See info about your contacts easily in Gmail on iOS

What’s changing

To help you find more information about someone you are interacting with on your mobile phone, you can now simply tap on their profile picture in Conversation View on Gmail on iOS to see their contact information in more detail. You’ll be able to see information such as:

  • Their email address
  • Their phone number
  • Interactions such as emails and Calendar invitations

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

Gmail iOS recently launched a brand new mobile redesign, which provided Gmail users with a new look and feel to help you get things done faster. This new redesign also highlights the importance of avatars, and how many users use these to find more information about people they are interacting with.

How to get started


  • Admins: No action required.
  • End users: In Conversation View on Gmail on iOS, simply tap on someone’s profile picture to see their contact information in more detail.

Additional details

If your organization enters information such as office location and reporting chain in users’ profiles, you’ll also be able to see this information when you click on their profile picture.

Pro Tip: if you are trying to find an upcoming meeting with someone in your organization, the Interactions tab will show you upcoming Calendar events too.

Availability

Rollout details

  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 4, 2019
  • Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 4, 2019

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

See OS version for devices with basic mobile management

What’s changing 

Admins will be able to see the operating system (OS) version for devices with basic mobile management. Previously, this information was only available for devices with advanced mobile management.

Who’s impacted 

Admins only

Why you’d use it 

OS version is an important piece of information for assessing device security. This is because devices with older OS versions may not receive all security patches and can be more prone to threats. With visibility into the OS versions used by more devices in your organization, you can better understand potential security vulnerabilities and take actions to make sure devices with access to corporate data are using OS versions you see as appropriate.

How to get started 

  • Admins: To see OS version for basic devices, go to Admin console > Device Management > Devices
  • End users: No action needed. 


Additional details 

Admins will be able to see OS information in several places:

  1. On the devices list page (Admin console > Device Management > Devices) in the OS column. Previously this would have been blank for basic devices. On this page, admins will be able to filter devices with a specific OS to find devices with specific vulnerabilities or see what impact an OS update policy may have. 
  2. In the device detail page for each device. 
  3. In the audit logs at Admin console > Reports > Devices. Note that this is only available to G Suite Business, G Suite Enterprise, and G Suite Enterprise for Education domains. 


See and filter by OS version in the devices list view 

Helpful links 

Help Center: Set up basic mobile device management 

Availability 

Rollout details 

  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 4, 2019. 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 4, 2019. 

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

Dev Channel Update for Chrome OS

The Dev channel has been updated to 75.0.3753.0 (Platform version: 12029.0.0) for most Chrome OS devices. This build contains a number of bug fixes, security updates and feature enhancements.

If you find new issues, please let us know by visiting our forum or filing a bug. Interested in switching channels? Find out how. You can submit feedback using ‘Report an issue...’ in the Chrome menu (3 vertical dots in the upper right corner of the browser).


Bernie Thompson

Google Chrome

Cloud Covered: What was new with Google Cloud in March

March came in with a roar here at Google Cloud, with the start of the NCAA’s annual college basketball tournament and an exciting Pi Day. We’re looking forward to cloud’s annual conference next week: Google Cloud Next, where thousands of attendees will come to San Francisco to discuss all things cloud, learn new skills, and network with peers. Read on for more of what was new last month in Google Cloud.

Try a slice of ?, made fresh in the cloud.
Every year on March 14, mathematicians (and those of us who love pie) celebrate Pi Day, marking the first three digits of ?, or 3.14, the number that goes on forever. This might sound familiar from elementary school math classes, but calculating pi digits is still alive and well. One Google Cloud developer, Emma Haruka Iwao, fulfilled her longtime dream on March 14, 2019 and calculated 31.4 trillion digits of pi, earning a Guinness World Record in the process. It was also the first time the world record was broken using cloud computing, which allowed the complex calculations to run continuously and reliably over several months. Using the power of Google Cloud to calculate pi also means the results are now publicly accessible to developers worldwide (unlike in pre-cloud days, when results had to be shipped on physical hard drives). You can explore more here. And at the Google Cloud Next conference, Emma will give a technical deep-dive on the details of how the record was broken.

