Google Workspace Updates

Assistant and Calendar reminders are automatically migrating to Tasks

čtvrtek 8. června 2023

What’s changingIn September 2022, we announced that we would be migrating Reminders from Google Calendar and Google Assistant to Google Tasks in order to create a single experience for managing to-dos across Google. Over the last several weeks, Google Workspace users had the opportunity to voluntarily migrate their reminders to Tasks.

For Google Workspace users: If you have not already migrated your Reminders to Tasks, they will be migrated starting today.

To help ensure a smooth transition, we’d like to remind admins and end users to:

Admins:

Verify that the Tasks service is ON for your organization. If the Tasks service is OFF, any Reminders data will not be migrated to Tasks, and Reminders data deletion will be initiated after June 22, 2023.
Enable your organization to use Google Takeout, in case your users want to export their Assistant and Calendar Reminders.
If your end users want to use Assistant to manage tasks after the migration, you need to adjust settings for Search and Assistant users and turn on access to Workspace data.

If you use a Google account for work or school:

If you want a copy of your reminders data and Takeout is enabled for your organization, export your Reminders data before June 22, 2023.

If you use a personal Google Account:

If you haven’t already migrated, Assistant and Calendar reminders will begin to automatically migrate in June 2023. We’ll share more information on this timeline in a future update on the Workspace Updates blog.

Availability

This update impacts all Google Workspace Customers

Resources

Enhanced experience for picture-in-picture for Google Meet in Chrome

středa 7. června 2023

What’s changingWe’re updating the Google Meet picture-in-picture experience to be more engaging and feature-rich. Directly from the picture-in-picture window, you can now:

Raise your hand
Use in meeting chat
Turn captions on and off
More effectively resize the picture-in-picture view
Access flexible layouts

Previously, you could only turn your camera or microphone on/off or leave the meeting from the picture-in-picture window. Our new picture-in-picture experience provides greater flexibility when screen sharing or navigating to a relevant screen for a more dynamic experience.

Enhanced experience for picture-in-picture for Google Meet in Chrome

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about using picture-in-picture with Google Meet.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 7, 2023

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Help: Use picture-in-picture with Google Meet

Updated user interface for the Email Log Search tool

středa 7. června 2023

What’s changingWe’ve updated the Email Log Search interface, helping admins find relevant information faster whether their query is simple or dynamic.
Admins can use the "Predefined search" tab for basic searches, such as:

All messages from today, yesterday, or the last 7 days
Messages sent or received within your primary domain since yesterday

You can access the “Custom search” tab if you need to expand search parameters. This will allow you to enter information such as a message ID or sender IP into predefined fields for faster searching.

By enabling admins to find and troubleshoot missing email messages, see the status of messages after they’re delivered and more, this update helps admins stay on top of the flow of emails in their domain, regardless of the size of their organization. Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about finding messages with the Email Search Log. Note: when returning to the Email Log Search tool, you will get to the "Predefined search" or "Custom search" tab based on your previous visit to the tool.
End users: There is no end user action required.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 7, 2023

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching & Learning Upgrade, Nonprofits, Frontline Starter, and Frontline Standard customers

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Find messages with Email Log Search

Improved experience for admitting or denying join requests in Google Meet

středa 7. června 2023

What’s changing We’ve heard requests from our customers to update the experience for admitting participants in Google Meet. Currently, the admitting dialog can disrupt access to other meeting features. Additionally, because the dialog box takes up so much screen space, users can feel pressure to quickly accept or deny join requests in order to dismiss the notification window.

Old experience (Knocking Simplification)

For a better experience, we’re moving join requests to the people panel. Here, users can take their time reviewing join requests without disrupting the overall meeting experience, and without blocking functionality of other meeting features.

new experience (Knocking Simplification)

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on Jun 7, 2023
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on Jun 15, 2023

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Help: Add or remove people from a Google Meet meeting

Visit a class using new option in Google Classroom

úterý 6. června 2023

What’s changingPreviously, education leaders and other support staff had to be added as permanent co-teachers in Google Classroom if they wanted to provide support to teachers, manage substitutes or check on student progress.
Starting today, we’re introducing the ability to visit a class, which allows permissioned users to temporarily access classes to support educators, post announcements, view student profiles, and more, without being assigned as a permanent co-teacher.

