Tag Archives: Google Chat

Custom notifications for Google Chat data loss prevention rules are now generally available

What’s changing 

Earlier this year, we announced the beta availability for admins to display custom notifications when a Google Chat message is blocked or intercepted based on data loss prevention rules. Beginning today, this feature will become generally available on web and mobile. 


Custom notifications give admins the opportunity to provide their users with more context about why they were blocked from sending a specific message, what they can do to unblock themselves, and include links to additional resources, such as organization guidelines for sensitive data with actionable recommendations. For more information, please reference our original announcement.

Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • Custom notifications can be set per each data protection rule at the domain, Organizational Unit (OU), or group level. 
    • When creating a rule, in Step 4: Actions, under “User Message”, select “customize message”.  Custom notifications can also be applied to existing DLP rules. If admins do not customize the notification, the generic notification will be shown to users.
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about preventing data leaks from Chat messages & attachments.


  • End users: There is no end user action required. Depending on your admin settings, you’ll see more detailed information if you’re trying to send a Google Chat message that meets conditions defined in a data loss prevention rule.


Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus, and Frontline Standard customers
  • DLP for Chat is also available to Cloud Identity Premium users who are also licensed for Workspace editions that include Google Chat and Audit and investigation. Visit the Help Center for more information. 

Resources


Manage conversations by muting notifications in Google Chat

What’s changing

We’re introducing a new mute/unmute option in Google Chat to assist you in prioritizing and managing your messages. This is the latest feature within the recently announced enhanced Chat experience that helps you increase concentration, eliminate distractions and ultimately focus on the most important conversations. 

Muted conversations will not send push notifications, will not appear in home, and will also be visually deprioritized by being moved to the bottom of each conversation section. Notification badges will still apply to muted conversations when there are new @ mentions for you or everyone in the conversation. 
muting in chat


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

This update is particularly useful for those who feel overwhelmed by numerous, highly active conversations as they now have an option to tune out the extra noise, protect their time for heads-down individual work and focus on the most important communication. 


Additional details 

Unmuting a conversation undoes the visual deprioritization applied to the conversation and the notification settings prior to muting will re-apply to the communication. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • To mute a notification: 
      • Click on the three dot menu in the left hand panel of any conversation 
      • Select mute option 
      • Alternatively open the notification setting of any conversation and check the mute option 
    • To unmute a conversation: 
      • Click on the three dot menu in the left hand panel of any conversation 
      • Select unmute option 
      • Alternatively open the notification setting of any conversation and uncheck the mute option 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about muting conversations in Google Chat. 

Rollout pace 

Web: 
Mobile: 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Turn on snippets for additional context surrounding data loss prevention rule violations

What’s changing 

Admins can now view “Sensitive Content Snippets” for data loss prevention (DLP) rules. This applies to DLP events for Drive, Chat, and Chrome. When turned on, snippets will log the matched content that triggered a DLP violation in the security investigation tool. Admins can use the information captured in the snippet to better identify actual security risks, determine whether a false positive was returned, and decide on an appropriate course of action.

Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • Make sure any admins who need to review the snippets have the "view sensitive content" privilege. Only super admins have the ability to hide or unhide sensitive data.

    • This feature will be OFF by default and can be turned on in the Admin console by going to Security > Data Protection > Data Protection Settings > Sensitive Content Storage.
      • To view snippets in the security investigation tool, select any row from the “Description column” and scroll down to “Sensitive Content Snippets”. Here you’ll see the matched detector ID, the matched content starting character, and the matched content length.

    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about viewing content snippets that trigger DLP rules, using Workspace DLP to prevent data loss, and the security investigation tool.

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

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Frontline Standard, Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus, and Enterprise Essentials Plus customers
  • Also available to Cloud Identity Premium and BeyondCorp Enterprise customers

Resources

Introducing a redesigned search results page in Google Chat

What’s changing

Building upon the recently announced improved search results in Google Chat, we’re also upgrading the search results page to help you find the right message, file, or space in Chat. 

Specifically, Chat will now highlight matching keywords in search results and show clear demarcation between results for easier browsing. The highlighted keywords could be an exact match to your search query or terms that are related to your search query. 
Introducing a redesigned search results page in Google Chat


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why it matters 

This update improves content discoverability by making it easier for you to browse and locate search results quickly in Chat. 


