Tag Archives: Google Chat

Google Hangouts will be fully upgraded to Google Chat starting November 1, 2022

What’s changing 

In February, we announced that all domains would be upgraded to ‘Chat preferred’ and Google Hangouts would start redirecting to Google Chat. Since then, the Hangouts mobile app, Hangouts Chrome extension, and Hangouts in Gmail on web have been redirecting to Chat. 



As a final step in the migration, beginning November 1, 2022, Google Hangouts on web will redirect to Google Chat on web, and Hangouts will no longer be accessible. 



Admins will receive an email containing more information about this change, as well as changes in Vault and exporting Hangouts data. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important 

Upgrading Google Hangouts to Google Chat gives users a single messaging solution and better integration across Google Workspace. Further, users can take advantage of the feature-rich experience, such as: 

  • Rich-text editing 
  • Tagging specific people with @ mentions 
  • Searching for and sharing GIFs and using emoji reactions 
  • Seamless integration with Gmail, alongside your other critical apps 
  • Spaces, dedicated places for organizing people, topics, and projects in Google Workspace. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: 
    • For some users, some conversations or portions of conversations won’t automatically migrate from Hangouts to Chat. If there are impacted users in your domain, you will receive an email notification with more details.
    • Inform your users about the upgrade from Google Hangouts to Google Chat and the associated changes. 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Work Insights reporting for Google Chat and Google Meet

What’s changing

Over the years, many organizations have benefited from the use of Work Insights, a tool that provides data-driven insights on Google Workspace adoption, work patterns, and cross-team collaboration. With the recent upgrade from Hangouts to Google Chat for Google Workspace customers, we’re pleased to introduce a Work Insights product for Meet and Chat. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins 


Why it’s important 

Work Insights allows for optimal visibility into your organization’s digital transformation journey, and helps to improve collaboration, promote growth, and much more. Now, you’re able to continue utilizing the same easy-to-read charts and metrics you’re accustomed to for Chat and Meet. 


Additional details 

Work Insights includes features to help mitigate privacy concerns. These include restricting data access, aggregating activity data, requiring a minimum team size, and keeping users’ work items private. No individual user's Google Workspace activity is displayed separately from other users. Learn more here.  



Getting started 

  • Admins: Access the Work Insights dashboard here. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up Work Insights. 
  • End users: There is no end user impact. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers 
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Not available to users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Easily search for Chat spaces in Gmail

What’s changing

In the continuing effort to build community and connection in hybrid work, we’re introducing the ability to find and join spaces through Gmail search on web. 


When entering queries previously in the Gmail search box, you could see applicable emails or Chat and space conversations by selecting the “Mail” or “Messages” buttons.  


Starting today, Spaces in your domain with names or descriptions that match your query will appear when you click the newly added Spaces option. The directory will not only include spaces you’ve joined, but also discoverable spaces and restricted spaces you’ve been invited to, but have yet to join. Users also have an opportunity to preview the space contents before deciding to join by clicking on the “Preview” button next to each unjoined space.


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why it’s important 

As the number of spaces within your organization continues to grow, we’re offering a better way for you to discover and find the exact space you're looking for, while also providing a path to join spaces for specific teams, projects, shared interests, and more. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: To search for a Space, type a query into the Gmail Search Box > hit enter > navigate to the Spaces results list. Spaces that you are not in, but can join will have “Preview” and “Join” buttons next to the search result. Visit the Help Center to learn more about searching for spaces by name on Gmail. 

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 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – July 22, 2022

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 and G Suite customers. 


Rollout improvements for future Google Chat launches 
Going forward, all major user-facing feature changes and improvements to Google Chat will follow a rollout schedule in which accounts under Rapid Release will see new features first, followed by accounts under the default setting of Scheduled Release, at least 1 week later. We hope this change makes it easier for you to plan for new Google Chat updates. As a reminder, Admins can choose which release track they want their accounts to follow. | Learn more. 

Series One Desk 27 now in production 
In September 2021, we announced Series One Desk 27, a premium all-in-one touchscreen Google Meet collaboration device. These devices are now in production and will be available for shipping soon. Contact Avocor for more information on ordering the Series One devices. | Learn more. 


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.


Making Google Chat active user metrics more detailed in the Admin console 
We’ve rolled out a new method for calculating active users in Google Chat across your organization that ensures greater accuracy for detecting a user's reading and sending actions in Chat. This will provide admins more accurate reporting. | Learn more. 

Control access to experimental Google Workspace apps with a new admin setting 
Admins can use the new Experimental Apps Control setting to grant or deny their users access to emerging or experimental Google applications and whether those applications can access core service data. | Learn more. 

Building larger spaces in Google Chat 
We've increased the amount of members you can add to a space in Google Chat from 400 to 8,000. | Learn more. 

Stay on top of changes to document content with edit notifications 
In Google Docs, you can now choose to receive email notifications for document changes on a per file basis. Edit notification emails detail what changes were made, when the changes were made, and who made them. | Learn more.

Allow Google Meet participants to ask questions or respond to polls anonymously 
In Google Meet, meeting participants will now have the option to ask questions or participate in polls anonymously. | Q&A is available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Business customers only. | Polls are available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Business customers and Google Workspace Individual users only. | Learn more. 

Delete Chat spaces and their content, now generally available 
You can now delete a named space in Google Chat. With this capability, a space manager can delete a space, which completely removes all owned contents of the space, space tasks, and files and attachments not saved elsewhere. | Learn more. 

Prevent spam by adding invitations from known senders only to your calendar 
You can now select an option to display events on your calendar only if they come from a sender you know to help keep your Calendar free from spam. | Learn more. 

Live stream Google Meet events via YouTube 
Google Workspace users can live stream meetings publicly via YouTube. |Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade customers only and Google One Premium plan members in select countries. | Learn more. 

Easily access your most used emojis in Google Chat 
In the Google Chat emoji picker, your most frequently used emojis can be found under the new “Frequently Used” section | Learn more. 

Programmatically manage and apply Drive Labels using new API functionality 
Developers can now programmatically manage labels at scale via Drive APIs. In addition to supporting the ability to read Drive Label taxonomies, new functionality in the Drive API can be used to apply labels, set fields on files, and find files by label metadata. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Education Standard, and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more. 

For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

Easily access your most used emojis in Google Chat

Quick summary 

In the Google Chat emoji picker, your most frequently used emojis can be found under the new “Frequently Used” section. We hope this improvement makes it easier for you to find and insert your favorite emojis when writing or reacting to messages, or setting a custom status. 

"Frequently used" emojis in Google Chat on the web



"Frequently used" emojis in Google Chat for Android devices



This update is available now on the web and Android devices. Availability for iOS is anticipated in the coming weeks— we will share an update on the blog to confirm. 

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. 

Availability 

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

Delete Chat spaces and their content, now generally available

Quick summary

In 2021, we announced the ability to delete a named space in Google Chat. This feature is now generally available. 


With this capability, a space manager can delete a space, which completely removes all owned contents of the space, space tasks, and files and attachments not saved elsewhere. In addition, members will no longer be able to access the space, its files, space tasks, or the member list after the space has been deleted. 



Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin setting for this feature. 
  • End users: Space managers can delete spaces for everyone. To delete a space, navigate to the dropdown menu and select "Delete space." Visit the Help Center to learn more about deleting a space in Google Chat. 

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 

Building larger spaces in Google Chat

Quick summary

Earlier this year, we announced the ways in which we would boost communication and collaboration for teams of all sizes in Google Workspace. In support of that effort, we've increased the amount of members you can add to a space in Google Chat from 400 to 8,000. 


We hope this update will increase connectivity and create broader communities for your organizations. 
building larger spaces in chat-v2

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

  • This feature is available now. 

