Author Archives: Jane Smith

Easily copy your Gmail holds to Hangouts Chat in Google Vault

What’s changing

As we previously announced, beginning on April 16, 2019, Mail retention rules and holds will stop protecting chat messages in classic Hangouts. Instead, Hangouts Chat retention rules and holds will protect chat messages in both classic Hangouts and Chat. To continue to preserve messages in classic Hangouts, before April 16, 2019, you must copy any existing Mail holds (that apply to messages in classic Hangouts) to Hangouts Chat in Google Vault. Today, we’re launching a new feature in Vault to help you copy your holds from Mail to Hangouts Chat, with a few clicks.

Who’s impacted

Vault Admins only

Why you’d use it

This feature helps you ensure all your messages in classic Hangouts and Hangouts Chat are preserved by the same Vault policies as your classic Hangouts messages are today.

How to get started

Admins: In Vault,
  • From the list of Vault matters, click on any matter that may contain Gmail holds. When viewing the list of holds in this matter, you can select multiple Mail holds at once.
  • Select the Mail hold(s) and click Copy holds to Hangouts Chat.


End users: No action required

Additional details

Note that Hangouts Chat doesn’t support holds based on date ranges or search terms, so they won’t be copied with the hold. You can also choose to extend these holds to cover conversations associated with these custodians in rooms.

Additionally, if you have a large number of holds in place, you can also use Vault APIs to duplicate your holds in bulk.

Helpful links

Availability

Rollout details

G Suite editions
  • Available to G Suite Business, Enterprise, and Enterprise for Education editions, as well as G Suite users with the Vault add-on license.

On/off by default?
  • This feature will be ON by default.
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Change to per-conversation settings in classic Hangouts on Android

Quick launch summary

We're moving notification settings for classic Hangouts conversations to notification channels on O+ Android devices. With these changes, customized ring tones and chat messaging tones per conversation/contact will be removed and defaulted to the general app settings.

New settings page

To view or edit the ring and chat messaging tone settings for classic Hangouts on your Android device, open the classic Hangouts app and, in a conversation, click the more menu > “Options.”

Availability

Rollout details



G Suite editions

  • All G Suite editions


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Google Drive and Google Docs available in Burmese and Welsh

Quick launch summary 

We’re expanding our language offerings in Docs, Sheets, Slides, new Sites, Forms, and Drive on web to include Burmese and Welsh.

Here’s how to change your display language:

  • Open your Google Account 
  • Click Data and Personalization 
  • Scroll down to the General preferences for the web panel 
  • Click Language 
  • Select Edit 
  • Choose your language from the dropdown box and click Select. 

Availability 

Available for Drive on February 13, 2019.
Available for Docs on February 19, 2019.

G Suite editions 
Available to all G Suite Editions.

On/off by default? 
This feature will be ON by default for users who have their Google language preference set as Burmese or Welsh.

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Easily refresh Salesforce data in Sheets

What’s changing 

You now have the option to refresh the Salesforce data populated in Sheets using the Salesforce data connector. You can refresh this data manually or schedule the data to be refreshed.

Currently, the Salesforce data connector for Sheets gets data from reports or imports when the sidebar is opened and has been configured. In order to get updated data, users would need to go through the same configuration steps in the sidebar.

Who’s impacted 

End Users

Why you’d use it 

If you use Salesforce to track important conversations with key leads, you can make sure this data is consistently fresh by scheduling a refresh rather than reimporting the Salesforce data.

If your Sales team uses the add-on to import details of their accounts from Salesforce into Sheets, they can schedule this data to refresh daily or even multiple times a day to stay on top of the current data.

How to get started 

Admins: No action needed.
End users: Here’s how to refresh your Salesforce Data in Sheets:

  1. Open the Data connector from Salesforce Add-On and select Refresh. 
  2. Select Manual Refresh to refresh the current data on your sheet or Auto Refresh to schedule a refresh every 4, 8, or 24 hours. 
  3. Review your selections and select Create. 

Helpful links 

Availability 

Rollout details 
G Suite editions 
  • Available to all G Suite Editions.

On/off by default? 
  • This feature will be ON by default.
Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Easily take action in Gmail with new right-click context menu options

What’s changing

We’re adding more options to the right-click context menu in Gmail.
New menu options in Gmail with conversation mode on

New menu options in Gmail with conversation mode off


Who’s impacted

All end users

Why you’d use it

With these new options, you can take even more actions, directly from a message, in your inbox such as:

  • Reply to, or forward, an email in one click from the main page
  • Search for all emails from a sender
  • Search for all emails with the same subject (if conversation view is turned off)
  • Open multiple emails in multiple new windows at the same time
  • Easily add a label or move an email 

How to get started


  • Admins: No action necessary.
  • End users: The context menu can be opened by:
    • Right-click
    • Ctrl+click on Mac keyboards
    • The menu key on Windows keyboards.

Availability

Rollout details


G Suite editions

  • Available to all G Suite editions

On/off by default?

  • This feature will be ON by default.

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Manage workflows and automate processes with the new Google Docs API

What's changing

With the new Docs API, there are more ways to build services that better support your business and improve your workflows. For documents that require consistency, collaboration, and accuracy — like invoices, proposals, contracts, and reports — the API will help automate common word processing tasks with the real-time editing and collaboration of Docs.

Who’s impacted 

Developers 

Why you’d use it 

Some ways you could use this API are: 
  • Create documents automatically 
    •  Use the Docs API to automate document creation, like creating all of the blank invoices you need for a particular quarter with a single click. Documents that require a template, like legal documents or contracts, can be automated based on user input and monitored with the API as well. 
  • Manage workflows 
    • Use the Docs API to add user or system-provided data to a document at various stages of a process. Programmatic edits to the same document over time, or to multiple documents at once, can simplify your workflows. 
  • Sync with your content management systems 
    •  From internal wikis to blog content, you can import and export document details seamlessly between Google Docs your employees are editing and your content management systems. For example, publishing platforms can now allow their customers to compose and collaborate in Docs to drive content to their sites. 

How to get started 

For more information and how to get started, see the Docs API developer site. 

Additional details 


The Docs API will round out a complete set of APIs across all G Suite editor applications along with the Sheets API and the Slides API. 


Helpful links 

Availability 

G Suite editions 
Available immediately to all G Suite editions. 

On/off by default? 
The API is available and accessible by default to all G Suite users.

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Refresh BigQuery data in Sheets using Apps Script and Macros

What's changing

Recently we launched the BigQuery data connector to allow users to easily import data from larger datasets into Sheets. Now, you can use tools like Apps Script and the macro recorder to schedule automatic updates within Sheets to the connected BigQuery data.

Who’s impacted 

End Users

Why you’d use it 

Stay on top of the latest and greatest data critical to your business by automatically refreshing the BigQuery data in your sheet.

For example, you can set sales data to automatically refresh so that it’s ready for analysis at the beginning of each day. You can also auto-update data in preparation for key meetings or presentations that occur on a weekly or monthly basis. Or you could set a trigger to auto-update your data each time you open the spreadsheet.

How to get started 

  • Admins: No action required. 
  • End users: Here’s how to schedule a refresh on the data pulled in by the BigQuery data connector: 
    1. Record a macro to refresh your data 
      •  On your computer, open a spreadsheet that contains data connected to BigQuery in Google Sheets. 
      • Record a macro from a different tab then the one you want to refresh. 
      • After you start recording, switch to the tab you want to refresh. 
      • At the bottom left, click Refresh. 
      • Click Save.
    2. Schedule your macro 
      •  At the top, click Tools > Script editor. 
      • At the top, click Edit > Current project’s triggers. 
      • At the bottom right, click Add trigger and select your options. 
      • Click Save. 

Additional details 

For key permissions for the BigQuery data connector see here.
As always, use sharing permissions to control who can view, edit or share your data.

Helpful links 

Availability 

  • Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 5, 2019. 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Full Rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) starting on February 19, 2019. 
G Suite editions 
  • Available to G Suite Business, G Suite Enterprise, G Suite for Education, G Suite Enterprise for Education, and Drive Enterprise. 
  • Not available to G Suite Basic and G Suite for Nonprofits 

On/off by default? 
  • This feature will be ON by default.

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Additional Thai fonts available in Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Quick launch summary

We’ve expanded our font offerings for Thai users in Docs, Sheets, and Slides by adding several fonts that are part of the Thai “National Fonts” collection. This collection of fonts has been distributed and used by the Government of Thailand as public and official fonts since 2007. We updated the collection so that it could be part of Google Fonts in 2019.

The complete list of new fonts is below:
  • Bai Jamjuree 
  • Chakra Petch 
  • Charm 
  • Charmonman 
  • Fah Kwang 
  • K2D 
  • KoHo 
  • Kodchasan 
  • Krub 
  • Mali 
  • Niramit 
  • Sarabun 
  • Srisakdi 
These updated fonts are now available in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides with modern OpenType technology, expanded weights and more harmonious designs between Latin and Thai scripts.

These fonts will be made default in the drop down menu for users who have their Google language preference set as Thai.

G Suite editions
Available to all G Suite Editions.
    Stay up to date with G Suite launches

    Whitelist trusted apps for your domain to ensure apps work properly

    What’s changing 

    To give end users more granular control over what account data they choose to share with each app, we’re changing how users give apps permissions to access their information. See our Google Developers blog post for more details on what’s changing. These changes may impact how well an app functions should a user choose not to provide certain permissions.

    As a result, we recommend that G Suite admins whitelist apps they trust and want their users to be able to use.

    Who’s impacted 

    Admins only

    Why you’d whitelist apps 


    Whitelisting an app means admins assign permissions at the domain level, and that end users don’t have to make choices on permissions for those apps. By whitelisting apps admins can ensure apps have the permissions they need to work properly.

    How to get started 

    Helpful links 


    Help Center: Whitelisting connected apps 

    Availability 


    Rollout details 
    Different apps will implement updated app permission controls at various times over the next several months. Some apps will make this change immediately, but the most commonly used apps will implement them after April 2019. To minimize disruption, we recommend admins whitelist trusted apps before April.
    G Suite editions 
    Available to all G Suite editions.
    On/off by default? 
    Whitelisting apps is OFF by default. Apps can be enabled at the domain level.
    Stay up to date with G Suite launches