Tag Archives: G Suite

Stay connected with Google Meet

For many of us, it’s difficult to see each other in person these days. Video is now playing a crucial role in helping us connect—whether it’s across time zones or just across the street. For me, it’s provided a space to collaborate with my team, and a way for friends and family from around the world to see my newborn daughter Sophia smile for the first time. It doesn’t matter what kind of meeting you are having: We believe that people should be able to use the best possible services to connect, anytime and anywhere.

That’s why we made Google Meet, our premium video conferencing product, free for everyone back in April.

When we re-engineered the service we built for secure business meetings and made it available to all, we also made calls unlimited (well, the limit is really 24 hours, but I’ve yet to hit the limit) through September 30, so that people could enjoy the same benefits as our business users with their existing Google Account. From book clubs, band practices and dance parties–millions of you have turned to Meet to connect safely over video.

As we look ahead to a holiday season with less travel and important milestones like family reunions, PTA meetings and weddings hosted over video, we want to continue helping those who rely on Meet to stay in touch over the coming months. As a sign of our commitment, today we’re continuing unlimited Meet calls (up to 24 hours) in the free version through March 31, 2021 for Gmail accounts.

We’ve also added a ton of experiences to Meet to make connecting more fun and more productive, too. You can now see your family on the big screen when you cast your calls to your TV, or join hands-free on your Nest Hub Max. Jump on the call without worrying about the holiday wrapping paper mess behind you with background blur, or take trivia night to the next level by seeing 49 of your competitors (and yourself) at the same time. You can even keep score using our collaborative digital whiteboard.

Trivia night on Meet — Bring the digital whiteboarding experience to your next call.

We hope these updates will help you do more at home, at work and everywhere you choose. If you haven’t tried Meet yet, you can access it right from Gmail, get the app or head to meet.google.com from your browser to start a call.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Tribal schools embrace distance learning with Google tools

In the United States, there are 574 federally recognized tribal nations. Collectively they are referred to as “Indian Country,” but there is tremendous diversity among the tribes. Each has its own unique history, geography, culture and economy, as well as its own opportunities and challenges.

Far too often, we only hear about challenges facing these tribal nations and rarely hear about the solutions tribes create. In response, the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development founded Honoring Nations, a national awards program that spotlights success in tribal governance. Since 1998, Honoring Nations has awarded 136 tribal governance programs from over 100 tribal nations, highlighting key lessons that other governments, both Native and non-Native, can adapt for themselves. By sharing these lessons, we are changing the conversation from what isn’t working to what is. We also facilitate the sharing of practical tools to improve the strength and vitality of Indian Country.

In 2013, our team was introduced to the Google American Indian Network, an employee resource group made up of Google employees. We began working with and using a variety of Google tools to enhance our ability to share stories of success with tribal leaders and policymakers, from Google Cultural Institutes to Google Maps and Google Voyager. In December 2018, our efforts culminated in the launch of the Nation Building Toolboxes, based on Google Sites. So far we have released four toolboxes: Business Enterprises, Constitutional Reform, Justice Systems and a special COVID-19 toolbox, dedicated to sharing multimedia resources in public and health policy, which was created in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Center for American Indian Health.

Launched in April 2020 and updated daily, the COVID-19 nation-building toolbox responds to the complex challenges facing Indian Country due to the pandemic. The coronavirus is revealing the cracks in all societies, including tribal nations. However, in Indian Country, these crises are magnified by decades of underfunding of infrastructure, from facilities to water systems to broadband. In fact, an estimated 34% of American Indian households lack high-speed internet access. This impacts critical communications, including how students access distance learning. Without the ability—or tools—to connect remotely, American Indian students are at a significant disadvantage.

The Native American Advancement Foundation (NAAF), in partnership with the Tohono O'odham GuVo District, initiated a system of support to ensure the youth in their community didn’t fall behind during the pandemic. They integrated lessons from an Indigenous language learning resource, posted to our COVID-19 toolbox, from the Yurok Tribe in northern California. They also paired online resources with offline support through the distribution of educational learning packets, food, and supplies to households throughout the District. In addition, college students who returned home were recruited to provide remote tutoring to younger students.

After learning about their extraordinary efforts to meet the needs of their citizens, we shared the strategies used in Tohono O'odham through the COVID-19 toolbox, so other nations facing similar challenges could draw inspiration from their solutions. This knowledge sharing and exchange not only highlights the innovation in Indian Country, but is an incredible example of Indigenous reciprocity.

