view or share it among team members.
Getting started

Admins: You’ll see these updates in the Admin console under Devices > Google Meet Hardware.
End users: No action required

Rollout pace Peripheral status and Default volume

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 8, 2021

Static Device list URLs

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 12, 2021

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers in organizations with Google Meet Hardware

Restrict third-party API access to Google Workspace and end user data with new app access control

Thursday, April 8, 2021

What’s changing You can now block all third-party API access to Google Workspace data with a new setting. This complements other available OAuth settings which help you control which third-party & internal apps access Google Workspace data. When selected, all third-party apps are denied access to Workspace and end user data, blocking all OAuth 2.0 scopes. This also means that users cannot use their Google Workspace accounts to sign into third-party apps and websites.

Who’s impacted Admins and end usersWhy it’s important This new setting adds another layer of protection over your Workspace and end user data. Not every third party application has robust security measures in place or conforms to your security policy — by restricting third-party APIs from requesting sensitive information, such as login or email scopes, you can ensure your data and user data stays secure.When all third party API access is blocked, an app will not be able to access any Workspace user date, across web and mobile. If users try to authorize an untrusted app, they’ll see an authorization error message. Admins can customize this error message if they choose.Getting started

Admins: This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled in the Admin console by going to Security > API controls and selecting “Block all third-party API Access”. Visit the Help Center to learn more about blocking all third-party API access or controlling which third-party & internal apps access Google Workspace data.

End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. You’ll receive an authorization error if you try to use your Google Workspace account to access an unauthorized application.

Rollout pace

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

Availability

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

Resources

Changes to Google Workspace storage policies timeline

Monday, April 5, 2021

What’s changingWe’re extending the previously announced timeframe for upcoming changes to the Google Workspace storage policy. The updated timeline is:

June 1, 2021: High-quality photos will count towards Drive quota beginning June 1, 2021. There is no change to this timeline.
February 1, 2022: Any newly created Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files will count toward storage. Existing files within these products will not count toward storage, unless they’re modified on or after February 1, 2022. Read more in our Help Center.

Note that there are no changes to the previously announced dates for personal Google accounts.
Who’s impactedAdmins and end users. Storage limits differ across Google Workspace and G Suite editions, but we estimate that the majority of users will not be affected by these changes. See “Getting Started” below for more information on determining storage usage across your organization.
Why it’s importantPeople are uploading more content than ever before—in fact, more than 4.3 million GB are added across Gmail, Drive, and Photos every day. These changes to our storage policy are necessary to provide our users with a great experience and to keep pace with the growing demand.

We recently announced changes to the pooled storage policy for Workspace for Education customers. As a part of these updates, to empower Google Workspace admins to adapt to this model and optimize their storage, we will provide new admin tools to identify and manage how storage is used and allocated before the policy goes into effect. We’ve decided to delay the count of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files count toward storage quotas until that tooling is in place.
Getting started

Rollout paceHigh-quality photos

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: These policies will go into effect on June 1, 2021

Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: These policies will go into effect on February 1 , 2022

Availability

These changes will apply to all customers with Google Workspace and G Suite licenses.

Resources

Automatically save your response progress in Google Forms: Beta available for Google Workspace for Education customers

Thursday, April 1, 2021

What’s changing Next week, we’re launching draft responses for Google Forms in beta. When responding to a Google Form, Quiz or Quiz assignment in Classroom while signed into your Google Workspace account, your progress will automatically be saved as a draft for 30 days from your last edit or until the form is completed.
This beta is only available to Google Workspace for Education customers. Admins can use this form to express interest in participating in the beta.

Who’s impacted Admins and end users
Why it’s important With this new feature, you won't have to start over if you can't complete a form or quiz in one sitting, if you want to switch between multiple devices, or if your internet connection cuts out before your answers have been submitted.
Additional details Note that during the beta, Forms will only automatically save your progress as a draft for users in your domain when they’re signed in to their Google Workspace for Education account.

Data location requirements In order to participate in the beta, your domain cannot have data location requirements. To determine if you have data regions, use this Help Center article regarding geographic location for your data.

Feature availability While this beta is only available for Google Workspace for Education customers, this feature will be made available to all Google Workspace customers later this year. We’ll provide an update on the Workspace Updates blog when this feature becomes generally available.
Getting started

Availability

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

Resources

Updates

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - April 30, 2021

Email threads with recipients outside your organization will be labeled “External”

Apply context-aware access policies to mobile and desktop applications

Google Vault now supports Google Sites

Admins will now be alerted when there is an issue with their Google Voice auto attendants or ring groups

Edit details in line with Google Tasks on the web

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - April 21, 2021

Control your data usage and improve device performance with new data saver setting for Google Meet on mobile

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

New Rules homepage in the Admin console makes security simpler

New Google Meet Hardware Admin console features: peripheral status, default volume, and static URLs

Restrict third-party API access to Google Workspace and end user data with new app access control

Changes to Google Workspace storage policies timeline

Automatically save your response progress in Google Forms: Beta available for Google Workspace for Education customers

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