Tag Archives: Google Chat

Admin features for space management via the Chat API are now generally available

What’s changing

Earlier this year, we introduced a series of space management capabilities for Workspace admins in the Google Chat API via the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. These API features are now generally available for all Google Workspace customers and developers.

Using these features, admins can easily perform a variety of space management related tasks at scale. This includes membership management, like adding and removing members, onboarding and offboarding users from spaces, cleaning up inactive spaces, and more. 

These features are also available when using the Google Apps Manager (GAM), an open source command-line tool that helps administrators to perform bulk operations associated with various aspects of their Google Workspace. The tool can be used to automate space management tasks with command-line scripts, helping to reduce admin overhead and potential errors when using APIs. See this article in our Help Center for more information on using a third-party tool for mass provisioning.

Who’s impacted

Admins and developers

Why you’d use it

In 2023, we launched the Space Management tool, which allowed admins to view all the spaces within their organization, understand the activity within those spaces, and perform essential actions like deleting a space or assigning space managers. While finding the tool helpful to perform one-off tasks, admins expressed a desire for tools to perform these tasks at scale, for example, with the help of APIs. Admins can now use the Chat API to find information and manage spaces in their organization in bulk or programmatically. Specifically they can:

  • Find and delete inactive spaces: Using spaces.search, you can find spaces that haven’t been used since a specified date and time and then delete them.
  • Onboard and offboard users: Automatically add new users to relevant spaces and remove them from spaces when they leave or change roles.
  • Audit external members: Monitor and control access to your organization's data by identifying and removing external members from sensitive conversations.
  • Lookup and update space details: Easily manage space information like names, descriptions, and guidelines.
  • Verify user membership and upgrade roles: Manage user access and roles within spaces.
  • And more — please refer to our developer guidance for even more information.

Getting started

Access and sort shared files more easily in Google Chat conversations

What’s changing 

Earlier this year, we improved upon the file management experience in Google Chat spaces by creating the Shared tab, a central place to manage all conversation-related artifacts including files, links and media. Today, we’re excited to announce that the Shared tab is now available in 1:1 direct messages and group messages, enabling easier collaboration across all conversation types. 
Shared tab is now available in 1:1 direct messages and group messages

Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

The Shared tab provides a centralized and visible method to access shared content shared within a conversation. 


Additional details 

Using the new sort drop-down, you can narrow down the list of documents displayed based on category (file, link, media) or date shared. 


Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: At the top of a Google Chat message, you will see the following tabs: Chat and Shared. Upon clicking Shared, you will see three sections: Files, Links and Media. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending & sharing files in Google Chat messages. 

Rollout pace 

Web: 
Android & iOS: 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Automate your workflows on Google Chat with IFTTT and UKG Flow integrations

What’s changing 

Following the announcement at Google Cloud Next 2024, we’re excited to introduce Google Chat integrations with IFTTT and UKG Flow. 

The IFTTT integration enables users to automate Chat with 1,000+ of today's most popular apps. For example, Chat users can now set up workflows, like sending an onboarding email to a customer that’s added as a new member to a space, or sending a message to a space when a new file is added to a Google Drive, Dropbox, or Box folder. Using the integration, Chat users can also stay up-to-date on all of their communities by having new Discord, X, and Facebook mentions or tags automatically posted to a space. 
IFTTT integration
Using the UKG Flow app, users and employees can perform common UKG actions, such as those included in the Timekeeping & Scheduling functionalities of UKG Pro WFM. 
UKG Flow app

With these integrations, users can accomplish more in their workday by completing common tasks using daily productivity apps, without ever leaving Chat. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: UKG Flow requires admins to install the app on their users’ behalf. Visit the Help Center to learn more about installing Marketplace apps for your organization. 
  • End users: 
    • Get started with the IFTTT’s Chat integration here. 
    • Once UKG Flow is installed by your admin, you can use it freely in Google Chat. 

Rollout pace 

  • These integrations are available now. 

Availability 

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

Resources

Chat safer with new settings for students in Google Chat

What’s changing 

We're introducing a new setting that enables education admins to restrict which users can create and manage members in Google Chat conversations. 


This can be useful for admins who want to prevent groups of students from initiating or adding users to a conversation. 