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 

Making Google Chat active user metrics more detailed in the Admin console

Quick summary 

We’re making changes to how we calculate active users in Google Chat across your organization. Specifically, this new method ensures greater accuracy for detecting a user's reading and sending actions in Chat, which will provide admins more accurate reporting. 




As such, you will notice an increase in the “Active users” for Google Chat metrics Apps reports chart and exported reports. We hope this change helps you better analyze Chat usage across your organization. 

Getting started

Rollout pace 


Availability 

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

Resources 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – July 15, 2022

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.


Allow collaborators to analyze data in Connected Sheets with delegated access 
Admins can now allow their users to delegate access to BigQuery when using Connected Sheets. This enables end users with access to BigQuery data to delegate their credentials to collaborators to allow them to refresh or edit analysis as needed. | Available to Google Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus customers only. | Learn more. 

Sync Apple DEP and Google Mobile Device Management servers on demand 
Admins can now trigger an on demand sync between Apple DEP and Google Mobile Device Management (MDM) servers for company owned devices. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Cloud Identity Premium customers only. | Learn more.

Add data loss prevention to Google Chat, now available as an open beta 
Admins can now establish data loss prevention (DLP) rules for Google Chat that can help protect sensitive data from getting to unauthorized users. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, and the Teaching & Learning upgrade customers only and Cloud Identity Premium users who are licensed for Workspace editions with Drive audit log. | Learn more. 

Better sharing options for appointment schedules 
We’ve made it easier to share appointment schedules on web through a new Share button. This update allows appointment hosts to copy a short link to all appointment schedules or a specific booking page, and add HTML to embed a booking page on their website. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more. 

Use Miro within Google Meet for an immersive and collaborative whiteboard experience 
You can now leverage Miro, a third party online whiteboarding app, for ideating and problem solving as a group in Google Meet. | Learn more. 

Trust rules for Google Drive are now available in open beta 
The closed beta we announced in 2021 for trust rules in Google Drive that gives admins more control over how files can be shared, both within and outside of their organization, is now available as an open beta. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, Education Plus, and Education Standard customers only. | Learn more. 


For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

Add data loss prevention to Google Chat, now available as an open beta

What’s changing

For select Google Workspace editions, admins can establish data loss prevention (DLP) rules for Google Chat that can help protect sensitive data from getting to unauthorized users. This feature is now available as an open beta, which means admins can use it without enrolling in a specific beta program.


Data loss prevention rules for Chat in the Admin console



End user experience on web

End user experience on mobile







Who’s impacted

Admins and end users


Why it’s important

Data leaks, whether accidental or malicious, are a top concern for our customers. Data protection rules for Chat help admins and security experts build a stronger framework around sensitive data to prevent personal  or proprietary information from ending up in the wrong hands.


Admins can selectively apply data protection rules to: 
  • Messages in groups, spaces, and/or direct messages
  • Messages between internal and/or external participants
  • Message text and/or attachments


Once DLP rules are applied, messages and files in relevant conversations will automatically be scanned for sensitive information. Users will be notified about potential data loss, preventing it from leaving the organization accidentally or on purpose. Admins can configure the action to be taken in response to sensitive data being detected, such as: block from sending, warn before sending, and log for audit in the future.


Admins can configure these options to best fit the needs of their organization. If admins opt to log these events, they can be accessed in the Security Investigation Tool. This allows admins to do a comprehensive investigation and identify the reason for each incident and make adjustments to data protection policies as necessary.


Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the domain, OU, or group level. You can create DLP rules in the Admin console under Security > Data Protection.
      • Note: You can modify existing DLP rules for Drive and Chrome to also apply to Chat.
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning data loss prevention in Chat on for your organization.

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, and the Teaching & Learning upgrade customers.
  • DLP rules for Drive are also available for Cloud Identity Premium users who are licensed for Workspace editions with Drive audit log. Visit the Help Center for more information.
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers


Resources