This official feed from the Google Workspace team provides essential information about new features and improvements for Google Workspace customers.
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What’s changing

In the Google Workspace Marketplace, you’ll now see more information about apps available in the Marketplace. Specifically, you’ll see the following information:

  • Overview: Information about the app developer, including quick links to their site, privacy policy, and terms of service.
  • Permissions: App permissions to review to assess whether the app data access complies with your organization’s policies.
  • Reviews: Reviews and replies provided by other users who have installed the app.



Who’s impacted

Admins and end users


Why it’s important

Before installing Google Workspace Marketplace app to users in their domain, admins can review important information about the application, such as developer information, permissions the applications require, and more. This additional information will help you make a more informed decision when deploying apps to your users.


Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability

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

Resources

Read More

Update

[July 7, 2021]: This will now start rolling out on July 14, 2021, and will be a gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility). We previously stated that the rollout would start on July 7, 2021



What’s changing

We’re expanding the rollout of the refreshed Google Meet web experience to Meet hardware devices. Users joining Meet calls with a Chromebase for meetings all-in-one touchscreen device will notice improvements for video feeds, the viewing and presenting experience, and the bottom bar:

Customize how you appear in a meeting
  • Tapping over your video feed allows you to select between a tile in the grid or a floating picture. You can also reposition or hide it to help you concentrate on the call.
  • Your self-view will appear in the bottom right of the grid, allowing you to focus on the video feeds at eye-level.

Improved viewing and presenting experience
  • You can unpin the content others share, allowing you to see more and larger video feeds.
  • Participant names will always be visible regardless of meeting size.

Streamlined bottom bar
  • We’ve moved the meeting dial-in codes, attachments, the participants list, chat, and other activities to the bottom right to create more space to view people and content.
  • Volume and other controls are consolidated in one place for easy access.
  • The leave call button has been moved away from the microphone and camera buttons to help prevent accidental call hang-ups.
  • The bottom bar is always visible, but it will not cover captions and bottom video feeds.

Additional improvements include
  • Now, when someone is speaking, their tile will be outlined in blue, making it easier to identify who is speaking, especially in larger meetings.
  • Mute indicators are more subdued, helping 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.


Improved viewing experience and streamlined bottom bar on Chromebase for Meetings



Improved presenting experience on Chromebase for Meetings


Visual refresh for Google Meet hardware kits

To deliver a consistent experience for Google Meet, you’ll notice rounded corners on tiles, Google Sans font throughout, and the new color scheme on TV displays and touch controllers across all Google Meet hardware kits. Note that for hardware kits, self view is always shown in the upper right corner and currently can't be removed or resized.



Visual refresh for Google Meet hardware kit displays




Visual refresh for Google Meet hardware touch controllers


Who’s impacted

End users


Why you’d use it

These changes will bring a consistent experience for Google Meet no matter where or how you join a meeting. Additionally, we hope features such as the re-organized bottom bar, grid layouts, speaking indicators, and more make it easier to engage, share information, and collaborate with your meeting participants.


Additional details

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 started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: There is no end user action required, these improvements will be available by default on Meet hardware devices.

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers using Meet hardware devices.

Resources

Read More

Quick launch summary

We previously announced that Google Chat will automatically suggest 1:1 chats based on your meetings in Google Calendar. Now, you’ll also get suggestions for group chats when you’re meeting with multiple people. We hope that expanding this feature will further enable you to share information and files, and facilitate communication across Calendar meetings and in Chat.

As with the 1:1 chat suggestions, you’ll see the suggested conversation shortcut at the top of the “Chat” section in Google Chat and ‘Chat in Gmail’ on both mobile and web. The chat will be visible ten minutes prior to the 1:1 meeting and ten minutes after the meeting ends.




Getting started

  • Admins: This feature will be ON by default, 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 sending a chat message to a person or group.

Rollout pace


Availability

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

Resources

Read More

Quick launch summary 

We’re making two updates to the search box in Gmail: 
  • Updated advanced search icon: There’s an updated icon to access advanced search options, and the icon placement has changed (see images below). When you click this icon, you get a visual interface incorporating Gmail’s advanced search operators to help you find specific emails. 
  • Update to the prompt text for Gmail and Chat users: If you use Gmail and Google Chat, the hint text in the search box wll now say "search all conversations". If you only use Gmail, there will be no change and the text will still say “search mail". 
There is no update to any functionality with this update, it’s only a user interface update. 