Chat restrictions for Education domains



Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important

This is a highly-requested feature that restricts the creation of unsupervised activity among K-12 students and helps provide a safer and easier way for teachers to communicate with students. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: 
    • To restrict users from accessing features in Chat, go to the Admin console > Apps > Google Workspace > Google Chat > click the Chat and Space restrictions setting > Inside the Google Chat box, search for the group of users you'd like to apply Chat restrictions to > check the box for Restrict creating direct messages, group messages, and spaces > hit Save. 
      • Note: groups can be restricted at the group level only.
    • We recommend admins enable the "automatically accept chat invitations" setting for their OU. This will ensure teachers can easily initiate messages to students that instantly deliver without the need to accept an invitation. We also recommend turning OFF Chat with external users.
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up Chat restrictions for Education accounts.
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout pace 

Admin setting: 
Chat UI: 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, the Teaching & Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

Catch up on followed threads from the home shortcut in Google Chat

What’s changing

Many users follow threads within spaces in Google Chat to ensure they don’t miss any updates. To build upon this experience and help you keep track of important discussions occurring in threads, we’re introducing the ability to follow and review threads within the home shortcut. 

Threads you’ve chosen to follow will now appear directly within home, enabling you to quickly catch up. Rather than searching for the space and finding the thread, clicking on the thread via home takes you directly to the threaded conversation. You can also use the “Threads” button in home to filter your view to show threads only. This option is next to the “Unread” toggle, which filters your unread messages across DMs, spaces, and threads. You have the ability to filter for unread threads specifically when this is toggled on and the “Threads” button is selected. 
Catch up on followed threads from the home shortcut in Google Chat


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why it matters 

Through this update, the home view has become even more useful with the ability to easily stay on top of followed threads. 


Additional details 

As a reminder, threads are followed in the scenarios below: 
  • You are the author of the main message that a thread was initiated from. 
  • You are explicitly following (via the “Follow” button). 
  • You have replied via thread or were mentioned. 
  • You have set the notification setting of the corresponding space to notify for “All”. 
If a thread is no longer relevant to you, you can “Unfollow” it via the button in Home. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Web: 
  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 29, 2024, with expected completion by August 31, 2024 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 26, 2024, with expected completion by September 30, 2024 
Android: 
iOS: 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and Workspace Individual Subscribers 

Resources 

Enhancing your productivity on Android devices with new features in Gmail and Google Chat apps

What’s changing

We’re introducing numerous improvements across the Gmail and Google Chat apps on Android foldables and tablets in order to enhance your productivity when using these devices. 

In the Gmail app, you’ll notice a new formatting bar located on the email compose screen. This now includes additional formatting options like the ability to change the font type and make a bulleted list.
additional formatting options in bar



Next, you’ll be able to view a list of helpful keyboard shortcuts in the Gmail app and in the Chat app by pressing “?” when you plug an external keyboard into your Android device. 
list of helpful keyboard shortcuts in the Gmail app and in the Chat app

Lastly, we’re enabling Smart Compose on Android tablets and foldables, a feature originally introduced on Gmail web that intelligently autocompletes your emails. Similar to the mobile experience, Smart Compose suggests text as you type that can be accepted by swiping across the gray text or pressing tab on a physical keyboard. 
Smart Compose on Android tablets and foldables



Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Add up to 500,000 members to spaces in Google Chat

What’s changing

Shortly after introducing announcements in Google Chat last year, we increased the number of users you can add to a space from 8,000 to 50,000. To provide greater flexibility and inclusiveness for larger organizations, we’re excited to announce that starting today, spaces can now have up to 500,000 members. 
spaces can now have up to 500,000 members.
If you are adding a Google Group as a member to set up large spaces, the table below shows how long it will typically take to populate this space. 
Estimated time to populate the space

Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why it’s important 

Companies can now create org-wide spaces to announce news and updates to their employees, helping ensure broader reachability and measurability of their communications. 


Additional details 

We’ve introduced features to enhance membership management, which is particularly important now with larger spaces in Google Chat. Some examples include: 

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers 

Resources 

Additional admin space management capabilities in Google Chat API are now available

What’s changing 

We recently announced several new features for the Google Chat API that enable admins to manage spaces at scale. These features include the ability to audit spaces, delete inactive spaces in bulk, and more. 

Today, we’re pleased to announce more space management capabilities, which include the ability to: 
  • Look up details about specific space.
  • Update space details, including the name of a space, space description, and space guidelines. 
  • Verify user’s membership status in a specific space. 
  • Upgrade a role from space member to space manager. 



These features are available now through our Developer Preview Program — see here for more information on how to enroll in the Developer Preview program. 


Getting started 

  • Admins and developers: 
    • If you are part of the Google Workspace Developer Preview, you will get these features by default. Otherwise, you must apply for access using this form. 
    • Use our Developer Documentation to learn how to authenticate and authorize using administrator privilege. 
  • End users: There is no end user impact or action required. 

Rollout pace 

Availability

  • New features for the Google Chat API scoped to admin users are available to participants of Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. 