We live in a digital age, and what's key in Indian Country is that we embrace technology on our own terms. That’s why digital tools which enable communication are so important. Google understands the need for these tools, especially now, which is why they've committed $10 million in grants to support communities through Google.org's Distance Learning Fund.

It is our hope that the stories we share through Honoring Nations and the Nation Building Toolboxes arm leaders and policymakers with practical tools that help to strengthen their nations, on their own terms—and as Wet’suet’en Hereditary Chief, Satsan, says, “put a new memory in the minds of our children.”

Source: The Official Google Blog

How choosing flexible tools fuels collaboration

During a recent early morning jog, I had a minor epiphany about a project. I slowed down, pulled out my phone, tapped the microphone and left myself a voice reminder in the margins of my document. Later in the day—after dishes, diapers and sweeping the radius around the highchair—I used that note to build out a better presentation. From the folding table in my 7-year-old’s bedroom, I shared the update with my team just before our working session.

As a UX researcher at Google for the past six years, working on teams across four time zones in the U.S. and Europe has given me a front row seat for the increasingly fluid ways that customers and colleagues work remotely. Despite all that experience, I'm impressed at how rapidly we’ve adapted to change this year. Here are a few things I’ve learned about flexible ways of working and why it's likely to become even more important for many organizations in the future.

The trend toward choice

First, it’s important to understand just how much remote work increased before the pandemic. Regularly working from home grew 173 percent between 2005 and 2018. Today, 40 percent more U.S. employers offer flexible options than five years ago. In the wake of COVID-19, that number increased even faster.

Having choices about when and where to work was seen as increasingly important to attract and retain talent even before it became essential to keep businesses running. More employee autonomy may even mean higher job satisfaction and performance, another reason why flexible working is likely to outlast COVID.

Demand for app diversity has also grown dramatically, giving professionals an “à la carte” mix of apps to choose from. Companies now use an average of 88 apps, a 21 percent increase from three years ago. If anything, the new challenge may be managing these choices effectively. It's something we think about a lot, and it's a big part of the way we've designed G Suite.

How flexibility helps my team

Today, tools like G Suite make remote teamwork accessible with video calling and content collaboration.

But what flexibility do these trends and tools actually enable? Here’s a typical collaborative workflow on my team: A few days before a meeting, I circulate a doc or slides. Everyone starts to review, raising questions, adding comments to specific snippets of content and tagging teammates who can add relevant context.

Tagging saves time in a few ways. First, it keeps the meeting smaller. Instead of meeting with 20-something people, we collect input before the discussion—getting everyone’s latest thinking in one place without cluttering calendars (and saving everyone from yet another video call).

Second, the asynchronous conversation before the meeting gives us a streamlined agenda for our live discussion. Instead of a lengthy meeting to reach consensus on every detail, we prep for 20 minutes and spend 30 minutes talking through a shorter list of topics to clarify.

Smaller meetings have the added benefit of allowing for more dynamic discussion—a big deal because conversation dynamics are a significant factor in how well groups solve problems and make decisions.

As we get down to business, I send my doc out to everyone on the call chat thread. That way, no one has to hunt for the document and we can dive in quicker. Instead of presenting my whole screen, I show a single Chrome tab. This gives me the flexibility to show the content that helps us get on the same page, while taking messy notes in another document.

This review process emerged organically and allows the whole team to contribute regardless of where they sit. It shows respect for time and attention. It uses our flexible tools for virtual conversation to streamline conversations and speed up decision-making. Attention matters more working from home. Time crunched, my well-intentioned efforts to stay present are tested hourly. I don’t want to be the harried parent at work that you can’t rely on, but I don’t want to reply to emails during toddler bath time either. Teams, and the tools they choose, can help protect attention when you need to focus on work or on home.

The future is the choices we make today

The pandemic put meetings and remote collaboration under a microscope and gave us an inspiring and instructive silver lining to learn from. Working from home has raised awareness of persistent problems like information overload, reminding us that we can make choices that enable flexible ways of working, protect our attention and streamline collaboration.

As we look into the future, we can all make deliberate choices that bridge the virtual distance, no matter where your team members are working from.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Educators share their distance learning stories

We hear a lot of talk these days about the finding “new normal,” and while COVID-19 has presented countless challenges for educators, bright spots have emerged. The pandemic has pushed them to take risks, explore digital solutions, and experiment with new teaching methods to engage and support students and their families. We spoke to several educators who took the time to talk with us and share their experiences with distance learning.

How has your school’s level of digital and innovation changed since the pandemic?