We’re updating the advanced search icon in Gmail 



Advanced search helps you utilize Gmail’s advanced search operators 

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Read More

Quick launch summary 

In addition to the ten existing site templates built for common site uses, you can now distribute custom site templates across your organization. You can create and share templates that work best for how you display and share information within your organization. Additionally, your co-workers can easily access custom templates, allowing them to quickly adapt and use them as needed. This reduces time spent on formatting and structuring your sites, giving you more time to focus on turning ideas into impact. 



Additional details

Share a preview of your templates with co-workers Template previews are a quick and easy way to share templated sites with your team, without necessarily submitting a site to your domain’s template gallery. Simply add “/template/preview” after the site ID in the URL. This will allow any user with read or edit permissions to view the draft site or make a copy of the site. Note that users with published viewer permissions cannot preview a template.


Expanded language support for existing Site templates
In addition to the sixteen languages currently supported, you can now use existing site templates in the following additional languages:
  • Australian English
  • Filipino
  • Hindi
  • Indonesian
  • Korean
  • Polish
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Turkish
  • Vietnamese

Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability

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

Resources


Roadmap

Read More

Quick launch summary 

In March 2021, we announced several enhancements to Google Chat on the web (i.e. chat.google.com) and the Chat Progressive Web Application (PWA). At that time, these changes were only launched for domains with the Gmail service turned on. 


Beginning June 30, 2021, these changes will roll out to domains with the Gmail service turned off as well. The new interface gives users a consistent and predictable Chat experience across Chat in Gmail and Chat standalone surfaces. It also includes new integrations to help productivity — see the original announcement for more information. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: These changes will take place automatically at chat.google.com and in the Chat progressive web app. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 

Read More

What’s changing 

We’re introducing a new experience for Google Contacts which will help Google Workspace users learn more about their colleagues. Within Contacts (contacts.google.com) or the Contacts sidebar, you can view more detailed information about others, including: 
  • Their management chain, department, and title, 
  • A history of your Workspace relationship, including email conversations and meetings. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 

Why it’s important 

More than ever, our work requires a higher level of collaboration, connection and interaction. To collaborate effectively with those in our wider network, it’s helpful to learn more about them, what they work on, who they work with, and what’s important to them. The redesigned Google Contacts experience gives you the ability to easily learn more about your colleagues and stakeholders, making it easier to collaborate and turn ideas into impact. 

Additional details 

To maximize this feature’s value, it’s helpful to have user data fully populated across Google Workspace apps. Workspace admins can populate this data in a few locations: 

Getting started 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

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

Resources 

Read More

What’s changing 

Earlier this year, we announced an updated design for the Admin console home page, aimed to make it quicker to navigate around the Admin console, easier to find items you need to manage, and simpler to understand how Google Workspace is deployed within your organization. 

Today, we’re introducing several new improvements making it easier for admins to perform common actions when managing users and domains within their organization, including improvements to the workflows around: 

  • Adding users and user profile pictures
  • Updating, renaming, and deleting users
  • Domain management and changing primary domains 

See below for more information.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why it matters 

We hope these improvements provide actionable context and guidance, making it easier for admins to manage users and domains within their organization.

Additional details 

User management updates:

Adding a user
From the Admin console landing page, when selecting “Add a user”, you’ll see a new, streamlined fullscreen dialog, which displays the most essential fields first, including the user’s primary and secondary email addresses and domain information.

Assigning passwords
Additionally, you can choose whether to create or auto-generate a password for the user, and specify whether users should change their password when they first sign-in to their Google Workspace account. Note: the default is to auto-generate a password to comply with standard industry account security standards.


Assigning profile pictures
From the same form, you can assign the user an organizational unit and upload a profile picture for the user. 

We’ve made it easier and more discoverable for admins to allow their users to update their profile photo. You can now find this setting under the “More” drop down menu in the user management section of the admin console.



Deleting a user
Updates provide more information on what happens when you delete a user, alternatives to deleting a user, and data transfer options.

