Tag Archives: Google Drive

Trust rules in Google Drive now generally available

What’s changing 

In July 2022, we announced an open beta for trust rules in Google Drive. Beginning today, this feature will become available for eligible Google Workspace customers. 

Trust rules give admins more control over how files can be shared, both within and outside of their organization. For example, admins can limit what specific departments can access versus other parts of their organization. See our original announcement for more information. 



Getting started 

  • Admins: Eligible Admins can enable this feature in the Admin console by going to the Rules > Turn on trust rules. Visit the Help Center to learn more about trust rules. 


  • End users: Your Admin’s trust rules will determine who you can share and collaborate with on Drive files.

Rollout pace 


Availability 

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

Resources 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – November 4, 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. 


Use smart chips in Google Sheets as links on mobile 
With smart canvas, you’re currently able quickly add people and files into Google Sheets with smart chips on the web. Starting this week on mobile, these chips are treated like linked text and will show relevant hovercards and context menu items. 

Offline printing now available for Google Sheets 
We’ve launched offline printing to support users working in a Sheet with offline access. In addition, emojis and system fonts are now included in offline printing. This feature is only available to those using Google Chrome. As a reminder, your organization can encrypt Sheets files with Workspace Client-side encryption, an additional feature supported by offline printing. | 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.



Improved flow for expiring access controls in Google Drive 
You can now set expiring access when sharing files in My Drive. This update improves the existing expiring access capabilities by allowing you to add an expiration when sharing, as opposed to after a person already has access to the file. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Education Standard, and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more. 

Reminder to migrate your classic Google Sites before January 30, 2023 
We’re extending the previously announced timeline to give Google Workspace customers more time to migrate from classic Google Sites to new Google Sites: 
  • On January 30, 2023 (previously December 1, 2022): We will begin to turn off the ability to edit any remaining classic Sites in your domain. Your classic Sites will remain viewable until the automatic conversion.
  • After January 30, 2023 (previously January 1, 2023): We will begin to automatically convert all remaining classic Sites to new Sites drafts for site owners to review and publish, and export static archives to Google Takeout. Your classic Sites will be deleted after they are converted to new Sites. Note: Refer to the CSV file included with the export generated after your domain’s autoconversion completes for any classic Sites we were unable to convert. | Learn more.
Google for Education transformation reports window open for customers worldwide 
Google for Education transformation reports are available for K-12 Google Workspace for Education customers worldwide, at no cost. Note: transformation reports are only available in English at this time. | Available to K-12 Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade customers only. | Learn more. 

Manage projects & tasks with a new timeline view on Google Sheets 
We’ve introduced an interactive timeline view that allows you to track projects in Google Sheets. This new visual layer displays project information stored in Sheets, such as the task start and end date, description, and owner. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, 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).

Improved flow for expiring access controls in Google Drive

What’s changing

You are now able to set expiring access when sharing files in My Drive. This update improves the existing expiring access capabilities by allowing you to add an expiration when sharing, as opposed to after a person already has access to the file. Additionally, you can now add expiring access for editors, as opposed to just for viewers and commenters. 
xpiring Access in My Drive

Who’s impacted

End users 


Why it matters 

This update makes sharing across Google Workspace more secure by making it easier to specify when a given collaborator should lose access to a specific file. This is especially useful in cases where a file creator or editor knows their collaboration with another person is time-bound. With this security feature, you don’t have to clean up a file’s access control list after collaboration has ended. 


Additional details 

You will also be able to set expiring access to files when sharing files in My Drive on Android by the end of November. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: This feature will be ON by default and cannot be turned off. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting an expiration date for file access. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Roadmap 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – October 21, 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. 

Initiate dialog workflows from the Chat app using message cards
Previously, the only way for developers and Chat app users to open dialogs was through slash commands. Now, we’re adding the ability to trigger the dialog by using buttons on an in-stream message card. This addition provides a much more convenient way to initiate workflows that involve dialog surfaces. | Learn more. 


Add shared drives to specific organizational units, now generally available 
Earlier this year, we launched a beta that allows admins to place shared drives into sub organizational units (OUs). Doing so enables admins to configure sharing policies, data regions, access management, and more at a granular level. We’re excited to announce this is now generally available. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, 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. 


See when colleagues are out of the office on Android 
When viewing a person information card in Google Voice, Calendar, Gmail, and Chat on Android, you are now able to see your colleagues’ out-of-office status via an out-of-office banner. The banner also shows when the person is expected to return. 

More ways to work with, display, and organize your content across Google Workspace on Android
  • Link previews in Google Sheets: We’re improving the Android experience by adding link previews to Sheets. This feature is already available on the web and allows you to get context from linked content without bouncing between apps and screens. | Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on October 24, 2022. | Learn more. 
  • Google Sheets drag & drop improvements: We’ve enhanced drag & drop support for the Sheets Android app by adding the ability to drag, copy, and share charts and in-cell images.


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.