Visit a class using new option in Google Classroom

Why it matters Education leaders and support staff members can now temporarily access classes and avoid unnecessary notifications and homepage clutter.

Additional details Principals, department heads, school counselors, curriculum leaders, administrative assistants, coaches, mentors, and IT admins are the types of education leaders and support staff members that will benefit most from this feature. However, Super Admins can use their discretion in choosing who gets access to this feature and to which classes.
Getting started

Admins:

This feature will be OFF by default to ensure Super Admins can designate which individuals or groups within the organization have access to this feature. To appoint users with temporary class access in the Admin Console:

Create a new custom admin role in Admin Console with the “Manage Classes” privilege

In Admin Console, go to Menu > Account > Admin roles > Create new role
Add a name (something like “Education Leaders”) and description to the new role
From the Privilege Name list, select the following privilege: Classroom > Manage classes. If preferred, other privileges can be selected
Assign the new custom admin role to select users or security groups
To limit access to specific classes, scope the user’s role to a organizational unit(s)

Visit the Help Center to learn more about designating users with temporary class access.

End users:

When the Manage Classes privilege is enabled by your admin, you can search for classes from the Classroom homepage.
Upon selecting a class to visit, you will be prompted to notify the teacher with the reason for the visit.

Rollout pace Admin Console:

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 6, 2023

Google Classroom:

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 12, 2023

Availability

To access the feature, users must have a Google Workspace for Education Plus license assigned to them. Learn more about assigning licenses in the Help Center.

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Designate users with temporary class access
Google Help: Add a co-teacher to a class

Write messages faster and easier with smart compose in Google Chat

pondělí 5. června 2023

What’s changingWe’ve made it easier for you to write high-quality emails and content faster with smart compose in Gmail and Google Docs. This machine-learning powered feature suggests relevant contextual phrases as you type, saves you time by cutting back on repetitive writing, and also reduces spelling and grammatical errors.
Today, we’re excited to announce smart compose is now available in Google Chat on web. Coupled with smart reply, an existing assistive tool that suggests short replies to messages, this feature will help you communicate with colleagues quicker to move conversations or projects forward more efficiently.

Who’s impacted End users

Why it matters Many rely on Chat for their immediate communication needs while juggling competing priorities. This feature helps you compose messages faster and easier, saving time and effort.

Additional details Smart compose is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian.
Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. Smart compose in Chat respects the user’s smart features and personalization setting. A default value of this setting can be controlled by admins. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning on or off Gmail, Chat, and Meet smart features and personalization.
End users:

This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled by unchecking “Enable predictive suggestions as you compose a message on web and desktop” under smart compose within Chat settings.
When you see a suggestion that you like, press the “tab” key on your keyboard to accept it.
Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Smart Compose in Google Chat.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Simplify and strengthen sign-in by enabling passkeys for your users, available now in open beta

pondělí 5. června 2023

What’s changingGoogle Workspace is enabling the use of passkeys as a simpler and safer alternative to passwords to sign-in to Google Accounts. Additionally, Workspace admins can now allow users to use passkeys to skip passwords at sign-in for Workspace apps — this feature gives users the option to skip entering their password and sign-in with passkeys using a fingerprint, face recognition, or other screen-lock mechanism across phones, laptops, or desktop.
This feature is available as an open beta, which means admins can use it without enrolling in a specific beta program.

passkeys for your users, available now in open beta

Passkeys have been designed with user privacy in mind. When a user signs in with a passkey to their Workspace apps, such as a Gmail or Google Drive, the passkey can confirm that a user has access to their device and can unlock it with a fingerprint, face recognition, or other screen-lock mechanism. The user’s biometric data is never sent to Google’s servers or other websites and apps.

