Google Workspace Updates: November 2023

Google Classroom now supports roster import from SIS partners

Thursday, November 30, 2023

What’s changingEducators can now easily import students from their student information system (SIS) to Google Classroom using OneRoster. This integration saves educators time and helps make class setup much quicker.

Getting started

Admins: This feature is available for domains connected to an SIS partner–Aspen, Infinite Campus or Skyward. To enable the feature, go to http://classroom.google.com/admin. Visit the Help Center to learn more about connecting your Classroom to your SIS.
End users: If OneRoster is connected by your admin, you can import students by going to the People tab > “Invite Students” > “Import from SIS”. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Classroom with your SIS.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 28, 2023 (with expected completion in March 2024)

Availability

Available to Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade

Resources

Monitor insider risk of Google Workspace data with Chronicle

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

What’s changing Admins can now more seamlessly integrate their Google Workspace data with Chronicle (Google’s cloud-native Security Operations platform), to quickly detect, investigate and take action on risky activity and threats. Admins can now leverage reduced time spent syncing data from Workspace to Chronicle, as well as Chronicle’s curated preconfigured out-of-the-box detections.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why it matters

As an admin, you can already use the Alert Center to view notifications and take action on potentially issues within your domain. Now you can take this a step further by using Chronicle, leveraging its rich risk management capabilities and recommendations:

Chronicle can help detect and investigate potential threats at every level of sophistication by monitoring your data in real time.
Data insights are available at your fingertips, with rich context and visualization alongside industry best recommendations, helping you make better decisions faster.
Further, you can deploy Chronicle’s out-of-the-box use cases, helping to cut down on time spent building rules and playbooks.
You can also build and automate repeatable playbooks with full-fledged security orchestration, automation and response capabilities (SOAR).

Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about exporting logs to Chronicle to monitor insider risk. Please reach out to your sales representative for more information on pricing.
End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 29, 2023

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus customers

Resources

More insights to help admins troubleshoot Google Meet hardware issues

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

What’s changing

In 2022, we introduced several improvements for managing Google Meet hardware devices. These improvements included surfacing additional information about device issues, such as a description of the issue, when the issue was detected, and more. Today, we’re taking these improvements one step further by providing admins with even more data points. Specifically, admins will now be able to see the following types of usage data:

Issues: device health problems that are detected and persist over time. This is existing functionality and will continue to include the following issue types:

Device offline
Missing microphone
Missing speaker
Missing camera
Missing controller
Missing display
Missing default microphone
Missing default speaker
Missing default camera
Missing default whiteboard camera

Activities: records of how a hardware device is being used at any given time, including:

Meet call
Zoom call
Webex call
Bring-your-own-device mode [or computer connected]
Local present
Whiteboard camera present
Peripheral firmware update

Events: any notable point-in-time occurrence that can be useful for admins looking to troubleshoot issues, including:

Operating system update
Feedback filed
Restart

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why it matters

The health and functionality of your Meet hardware fleet is critical for connection and collaboration. As such, it’s important that admins have the information and context they need to troubleshoot issues across their fleet. With these additional data points, admins will have even greater insight and context into issues, allowing them to troubleshoot and resolve them faster.

Additional details

Google Meet Hardware devices that do not run ChromeOS (such as Poly X30, X50, X70) will only support activity data for Meet calls at this time.

Getting started

Admins: You can navigate to this page from Admin Console > Google Meet hardware > Devices > [Device name] > Device history. Visit the Help Center to learn more about understanding device usage in your organization.
End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

Rollout pace

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

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Understand device usage in your organization

Google Vault now supports Google Calendar

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

What’s changing Google Vault now supports Calendar, which means customers can take the following actions around Calendar data:

Manage retention with default and custom rules.
Search and preview events with a number of filters, such as keyword search across description, title, guests, locations and invite response status which can be used to quickly refine your search.
Search for historical versions of events, which allows Vault Admins to search and export events as they appeared on a specific date.
Export data in multiple formats, including ICS, PST (MSFT format) and CSE-decryptable formats.
Apply holds to prevent purging of data which must be retained for legal purposes.

Selecting Calendar as a service from the Vault user interface

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why it matters

Vault is an information governance and eDiscovery tool for Google Workspace. Now customers’ Calendar events can be retained, held, searched, and exported. This integration makes it easier for customers to comply with regional and legal mandates surrounding Calendar data, all from a central tool.

Vault’s integration with Calendar rounds out support for critical Workspace apps such as Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Chat and Meet, providing customers with a consistent experience across all products that are managed within Vault.

Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Vault to search Google Calendar, placing Google Calendar data on hold, and retaining Google Calendar data with Vault.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 29, 2023.
Updates for the API rollout will immediately follow the Vault user interface updates.

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus customers or customers with the Vault add-on license.

Resources

Introducing a new mobile experience for Google Chat

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

What’s changingWe recently announced a streamlined user experience in Google Chat to help you find what you need much faster, including new features like home and mentions. Starting today, we’re excited to introduce a new bottom navigation bar within the Chat app on Android & iOS devices to help you easily access these features on mobile. You will now have easy access to the following views:

Home: helps you stay on top of all conversions in one unified view, with a filter that allows you to drill down to unread messages.
Direct messages: see a compact list of all your 1:1 and group messages, including pinned conversations at the top of the list.
Spaces: see a compact list of all your spaces, including pinned conversations at the top of the list.
Mentions: helps you easily find messages from conversations and spaces where you’ve been mentioned.

Getting started

Admins and end users: No action required. You’ll automatically see these updates on your mobile devices over the next few weeks. Visit the Help Center to learn how to use Google Chat and how to mention someone else in a message.

Rollout pace Android & iOS:

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 29, 2023

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Learn how to use Google Chat
Google Help: Mention someone else in a message

Introducing a new homepage view in Google Drive

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

What’s changingOver the years, we’ve added features to Google Drive that help you more efficiently find files and folders. In October, we launched a new view in Google Drive that shows all pending access requests, recent comments, and approvals for files to help you quickly see recent activity and take action, all in one place.
Today, we’re excited to introduce the latest series of changes that accelerate user productivity across new views in Drive. A new streamlined homepage for Drive called Home makes it easier and faster for you to find files that matter most. Specifically, you’ll notice:

Personalized file and folder suggestions with machine learning algorithms that can help you get started quickly. These suggestions utilize a variety of signals, such as what files or folders you’ve recently opened, shared or edited, or what documents are attached to upcoming Calendar events.
Filter chips to narrow down your search and find relevant files faster across Drive, making it easy to find suggested files by type, people, modified date or the location.
A more modern design inline with Google Material Design 3 guidelines that helps you navigate across Drive much more efficiently.

Who’s impactedEnd users

Why you’d use it The new Google Drive Home page will make it easier and faster for you to find the files you need and collaborate with others.

Additional details When you go to drive.google.com, instead of landing in ‘My Drive’ you will now be directed to ‘Home.’ If you would like to set your default to ‘My Drive,’ click on the “Change to My Drive” option in the banner on Home:

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be ON by default and can be opted-out by the user. If a user chooses to opt-out, their default page will be My Drive. To opt-out, go to My Drive and click on the “Change to My Drive” option in the banner.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 28, 2023
Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 11, 2024

Availability

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

Note: The Drive Activity view is available to Google Workspace customers only

Resources

Updates to the Google Drive scanner on Android & iOS devices

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

What’s changingFor years, users have had the ability to scan physical documents, such as a receipt or passport, using the Google Drive app on Android devices. And earlier this year, we added additional functionality to recommend relevant title suggestions for scanned documents by leveraging machine learning.
Today, we’re introducing additional enhancements to the Drive scanner on Android devices, which now powers the Google Pixel camera and includes improvements to the scanner experience when capturing content. Specifically, you’ll notice:

Automatic capture to help you get the best scan quickly
Camera viewfinder that helps you position your document for the highest quality scan
The option to import from your camera roll
A faster way to initialize a scan with a new scanner button

We’re also expanding the Google Drive scanner and title suggestion feature to iOS devices. Now, when using your iOS phone or tablet, you can easily scan and digitally organize physical documents, crop them if needed, and receive relevant title suggestions based on machine learning.