Resources 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – June 21, 2024

3 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.


Now generally available: Build AppSheet automations using Google Forms 
AppSheet helps users automate manual workflows by integrating with data sources like Google Drive, Chat and Sheets, and earlier this year we announced its integration with Google Forms in beta. This week, we’re excited to announce this is now generally available. | Roll out to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Available to Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade, Frontline Starter, Frontline Standard, AppSheet Starter, AppSheet Core, AppSheet Enterprise Standard, and AppSheet Enterprise Plus customers only. | Learn more about AppSheet's integration with Google Forms and building your first app and automation using Google Forms. 


The ability to add and remove Google Groups as space members using the Google Chat API is now generally available 
Last year, we announced the ability to create spaces, memberships, group chats, and more using the Google Chat API. This week, we’re excited to introduce the option for developers to add and remove Google Groups as space members using the Google Chat API. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about accessing Chat APIs through the Google Chat API. 


Comments and action items in client-side encrypted Google Docs is now generally available 
You can now collaborate with others on client-side encrypted Google Docs to add, edit, reply, filter, or delete comments. You can also assign action items to yourself or others. This functionality was previously available in open beta — see our original announcement for complete details. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for July 2, 2024. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers. | Learn more about working with encrypted files in Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides.


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.


Insert images into practice sets in Google Classroom 
Teachers can now import images, like graphs, charts or photos, into practice sets using files from Google Drive or directly from their computer. | Learn more about inserting images into practice sets. 

Help your students learn to read with Read Along in Classroom 
We’re introducing Read Along in Google Classroom, a new feature that helps students build their independent reading skills by enabling teachers to assign differentiated reading activities, based on Lexile® measure, grade level, or phonics skills. | Learn more about Read Along in Google Classroom. 

External users can now securely collaborate on client-side encrypted files 
We’re expanding visitor sharing, a feature that provides secure, pincode-based collaboration over sensitive data with people, to include client-side encrypted files. This allows users to securely collaborate with external partners on sensitive Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides files, while maintaining the confidentiality of the information with the granular control of encryption keys, identity verification and user permissions. | Learn more about visitor sharing. 

Create interactive YouTube assignments in Google Classroom more quickly and efficiently, with the help of AI 
We’re introducing AI-suggested questions that educators can easily attach to a video based on its content when creating interactive YouTube assignments in Google Classroom. | Learn more about YouTube assignments in Classroom.

Google Meet adds 52 new languages to translated captions and 11 more languages for closed captions 
For all Google Workspace customers and users with personal accounts, we’ve expanded support for closed captioning. In addition, for Gemini for Google Workspace customers, we are adding 52 languages to translated captions with full language support. | Learn more about translated captions and closed captions. 

Improved syncing experience between Google Calendar and third-party calendars 
We’re pleased to introduce an improved email notification experience for those who are using third-party calendar services—like Outlook—to collaborate with Google Calendar users. | Learn more about the improved syncing experience on Calendar.

Completed rollouts

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


Rapid Release Domains: 
Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

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

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – June 14, 2024

1 New update

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.


Make a space discoverable to a target audience using the Google Chat API 
Earlier this year, we introduced the option to create discoverable spaces using the Google Chat API through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. We’re excited to announce this is now generally available for Google Workspace developers. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains | Available to all Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about discoverable spaces.

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.


Stay on top of shared Drive files with automatic digest emails 
If you haven’t been active on Drive for 7 days and have multiple shared files that are unviewed, we’ll send you a reminder email that summarizes the files. | Learn more about automatic digest emails for Drive files. 

Adding audit logs for Gemini for Google Workspace activity 
We’re introducing the ability for admins to see new audit logs in Google Drive for activity triggered by Gemini for Google Workspace. | Learn more about audit logs for Gemini. 

Google Meet add-ons are now available on Android devices 
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. | Learn more about Meet add-ons. 

Updated design for meeting controls in Google Meet 
Google Meet is gradually improving and modernizing the in-call experience with the Material 3 Design System. This week, we are announced the first update, which is specific to the lower bar of in-call controls in Meet. | Learn more about updated designs for meeting controls in Google Meet.

Google Classroom now supports grade category and co-teacher imports from SIS partners
Starting this week, teachers can now import their grade categories and co-teachers from their linked SIS. | Learn more about import grading categories or co-teachers. 

Google Meet now supports high definition video for meeting recording and devices 
Full HD video content is now available for recorded meetings and sending full HD video is now available on all computers with 1080p cameras. Learn more about new video support in Meet.


Completed rollouts

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


Rapid Release Domains: 
Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

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