Cloud shoots, and scores, with NCAA historical data.
Wrangling huge amounts of data is at the heart of what Google Cloud Platform (GCP) does. So our ongoing NCAA partnership makes a lot of sense considering their collected 80-plus years worth of basketball data. Last year, we made real-time predictions and insights during the games using GCP to analyze data, and this year we’ll invite student developers to join in. For this year’s tournament, we added new online classes to help developers explore NCAA data using our data analysis and machine learning tools.

Google Cloud powers gamers around the world.
At this year's Game Developers Conference, Google Cloud unveiled how it is helping power some of the world's largest AAA games, including Apex Legends and Tom Clancy's The Division 2. Our global infrastructure helps ensure that players across the world connect and enjoy low-latency online game experiences together.

Climb every region, till you find your cloud.
Our newest GCP region opened last month in Zurich, Switzerland—there are now six GCP regions in Europe and 19 in total. A region is a Google Cloud geographic location where customers can store data and run applications using GCP. Having a region nearby with three zones means businesses gain faster access to data and higher availability.

Make your cloud knowledge official at Next ‘19.
The rate of change in technology is accelerating, and this is especially true of cloud technology. As a result, training has become essential to keep IT teams abreast of the latest technologies so they can build products for users. As cloud grows in popularity and complexity, cloud certifications have emerged, including GCP certifications, as a benchmark to identify skilled cloud architects, data engineers, cloud developers, security engineers and more. This year’s Google Cloud Next conference will offer six certification exam options.

That’s a wrap for this month. Keep up-to-date on Google Cloud news on the blog.

Stay organized and on-top of conversations with Hangouts Chat improvements

Quick launch summary 

We’re improving the side panel on Hangouts Chat, making it easier to keep track of your chats and stay organized.

In addition to Starred, you’ll now see the following sections in the left-hand side panel: People, Rooms, and Bots, with corresponding chats grouped accordingly. These sections will better organize your chats, making it easy to find specific chats and see where there are items that need attention. This feature will be available across web, desktop, iOS, and Android.


Hangouts Chat on desktop.


Hangouts Chat on Mobile

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

Gmail Smart Compose subject suggestions

What’s changing

Smart Compose can now make suggestions for the subject of your email.

Who’s impacted

End users.

Why you’d use it

Since we announced Gmail Smart Compose in G Suite last year, we’ve seen how Smart Compose suggestions can cut down on the effort it takes for you to write emails and replies. With subject suggestions, Smart Compose can now help you compose your subject line as well.

How to get started


  • Admins: No action required
  • End users: No action is required to begin seeing Smart Compose subject suggestions. When you write the body of your email and then place your cursor in the subject line, you may see Smart Compose suggesting a subject for your email.

Helpful links



Availability

Rollout details


G Suite editions

  • Available to all G Suite editions.

On/off by default?
Smart Compose subject suggestions is a part of Smart Compose, which is ON by default. Users can individually turn it on/off in their Gmail settings.

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Working together when we’re not together

As the manager of Google’s People Innovation Lab (PiLab) team, which researches making work better in and outside of Google, I regularly find myself performing what’s called “Distributed Work;” collaborating with teammates who aren’t based in San Francisco with me. It’s not unusual in a single day to be emailing with Googlers in Tokyo or Boulder for a quick chat or setting up weekly meetings via video chat with people in our New York offices. Coordinating these meetings can be difficult. Teammates in Asia often have to get up earlier than usual to join video chats and we try not to ask our East Coast colleagues to stay too far into their evening for meetings with the teams in Mountain View, California.

Outside of logistics, building relationships with teammates I don’t casually bump into in the hallway is a bit challenging. It feels natural to ask about after work plans or swap movie reviews when you’re meeting face to face, but it takes more effort to form that bond when you’re mostly seeing each other on a video screen.

With nearly 100,000 Googlers spread out over 150 cities in more than 50 countries, I suspected other teams face similar situations, and they are:

distributed_workforce_stats.jpg

In order to better understand the impact of distributed work, my team sent out a survey to 5000+ Googlers and held focus groups with about a hundred employees across the globe. We measured well-being, performance, and connectedness (among other things) and came up with recommendations on how to ensure that those things remain consistent, even if your team is spread out across the world.