Who’s impacted Admins and end users

Why you’d use it Passkeys are a new, passwordless sign-in method that can offer a more convenient and secure authentication experience across websites and apps. Passkeys are based on an industry standard and available across popular browsers and operating systems that people use every day, including Android, ChromeOS, iOS, macOS, and Windows. Google early data (March - April 2023) shows that passkeys are 2x faster and 4x less error prone than passwords.
Passkeys are based on the same public key cryptographic protocols that underpin physical security keys, such as Titan Security Key, and therefore can be resistant to phishing and other online attacks. In fact, Google research has shown that security keys provide a stronger protection against automated bots, bulk phishing attacks, and targeted attacks than SMS, app-based one-time passwords, and other forms of traditional two-factor authentication (2FA). For a closer look at how passkeys work under the hood, check out our technical blog post.
Getting started

Admins: Admins can allow users in their organizations to skip passwords at sign-in using a passkey. By default, this setting is off, which means that users can’t skip passwords during sign-in, but can still create and use passkeys as a 2-Step Verification (2SV) method. To allow users to skip passwords, administrators can follow these simple steps in the Admin console.

admin: passkeys for your users, available now in open beta

Admins can turn on / off the ability to use passkeys to skip passwords in the Admin console under Security > Passwordless.

End users: If enabled by your admin, visit g.co/passkeys to start using passkeys instead of passwords, or as a 2SV method. Visit the Help Center to learn more about signing in with a passkey instead of a password.

If enabled by your admin, you can opt to skip password entry in your account settings.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 5, 2023

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers and Cloud Identity customers

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - June 2, 2023

pátek 2. června 2023

1 New updateUnless 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 customers.

Additional updates for the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides apps on Android devices

In continuing our efforts to improve the Google Workspace experience on large screen Android devices, we’re adding the following updates:

The ability to access a vertical context menu when you use mouse right-clicking in the Google Docs and Slides apps.

The option to use a hardware keyboard to insert ranges in a formula via the arrow keys in the Google Sheets app. We’re also adding more formula-related keyboard shortcuts.

Sheets Android - Formula Keyboard Improvements

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 call performance data in the Google Voice audit logs

You’ll now see specific per-call performance information, including: Round Trip Time, Packet Loss per 1000 and Jitter. | Available only to Google Workspace customers who can use the security investigation tool. | Learn more about call performance data in the Google Voice audit logs.

Expanded actions in the Admin console space management tool

We’re giving admins the ability to delete individual spaces and remove individual members from a space. | Learn more about expanded actions in the Admin console space management tool.

Existing spaces organized by conversation topic will be upgraded to the new in-line threaded experience by Q4 2023

All existing spaces organized by conversation topic will be upgraded to the in-line threaded experience. We anticipate that this upgrade will take place in early Q4 2023. | Learn more about the new in-line threaded experience.

See the top search results first in Gmail on mobile

When searching in Gmail, machine learning models will use the search term, most recent emails and other relevant factors to show you the results that best match your search query. | Learn more about the improved search experience in Gmail on mobile.

Plan, organize, and analyze assignments and grades with grading periods in Google Classroom

We’re introducing grading periods, an option that allows teachers to define and apply grading periods segmented from the entire school year to their Classroom assignments. | Available to Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade customers only. | Learn more about grading periods in Google Classroom.

Declutter your conversations in Google Chat

Chat declutter automatically hides direct messages and spaces that have been inactive for the last 7 days. This feature only activates when a section has more than 10 conversations, and does not affect pinned conversations. | Learn more about accessing your most relevant Chat conversations.