Workspace Admins are now notified when Label editing is restricted by set rules
We’ve added a new Label Manager UI feature showing which rules a label is used within. Specifically, a message identifying and linking the label to the exact rule(s) will now appear in the Label Manager to ensure admins understand why label modification is disabled. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Education Standard customers only. | Learn more.


Encouraging Working Location coverage across organizations 
Admins now have access to a new tool that aims to drive Working Location usage across their organizations. This setting adds a customizable banner to users’ Calendar either encouraging or requiring them to set up their working location. | Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, as well as legacy G Suite Business customers only. | Learn more.


Enhanced menus in Google Slides and Drawings improves findability of key features 
We’re updating the menus in Google Slides and Google Drawings to make it easier to locate the most commonly-used features. | Learn more.


Preview or download client-side encrypted files with Google Drive on Android and iOS 
Admins for select Google Workspace editions can update their client-side encryption configurations to include Drive Android and iOS. When enabled, users can preview or download client-side encrypted files. | Learn more.


Split table cells in Google Docs to better organize information
You can now split table cells into a desired number of rows and columns in Google Docs. | Learn more.


Updates to storage management tools in the Admin console 
To further enhance the set of tools for managing storage, we’re rolling out a new Storage Admin role. The ability to apply storage limits to shared drives and a new column called Shared drive ID in the Manage Shared Drives page are coming soon. | Learn more.


Hold separate conversations in Google Chat spaces with in-line threading 
You can now reply directly to any message in new spaces and some existing spaces. This creates a separate in-line thread where smaller groups of people can continue a conversation on a specific topic. | Learn more.


Conversation summaries in Google Chat help you stay on top of messages in Spaces 
We've introduced conversation summaries in Google Chat on web, which provide a helpful digest of conversations in a space, allowing you to quickly catch-up on unread messages and navigate to the most relevant threads. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Frontline, and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more.


Present Google Slides directly in Google Meet 
You will now be able to control your Slides and engage with your audience all in one screen by presenting Slides from Meet. This updated experience can help you present with greater confidence and ultimately make digital interactions feel more like when you’re physically together. | Available to Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Education Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more.


Easily find Google Workspace Marketplace apps with enhanced search filters 
We’ve introduced enhanced search filters in the Google Workspace Marketplace to help you quickly find relevant apps. These new filters allow you to search by category, price, rating whether it’s a private app for the organization, if it works with other apps, and more. | Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers only. | Learn more.


Improving the Google Chat and Gmail search experience on web and mobile 
In order to help you find more accurate and customized search suggestions and results, we’ve introduced three features that improve the Google Chat and Gmail search experience on web and mobile: Search suggestions, Gmail labels, and Related results. | Learn more.



Updates to storage management tools in the Admin console

What’s changing 

In April 2022, we announced a new set of tools for managing storage across your organization. These tools give our customers additional insights and control to manage storage usage across users, groups, and their entire organization. To further enhance this experience, we’re rolling out: 
  • A new Storage Admin role 
  • The ability to apply storage limits to shared drives (coming soon) 
  • A new column called Shared drive ID in the Manage Shared Drives page (coming soon) 

See below for more information. 


Who’s impacted

Admins 


Why it's important

Super admins can use the new “Storage Admin” role to delegate access to the storage management tools, which will allow these admins to view and manage their storage usage. The new Storage Admin role will be rolling out over the next several days. As an admin, you can delegate a new Storage Admin in the admin console by navigating here. 


In the coming months, admins will be able to apply a storage limit policy to shared drives within a company or an organizational unit. This new functionality will further help admins configure and manage storage settings that best fit the needs of their organization. In addition, admins will be able to uniquely identify a shared drive using the Shared drive ID. We’ll provide an update on the Workspace Updates Blog when this functionality becomes available. 


Applying storage limits to a shared drive



Storage information for shared drives



Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Storage Admin role 


Adding Shared Drive Storage Limits & Shared Drive ID 
  • We’ll share an update once this feature becomes available. 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Preview or download client-side encrypted files with Google Drive on Android and iOS

Quick summary 

Admins for select Google Workspace editions can update their client-side encryption configurations to include Drive Android and iOS. When enabled, users can preview or download client-side encrypted files. This feature is available for file types supported by Google Drive, including Microsoft Office and PDF files. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are not yet supported.




Support for Google identity on Drive Android & Drive iOS will be introduced in a future release — we will provide an update on the Workspace Updates blog at that time.


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Admins — Configure client-side encryption for Google Drive Android and iOS: Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers
  • End users — Preview or download client-side encrypted files with Google Drive Android and iOS: Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources 


Workspace Admins are now notified when Label editing is restricted by set rules

What’s changing

In addition to a recent feature allowing admins to programmatically manage and apply Drive Labels using new API functionality, we’ve added a new Label Manager UI feature showing which rules a label is used within. 