Upon deleting a user, you’ll see information such as when the user's data transfer will begin, the suspended state of the user, and how long admins have to restore the account if needed.


Updating a user
We’ve added more information about what happens to the old email address and impacts on availability in Google Chat for improved guidance. 



We’ve also updated the call to action for changing an existing user’s name or email address from “Rename user” to “Update user” to reduce confusion.




Domain management updates:
We’ve made several improvements to the Domains > Manage domains page:

First, we’ve added an “Action” column where admins can see and quickly take actions such as “Remove”, “Add users”, “Set up redirect”, and more.



The “Status” column will better reflect what state a particular domain is in, such as “Verified”, “Gmail activated”, or “Verify domain”. Additionally, you’ll be able to verify a domain or activate Gmail directly from the column and view additional information such as how Gmail was setup for that particular domain.



In the “Type” column, you’ll see more descriptive details regarding the domain type, such as primary or test domains. You can also find more information and associated Help Center articles for each domain type.

We’ve also updated the experience to better guide admins through the options of adding additional domains to their Workspace account. We’ve changed “domain alias” to “user alias domain” to better explain when to select this option. Similarly, we’ve also updated the terms “domain” to “secondary domain” to provide greater context and distinction when managing primary and secondary domains.


Along the way, you’ll notice more information and callouts along the way to help ensure you’re not inadvertently duplicating domains, or selecting a domain type that cannot be used as a primary domain. 

For example, when entering a domain name, you’ll see a pre-populated “www” prefix, which will better indicate to admins the purpose of the field.


You’ll see a warning if you accidentally add another “www” pre-fix to your domain name:


Changing primary domains
When changing your primary domain, you’ll see guidance on when a primary domain should change, important information associated with changing your domain. and alternate courses of action to consider.

Important note: We’ve moved the location of the “Change primary domain” option to the top of the table. This change makes the option more easily discoverable, whereas previously you had to hover over the domain name to see this option.


If you select a domain that can’t be converted to a primary domain, you’ll see more information as to why that is and steps you can take to remedy the issue.

When you’ve successfully changed your primary domain, you’ll see a success screen with additional information about how long the change will take to propagate and any additional next steps.

Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability

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

Resources




Read More

What’s changing 

We’re launching a new community for Google Workspace admins. The new Google Cloud Community will replace the old Cloud Connect Community (CCC). Alongside all the communities you used on the CCC, you’ll also be able to use it to participate in: 
  • Workspace Discussion Forums: Join peer-to-peer discussions with other Workspace experts 
  • Ideation and UX Research: Help drive product enhancements by contributing feature ideas and finding research participation opportunities
  • Community Events: Virtual and in-person meetups and events which will enable you to engage directly with Product Managers and experts 
  • Community Blogs: Read and react to thought leadership and technical content from Google Cloud teams and customers. 
See below for instructions on how to migrate your existing profile, and set up notifications for the communities you want to follow. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins 


Why it’s important 

Specifically compared to the old Cloud Connect Community, we hope you’ll notice 
  • Improved navigation and user experience which makes it easier to find and consume content 
  • Improved communities, including feature ideas, which makes it easier to contribute to the discussion 
  • More content, including community blogs & events 
  • Rich user profiles to learn more about fellow Google Workspace admins 


Getting started 

  • Admins: To sign up for a new Google Cloud Community account, go to googlecloudcommunity.com and click on Workspace for Admins Community link. You can use Single Sign-On (SSO) with your Google Workspace credentials. 
    • As part of the transition process, you can migrate your user profile, access to private areas (like Feature Ideas) and your feature ideas posted after July 15, 2020 from the original Community to the new site. To migrate your profile: 
      1. Go googlecloudcommunity.com and click Login to Ask A Question. Follow the instructions on the next page. 
      2. Add no-reply@googlecloudcommunity.com to your list of approved senders 
      3. If you have trouble claiming your migrated account, please contact gc-customer-community@google.com 
  • End Users: No end user impact 

Additional details 

Set up notifications in the new CCC Note that notifications are not on by default in the new CCC, even if you had them on in the old platform. To re-establish community notifications, after you migrate your profile: 
  1. Go to the area of the community you want to get notifications from. 
  2. Optionally, you can also filter for a specific label such as ‘Drive’ or ‘Google Meet’ (depending on which area of the community you’re in)
  3. Click Topic Options at the top right on the page, then click Subscribe. 
  4. You’ll then get email notifications when there’s new activity in the topic or label