Trinh: A lot of teachers thought that this would be a moment in time—that technology would be a solution for the pandemic only. However, they’re beginning to realize that digital learning will be needed over the long term. This fall, the professional learning is becoming deeper and will be needed to enhance teaching skills for the foreseeable future.

How have teachers’ mindsets changed toward technology since the pandemic began?

Lim:Before the pandemic, we’d have one or two people sign up for technology-related professional learning experiences. Now we’ve had as many as six hundred educators sign up. Since starting the year virtually, we’ve improved and capitalized on our community of teachers to work and plan together for a better distance learning experience. And it’s surprising how well some students do in this setting. They thrive in a space where they have more choice and agency in their learning. They didn’t necessarily have these experiences before because the teachers weren’t familiar with using the digital tools.

Brewster:I’ve seen teachers in my school who have for years have been reluctant to accept coaching or to explore innovative strategies and tech tools. These same teachers have begun to independently seek out support and try new things. They want to make sure their students’ engagement level and experience is more than showing up and turning on their cameras. I’ve also seen how parents are embracing digital learning more than before. In the past, there was concern about screen time but now with this new reality, they see how technology keeps us going and connected.

How have you overcome barriers to device and internet access?

Carraway: This fall, we are much more prepared than last spring. We’ve increased our Chromebook inventory and provided more hotspots to families and staff to better support distance learning. We've also opened up office hours for parents and guardians to get the answers they needed when they needed them.

Wright:Our district launched a Connected At Home Learning Support Initiative to expand our existing technology device offerings. In the spring, we allowed secondary students to check out Chromebooks and hotspots until school ended. For the past two years, we’ve participated in the Sprint 1 Million program to provide hotspots to high school students. We’ve now extended that to the Empowered 2.0 T-Mobile program and are partnering with our local cable company to provide low-cost home internet.

In what other ways are you supporting students and their families?

Barcenas: We thought that internet access was going to be the biggest barrier to learning, but in reality it was that parents weren’t always able to be home. It was the extended family members—the abuelitas and abuelos—who were sitting side by side with the students, and they didn’t have the digital skill sets to help them with digital classwork. This fall, we’ve opened office hours for grandparents and we’re “translating” our technological vocabulary to make sense to older-generation family members.

Farinas:At the start of the school year we were hyper-focused on building community before tackling content. It’s paramount that teachers create safe online learning environments and build positive relationships with students and families. We do this by conducting routine wellness checks with students and families—making ourselves available during office hours and responding to calls and emails as soon as possible. We created a helpline to support families struggling with technology and even have staff who “walk” students to their virtual classrooms.

Jaber: Thinking ofMaslowe’s hierarchy of needs, students cannot self-actualize if their basic human needs and feelings of safety and inclusivity are not at the core. Give students safe spaces and opportunities to share. That means teachers sharing with students because they are encouraged when they see we are vulnerable too. Call them to check in if they are not “present.” Build in options and flexibility in teaching. Really get to know the kids beyond their persona as learners.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Building solutions using the G Suite developer platform

Posted by Charles Maxson, Developer Advocate, G Suite

Millions of users know G Suite as a collection of communication and productivity apps that enables teams to easily create, communicate, collaborate, and discover content to supercharge teamwork. Beneath the surface of this well-serving collection of apps is also an extensible platform that enables developers to build targeted custom experiences and integrations utilizing these apps, allowing G Suite’s vast user base to get even more value out of the platform.

At first glance, it may not be natural to think of the tools you use for day-to-day productivity and collaboration as a developer platform. But consider what makes up a developer platform; Languages, APIs, runtimes, frameworks, IDEs, ecosystem, etc; G Suite offers developers all of these things and more.

Let’s take a closer look at what makes up the G Suite developer platform and how you can use it.

G Suite as a Developer Platform

There are a lot of components that make up G Suite as a platform. As a developer, there is probably none more important than the data that your solution collects, processes and presents. As a platform, G Suite is both highly interoperable, secure, and also interestingly unique.

Being interoperable, G Suite lets you interact with your data--whether your data is in G Suite or elsewhere, no matter how you store it or how you want to analyze it. G Suite allows you to keep your data where it best suits your application, while offering you flexibility to access it easily. Some examples include rich integrations with sources like BigQuery or JDBC databases. Better yet, often little to no code is required to get you connected.

Where G Suite as a platform is unique regarding data is it can be used to store, or perhaps even more interesting, be used to produce data. For native storage, you may use Drive as a content repository, or store information in a Sheets spreadsheet, or collect it via Google Forms as a front end. Additionally, there are many scenarios where the content your users are engaging in (emails, chats, events, tasks, contacts, documents, identity, etc.) can be harnessed to create unique interactions with G Suite. Solutions that build off, or integrate with G Suite provide such unique business value, but regardless where your data resides, accessing it as a developer is a non-issue via the platform.