Better control the flow of meetings with viewer mode in Google MeetTo help provide a better experience and scale attendance for larger meetings, you can now select “Everyone is a viewer” when creating your Calendar invite. | Learn more about new controls for meetings in Google Meet.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog post for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains:

Simplify workflows in Google Docs with variable chips

Adding new capabilities to timeline view in Google Sheets

Spellcheck for client-side encrypted files in Google Slides

Scheduled Release Domains:

Find files quicker with search chips in Google Drive

Introducing additional smart chip functionality in Google Sheets

Collaborate with others on Google Calendar invites in Google Docs

Use alternative text for visual content on Google Sites

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

Enhancing spam protection in Google Drive

Easily expand and collapse content in Google Docs

Create custom building blocks in Google Docs

Export client-side encrypted spreadsheets to Excel files

Improve time management and display time with new chips in Google Docs

Improving consistency of Gmail data across the Security Investigation Tool and BigQuery

Pin multiple participants from Google Meet Hardware devices

Improving the Google Meet experience on foldable devices

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

Better control the flow of meetings with viewer mode in Google Meet

pátek 2. června 2023

What’s changing To help provide a better experience and scale attendance for larger meetings, you can now select “Everyone is a viewer” when creating your Calendar invite. Viewers are defined as meeting attendees who cannot share their audio or video into the meeting. You can designate attendees who are leading, presenting, or moderating a meeting as co-hosts and contributors.

Who’s impacted End users

Why you’d use it If you’re using Google Meet for large meetings, like webinars or town halls, designating attendees as “viewers” helps reduce potential meeting distractions, such as audio disruptions. Further, it keeps the attendees focused on the speaker and content of your meeting.

Configure viewers in Google Meet by going to Video call options (gear icon) > Guests.

When it’s time for the larger group to engage, hosts can transition viewers to contributors. We hope this update creates a more seamless experience for hosting and attending large scale Google Meet calls.

You can switch a user between viewer and contributor via the people panel

Viewers will be able to use Meet features such as Q&As and polls. Viewers will not be able to use in-meeting chat or emoji reactions — viewer support for these features is coming in the future. We’ll provide an update here on the Workspace Updates blog at that time.

Additional details

Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers can scale their meetings to 1,000 attendees, with 500 attendees being viewersUsing these new viewer and contributor roles, Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers can expand the maximum number of meeting attendees to 1,000 — an increase from 500. If a host does not pre-configure the meeting, all users will be designated as viewers after 500 contributors have joined the call.

The maximum number of meeting attendees will not change for the remaining Google Workspace editions that are receiving the viewer functionality.
Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature, nor is admin action required.
End users:

When creating or editing a meeting in Calendar, you can configure viewers by going to Video call options (gear icon) > Guests.
During the meeting, you can transition viewers to contributors via the people panel using the three-dot overflow menu and selecting “make a contributor”.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 2, 2023

Availability Assign viewers

Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching & Learning upgrade, and Education Plus customers

1,000 meeting attendees

Available for Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers

Declutter your conversations in Google Chat

pátek 2. června 2023

What’s changingFollowing the recent launch of message quoting, we’re introducing an additional feature that improves the Google Chat experience by helping you find and access your most relevant Chat conversations easier.
Chat declutter automatically hides direct messages and spaces that have been inactive for the last 7 days. This feature only activates when a section has more than 10 conversations, and does not affect pinned conversations.
By toggling the “More” button, you will still have the option to view and access a comprehensive list of your Chat conversations.

Declutter your conversations in Google Chat

Getting started

Admins and end users: No action required. You’ll automatically see these updates over the next several weeks.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 2, 2023

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts

Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

In the Google Cloud Community, connect with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like yourself. Participate in product discussions, check out the Community Articles, and learn tips and tricks that will make your work and life easier. Be the first to know what's happening with Google Workspace.

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Learn about more Google Workspace launches

On the “What’s new in Google Workspace?” Help Center page, learn about new products and features launching in Google Workspace, including smaller changes that haven’t been announced on the Google Workspace Updates blog.

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Updates

Assistant and Calendar reminders are automatically migrating to Tasks

Enhanced experience for picture-in-picture for Google Meet in Chrome

Updated user interface for the Email Log Search tool

Improved experience for admitting or denying join requests in Google Meet

Visit a class using new option in Google Classroom

Write messages faster and easier with smart compose in Google Chat

Simplify and strengthen sign-in by enabling passkeys for your users, available now in open beta

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - June 2, 2023

Better control the flow of meetings with viewer mode in Google Meet

Declutter your conversations in Google Chat

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