Getting started

Open the Drive app on your Android device > scan a document via the camera icon or scan a document via the Scan button under the “+” icon > assess/adjust the automatic cropping > scan multiple pages in a session (if needed) > apply filters > save to Drive.
Open the Drive app on your iOS device > scan a document via the camera icon or scan a document via the Scan button under the “+” icon > > scan multiple pages in a session (if needed) > click on scan to apply filters or crop as needed > save to Drive.
Note: Title suggestions are only available in the US.
Visit the Help Center to learn more about scanning documents with Google Drive.

Rollout paceiOS:

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on November 28, 2023

Android:

This feature is now available

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Scan documents with Google Drive

Expanding message bubbles in Google Chat to iOS devices

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Update

[February 1, 2024] Rollout for this feature is complete.

[December 18, 2023] We have paused rollout for this feature while we evaluate performance and quality. We will provide an update once rollout resumes.

What’s changingIn September, we introduced message bubbles in Google Chat on web and Android, enabling users to more easily differentiate incoming versus outgoing messages in the Chat message stream. Today, we’re excited to announce the expansion of message bubbles to iOS devices.
On your phone or tablet:

Each incoming message will have an independent message bubble aligned to one side with a solid color background
Each outgoing message will have an independent message bubble aligned to the other side with a different color background

Expanding message bubbles in Google Chat to iOS devices

Getting started

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

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 28, 2023

Availability

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

Resources

Workspace Blog: Welcome to the new Google Chat
Google Workspace Updates Blog: Differentiate messages better with additional modernizations in Google Chat

The next evolution of automated data entry in Google Sheets

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

What’s changing Starting today, Enhanced Smart Fill in Google Sheets is available for customers with the Duet AI for Google Workspace Enterprise add-on. This builds upon Smart Fill in Google Sheets, a feature we introduced in 2020 that detects patterns between columns and suggests data for remaining cells using Google’s Knowledge Graph. More recently, we launched Help me organize in Sheets, a Duet AI feature that gives you a running start for creating highly-organized plans and trackers.
As previously announced, offering Enhanced Smart Fill will continue our efforts to help users spend less time on manual data organization and analysis in Sheets. This capability uses AI to detect if there are relationships between cell contents. If a relationship exists, Sheets can make contextual suggestions in the form of remaining values that you can accept. Once you click to accept the suggested values, Sheets will automatically fill them.
Enhanced Smart Fill can recognize and fill patterns like: sentiment classification, combining and generating text, extracting specific text, formatting addresses, structuring phone numbers and emails, condensing text and more. For example, a restaurant could organize their reviews and rating data more easily with Enhanced Smart Fill. Rather than manually typing in data, Sheets can detect a pattern in the existing ratings and reviews content and suggest values for the remaining cells. Simply review the suggestions and accept them in one click using Enhanced Smart Fill.
Enhanced Smart Fill filling in star ratings based on review sentiment

Enhanced Smart Fill filling in star ratings based on review sentiment

Sales teams could also use Enhanced Smart Fill to more easily organize next steps in a sales cycle. Instead of manually extracting next steps from a column of unformatted notes, you can accept suggested next steps that Sheets will provide you based on the account information listed in other columns.

Enhanced Smart Fill suggesting text to extract from a column of populated cells

Or, let’s say you hosted a fundraiser and want to customize thank you notes for donors based on their donation type. Rather than writing the notes one by one, you could quickly see a list of suggested thank you messages that Sheets generates based on the pattern of your first set of messages. Simply click to accept the suggested values so that you can quickly and efficiently thank your donors.

Enhanced Smart Fill suggesting fills to continue a thank you note pattern

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

Enhanced Smart Fill can help make data entry and analysis easier. Get started today with Duet AI for Google Workspace Enterprise.

Additional details

This feature will only appear if relationships between data points exist within your spreadsheet.

Getting started

Rollout pace

This feature is available now for customers with the Duet AI for Google Workspace Enterprise add-on.

Availability

This feature is available as part of the Duet AI for Google Workspace Enterprise add-on.

Resources

Create shareable video presentations in Google Slides

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

What’s changing

We’re introducing slides recordings, a new Google Slides feature that lets you easily record yourself presenting, and then share the presentation with others to view when it works for them. From webinars, to employee trainings, to lessons for your classroom, slides recordings help you effortlessly record visual and engaging presentations without ever leaving Slides.

Create shareable video presentations in Google Slides

Who’s impacted

End users

Why it’s important

This feature helps you share more engaging video presentations with others for easy, flexible viewing. Whether sharing video content inside of your company or externally, with slides recordings you don’t need to use a separate video recording tool.

Additional details

You can use your computer's built-in or external camera and microphone hardware to add your voice and webcam feed to your recording.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about recording a slideshow, finding your recording, sharing your recording, removing a recording and more. Please note that recording-creation is only accessible using Google Chrome on your Desktop. Recordings cannot be created on mobile devices and are not accessible from the Slides mobile app. However, you can find and view your recording using the Drive mobile app.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 2, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 1, 2024

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Education Plus

Resources

Google Help: Use slides recording in Google Slides

Raise your hand with gesture detection in Google Meet

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

What’s changing Until now, raising your hand to ask a question in Google Meet is done by clicking the hand-raise icon. Starting today, you can also raise your physical hand and Meet will recognize it with gesture detection. To ensure the gesture is detected, make sure your camera is enabled and your hand is visible to the camera, away from your face and body. As an active speaker, the gesture detection will not be triggered; when you’re no longer the active speaker, gesture detection will resume.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be OFF by default and can be turned on by selecting More options > Reactions > Hand Raise Gesture. Visit the Help Center to learn more about raising your hand in Google Meet.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on November 21, 2023
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 28, 2023

Availability

Available for Google Workspace Business Plus, Business Standard, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Starter, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade customers, and Google Workspace Individual subscribers

Resources

Google Help: Raise your hand in Google Meet

Updates for managing iOS devices: user enrollment is now supported; purchase and distribute apps using the Apple Volume Purchase program

Monday, November 20, 2023

What’s changing We’re expanding mobile device enrollment options for iOS devices to include user enrollment. User enrollment separates work and personal data on iOS devices, giving admins control over Workspace data on the device while users retain privacy over their personal data.

Additionally, admins can use the Apple Volume Purchase Program (VPP) to purchase and distributed apps in bulk to user-enrolled iOS devices in their organization.

Who’s impacted Admins and end users

Why you’d use it Managing how Workspace data is accessed is a cornerstone of security. The new user enrollment option ensures end users can keep their personal data separate from their work data, while admins can ensure their users are using and accessing apps appropriately.

Using the VPP, admins can efficiently curate a suite of work-related apps—both free and paid—for their team. This streamlined process not only simplifies the deployment of essential business apps but also ensures that employees have access to the right apps they need to be productive and efficient, all within the secure perimeter of our MDM platform.

Getting started

Admins:

User enrollment:

Use our Help Center to learn more about separating work and personal data on iOS devices.

Volume Purchasing Program:

To begin, admins need to access Apple’s volume purchasing program with their Business Manager credentials. Through the VPP, admins can purchase app licenses that can be distributed to their employee’s devices in bulk.

From the Apple Business Manager, you can purchase app licenses in bulk.

Once purchased, admins will need to download the content token, which needs to be uploaded into the Admin console.

VPP tokens can be uploaded in the Admin console at Devices > Mobile and endpoints > iOS settings > Apple Volume Purchase Program (VPP).

For complete instructions, use this Help Center about distributing iOS apps with Apple VPP and applying settings for iOS devices.

End users:

The user enrollment process starts when a user signs-in to an app for the first time or re-signs into an app. They’ll be prompted to begin downloading the configuration profile, which will open in an internet browser with more instructions and information. Once the profile has been downloaded, the user will be directed to their devices settings to complete user enrollment.

Visit our Help Center for more information about how to install the Google Device Policy app and a configuration profile on your device, how your iOS device is managed and getting approved work apps on your iOS device.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on Nov 20, 2023

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Frontline Standard, Frontline Starter, Business Plus, Cloud Identity Premium, Education Standard, Education Plus and Nonprofits customers

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - November 17, 2023

Friday, November 17, 2023

4 New updatesUnless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.
Enhancing Google Drive usability on large screen Android devices Building upon improvements to the Google Workspace experience on large screen Android devices, we’re excited to announce additional enhancements that bring our tablet experience more inline with our web experience. Specifically, you'll notice:

Above the main doclist, users will now see a tappable folder hierarchy for their current view. This allows a user to keep track of where they are in Drive and easily navigate out of nested folders.
Per-file data columns to show when a file was last modified and how much storage is used by each file.
A color palette that matches the Google Material Design 3 guidelines.

Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for November 27th, 2023. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about using Google Drive.

Enhancing Google Drive usability on large screen Android devices

Expanding Google Drive log events to additional Google Workspace editions Drive log events, a feature that enables admins to access an audit and investigation page to run searches related to Drive log events, is now available for Google Workspace Cloud Identity Free and Cloud Identity Premium editions. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains at an extended pace (potentially longer than 30 days for feature visibility). | Learn more about Drive log events.

Easily convert hyperlinked text to smart chips using the tab key in Google Sheets Building upon the tab to convert feature in Google Sheets, when your hyperlinked text matches the text of a smart chip in Sheets, you will now be prompted to convert an inserted file, people, calendar event, Youtube or place link into a smart chip. For example, if the hyperlinked text is a file name, Sheets will automatically recommend converting it to a file chip. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains at a gradual pace (up to 15 days for feature visibility). | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about inserting smart chips in Google Sheets.

Easily convert hyperlinked text to smart chips using the tab key in Google Sheets

More languages available for Google Meet captions You can now use captions in Google Meet in Finnish & Hebrew. You can use captions to view subtitles as everyone speaks during a meeting — captions are only visible to you. Note that because this is a newly supported language, it will be denoted with a “beta” tag as we continue to optimize performance. See our Help Center for a complete list of supported languages for captions in Meet. We’ve also removed the “beta” tag from the following languages, as they have been validated and are out of beta:

English (UK)
French (Canada)
Thai
Vietnamese
Polish
Romanian
Turkish

Available now to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about using captions in Google Meet.

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.

Take action on Google Drive requests and comments directly in Google Chat You can now collaborate more easily on Docs, Sheets and Slides comments without ever leaving Chat. | Learn more about Drive comments and requests in Chat.
AppSheet smart chips for Google Docs You can now insert smart chips for AppSheet content into documents, allowing you to access AppSheet data directly into Docs. | Learn more about AppSheet smart chips.
View full screen tasks lists on Google Calendar You will now be able to see all your tasks and task lists in a single full screen view on Calendar web. | Learn more about full screen tasks lists in Calendar.
Star important messages in Google Chat Following the recent announcement of home and mentions in Google Chat, we’re excited to introduce starred on web, an additional shortcut in the redesigned navigation panel that helps you stay on top of your most important messages in Chat. | Learn more about starring messages in Chat.

Read and write out of office and focus time events using the Calendar API

In addition to reading and writing working location data, we’re expanding the Calendar API functionality to encompass out of office and focus time data. | Learn more about using the Calendar API.

Improved search query suggestions in Google Chat web

In conjunction with recent updates to search in Google Chat, we’re introducing enhanced search query suggestions, a feature already available on mobile, that helps you find the right message, person, file, or space in Chat on the web. | Learn more about searching in Chat.

Completed rollouts

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

Rapid Release Domains:

Scheduled Release Domains:

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

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

Improved search query suggestions in Google Chat web

Friday, November 17, 2023

What’s changingIn conjunction with recent updates to search in Google Chat, we’re introducing enhanced search query suggestions, a feature already available on mobile, that helps you find the right message, person, file, or space in Chat on the web.
When searching in Chat, you will now see query suggestions based on historical search activity, sorted by relevance. The top suggestion will also appear in the search box and you can press “Tab” to autofill the query. You can also delete a suggested query by hovering over it and clicking on the “x” icon next to it.

Improved search query suggestions in Google Chat web

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Search for Google Chat messages

Read and write out of office and focus time events using the Calendar API

Friday, November 17, 2023

What’s changing In addition to reading and writing working location data, we’re expanding the Calendar API functionality to encompass out of office and focus time data. Developers can use the API to read and write this information and synchronize users’ availability with external systems. For example, you can use the API in conjunction with HR systems to automatically add OOO entries to a user’s calendar when they submit vacation time. Or the API can be used to automatically block focus time on a user’s calendar to complete training courses.

Further, reading and writing this information eliminates the need for users to enter the same information into multiple systems, helping to cut down on manual churn.