The core of the G Suite developer platform itself is composed of frameworks for developer features including G Suite Add-ons and Chatbots, as well as a comprehensive library of REST APIs. These allow you to interface with the full G Suite platform to create integrations, build extensions, add customizations, and access content or data.

G Suite Add-ons and Chatbots are frameworks specifically designed for G Suite that allow you to quickly and safely build experiences that enrich the way users interact within G Suite apps, while while the REST APIs give you essentially unlimited access to G Suite apps and data including Gmail, Classroom, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Task, and more. What you build, and what you build with, including languages and dev environments is up to you!

The beauty of G Suite as a platform is how you can unlock complementary technologies like Google Cloud that expand the platform to be even more powerful. Think about a G Suite UI connecting to a Google Cloud Platform backend; the familiar interface of G Suite coupled with the phenomenal power and scale of GCP!

Building with GCP from G Suite, you have access to components like the AI platform. This enables scenarios like using Google Sheets as a front end to AI tools like the Vision, Natural Language and the Translation APIs. Imagine how you can change the way users interact with G Suite, your app and your data combined with the power of ML?

Another useful concept is how you can add natural conversational experiences to your app in G Suite with tools like DialogFlow. This way instead of writing complicated interfaces users have to learn, you could build a G Suite Chat bot that invokes Dialogflow to allow users to execute commands directly from within their team conversations in Chat. So for example, users could just ask a Chat bot to “Add a task to the project list” or “Assign this issue to Matt”. A recent example of this is DataQnA, a natural language interface for analyzing BigQuery data.

BigQuery is another GCP tool that works natively with G Suite to allow you to analyze and leverage larger, complicated data sets while producing unique custom reports that can be surfaced in a user friendly way. One of the ways to leverage BigQuery with G Suite is through Connected Sheets, which provides the power and scale of a BigQuery data warehouse in the familiar context of Sheets. With Connected Sheets, you can analyze billions of rows of live BigQuery data in Google Sheets without requiring SQL knowledge. You can apply familiar tools—like pivot tables, charts, and formulas—to easily derive insights from big data.

One relatively new addition to the Google Cloud family also worth mentioning here is AppSheet. AppSheet is a no-code tool that can be used to quickly build mobile and web apps. Being no-code, it may seem out of place in a discussion for a development platform, but AppSheet is a dynamic and agile tool that makes it great for building apps fast or envisioning prototypes, while also connecting to G Suite apps like Google Sheets, allowing you to access G Suite platform data with ease.

When you do need the power of writing custom code, one of the foundational components of the G Suite developer platform is Apps Script. For over a decade, Apps Script has been the server-less, JavaScript-based runtime that natively powers G Suite extensibility. Built directly into G Suite with its own IDE, Apps Script makes it super fast and easy to get started building solutions with nothing to install or configure, just open and start coding -- or you can even let the macro recorder write code for you! Apps Script masks a lot of complexities that developers face like handling user authentication, allowing you to focus on creating solutions quickly. Its native integration and relative simplicity also welcomes developers with diverse skill levels to build customized workflows, menus and UI, automations and more right inside G Suite.

While Apps Script is nimble and useful for many use cases, we know that many developers have preferences around tools, languages and development environments. G Suite is an open platform that encourages developers to choose options that makes them more productive. In continuing to build on that principle, we recently introduced Alternate Runtimes for G Suite Add-ons. This new capability allows you to create solutions using the G Suite Add-ons framework without being bound to Apps Script as a toolset, giving you the choice and freedom to leverage your existing preferences and investments in hosting infrastructure, development tools, source control, languages, and code libraries, etc.

Finally, what completes the vision of G Suite as a developer platform is that you have the confidence and convenience of an established platform that is broadly deployed and backed by tools like Google Identity Management and the G Suite Admin Console for administration and security. This enables you to build your solutions--whether its a customized solution for your internal users or an integration between your software platform and G Suite--and distribute them at a domain level or even globally via the G Suite Marketplace, which is an acquisition channel for developers and a discovery engine for end-users and enterprise admins alike.

Now that you can see how G Suite is a developer platform, imagine what you can build?

Visit the G Suite Developer homepage and get started on your journey today.