Resources 

Read More

What’s changing 

We’re releasing a security update which will apply to some Drive files. This will make Google Drive files more secure by updating their links and may lead to some new file access requests. While we recommend that you apply the update, Google Workspace admins can choose how this update is applied in your organization. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important 

This security update is being applied to some files in Google Drive to make sharing links more secure. The update will add a resource key to sharing links. Once the update has been applied to a file, users who haven't viewed the file before will have to use a URL containing the resource key to gain access, and those who have viewed the file before or have direct access will not need the resource key to access the file. Learn more about resource keys and how they might impact your files. 


Getting started 

Admins: You can use the Alert Center to see how many users, folders, shared drives, and files are affected in your organization. Look for an alert with the subject “Security update for Drive.” Before July 23, 2021, Admins should choose how the security update is applied for their organization. Use our Help Center to learn more about this update and how to manage it for your organization. 


End users: Unless the admin chooses to opt their organization out of the security update, end users who own or manage impacted files will receive an email notification starting July 26, 2021 with their impacted files. End users will have until September 13 to determine how the update is applied to their files, if permitted by their admin. Use our Help Center to learn more about how this update will impact end users. 


Users with personal accounts: Users who are not part of a Google Workspace domain will receive a notification from Google Drive to inform them of their impacted files starting July 26, 2021 and will have the option to remove the security update. These users will have until September 13, 2021 to determine how the update is applied to their files. Use our Help Center to learn more about how this update will impact end users. 


Developers: Items that have a Drive API permission with type=domain or type=anyone, where withLink=true (v2) or allowFileDiscovery=false (v3), will be affected. In addition to the item ID, your application may now also need a resource key to access these items. Use our Developer resource to learn more about how this update will impact your projects. 

Admins will see how many users, folders, shared drives, and files are affected in their organization in the Alert center 

Admins can choose how the security update is applied for their organization at Admin Console Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Sharing settings > Security update for links. 

End users who own or manage impacted files will receive an email notification starting July 26, 2021 with their impacted files. Depending on the settings chosen by their admin, they may have the option to remove the security update from their impacted files. 


Rollout pace 

  • Before July 23, 2021: Admins can choose how the update is applied in their organization. 
    • For non-education customers, by default the update will be applied and impacted end users will be notified, with the option to exclude their files from the update. 
    • For education customers, by default the update will be applied and impacted end users will be notified, without the option to exclude their files from the update. 
  • Starting July 26, 2021: Depending on admin settings, impacted end users will get notified about impacted files and the choices they can make. 
  • Starting September 13, 2021: Enforcement of the admin and user options will be made to selected files if settings have not been changed in advance. 

Applicability 

  • Applicable to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. Also applicable to users with personal Google accounts. 

Resources 


Google is rolling out a security update to YouTube and Drive. More details on YouTube update here.
Read More

Quick launch summary 

In 2017, we announced that we would replace classic Sites with new Sites, and in 2019 we announced that domains will have until the end of 2021 to complete the transition. 

To help Admins and end users manage the transition to new Sites, we introduced the Classic Sites Manager in 2020. In May 2021, we added the ability to bulk delete, restore, and update ownership of sites. Today, we’re adding additional new features to the Classic Sites Manager for Admins: 
  • Bulk download an archive of a selection of sites via Takeout, 
  • Bulk disable and/or re-enable the ability for users to edit a selection of sites. 



We hope the ability to take these actions in bulk will help our customers migrate from classic Sites to new Sites more easily. 

Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

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

Resources 

Read More

Update

[September 8, 2021]: This post has been updated to reflect a change in rollout. This feature will now be available on web by the end of the year. We'll provide another update here once rollout is complete. 

Quick Summary 

You can now search Google Chat content faster by quickly editing down your search results using interactive filters on mobile. These filters help you find artifacts like files and links more easily. 

You can try searching for a keyword that you remember from a message or use a filter to look at all the files within a specific chat. Additionally, we have also refreshed our visual interface to provide a more balanced view of search results and results will now also include the content of the messages, making it even easier to find the exact content you’re looking for. 

