Tag Archives: mobile

View emails from multiple accounts at once in the Gmail iOS app

You can view email from multiple accounts, be it your work or personal, G Suite or non-G Suite (even third-party IMAP accounts), in the Gmail iOS app. But you’ve traditionally needed to toggle between different inboxes to do so. To save you time, we’re now making it possible to view emails from multiple accounts in a single inbox on an iOS device—the same way you can with the Gmail Android app.


To see emails from different accounts at one time, simply select the “All Inboxes” view from the left-hand side drawer. This will show all your emails in a single list, but don’t worry—no emails will be shared between your accounts.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Check emails from other accounts


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Reset passwords for and lock company-owned Android devices

G Suite admins in domains with Google Mobile Management enabled can already take actions to protect the data on their users’ mobile devices. For example, they can require devices to have screen locks and wipe devices when they’re lost or stolen. With this launch, we’re giving admins additional capabilities—they can now remotely reset the password on a company-owned Android device or lock the device entirely.


Reset device password

If a user forgets their device password, you may want to reset it for them.


Check out the Help Center for instructions on how to reset the password on a user’s device.

Lock device

If a user loses their device, you may want to lock it until it’s found. This will force users to enter the device’s password before using it.


Check out the Help Center for more info on locking user devices.

Please note that the reset password and lock functions can only be used in domains that have advanced mobile management enabled.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to G Suite Business and Enterprise editions, as well as Cloud Identity Premium

Rollout pace:
Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Lock a device and reset its password


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Better insight into the managed mobile devices in your organization

As a G Suite admin, it’s important that you can easily view and obtain critical information about the mobile devices your organization manages. That’s why we’re making those details easier to find and utilize with our updated mobile device list in the Admin console.

Filter for key characteristics, take bulk actions, and more

This list, located at Device management > Mobile devices, is not only faster and easier to scan, it allows you to do the following:

  • Filter by several categories (e.g. user name, last sync date, compromised devices, etc.), and save the URL to apply the same filters later.
  • Search by keyword or serial number.
  • Add and remove columns, and increase the number of rows shown per page.
  • Download selected columns, export them to Google Sheets, and view the progress of that task.
  • Take action on multiple devices at once and directly from the device details page.

The mobile device list now shows all assigned mobile devices (both company-owned and personal) in one view.


More details about individual devices

Depending on the type of mobile management (advanced or basic) you have enabled for your organization, you can take some of the following actions when you click on a specific mobile device in the list:

  • Block, wipe, or delete the device or account.
  • See all of the apps installed on that device, and identify those that may be harmful.
  • Email the device’s user directly.
  • Learn if a device isn’t compliant and why.


Visit the Help Center to learn more about the new and improved mobile devices list, and the ways it can help you manage mobile devices in your organization.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: View and manage mobile devices


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Google Device Policy app ending support for iOS 8.0 soon

The next release of the Google Device Policy app (version 3.04) won’t support mobile devices running iOS version 8.0 or lower. If your organization has advanced mobile device management (MDM) enabled, your users must upgrade to iOS version 9.0 or higher to access new MDM features or if they need to download the Device Policy app for the first time.

We’re planning to release version 3.04 of the Device Policy app as early as next week. Please encourage your users to upgrade their iOS devices as soon as possible to avoid any disruption to their work.

More Information
Help Center: Minimum device requirements 

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Making it easier to set up Android devices as company-owned

When employees set up their phones and tablets as company-owned devices, they give your organization full control over those devices—allowing you to apply policies regarding app installation, network settings, security options, and more. This helps protect your users and your corporate data.

If you have advanced mobile device management but don’t register your company-owned devices in the Admin console, your users must choose to set up their devices as company-owned.

To encourage more users to make this choice, we’ll start showing the screen below to all users who add their G Suite account to a new Android device before adding their personal account.

This change will start rolling out on September 19th, 2018; please note that it may take several weeks for it to take effect for all users.


Starting on September 19th, users will be asked if they own the device they’re setting up. Unless they explicitly state that they own the device personally, ownership will be auto-assigned to your organization.

Currently, your users only see this choice if your organization has Device Owner mode enabled. That option will disappear from the Admin console on September 19th.

Note that users will only see the screen and option above on new (and recently factory-reset) devices running Android 6.0 or higher.

Allowing users to install any app from the managed Google Play store

In addition to the change outlined above, we’re making it easier to install apps on company-owned Android devices and work profiles.

Currently, you have to actively whitelist apps to make them available to your users. Starting on September 19th, users with company-owned Android devices and work profiles will be allowed to install any app from the managed Google Play store by default. If you don’t want your users to do this, you can choose to restrict app availability to whitelisted apps.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release on September 19th, 2018

Editions:
Available to all G Suite and Cloud Identity Premium editions

Rollout pace:
Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Set up Android devices your company owns


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Links, Mobile Usability, and site management in the new Search Console

More features are coming to the new Search Console. This time we've focused on importing existing popular features from the old Search Console to the new product.

Links Report

Search Console users value the ability to see links to and within their site, as Google Search sees them. Today, we are rolling out the new Links report, which combines the functionality of the “Links to your site” and “Internal Links” reports on the old Search Console. We hope you find this useful!

Mobile Usability report

Mobile Usability is an important priority for all site owners. In order to help site owners with fixing mobile usability issues, we launched the Mobile Usability report on the new Search Console. Issue names are the same as in the old report but we now allow users to submit a validation and reindexing request when an issue is fixed, similar to other reports in the new Search Console.