Source: Google Developers Blog

Why digital tools are a safety net for small businesses

For businesses trying to stay afloat, like Morgan Miller Plumbing in Grandview, Missouri, digital tools are instrumental. While the onset of COVID-19 was full of unknowns, CEO Stella Crewse says it gave her an opportunity to make her business stronger. “This experience has given us the confidence that we will be able to continue operations seamlessly no matter what comes our way,” Stella says.

Stella’s company was already using digital tools when COVID-19 hit, but in recent months has realized how necessary they are. Her team uses G Suite to share documents and stay organized and video conferencing to stay connected. They’ve even used Google Maps to identify new sewer line paths without leaving the office in order to follow social distancing guidelines.

A new report, released today by the Connected Commerce Council in partnership with Google, shows how a “digital safety net” can serve as a support system for small businesses like Morgan Miller Plumbing, and helps to mitigate the negative business effects of COVID-19.

According to the report, practically all small businesses—93 percent—were disrupted by the pandemic, facing reduced customer demand and hours of operations as well as employee layoffs. Eighty-five percent of small businesses say COVID–19 made them rethink their approach to digital tools, allowing them to adapt.

The study also found that businesses that had a digital safety net in place and used a variety of digital tools—like digital ads, digital payments, data analytics and customer insights tools—not only felt better prepared, but also experienced dramatically better business outcomes, expecting less than a quarter of the revenue reduction compared to their digitally unprepared counterparts. And states with a higher share of digitally prepared businesses anticipate better revenue outcomes in 2020.

Drivers business index v. Projected revenue loss SMBs

This research also found that small business leaders of color have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic and are roughly half as likely as white-run businesses to have received aid through public loans for their business needs. Businesses that have remained open despite a lack of funding attribute their resilience to embracing technology.

The crisis expedited digital momentum for small businesses: Nearly three-in-four increased their use of digital tools, particularly video conferencing, over the last five months. But not all American small- and medium-sized businesses have a digital safety net. To best serve the needs of every business, we’re introducing new Grow with Google lessons, helping business owners learn how to build an online presence, find more customers, sell online or work remotely. The content varies from two-minute tutorial videos to live workshops, and ranges from beginner level to advanced, so every business can find what they need to become more prepared.

On the Google for Small Business website, business owners can find personalized Google product recommendations for their business, as well as helpful tips and practical guides to help small businesses get the most of these tools.

And to reach even more small businesses, Grow with Google is partnering with SCORE and the International Downtown Association(iDA) to complete a series of affordable and easily accessible Grow with Google workshops for 50,000 small businesses across the U.S. We will continue our partnerships with more than 7,500 organizations to bring virtual training events to local communities across the country.

With this plan, we’re hopeful we’ll be able to help more leaders like Stella acquire the digital skills they need to help their business recover and grow moving forward.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Get more out of Google Meet with these tips

With a lot more of our lives happening on video, you might have discovered more ways for things to go wrong during a call. Shaky camera, bad lighting—remember that time you could only understand every third word someone was saying?

With Google Meet, there are lots of ways to make video meetings and calls with loved ones more enjoyable and productive (and maybe even a little more fun). Here are a few tips and features that can help you avoid some common mistakes, and get even more out of Meet.

See and be seen with tiled layout for larger calls

Getting your colleagues together for a team video call? Or maybe you’ve organized a virtual trivia night with family or friends. It’s easy to see everyone’s face at the same time, as Meet enables you to see 16 participants simultaneously alongside any content that’s being presented. Changing the view when using Meet on the web is easy: click the three dots in the lower-right of the screen; in the Change layoutbox, select Tiled. (We’re planning to add more improvements here, including letting you see up to 49 participants at once and adding self-view to your tiled layout.)

Tile presentation on Meet — Easily see other participants while someone is presenting.

Think about lighting and check your background

Did you know that when using Google Meet on your phone, your video is now automatically enhanced to adapt to low-light conditions? That way you can take a video call from anywhere, even with suboptimal lighting, without worrying that others on the call won’t be able to see you. To improve the way others see you even more, be sure to:

Face the brightest light in the room (and be sure not to have bright light behind you).
If you have a light source you can point in a specific direction, try aiming it at the wall behind the camera. And turn on overhead lights if you have them.
Try to keep your camera at or slightly above eye level, so others don’t feel like they’re looking up at you. And make sure your laptop is on a steady surface.
Consider your background. Choose one that isn’t distracting—and matches your personality and mood. (In the coming months, we’ll make it easy to blur your background or replace it with an image of your choice).

Join a meeting from Gmail

You don’t need to navigate away from your Gmail inbox to join or start a meeting. Just click “Start a meeting” or “Join a meeting” directly from the sidebar in Gmail. Once there, you can invite more people to join. (For help, read this article.)

