Tag Archives: Admin Console

Google Meet add-ons are now available on Android devices

What’s changing 

We’re expanding access to Google Meet add-ons, now to Android devices, so you can find, install, and use third and first-party applications right from within the Meet app. Meet add-ons were already available on desktop devices. Expansion to Android devices gives users more flexibility in accessing third-party apps while they’re using Meet on the go. Meet add-ons on Android devices can be found in the “Activities” panel, where you typically see features like polls and Q&A. If you have desktop add-ons that are not currently available on mobile, they’ll be categorized as “Unavailable.”

Add-ons in the activity panel




Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • The visibility of add-ons is controlled by the supplemental add-on setting, which has separate toggles for the visibility of Google add-ons and featured third-party add-ons. You can review your configuration by going to Apps > Google Workspace > Settings for Google Meet > Meet video settings.

    • Important note: this setting governs add-on availability for both the desktop and Android app. How you configure this setting will determine what types of add-ons your users will see. If you turn these settings off, they will not see any add-ons.

    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about the supplemental add-ons setting for Google Meet. 



The supplemental add-ons setting in the Admin console
  • End users: Depending on how your admin has configured your experience, you may or may not be able to access add-ons in Google Meet using your Android device. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using add-ons with Google Meet.

Rollout pace*

*We will eventually add the “Featured” category and “Get add-ons” (plus sign) button to align with the desktop experience. We'll share more info on the Workspace Updates blog when available.

Gemini for Workspace usage reports are now available in Admin console

What’s changing 

Starting today, we’re introducing Gemini for Workspace usage reports in the Admin console. This report gives admins an overarching view of how Gemini is being used in their organization, specifically: 
  • Assigned Gemini licenses, 
  • Active Gemini users, 
  • And the number of users who are using Gemini over time.


Gemini usage reports in the Admin console


These reports will help admins understand how many users are using Gemini features and make informed decisions about expanding Gemini further within their organizations. We plan to introduce more reporting features over time, such as the ability to filter these reports by Organizational Units and Groups.


Additional details

Admins can access these reports via admin  console under Menu > Generative AI > Gemini reports. Visit the Help Center to learn more about reviewing Gemini usage in your organization.


Getting started

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available for Google Workspace customers with the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons.
We plan to introduce Gemini reports for the Gemini Education and Gemini Premium add-ons in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to the Workspace Updates blog for more information. 

Personal information cards and Contacts sidebar will now display the organization name

What’s changing

Starting May 28, 2024, the organization name and department will be displayed on personal information cards and in the Contacts sidebar. This information provides helpful context about the people you’re interacting with and displaying this additional information will help you learn more about who you’re collaborating with, and more.



Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • Admins can populate user data via the Admin console or via the Admin SDK API with the list and update commands. You can also visit the Help Center to learn more about adding information to a user’s Directory profile. 
    • Important note: Some customers may have set both organization name and organization department for their users, where department includes the organization name. We have notified impacted customers via email, but we recommend that you check your settings and update your users’ organization department to prevent duplicate organization names from showing. You can do this via the Admin console or via the Admin SDK API with the list and update commands.

  • End users: End users: You can view this information within Google Contacts (contacts.google.com), while hovering over a user, or from the Contacts sidebar.

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available for all Google Workspace customers

Resources

Introducing audit logs for these API-based actions

What’s changing

Drive log events provide admins with visibility into their organization’s user activity in Drive. Previously, download activity for files triggered by the use of Google Workspace APIs was not visible to admins as a Drive log event. 

Today, we’re adding audit logs for these API-based actions to the security investigation tool and the audit and investigation tool to expand upon an admin’s ability to identify, triage, and take action on security and privacy issues in their domain. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace

  • This feature is now available 


Availability

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Starter, Standard, Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard, Plus 
  • Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus 
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

Filter, sort, and display your Google Meet hardware devices by product service status

What’s changing 

You can currently filter, sort, and display your Google Meet hardware devices by whether they are online, offline, or experiencing an application load-failure. Today, we’re expanding these parameters to include whether the Calendar and Jamboard services are turned OFF. 


The connection between your Meet hardware devices and these two Google products are critical for connecting and collaborating. Allowing admins to filter for devices that match this criteria will help them identify potential gaps in hardware devices and product configurations, which they can quickly rectify. 


For example, if Calendar is turned off on a Google Meet hardware device, it will no longer show the upcoming meeting list when booked for a meeting. Having the Jamboard* service turned off means that the Desk 27 and Board 65 devices will no longer be able to launch Jamboard directly on the device. These services may have been previously turned off in error, and this new capability allows admins to correct it, making the services available again to their users. Note that Jamboard 55-inch devices are not impacted.

You can filter your devices by going to Menu > Devices > Google Meet hardware > Devices > “Device status” and then select the criteria to filter by.

Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices

Resources

*Jamboard will no longer be on these devices starting October 1, 2024. Learn more about whiteboarding in Workspace here.


Set the default camera framing option for Google Meet hardware devices, and other framing updates

What’s changing

We’re introducing several updates around framing controls for Google Meet hardware devices:


First, we’re introducing an admin setting which will allow admins to choose a default framing option for their meeting spaces, ensuring every meeting begins with an optimally configured view. This will help your users jump right into their meetings without having to re-adjust camera settings from the previous meeting. This can be set individually for each device or via the bulk updates across your fleet.