Filter using different search chips in Chat

Filters will be visible below chat search bar

 Use the ‘Said in’ filter to narrow down to the conversations that matter






These features are available now on Android. They will be available on iOS and Web by the end of July 2021. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. When searching in Google Chat on mobile, you can further refine your search results using the search filter chips below the search box. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.
Read More

What’s changing 

There has been a change to how the Google Calendar API manages usage. Previously, Calendar API queries were monitored and limited daily. These queries are now monitored and limited on a per-minute basis. 

See below for more information. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins and developers 



Why it’s important 

This change introduces better behavior when a quota is exceeded, as requests will be rate-limited until the quota is available rather than falling all requests for the rest of the day. Additionally, this will help developers identify issues around quota enforcements faster. 

More information regarding your usage and quota limits can be found in the Google API console. 



Additional details 

To ensure you’re working efficiently with your quota, we recommend: 
  • Using push notifications instead of polling. 
  • Randomized timing to ensure user requests are spread out evenly, rather than bursts of requests. 
  • Using incremental synchronization with sync tokens for all collections instead of repeatedly retrieving all the entries. 
  • Increasing page size to retrieve more data at once by using the max results parameter. 
  • Updating events when they change to avoid recreating all the events on every sync. 
  • Using exponential backoff for error retries to make rate-limiting work properly. 



Getting started 

  • Admins and Developers: Use this guide to learn more about how to view your API usage and limits.
  • End users: There is no end user impact for this feature. 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Read More

What’s changing 

You can now enable audit logging for Google Cloud Search APIs for improved tracking of usage data. With deeper tracking, it's now possible to build richer analytics on top of Cloud Search usage to make data driven decisions and improve your user’s search experience. 

When enabled, your Cloud Search APIs usage data are logged in a secure way and are easily accessible to you. Some data points that are logged are: 
  • Method and API details. 
  • Relevant content of the request and response received. 
  • IP address and identity (e.g. mail ID) of the caller. 
  • Response status, etc. 

Who’s impacted 

Admins and developers 

Why you’d use it 

Audit logs help you understand how Cloud Search is being used within your organization by answering questions such as which API was called by whom, when, and with what parameters. Additionally, you can also use these logs for troubleshooting or auditing purposes. 

Getting started 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus and Google Cloud Search customers 
  • 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 


Read More

Quick launch summary

We’re improving the hand raise feature in Meet so that it is easier to notice and address raised hands. Specifically, you may notice:
  • An updated and improved visual icon and animation on the video tile
  • The tiles of people with raised hands may be moved to be more visible in the video grid
  • An audio notification for all participants when the first raised hand is raised
  • A clickable notification which shows the number of raised hands and which links to an ordered queue of all participants with raised hands
  • That a participant’s hand will be automatically lowered after they speak


The new and improved visual icon and animation when someone raises their hand

Getting started

  • Admins: This feature will be on by default. There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: This feature will be on by default. There is no end user setting for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about hand raising in Google Meet.

Rollout pace

  • Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 16, 2021.
  • Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 30, 2021.

Availability

  • Available in meetings organized by users with Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Business customers
  • Not available in meetings organized by users with Google Workspace Business Starter, as well as G Suite Basic customers. Not available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Read More

Quick launch summary

We’re adding a new network option to help you ensure higher quality video meetings with Google Meet. Now, in addition to the range of official, fixed IP addresses in Google Workspace domains and non-Google Workspace users, Google Meet supports TLS over port 443.

Some network setups do not work with SRTP over 443 which was preventing Meet calls from connecting. Meet now encapsulates SRTP in TLS which increases overall compatibility. This change will initially be available on the web, and will be available for mobile soon. We’ll announce it on the Google Workspace Updates blog when it’s available.

Getting started

  • Admins: If you or partner organization is already using Meet today no changes are required and this change will have no impact. If you or your partner organisation uses DPI technology on port 443, make sure to add the corresponding user SNIs to the allowlist:
    • Google Workspace admins: Meet traffic over TLS will use the same fixed IP range dedicated for Google Meet in Google Workspace domains.
    • Non-Google Workspace admins: Meet traffic over TLS will use the fixed IP range dedicated for non-Google Workspace users from July onward and will use temporary IP range from June to July 30th. See the Help Center article for additional information.
  • End users: No end-user impact.

Rollout pace


Availability

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

Resources

Read More

What’s changing 

We’re adding new settings in the Admin console that allow admins to set policies for who can join video calls in their organization, and whether users from their organization can join video calls from other organizations. 


Important note: There will be no changes to your current Google Meet experience with this launch of these new settings — your experience will only change if your admin changes the current setting. 
  • Admins now have three settings to control which types of meetings users from their organization can join: Meetings created by someone in your organization 
  • Meetings created by any other Google Workspace customer 
  • All meetings, including meetings created with personal Google accounts


Background: By default, K-12 Google Workspace for Education users can attend meetings organized by any other Google Workspace user. For example, a K-12 Google Workspace for Education user could join an extracurricular meeting hosted by another school’s organization. This also means that by default, K-12 Google Workspace for Education users cannot join meetings organized by a personal Google Account. (Higher education users’ default is to be able to join any meetings, including those created with personal Google accounts.) For all other (non Edu) Google Workspace users the default is set to allow users to attend any meeting, including those created with personal Google accounts.


In addition, Admins now also have three options to control who can join meetings created by users in their organization:
  • Only users from your organization or users dialing in using a phone
  • Users signed in with a Google account or dialing in using a phone
  • All users, including those not signed in with a Google account


For Google Workspace for Education users, the default is set to allow only users signed into a Google account or dialing in using a phone. This means that by default, signed-out users cannot join Education meetings. For Education customers who have already manually chosen to allow signed-out users to join their meetings, their default setting will be all users, including those not signed in with a personal Google account.



All other Google Workspace users: the default is set to allow all users,  including those not signed in with a personal Google account, to join a meeting.


Who’s impacted


Admins and end users

Why it’s important


Giving admins the ability to control what meetings their users can join with their Google Workspace accounts and who can join their users meetings will help ensure more secure meetings. It will also facilitate things like student-to-student connections across districts, professional development opportunities for educators, and external speakers visiting a class. 

Getting started


  • Admins: There will be no changes to meeting experiences in your organization unless you update these settings. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Google Meet settings for admins.
    • Note: The admin settings cannot be overridden by meeting organizers. 
  • End users: There is no end user action required. Visit the Help Center to learn more about joining a meeting.

Rollout pace


Availability


  • Available to all Google Workspace and Google Workspace for Education customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.
  • Users with personal Google Accounts may be impacted by these settings. Depending on the Admin settings, they may not be able to join meetings organized by Google Workspace users and vice versa. 

Resources


Read More

Quick launch summary 

To help limit distractions in your video call, Google Meet can remove background noises such as typing, closing a door, or the sounds of a nearby construction site. Noise cancellation helps make calls more productive by reducing distractions that can divert attention away from the content of the meeting. 

Last year, we made noise cancellation on the web available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus and Education Plus customers, and then made it available across web and mobile as well. Now, we’re making two additional updates to the feature’s availability: 
  • Adding availability for more users: Noise cancellation will now also be available to users in Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Standard editions. It will be turned on by default for these users. 
  • Starting August 9, 2021, it will be turned on by default for Enterprise Plus users: Noise cancellation will be turned on by default for Google Workspace Enterprise Plus users who haven’t previously turned the feature off. Note that this change may change the setting for some current users. There will be no change in defaults or settings for Education customers. 


Getting started 

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 

End users: 
  • New users: This feature will be ON by default for Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Standard users. When it’s available to their account, users will see a prompt notifying them about the feature and what it does. 
  • Existing users with Google Workspace Enterprise Plus: Starting on August 9, 2021, this feature will be turned ON by default for all users who haven’t previously turned the feature off. If you don’t want it to turn on by default, turn the feature on and off for your account before August 9, then the setting will not be changed. 
  • Existing users with Google Workspace for Education Plus: There will be no change in defaults or settings for Education customers. 
  • Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning background noise cancellation on or off for your account. 

Settings available to turn noise cancellation on or off for your account 

Rollout pace 

Added availability for more users: 

Updated default settings for Google Workspace Enterprise Plus users: 

Availability 

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

Resources 

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Useful Links

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