Additional details 

Search results are based on the exact query, as well as any additional queries that might have been triggered (secondary query, synonyms, spell corrections, etc). 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 

  • This feature is available now for all users on web and mobile


Availability 

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

Resources 

Introducing a new mobile experience for Google Chat

What’s changing

We recently announced a streamlined user experience in Google Chat to help you find what you need much faster, including new features like home and mentions. Starting today, we’re excited to introduce a new bottom navigation bar within the Chat app on Android & iOS devices to help you easily access these features on mobile. You will now have easy access to the following views: 
  • Home: helps you stay on top of all conversions in one unified view, with a filter that allows you to drill down to unread messages. 
  • Direct messages: see a compact list of all your 1:1 and group messages, including pinned conversations at the top of the list. 
  • Spaces: see a compact list of all your spaces, including pinned conversations at the top of the list. 
  • Mentions: helps you easily find messages from conversations and spaces where you’ve been mentioned. 
Introducing a new mobile experience for Google Chat


Getting started 


Rollout pace 

Android & iOS: 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Expanding message bubbles in Google Chat to iOS devices

What’s changing

In September, we introduced message bubbles in Google Chat on web and Android, enabling users to more easily differentiate incoming versus outgoing messages in the Chat message stream. Today, we’re excited to announce the expansion of message bubbles to iOS devices. 

On your phone or tablet: 
  • Each incoming message will have an independent message bubble aligned to one side with a solid color background 
  • Each outgoing message will have an independent message bubble aligned to the other side with a different color background 
Expanding message bubbles in Google Chat to iOS devices


Getting started 

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

Rollout pace 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Improved search query suggestions in Google Chat web

What’s changing

In conjunction with recent updates to search in Google Chat, we’re introducing enhanced search query suggestions, a feature already available on mobile, that helps you find the right message, person, file, or space in Chat on the web. 

When searching in Chat, you will now see query suggestions based on historical search activity, sorted by relevance. The top suggestion will also appear in the search box and you can press “Tab” to autofill the query. You can also delete a suggested query by hovering over it and clicking on the “x” icon next to it. 
Improved search query suggestions in Google Chat web


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

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

Resources 

Star important messages in Google Chat

What’s changing

Following the recent announcement of home and mentions in Google Chat, we’re excited to introduce starred on web, an additional shortcut in the redesigned navigation panel that helps you stay on top of your most important messages in Chat. 
Star important messages in Google Chat

Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

This feature enables you to “star” any messages in Chat for easy access via the starred shortcut in the navigation panel, and can be useful when you need to come back to a message later. 


Additional details 

Starring messages is unavailable in existing spaces organized by conversation topic (legacy threaded). 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users:
    • To star a message, hover over the message and click the star icon or click on the three dot overflow menu to display the star option.
    • You can unstar a message from the original message or unstar messages from the shortcut. 
    • Starred messages will be available on mobile in 2024. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn how to star messages in Chat. 

Rollout pace 

  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 16, 2023 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 30, 2023 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Take action on Google Drive requests and comments directly in Google Chat

What’s changing

Currently, you can use the Google Drive Chat app to get read-only notifications in Chat about activity in Drive, such as comments and share requests. Starting today, we’re adding the following improvements:
  • Reply to and resolve comments in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides directly from Chat 
  • Show more of the comment thread so you can have more context while replying 
  • @mention your colleagues easily while replying to comments 
With these updates, you can collaborate more easily on Docs, Sheets and Slides without ever leaving Chat.
Take action on Google Drive requests and comments directly in Google Chat


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

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

Resources 

Streamlining the user experience in Google Chat to help you find what you need much faster

What’s changing 

We recently introduced numerous enhancements across Google Chat, and today we’re excited to announce the general availability of three features highlighting a new integrated experience. 

The redesigned navigation panel brings direct messages and spaces together and introduces shortcuts, a new framework to help you stay on top of your messages. 

To reduce friction while navigating between messages, home helps you quickly catch up on any new activity across all conversations in a single location. Additionally, you can narrow down your view by filtering for unread messages. 
chat home



Mentions give you visibility into the messages addressed specifically to you. Within this single destination for important, actionable messages, you can see and navigate to the messages that @-mention you. 
Chat mentions

In addition to these improvements to the user experience, we’re updating the icon for Google Chat over the coming weeks. The new icon has a cohesive look with other popular Workspace products and reflects the central role of business messaging and collaboration in Workspace. 
New Chat logo


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

These features are designed to help you stay on top of the busy flow of communication and make it easier to prioritize and find the conversations that are most important to you. 


Additional details 

The direct message and spaces sections will be listed separately, but are scrollable and collapsable in one unified list. 

The list of messages where you have been @-mentioned are sorted by recency. 
  • Each row represents the message within the thread that mentions you. 
  • If you are mentioned multiple times in a conversation, each mention will show up as one row. 
  • Unread messages are highlighted in light blue and include a blue dot. 
Clicking on a message in the Home or Mentions view will bring you directly to the conversation or thread where you can respond. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

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

Resources