Setting the default camera framing option in the Admin console




Next, we’re adding framing support on whiteboards (Series One Desk 27 and Board 65) and remote controlled only Google Meet hardware devices, which will help ensure optimal camera framing on these devices.


Remote control framing user interfaceWhiteboard framing user interface




Finally, we’re making a few small adjustments to how camera framing settings appear on hardware devices. For Meet on Android, we’re removing the “Continuous framing” toggles and replacing them with a “Framing by” toggle. Depending on the third-party devices you’re using, you’ll see “Framing by Logitech”,“Framing by Huddly” or “Framing by Poly”, for example. We’re also changing the “Home” button to “Reset to default”.
Updated camera framing settings on Meet hardware devices



Getting started

  • Admins: You can configure default camera framing options for individual Google Meet hardware devices by going to Devices > Google Meet hardware > [Device Name] > Device Settings > Default camera framing. Or you can set the default camera framing option for multiple devices at once. 
  • End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about using device-based framing and using the Meet the touchscreen to control audio and video.

Rollout pace

  • Whiteboard and remote control device support
    • Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 14, 2024

  • Admin control:
    • Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 21, 2024

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers

Resources


Block compromised mobile devices using context-aware access

What’s changing 

Using context-aware access, you now have the option to automatically block access to Google Workspace data from compromised Android and iOS devices. A device may be counted as compromised if certain unusual events are detected, including devices that are jailbroken, bypassing of security controls, modification of restricted settings, and more.

Creating a new rule to block compromised mobile devices


Blocking message for compromised iOS and Android devices






Getting started


Rollout pace

  • Block access to Google Workspace data: available immediately for both Android and iOS.
  • Remediation message: available immediately for Android, available on May 9, 2024 for iOS. 

Availability

Available to Google Workspace
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus
  • Education Standard and Plus
  • Frontline Standard
  • Enterprise Essentials Plus
  • Cloud Identity Premium

A simplified experience for Workspace users to add 2-Step Verification (2SV) methods

What’s changing

We’re simplifying how users turn on 2-Step Verification (2SV), which will streamline the process, and make it easier for admins to enforce 2SV policies in their organizations.  

Here are some of the important changes with this change:

  • Users may add “second step methods” (such as Google Authenticator, or a hardware security key) before turning on 2SV. This is particularly helpful for organizations using Google Authenticator (or other equivalent time-based one-time password (TOTP) apps). Previously, users had to enable 2SV with a phone number before being able to add Authenticator.

  • Users with hardware security keys will have two options to add them to their account on the “Passkeys and security keys” page:
    • ‘Use security key”: this registers a FIDO1 credential on the security key even if the key itself is FIDO2 capable.
    • ‘Create passkey and follow instructions to “use another device”: this registers a FIDO2 credential on the security key, and will require users to use the key’s PIN for local verification (this creates a passkey on the security key).
    • Note: users will continue to be asked for their password along with their passkey if the admin policy for “Allow users to skip passwords at sign-in by using passkeys” remains turned OFF (this is the default configuration).

  • If an enrolled 2SV user turns 2SV OFF from their account settings, their enrolled second steps (such as backup codes, Google Authenticator, or second factor phone) are not automatically removed from their account. Before this change all second factors would be removed when the user turned 2SV off. Note: When an administrator turns off 2SV for a user from the Admin console or via the Admin SDK, the second factors will be removed as before, to ensure user off-boarding workflows remain unaffected

Getting started

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts 

Resources


Introducing AppSheet Organizations

What’s changing 

We’re making it easier to manage your AppSheet users with the introduction of AppSheet Organizations. An AppSheet organization creates organization administrators with a centralized tool to manage all of the teams in the organization and delegate team management responsibilities to team administrators. 

This chart shows the hierarchical relationship between an organization, and its teams and members. 




An organization is based on a Workspace organization and is tied to your primary domain. One organization can contain multiple teams based on Google groups and Workspace organizations.


Who’s impacted

Admins


Why you’d use it

AppSheet organizations significantly simplify the management of users and policies across all their AppSheet teams. Admins can:
  • Access self-serve tools to make changes that formerly required manual Support team intervention.
  • Create and manage organization-level policies that apply to all teams and manage individual team policies.
  • Create new teams with distinct admins, users and policies as needed. Admins can also independently assign or remove team, root, or organization administrator roles of any user.


Additional details

Support for non-Google authenticated users
For new and existing customers with AppSheet Organizations, any user from your verified primary or secondary domains that does not authenticate through Google will be shown in your domain-based teams alongside any group-based teams that have been created. These users will be subject to the same policies and team settings that apply to your users that authenticate through Google.


Getting started


Rollout pace



Availability


Resources


Configure managed iOS apps for your users using Google Mobile Device Management

What’s changing 

Directly from the Admin console, admins can remotely set custom configs for managed iOS apps on end-user devices for their enterprise using Google Mobile Device Management. Managed configurations are applied using XML property lists and the same app can be configured differently across different domains, groups, or organizational units (OUs).

Creating the app configuration using XML information


Applying the configuration



Who’s impacted

Admins and end users


Why it’s important

Prior to this update, mobile app configuration was only available for managed Android devices. Beginning today, Workspace admins can use Managed App Configuration to set custom app configurations and deploy them to manage iOS devices across their organization. This gives admins the flexibility they need to create safety parameters that align with the various needs of users across their organization.




Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability