Tag Archives: Google Chat

Enable your users to report inappropriate messages for review

What’s changing

For select Google Workspace customers, admins can enable content reporting for their Google Chat users. Once a user has flagged a message, admins can find more information about the incident in the Security Investigation Tool and decide whether further action is needed. This feature is available for Google Chat on the web and mobile devices.

Admins can turn content reporting on for 1:1 messages, group messages, or messages in spaces, and select which reporting categories are available for their users, such as harassment or rude behavior, sensitive information, and more. Admins can also customize the language in the reporting dialog box to educate users about next steps following the report submission.

When you turn content reporting on, you can select which reporting categories to show to your users and which conversation types content reporting is available for.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important

Effective collaboration in the modern workplace requires a sense of psychological safety for users and appropriate protections for sensitive business data. Content reporting in Google Chat enables users the opportunity to report inappropriate messages for review. This can include anything from offensive , discriminatory or explicit content, sensitive data that should not be shared (personal or proprietary), and more. This is critical for our customers, especially those of larger organizations and in regulated industries, to stay on top of potential abuse and inappropriate use of Chat in their organization. 


Further, admins can use the Security Investigation Tool Administrator to decide whether data protection rules need to be created to proactively prevent similar messages from being shared in the future.

In the Security Investigation Tool, you can search for reported messages, view additional conversation information, and see the chat transcript for more context.




Along with recent updates such as managing Google Chat spaces in the admin console, we hope this feature helps admins manage Chat across their organization.


Getting started

Reporting a message on the web

 
Reporting a message on a mobile device


Rollout pace



Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, and Education Plus customers

Resources






Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – May 19, 2023

6 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are fully launched or in the process of rolling out (rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete), launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time (if not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete), and available to all Google Workspace customers.


Improve time management and display time with new chips in Google Docs
In addition to the recent introduction of new smart canvas features in Google Sheets and Google Docs, we’re adding new timer chips that can be used to timebox activities and ensure that you’re using your time productively.
Timer chips
To more finely represent time, we’re also adding a time-of-day chip to Google Docs. By typing “@today" you can add the date and then select "Set time" to add the time to the date chip.
Time-of-day-chips
Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for May 31, 2023. | Learn more about inserting smart chips & building blocks in your Google Doc.


Use alternative text for visual content on Google Sites
Google Sites editors are now able to add or edit alt text on inserted images and add or edit alt text on background images, making their Sites more readable by everyone. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for May 30, 2023. | Learn more about making your site more accessible. 




Enhancing our web onboarding experience in Google Chat to help users get started quicker 
To build upon recent Google Chat improvements and help organizations use Chat more efficiently, we’re revamping the web onboarding experience for those new to Chat. When using Chat in Gmail or visiting chat.google.com for the first time, you will see options to start a chat, join a space, or browse apps. If you select the first option to send a direct message to a colleague or group, the simpler chat creation options will appear. Choosing to join a space will display a new browsing experience, and the Chat apps option will show you how apps work and the ways to find and add apps. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for June 5th 2023. 
New web onboarding experience in Google Chat

Spellcheck for client-side encrypted files in Google Slides
If you’re working in a client-side encrypted file in Google Slides, you’ll now see spelling suggestions as you type. You can see suggestions for misspelled words (indicated by a red wavy underline) by accessing the menu (Tools > Spelling > Spell check) or right- or left-clicking on the word. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers only. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for May 30, 2023. | Learn more about encrypted files in Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides. 
Spell check for client-side encrypted files in Google Slides

Export client-side encrypted spreadsheets to Excel files
Google Sheets files that are client-side encrypted can now be exported as an Excel file. This means you'll continue to protect your files with encryption, but convert your files as needed. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers only. | Learn more about encrypted files in Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides. 
Export client-side encrypted spreadsheets to Excel files

AppSheet-powered no-code apps in Google Chat
This announcement was made at Google I/O ‘23. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about building workflows across Google Workspace to connect user experiences across apps. You can now create Google Chat apps without code in AppSheet to build integrations or workflows that suit the needs of your organization. | Available now to all Google Workspace customers with an AppSheet Starter, Core, or Enterprise plan. | Learn more about Chat apps. 
AppSheet-powered no-code apps in Google Chat


Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.