What we found

We were happy to find no difference in the effectiveness, performance ratings,  or promotions for individuals and teams whose work requires collaboration with colleagues around the world versus Googlers who spend most of their day to day working with colleagues in the same office. Well-being standards were uniform across the board as well; Googlers or teams who work virtually find ways to prioritize a steady work-life balance by prioritizing important rituals like a healthy night’s sleep and exercise just as non-distributed team members do.

At the same time, we did hear from Googlers that working with colleagues across the globe can make it more difficult to establish connections—in many senses of the word. Coordinating schedules across time zones and booking a conference room for a video chat takes more logistical brain power than dropping by a coworkers desk for a meeting over coffee. The technology itself can also be limiting— glitchy video or faulty sound makes impromptu conversations that help teammates get to know, and trust each other, seem like more trouble than they’re worth.

Making teams feel more connected

We consolidated our findings and best practices for distributed work in a set of playbooks to share with Googlers andother companies, too. Here are our top three tips for making distributed work feel more connected and enjoyable:

  • Get to know each other as people:Instead of jumping right into an agenda, allow some time at the top of the meeting for an open-ended question, like “what did you do this weekend?” It’s an easy way to build remote connections and establish a rapport. We found managers leading by example and making an extra effort to get to know distributed team members can be extra impactful. 
  • Set boundaries: Instead of making assumptions about preferred working hours, take the time to ask your co-workers when they like to take meetings; some may opt for a certain time of day if given a choice or like to disconnect completely from their computers at other times.
  • Forge in-person and virtual connections: Sometimes it’s just easier to be face to face. Managers should provide clear guidelines and opportunities for team members to travel for in person meetings. On a video call, express reactions to coworkers ideas noticeably to indicate they’re being heard. When you do have the opportunity to meet for face to face interactions - take advantage in order to reinforce connections forged virtually.

As a manager of a distributed team, I’ve started to put these tips into action myself. I host virtual weekly lunches to create space for casual conversations between teammates and send weekly “Pi” (from PiLab) emails to share goals for the week, potential barriers to getting work done, wins or accomplishments, and an emoji to make it fun and personal. At Google, we're always looking to improve our practices to help Googlers do their best work, and hope this research will make it easier for teams to effectively and happily work together, no matter where they are based.

User experience improvements with page speed in mobile search

To help users find the answers to their questions faster, we included page speed as a ranking factor for mobile searches in 2018. Since then, we've observed improvements on many pages across the web. We want to recognize the performance improvements webmasters have made over the past year. A few highlights:

  • For the slowest one-third of traffic, we saw user-centric performance metrics improve by 15% to 20% in 2018. As a comparison, no improvement was seen in 2017.
  • We observed improvements across the whole web ecosystem. On a per country basis, more than 95% of countries had improved speeds.
  • When a page is slow to load, users are more likely to abandon the navigation. Thanks to these speed improvements, we've observed a 20% reduction in abandonment rate for navigations initiated from Search, a metric that site owners can now also measure via the Network Error Logging API available in Chrome.
  • In 2018, developers ran over a billion PageSpeed Insights audits to identify performance optimization opportunities for over 200 million unique urls.

Great work and thank you! We encourage all webmasters to optimize their sites’ user experience. If you're unsure how your pages are performing, the following tools and documents can be useful:

  1. PageSpeed Insights provides page analysis and optimization recommendations.
  2. Google Chrome User Experience Report provides the user experience metrics for how real-world Chrome users experience popular destinations on the web.
  3. Documentation on performance on Web Fundamentals.

For any questions, feel free to drop by our help forums (like the webmaster community) to chat with other experts.


Chrome Beta for Android Update

Hi everyone! We've just released Chrome Beta 74 (74.0.3729.61) for Android: it's now available on Google Play.

You can see a partial list of the changes in the Git log. For details on new features, check out the Chromium blog, and for details on web platform updates, check here.

If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug.

Krishna Govind
Google Chrome

Dev Channel Update for Desktop

The dev channel has been updated to 75.0.3753.4 for Windows, Mac & Linux.


A partial list of changes is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.
Srinivas Sista
Google Chrome