Who’s impacted

Developers

Why you’d use it

Out of office and focus time event support joins support for working location, which was announced earlier this year, to round out API functionality for calendar events. Each specific event type can be synced throughout your organization's IT ecosystem, creating seamless user journeys and helping to connect users with resources and each other. This includes things such as:

Mapping working location data to better adapt on-site resources and update other third-party surfaces, such as hot desk booking tools.
Automatically blocking OOO based on vacation or PTO requests.
Blocking off focus time events to give users time to go through onboarding or other company training programs.

Additional details

Prior to this update, if you requested to read a user’s calendar via API v3, out of office and focus time events were returned with unknownorganizer@calendar.google.com in the organizer field, and without their specific features. With this update, these events will return with all their properties and the specific user as organizer. Please check your code to ensure it does not make implicit assumptions about the previous API return values, and use the eventType parameter to perform different operations with regular, OOO, Focus Time, or Working Location events

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 16, 2023

Availability

The Calendar API is available to all.
Out of Office events are available to Google Workspace Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Frontline, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Nonprofits, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, and Education Plus customers.
Focus Time events are available to Google Workspace Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Nonprofits, Business Standard, Business Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, and Education Plus customers.

Resources

Star important messages in Google Chat

Thursday, November 16, 2023

What’s changingFollowing the recent announcement of home and mentions in Google Chat, we’re excited to introduce starred on web, an additional shortcut in the redesigned navigation panel that helps you stay on top of your most important messages in Chat.

Who’s impacted End users

Why you’d use it This feature enables you to “star” any messages in Chat for easy access via the starred shortcut in the navigation panel, and can be useful when you need to come back to a message later.

Additional details Starring messages is unavailable in existing spaces organized by conversation topic (legacy threaded).

Getting started

To star a message, hover over the message and click the star icon or click on the three dot overflow menu to display the star option.
You can unstar a message from the original message or unstar messages from the shortcut.
Starred messages will be available on mobile in 2024.
Visit the Help Center to learn how to star messages in Chat.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 16, 2023
Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 15, 2023

Availability

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

Resources

View full screen tasks lists on Google Calendar

Thursday, November 16, 2023

What’s changing We recently completed the migration of Reminders from Google Calendar and Google Assistant to Google Tasks in order to provide an easy way to view and manage all your to-dos in one place. To build upon this, we’re providing you with a full screen desktop experience to view all tasks together. Starting today, you will be able to see all your tasks and task lists in a single full screen view on Calendar web.

View full screen tasks lists on Google Calendar

Who’s impacted End users

Why it matters In addition to an optimized desktop layout, this update makes it easier for you to stay on top of and organize your tasks.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: To view full screen tasks on Calendar web, go to Calendar.google.com > click on the task icon in the top bar. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Google Tasks.

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Google Tasks

AppSheet smart chips for Google Docs

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

What’s changing In Google Docs, you can already insert smart chips for Docs, Sheets and Slides files, date chips, Calendar event chips, and more. Beginning today, you can now insert smart chips for AppSheet content. These smart chips allow you to access AppSheet data directly into Docs — you’ll be able to view and take action on the data, including triggering automations, without having to leave Docs.

Getting started

Admins: AppSheet smart chips are included as part of the AppSheet product service entitlement in your Admin Console. Additional policies and settings can be configured directly in AppSheet
End Users: All Workspace customers are entitled to use AppSheet smart chips in Google Docs once they are enabled. To enable them, you’ll need to install the AppSheet for Google Docs Add-On from Google Workspace Marketplace. Visit the AppSheet Help Center to learn more about getting started with AppSheet and inserting AppSheet smart chips into a Google Doc.

Rollout pace

This feature is available now.

Availability

Available to Google Workspace customers with AppSheet licenses.

Resources

Take action on Google Drive requests and comments directly in Google Chat

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

What’s changingGoogle Drive Chat app

Reply to and resolve comments in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides directly from Chat
Show more of the comment thread so you can have more context while replying
@mention your colleagues easily while replying to comments

With these updates, you can collaborate more easily on Docs, Sheets and Slides without ever leaving Chat.

Take action on Google Drive requests and comments directly in Google Chat

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on November 14, 2023

Availability

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

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - November 10, 2023

Friday, November 10, 2023

3 New updatesUnless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.
Timeline view in Google Sheets now available on Android & iOS In 2022, we introduced an interactive timeline view that allows you to track projects in Google Sheets. We’re excited to announce that you can now view your timelines on Android and iOS. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for November 28, 2023. | Timeline viewing is available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about timeline view in Sheets.

Adding timezone support for existing smart chips in Google Docs To more accurately represent time across the world, we’re introducing timezone support for existing date+time smart chips in Google Docs. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now at an extended rollout pace (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility); launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for January 3, 2024. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about inserting smart chips & building blocks in your Google Doc.

Improved toolbars in the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides apps on Android devices We’re introducing enhanced toolbars in the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides apps that are optimized for Android tablets and foldables, and ultimately improve the editing experience across the apps.

In Docs, there is a new mode switcher that allows you to switch between editing, suggestion, and viewing modes.
In Slides, you will have access to an ever-present toolbar while in editing mode.
In Sheets, a cell will be selected by default upon opening the app.

Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for November 28, 2023. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts.

Mode switching in the Google Docs app

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.

Add GIFs and stickers in Google Slides We’re bringing GIFs and stickers directly into Google Slides to empower you to build visual, dynamic, and creative presentations that help you connect with your audience in Slides. | Learn more about GIFs and Stickers in Slides.
Make more informed decisions using Classroom analytics We’re introducing analytics in Google Classroom, providing a centralized view of Classroom data and insights for educators and education leaders. | A Google Workspace for Education Plus license is required to access this feature for both education leaders and educators. | Learn more about assigning licenses in the Help Center and about Classroom analytics.
Google Meet API now available in Developer Preview The Google Meet API will give partners and customers the ability to create and configure Meet video conferences, allow their end users to join a conference, and post real-time updates from within their own applications.| Available now through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. | Learn more about Google Meet API.
Streamlining the user experience in Google Chat to help you find what you need much faster A redesigned navigation panel brings direct messages and spaces together and introduces shortcuts, a new framework to help you stay on top of your messages. To reduce friction while navigating between messages, home helps you quickly catch up on any new activity across all conversations in a single location. Finally, mentions give you visibility into the messages addressed specifically to you. | Learn more about the new Google Chat.
Filter by people or groups in Google Drive We’re adding a new filter to Google Drive that lets you see which files or folders have been shared with specific people or groups. | Learn more about filters in Drive.

Improvements for scheduling large scale meetings on the web

We’re making several changes which will make scheduling large scale meetings (up to 100k guests per event) easier and guide schedulers through the process with more context. Once you’ve created and saved a Calendar event which contains a large group of attendees, you can open the event to check on the invitation progress. | Learn more about large scale meetings in Calendar.

Introducing a new homepage in the Google Drive app We’re updating the homepage of the Google Drive mobile app on Android and iOS mobile devices to help you more easily find the right file much faster. An updated suggested view will allow you to see even more recommended files at once, such as those that have been recently opened, shared or edited. In addition, we’re replacing the notifications view with activity view, which recently launched on web. | Learn more about the homepage in Drive.

Completed rollouts

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

Scheduled Release Domains:

Add emoji reactions to comments in Google Slides

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

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

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

Google Classroom now supports roster import from SIS partners

Monitor insider risk of Google Workspace data with Chronicle

More insights to help admins troubleshoot Google Meet hardware issues

Google Vault now supports Google Calendar

Introducing a new mobile experience for Google Chat

Introducing a new homepage view in Google Drive

Updates to the Google Drive scanner on Android & iOS devices

Expanding message bubbles in Google Chat to iOS devices

The next evolution of automated data entry in Google Sheets

Create shareable video presentations in Google Slides

Raise your hand with gesture detection in Google Meet

Updates for managing iOS devices: user enrollment is now supported; purchase and distribute apps using the Apple Volume Purchase program

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - November 17, 2023

Improved search query suggestions in Google Chat web

Read and write out of office and focus time events using the Calendar API

Star important messages in Google Chat

View full screen tasks lists on Google Calendar

AppSheet smart chips for Google Docs

Take action on Google Drive requests and comments directly in Google Chat

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - November 10, 2023

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Learn about more Google Workspace launches