Improving Calendar Interoperability
Recent improvements to Calendar Interoperability include: Microsoft Outlook users who also have a Google Calendar with the same email address can receive Google Calendar invitations and RSVPs in Outlook, a default meeting reminder will be generated in Microsoft Outlook if the invitation was created in Google Calendar to help make sure guests using Outlook do not miss events, and non-Google Calendar recurring events will be more systematically and accurately updated in Google Calendar. | Learn more about Calendar Interoperability improvements. 


New membership limits for Google Groups
We've increased the limits for the number of direct and indirect group memberships for which a user can have: Direct: 3,000 memberships (increasing from 2,000) and Combined direct and indirect: 7,500 memberships (increasing from 5,000). | Learn more about new membership limits for Google Groups.


Easily expand and collapse content in Google Docs
We introduced a new feature that helps you minimize and expand sections within Google Docs. This collapsible headings function makes it easier to consume content by enabling you to hide portions of larger documents more easily. | Learn more about expand/collapse in Google Docs.


Create custom building blocks in Google Docs
This feature enables you to save custom blocks of text, tables, and chips to build reusable components. For example, you might create a project kickoff template to track milestones and tasks, a product launch checklist, or even a block of code or text that’s commonly used within your organization. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus customers and Nonprofits only. | Learn more about custom building blocks in Docs.


React to messages quickly in Google Chat
We've added quick reactions in Chat, which displays your most frequently used emojis upon hovering over a message. You'll also see options to open the full emoji picker, reply in a thread, quote in reply and more. | Learn more about quick reactions in Google Chat.


Monitor abuse related events in the Alert Center
Admins will now receive alerts related to abuse related events in their organization. This includes events related to content that has been marked abusive or user access restrictions to apps. | Learn more about monitoring abuse related events in the Alert Center.


Complete data-driven tasks faster with new smart chip data extraction in Google Sheets
You will now be able to quickly extract information from smart chips for advanced sorting, filtering and analysis to drive your projects forward. | Learn more about smart chip data extraction in Google Sheets.


Collaborate with others on Google Calendar invites in Google Docs
We've introduced a building block that lets you collaborate with others to draft calendar invites. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus customers and Nonprofits only. | Learn more about drafting calendar events from Google Docs. 



Completed rollouts

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


Rapid Release Domains:
Scheduled Release Domains:

React to messages quickly in Google Chat

What’s changing 

Last year, we made it easier for you to access your most used emojis in Google Chat. Building upon this, we’re adding quick reactions in Chat, which displays your most frequently used emojis upon hovering over a message. You'll also see options to open the full emoji picker, reply in a thread, quote in reply and more. 

Quick reactions on web upon hover on a message


Quick reactions on Web upon hover on a message
Quick reactions on Android upon long press on a message

Quick reactions on Android upon long press on a message


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: You’ll notice this improvement automatically when using emojis in Google Chat on web and on the latest version of Android. To use quick reactions, hover over or long press on a message. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – May 5, 2023

New updates 

There are no new updates to share this week. Please see below for a recap of published announcements. 



Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.


Providing greater visibility with additional Google Calendar statuses in Google Chat
Chat statuses now include even more information, such as: how much longer someone is in a meeting or focus time, if someone has an upcoming commitment within the next 10 minutes, and if someone has an upcoming out of office event within the next business day. Learn more about additional Google Calendar statuses in Google Chat.


Expanding upon Gmail security with BIMI
Users will now see a checkmark icon for senders who adopted Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) in Gmail. This will help users identify messages from legitimate senders versus impersonators. | Learn more about Gmail security with BIMI.


Manage all spaces in your organization through the Admin console
We've introduced a new section in the Admin console dedicated to managing spaces in Google Chat. Here, admins can see a list of all spaces in their domain, the members of those spaces, and take actions, such as adding members or changing a member role. | Learn more about managing all spaces in your organization through the Admin console.


Quote a previous message in Google Chat
We've introduced a new feature that allows you to quote a previous message when sending a reply in a direct message, group message, or space (if configured with in-line threading). | Learn more about quoting a previous message in Google Chat.

Turn access to Bard on or off for your users
Earlier this year, we announced Bard, an early experiment by Google that lets you collaborate with generative AI. In the coming days, Google Workspace admins will be able to turn access to Bard on for their users, in the Admin console under Apps > Additional Google services > Early Access Apps. | Learn more about turning access to Bard on or off for your users.

Completed rollouts

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


Rapid Release Domains:

Scheduled Release Domains:

Quote a previous message in Google Chat

What’s changing

Oftentimes Google Chat conversations cover a wide variety of topics in a short period of time, causing you to potentially lose the context of a Chat sent earlier in the message stream. 


To improve your web and mobile Chat experience in scenarios such as this, we’re introducing a feature that allows you to quote a previous message when sending a reply in a direct message, group message, or space (if configured with in-line threading). 
Quote a previous message in Google Chat

Who’s impacted 

End users 

Why you’d use it 

This feature helps provide context to a message response by allowing you to directly reference a previous message. People may use message quoting when they want their response to show up in the main message stream, compared to in-line threading, where message responses are shown in a separate thread. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: When you quote a message, the quote itself is a link that returns to the original message that was quoted. Visit the Help Center to learn more about quoting a message in your reply. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Available to users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Manage all spaces in Google Chat through the Admin Console

What’s changing 

We’re introducing a new section in the admin console dedicated to managing spaces in Google Chat. Here, admins can see a list of all spaces in their domain, the members of those spaces, and take actions such as adding members or changing a members role. 


View all of the spaces in your organization

See all members, including space managers, for a particular space

Adding members to a space via the Space Management tool


Assigning roles to a member via the Space Management tool



Add new members to a space and specify their role.









Who’s impacted

Admins 


Why it’s important 

Spaces in Google Chat are an essential part of collaboration and community building across organizations of all sizes. As such, it’s important for admins to easily view and manage their spaces to keep them productive and safe. You can look up specific spaces based on it’s ID or name and take actions such as reviewing members of each individual space, adding members or assigning new space managers. 

Further, the space management tool gives admins the information that will allow them to better understand how spaces are used in their organization: 
  • The number of members in the space 
  • Whether conversation history is on or off for the space 
  • Sharing permissions for a space 
  • Active spaces and spaces with no recent activity 

Additional details 

This feature is available for all super admins by default. Delegated admins need to have the “Manage chat and space conversations” role to access space management — visit the Help Center to learn more about administrator roles. 

Getting started 
  • Admins: In the Admin console, navigate to Apps > Google Workspace > Settings for Google Chat > Manage spaces. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing spaces in the Admin console. 



  • End users: There is no end user action required. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers 

Providing greater visibility with additional Google Calendar statuses in Google Chat

What’s changing

Last year, we introduced the ability to see additional Google Calendar statuses like “In a meeting” or “In focus time” in Google Chat. Starting today, Chat statuses will include even more information, such as: 
  • How much longer someone is in a meeting or focus time 
  • If someone has an upcoming commitment within the next 10 minutes 
  • If someone has an upcoming out of office event within the next business day 
The Chat status will automatically disappear once you send a message to someone or you can manually dismiss it. However, if their status changes, an updated status will reappear. 


Additionally, you can see the current working location and local time zone set by your colleagues when sending a new message to them in Chat. 
Providing greater visibility with additional Google Calendar statuses in Google Chat

Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why you’d use it 

This feature gives you a better understanding of others’ availability, helping you plan when to reach out and collaborate. If someone is currently unavailable, you now have a more accurate picture of their response time. 


Additional details 

This feature will be rolling out to mobile devices in the coming months. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Not available to users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Set a custom time period for messages to automatically be deleted in Google Chat

What’s changing

For select Google Workspace editions, admins can now define a duration after which their users' messages in Google Chat will be deleted automatically. This can apply to messages in 1:1 conversations, group conversations, and spaces — time periods can be assigned for each message type. Note that this retention period only applies to messages sent when history is enabled. The auto-deletion timeframe can range from 30 days to several years.





Who’s impacted

Admins and end users


Why it’s important

Currently, admins have limited control over the history duration of conversations in Google Chat: with history off, messages are deleted after 24 hours; with history on, messages remain visible for indefinite time, unless proactively deleted by Vault Retention policy or proactively deleted by user by user.

This update gives admins more granular control over how long their users can see messages in conversations. For end user practicality, this helps unclutter conversations, while complying with retention requirements (if a retention policy is applied). If you’re using the Auto Deletion policy combined with a Vault Retention Policy, the Vault policy prevails. For more information, see this article in our Help Center.


Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, and Education Plus customers.

Resources


Communicate better with a modernized Google Chat

What’s changing 

Following last year’s announcement of a new look for Gmail, and the recently refreshed interfaces for Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides, we’re also introducing a more consistent, enhanced look and feel for Google Chat. 

This update is based on Google’s Material Design 3 and includes updated font, colors, layouts, panel sizing and more. Specifically, you’ll notice changes to the top app bar, left navigation, main message view, compose setup, new topic button, and the thread panel within direct messages and spaces. 

We hope this modernized product experience increases collaboration and enables you to more easily complete tasks within your workflow. 

Getting started 

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

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Available to users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 


Roadmap 

New community features for Google Chat and an update on Currents

What's Changing

Last year, we announced plans to wind down Currents, to focus efforts on community experiences that are better integrated with the rest of Google Workspace. To help our customers manage this transition, we published detailed guidance for Workspace administrators and enabled customers to opt-in for automated migration of Currents data to spaces in Google Chat. 


We are nearing the end of this transition. Beginning July 5, 2023, Currents will no longer be available. Workspace administrators can export Currents data using Takeout before August 8, 2023. Beginning August 8th, Currents data will no longer be available for download. 


Although we are saying goodbye to Currents, we continue to invest in new features for Google Chat, so teams can connect and collaborate with a shared sense of belonging. Over the last year, we've delivered features designed to support community engagement at scale, and will continue to deliver more. Here is a summary of the features with additional details below: 

This month, we’re enabling new ways for organizations to share information across the enterprise with announcements in Google Chat. This gives admin controls to limit permissions for posting in a space, while enabling all members to read and react, helping ensure that important updates stay visible and relevant. Later this year, we plan to simplify membership management by integrating Google Groups with spaces in Chat, enable post-level metrics for announcements, and provide tools for Workspace administrators to manage spaces across their domain. 

New announcements feature in Google Chat on mobile device
Announcements in Google Chat

Adding a Google Group during space creation in Google Chat.
Managing space membership with Google Groups






We’ve already rolled out new ways to make conversations more expressive and engaging such as in-line threading to enable rich exploration of a specific topic without overtaking the main conversation and custom emojis to enable fun, personal expression.

A space in Google Chat with in-line threaded conversations.
In-line threaded conversations


Creating a custom emoji in Google Chat on a mobile device.
Discover and join communities with up to 8,000 members




We’ve also made it easier for individuals to discover and join communities of shared interest. By searching in Gmail, users can explore a directory of available spaces covering topics of personal or professional interest such as gardening, pets, career development, fitness, cultural identity, and more, with the ability to invite others to join via link. Last year, we increased the size of communities supported by spaces in Chat to 8,000 members, and we are working to scale this in a meaningful way later this year. 

A directory of spaces in Google Chat for users to join.



As communities grow, it’s essential to provide tools for content moderation and data management. Last year, we introduced space managers, a community lead with abilities to moderate conversation and manage membership, and last year at NEXT, we rolled out data loss prevention (DLP) for Chat. We will continue to enhance community health and data security for Google Chat. 


Our partner community is extending the power of Chat through integrations with essential third-party apps such as Jira, GitHub, Asana, PagerDuty, Zendesk and Salesforce. Many organizations have built custom workflow apps using low-code and no-code tools, and we anticipate that this number will continue to grow with the GA releases of the Chat API and AppSheet’s Chat app building capabilities later this year.



For teams to thrive in this rapidly changing era of hybrid work, it’s essential to build authentic personal connections and a strong sense of belonging, no matter when or where individuals work. We will continue to make Google Chat the best option for Workspace customers seeking to build a community and culture for hybrid teams, with much more to come later this year. 


Who's impacted

Admins and end users


Why it’s important

The transition from Currents to spaces in Google Chat removes a separate, siloed destination and provides organizations with a modern, enterprise-grade experience that reflects how the world is working today. Google Workspace customers use Google Chat to communicate about projects, share organizational updates, and build community.


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