Have a quiet chat

Sometimes you might have a question during a video call but don’t want to interrupt the speaker. Or you might just want to share a document, meeting notes or a link with meeting participants. You can send messages or links to other video call participants with Google Meet’s chat feature. Just click the chat icon in the upper right corner of the meeting screen (if you’re working from your computerthe icon will be near the middle of your screen if you’re using your phone), enter your message, and click the “send” icon at the bottom right of the chat window.

Poor network connection? We hear you

Even with Meet’s new noise cancellation feature, a poor network connection or outdated hardware can make it hard to hear what others are saying. For G Suite customers, Meet lets you use your phone for audio while still using your computer’s camera and web browser to share and see video and presentations in the meeting. This can be done by dialing into the call directly or by having Meet call your phone directly. If you’re in a meeting, click More options (three dots on the lower right of your screen), then Use a phone for audio. Click Call me, enter your phone number, click Call me again, and then press 1 on your phone when prompted.

Other ways to improve the quality of your audio—and your meeting—include:

Using a wired Internet connection in case your WiFi is congested.
Using a wired headset (or, at the very least, earbuds) to capture higher quality audio and reduce external noise.
Muting yourself when you’re not speaking, especially in a larger meeting.
Taking your call in a room with carpets, drapery and soft furnishings to help reduce reverberation.

Show only what you want

When presenting with Meet, you can choose to show your entire screen, a specific window, or a Chrome tab. When you’re in a video meeting, click Present now in the bottom right corner, and choose one of the three options. When you share a Chrome tab, you share that tab’s audio by default. It’s a great way to share a high-quality video without audio lag or graininess. (Learn more in the Meet Help Center.)

Present a tab in Meet — Present high-quality video and audio by sharing a Chrome tab.

For more tips on using Google Meet, visit the Meet training and help center.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Building G Suite Add-ons with your favorite tech stack

Posted by Jon Harmer, Product Manager and Steven Bazyl, Developer Advocate for G Suite

Let’s talk about the basics of G Suite Add-ons. G Suite Add-ons simplify how users get things done in G Suite by bringing in functionality from other applications where you need them. They provide a persistent sidebar for quick access, and they are context-aware -- meaning they can react to what you’re doing in context. For example, a CRM add-on can automatically surface details about a sales opportunity in response to an email based on the recipients or even the contents of the message itself.

Up until recently, G Suite Add-ons leaned on Apps Script to build Add-ons, but choice is always a good thing, and in some cases you may want to use another scripting language.. So let’s talk about how to build Add-ons using additional runtimes:

First, additional runtimes don't add any new capabilities to what you can build. What it does give you is more choice and flexibility in how you build Add-ons. We’ve heard feedback from developers that they would also like the option to use the tools and ecosystems they’ve already learned and invested in. And while there have always been ways to bridge Apps Script and other backends that expose APIs over HTTP/S, it isn't the cleanest of workarounds. .

So let’s look at a side by side comparison of what it looks like to build an Add-on with alternate runtimes:

function homePage() {
  let card = CardService.newCardBuilder()
    .addSection(CardService.newCardSection()
      .addWidget(CardService.newTextParagraph()
        .setText("Hello world"))
    ).build();
  return [card];
}

Here’s the hello world equivalent of an Add-on in Apps Script. Since Apps Script is more akin to a serverless framework like GCF, the code is straightforward -- a function that takes an event and returns the UI to render.

// Hello world Node.js
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

app.post('/home', (req, res) => {
  let card = {
    sections: [{
      widgets: [{
        textParagraph: {
          text: 'Hello world'
        }
      }]
    }]
  };
  res.json({
    action: {
      navigations: [{
        pushCard:  card
      }]
    }
  });
}

This is the equivalent in NodeJS using express, a popular web server framework. It shows a little bit more of the underlying mechanics -- working with the HTTP request/response directly, starting the server, and so on.

The biggest difference is the card markup -- instead of using CardService, which under the covers builds a protobuf, we're using the JSON representation of the same thing.

function getCurrentMessage(event) {
  var accessToken = event.messageMetadata.accessToken;
  var messageId = event.messageMetadata.messageId;
  GmailApp.setCurrentMessageAccessToken(accessToken);
  return GmailApp.getMessageById(messageId);
}

Another area where things differ is accessing Google APis. In Apps Script, the clients are available in the global context -- the APIs mostly 'just work'. Moving to Node requires a little more effort, but not much.

Apps Script is super easy here. In fact, normally we wouldn't bother with setting the token when using more permissive scopes as it's done for us by Apps Script. We're doing it here to take advantage of the per-message scope that the add-on framework provides.

const { google } = require('googleapis');
const { OAuth2Client } = require('google-auth-library');
const gmail  = google.gmail({ version: 'v1' });

async function fetchMessage(event) {
    const accessToken = event.gmail.accessToken;
    const auth = new OAuth2Client();
    auth.setCredentials({access_token: accessToken});

    const messageId = event.gmail.messageId;
    const res = await gmail.users.messages.get({
        id: messageId,
        userId: 'me',
        headers: { 'X-Goog-Gmail-Access-Token': event.gmail.accessToken },
        auth
    });
    return res.data;
}

The NodeJS version is very similar -- a little extra code to import the libraries, but otherwise the same -- extract the message ID and token from the request, set the credentials, then call the API to get the message contents.

Your Add-on, Your way

One of the biggest wins for alternate runtimes is the testability that comes with using your favorite IDE, language, and framework--all of which helps you make developing add-ons more approachable.

Both Apps Script and alternate runtimes for G Suite Add-ons have important places in building Add-ons. If you’re getting into building Add-ons or if you want to prototype more complex ones, Apps Script is a good choice.. If you write and maintain systems as your full time job, though, alternate runtimes allow you to use those tools to build your Add-on, letting you leverage work, code and processes that you’re already using. With alternate runtimes for G Suite Add-ons, we want to make it possible for you to extend G Suite in a way that fits your needs using whatever tools you're most comfortable with.

And don't just take our word for it, hear from one of our early access partners. Shailesh Matariya, CTO at Gfacility has this to say about alternate runtimes: "We're really happy to use alternate runtimes in G Suite Add-ons. The results have been great and it's much easier to maintain the code. Historically, it would take 4-5 seconds to load data in our Add-on, whereas with alternate runtimes it's closer to 1 second, and that time and efficiency really adds up. Not to mention performance, we're seeing about a 50% performance increase and thanks to this our users are able to manage their workflows with just a few clicks, without having to jump to another system and deal with the hassle of constant updates."

Next Steps

Read the developer documentation for Alternate Runtimes and sign up for the early access program.

Source: Google Developers Blog

Building G Suite Add-ons with your favorite tech stack

Posted by Jon Harmer, Product Manager and Steven Bazyl, Developer Advocate for G Suite

So let’s look at a side by side comparison of what it looks like to build an Add-on with alternate runtimes:

function homePage() {
  let card = CardService.newCardBuilder()
    .addSection(CardService.newCardSection()
      .addWidget(CardService.newTextParagraph()
        .setText("Hello world"))
    ).build();
  return [card];
}

// Hello world Node.js
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

app.post('/home', (req, res) => {
  let card = {
    sections: [{
      widgets: [{
        textParagraph: {
          text: 'Hello world'
        }
      }]
    }]
  };
  res.json({
    action: {
      navigations: [{
        pushCard:  card
      }]
    }
  });
}

The biggest difference is the card markup -- instead of using CardService, which under the covers builds a protobuf, we're using the JSON representation of the same thing.

function getCurrentMessage(event) {
  var accessToken = event.messageMetadata.accessToken;
  var messageId = event.messageMetadata.messageId;
  GmailApp.setCurrentMessageAccessToken(accessToken);
  return GmailApp.getMessageById(messageId);
}

const { google } = require('googleapis');
const { OAuth2Client } = require('google-auth-library');
const gmail  = google.gmail({ version: 'v1' });

async function fetchMessage(event) {
    const accessToken = event.gmail.accessToken;
    const auth = new OAuth2Client();
    auth.setCredentials({access_token: accessToken});

    const messageId = event.gmail.messageId;
    const res = await gmail.users.messages.get({
        id: messageId,
        userId: 'me',
        headers: { 'X-Goog-Gmail-Access-Token': event.gmail.accessToken },
        auth
    });
    return res.data;
}

Your Add-on, Your way

One of the biggest wins for alternate runtimes is the testability that comes with using your favorite IDE, language, and framework--all of which helps you make developing add-ons more approachable.

Next Steps

Read the developer documentation for Alternate Runtimes and sign up for the early access program.

Source: Google Developers Blog

The Anywhere School: 50+ Google for Education updates

In the midst of all the change and uncertainty in the world over the past several months, the education community has never wavered in its commitment to learning and supporting students. At Google, we’re honored to work on tools that lighten the load for teachers, school leaders, families, and especially the students who have navigated learning from home with grace and resilience.

As educators worldwide have reinvented their practice online, we’re also adapting our tools to meet the evolving needs of their new educational landscape. This year, we’re taking a virtual approach to “back to school” with The Anywhere School, bringing Google for Education announcements to hundreds of thousands of viewers in more than 250 countries around the world.

Inspired by your feedback, we’re sharing over 50 new features across Meet, Classroom, G Suite and other products. Check out our other posts for deeper dives into the features, and continue to watch the keynote sessions, which are running live for the next 24 hours and will be available on demand if you need to catch up later. Here’s a birds-eye view of what’s coming.

A safer, more engaging Meet experience

Earlier this year, we announced new features coming to Google Meet to improve moderation and engagement. Today, we’re sharing more details about these upcoming launches and when they’ll be available. Here are a few highlights:

In September, we’ll kick off with a larger tiled view of up to 49 people and an integrated Jamboard whiteboard for collaboration. We’ll also release new controls so moderators can choose to always join first, end meetings for all participants, disable in-meeting chat, and much more.
In October, we’ll launch custom and blurred backgrounds to provide some extra privacy. Breakout rooms and attendance tracking will also be launching for all Google Enterprise for Education customers, allowing for more engaged classes and insights on participation.
Later this year, we’re rolling out hand raising for all customers and Q&A and polling for G Suite Enterprise for Education customers. Plus, we’ll launch a new temporary recordings feature which will be available to all Education customers for free (premium recordings will still be part of G Suite Enterprise for Education).

Better support for students, educators and admins in Classroom

With more teachers around the world using Classroom more than ever before, we’re working to make Classroom simpler and more efficient with new features.

A new to-do widget on the Classes page will help students see what’s coming up, what’s missing, and what’s been graded.
Teachers can now share a link to invite students to their class, which makes joining a class much easier.
Classroom will soon be available in 10 additional languages, for 54 languages total.

Classroom also gives you access to originality reports, which are now better than ever. For example, educators can soon run originality reports five times per course (up from three previously). And with G Suite Enterprise for Education, educators will be able to see matches for potential plagiarism not only against webpages, but between student submissions at their school.

We’re giving admins more powerful tools to manage G Suite and Classroom. For example, school leaders with Enterprise licenses will have greater visibility into Classroom usage via new Data Studio dashboards, which allow admins to see active classes, measure feature adoption, and monitor teacher and student engagement. To support teachers and admins, we’re making it easier to sync Classroom grades with a push to your Student Information System (SIS), starting with Infinite Campus customers (and more SIS to come). Keep reading for more details on what’s new in Classroom.

Enhance your learning management system with Assignments

Our newest product for non-Classroom users is Assignments, an application for your learning management system (LMS) that gives educators a faster, simpler way to distribute, analyze and grade student work. This time-saving application helps educators automatically create and distribute personalized copies of classwork to each student's Google Drive folder, quickly provide feedback, and keep grading consistent and transparent with originality reports. Assignments is compatible with any LMS that supports LTI 1.1 and higher such as Canvas, Schoology, Blackboard and more.

Help students turn in their best work with Docs

We recently launched SmartCompose and Auto Correct in Docs for educators and students. This will help them compose high-quality content faster by cutting back on repetitive writing, while reducing the chance of spelling and grammatical errors (by the end of this month, admins will be able to disable both SmartCompose and Auto Correct if they choose). Soon we’re also launching citations so students can format and manage their sources directly in Docs. With the citations tool, after adding the relevant attributes for a source, students can insert formatted in-text citations or a bibliography.

New resources and tools that continue to support families

As many parents and guardians supported their childrens’ learning from home this year, we heard about a big need for more resources and training for families on Google’s tools. To help, we’ve created the Tech Toolkit for Families and Guardians, which helps parents better understand the technology that their kids use in the classroom. Plus, we’ve added school accounts to Chrome OS so students can access Classroom and their school files while having the safety net of Family Link. We’re sharing many more product updates for families here.

Finally, educators can find free training, resources, and professional development programs like the new Certified Coach program to support them as they use these tools and features in their classroom in the new Teacher Center.

Moving forward together

There’s so much more to share with you about what’s coming to Google for Education, and we encourage you to take some time to watch the keynote sessions from The Anywhere School event for all the updates.

Most importantly, thank you for your partnership. We’re grateful for the insights you’ve shared with us, and we’ll continue to evolve our products to meet the unique needs of this moment. By working together, we can provide students with the education they deserve, no matter where it’s taking place.