When labels are published, their semantic meaning can be leveraged for the enforcement of rules, such as a DLP policy based on the presence of a label. Labels are locked to prevent the possibility of breaking a related rule, and to make it easier to use labels to enforce rules, we've added warnings and feedback to the Labels Manager UI. 

Specifically, a message identifying and linking the label to the exact rule(s) will now appear in the Label Manager to ensure admins understand why label modification is disabled. 

Label locking prevents admins from inadvertently renaming, deleting, or disabling a Label, which could result in policy breakage. 

label locking

Getting started 

  • Admins: Drive Labels must be turned ON for your organization to use this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing Drive Labels. Once labels are enabled for your organization, Developers can head over to the API Documentation to get started. 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

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

Resources 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – August 26, 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. 


To unmute yourself, press and hold the spacebar. To mute again, release the spacebar. 
To quickly unmute yourself during a meeting, you can now hold down the spacebar to be unmuted, then release the spacebar to return to a muted state. We hope this makes it even easier for you to participate in your meetings by quickly unmuting to say something. This feature will also help in situations where you forget to mute again after unmuting yourself. This feature is OFF by default and can be enabled in the Google Meet settings. | Roll out to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains begins September 9, 2022 at a Gradual pace (up to 15 days for feature visibility). | Available to all Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts on all web browsers. | 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.


Updated “Hey Google” voice control behavior for Google Meet hardware devices 
We’ve changed how the “Hey Google” voice control works for Google Meet hardware devices. With this update, the Google assistant will only be active when a device is not in a meeting and within 10 minutes of an upcoming meeting. | Available for all supported Google Meet hardware devices that have not yet reached their auto-update expiration date. | Learn more. 

Upgrade to OAuth 2.0 to continue using Calendar Interop by October 1, 2022 
On October 1, 2022, Microsoft will begin to remove the ability to use Basic authentication in Exchange Online for Exchange Web Services. To continue using Calendar Interop, upgrade to OAuth 2.0 authentication before October 1, 2022. | Impacting Workspace customers using Calendar Interop with Basic authentication on Microsoft Office 365. | Learn more. 

Adding more flexibility to functions in Sheets 
We’ve introduced named functions, a new feature that allows you to create high-performance custom functions that support built-in Sheets formula constructs. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, and Education Plus customers only. | Learn more. 

More ways to collaborate using visitor sharing in Google Drive 
You can now use visitor sharing to allow non-Google users to upload content or create files within shared drives owned by organizations and users on Google Workspace. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Education Plus, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus customers only. | Learn more. 

Easily search for Chat spaces in Gmail 
We’ve introduced the ability to find and join spaces through Gmail search on web. | Learn more. 


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

More ways to collaborate using visitor sharing in Google Drive

Quick summary 

Currently, you can use visitor sharing—secure, pincode-based collaboration—to share items with non-Google accounts. This allows non-Google users to view, comment on, or edit content in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Sites. Beginning today, you can use visitor sharing to allow non-Google users to upload content or create files within shared drives owned by organizations and users on Google Workspace. 



Getting started 

  • Admins:This update will be available by default when visitor sharing is turned on for your organization. Visit this Help Center article to learn more about turning visitor sharing on or off for your organization.
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. If enabled by your admin, visit this Help Center article to learn more about visitor sharing. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

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

Resources 

Improving the Google Workspace experience on large screen Android devices

Quick summary

As part of our mission to provide a top-class user experience on large screen devices, we’re adding several new features and functionality to products like Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Keep on Android devices. 

We hope these updates enhance flexibility by giving you more ways to work with, display and organize your content across Google Workspace. Specifically, the new abilities include:
  • Drag & Drop in Docs, Sheets & Drive: Easily drag text or images from other apps, such as Chrome, and drop content into an existing document or spreadsheet cell. For Drive, quickly upload files by dragging and dropping them into the app. You can also add links to Drive files by dragging the file into an open app like Keep. 
Dragging & Dropping from Sheets
Dragging & Dropping from Sheets into Docs and vice versa

Dragging & Dropping from Keep
Dragging & Dropping from Keep into Drive

Dragging & Dropping from Drive
Dragging & Dropping from Drive into Keep

  • Keyboard support for Drive, Docs & Slides: When using an attached keyboard, use simple and familiar shortcuts to quickly navigate around Drive, Docs, and Slides, without needing to slow down and take your hands off of your keyboard. 
  • Multi-instance support on Drive: Get better insight into your Drive files by having two Drive windows open side-by-side. 

Multi-instance support on Drive:

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for these features. 
  • End users: 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about Dragging & Dropping in Drive and Keyboard shortcuts. 
    • To access Multi-instance support on Drive, select the 3-dot menu on any Drive file > choose the "Open in new window" option > navigate through each Drive window independently. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Google Drive. 

Rollout pace 

Keyboard support for Drive, Drag & Drop in Drive, and Multi-instance support on Drive: 
  • These features are available now
Keyboard support for Docs & Slides and Drag & Drop in Docs & Sheets: 

Availability 

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

Resources