Site and user management

To make the new Search Console feel more like home, we’ve added the ability to add and verify new sites, and manage your property's users and permissions, directly in new Search Console using our newly added settings page.

Keep sending feedback

As always, we would love to get your feedback through the tools directly and our help forums so please share and let us know how we're doing.


Posted by Ariel Kroszynski and Roman Kecher - Search Console engineers

Secure corporate data on employee iOS devices with managed apps

To better protect the G Suite data stored on your employees’ personal iOS devices, you can now specify that certain iOS apps be “managed” if your domain has advanced mobile device management enabled.

If an app is managed, you can:
  • Prevent the app’s data from being backed up to iCloud.
  • Block unmanaged apps from opening managed app files.


Note that these actions will impact both personal and corporate data on managed apps. Visit the Help Center for more information on how to manage apps on iOS devices.

Designate an app as managed
When you whitelist a new app for iOS devices, you can now choose to “Make this a managed app.” Once you make the app managed, you can also select to have it automatically removed from a device if that device’s MDM profile is removed.

When you whitelist a new app for iOS devices, you can now make it “managed.”


If you previously whitelisted an app, you can make it managed by changing that app’s settings in the Admin console.
You can make an app you’ve already whitelisted managed by editing the app’s configuration in the Admin console.


User notifications and required actions
If you designate an app as managed, any users with that app downloaded will be prompted to update it in their Google Device Policy app.

Users will be prompted to update apps that are marked as managed by their admins. 

Users need to accept management of their apps or they’ll lose access to all corporate data on their phone.


If a user doesn’t take action within 12 hours of receiving the notification, they’ll receive another notification prompting them to make the required apps managed.


If a user doesn’t take action within 24 hours of receiving the notification, they’ll no longer be able to access corporate data anywhere on their device.


Note that if you make a previously managed app “unmanaged,” users will need to remove the Google Apps Device Policy Payload Profile before the app becomes unmanaged.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins and end users

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Recommend and manage iOS apps


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Disable conversation view in the Gmail mobile apps

In Gmail, replies to emails are grouped together as “conversations,” to make them easier to digest and follow. Some users, however, prefer to see each of their emails listed individually in their inbox. This is possible on the web by toggling “Conversation View” off in the Settings menu.

We’re now bringing this same feature to the Gmail Android and iOS apps. If you currently have Conversation view turned off on the web, it will be turned off on your mobile app as well.


Visit the Help Center for more information on how to disable Conversation View in your Gmail mobile app.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Group emails into conversations


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Launch detail categories
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Google I/O 2018 – What sessions should SEOs and Webmasters watch live ?

Google I/O 2018 is starting today in California, to an international audience of 7,000+ developers. It will run until Thursday night. It is our annual developers festival, where product announcements are made, new APIs and frameworks are introduced, and Product Managers present the latest from Google.

However, you don't have to physically attend the event to take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity: many conferences and talks are live streamed on YouTube for anyone to watch. You will find the full-event schedule here.

Dozens upon dozens of talks will take place over the next 3 days. We have hand picked the talks that we think will be the most interesting for webmasters and SEO professionals. Each link shared will bring you to pages with more details about each talk, and you will find out how to tune in to the live stream. All times are California time (PCT). We might add other sessions to this list.


Tuesday, May 8th

3pm - Web Security post Spectre/Meltdown, with Emily Schechter and Chris Palmer - more info.
5pm - Dru Knox and Stephan Somogyi talk about building a seamless web with Chrome - more info.


Wednesday, May 9th

9.30am - Ewa Gasperowicz and Addy Osmani talk about Web Performance and increasing control over the loading experience - more info.
10.30am - Alberto Medina and Thierry Muller will explain how to make a WordPress site progressive - more info.
11.30am - Rob Dodson and Dominic Mazzoni will cover "What's new in web accessibility" - more info.
3.30pm - Michael Bleigh will introduce how to leverage AMP in Firebase for a blazing fast website - more info.
4.30pm - Rick Viscomi and Vinamrata Singal will introduce the latest with Lighthouse and Chrome UX Report for Web Performance - more info.


Thursday, May 10th

8.30am - John Mueller and Tom Greenaway will talk about building Search-friendly JavaScript websites - more info.
9.30am - Build e-commerce sites for the modern web with AMP, PWA, and more, with Adam Greenberg and Rowan Merewood - more info.
12.30pm - Session on "Building a successful web presence with Google Search" by John Mueller and Mariya Moeva - more info.



This list is only a sample of the content at this year's Google I/O, and there might be many more that are interesting to you! To find out about those other talks, check out the full list of web sessions, but also the sessions about Design, the Cloud sessions, the machine learning sessions, and more… 

We hope you can make the time to watch the talks online, and participate in the excitement of I/O ! The videos will also be available on Youtube after the event, in case you can't tune in live.


Posted by Vincent Courson, Search Outreach Specialist, and the Google Webmasters team

Open sourcing Seurat: bringing high-fidelity scenes to mobile VR

Crossposted from the Google Developers Blog

Great VR experiences make you feel like you’re really somewhere else. To create deeply immersive experiences, there are a lot of factors that need to come together: amazing graphics, spatialized audio, and the ability to move around and feel like the world is responding to you.

Last year at I/O, we announced Seurat as a powerful tool to help developers and creators bring high-fidelity graphics to standalone VR headsets with full positional tracking, like the Lenovo Mirage Solo with Daydream. Seurat is a scene simplification technology designed to process very complex 3D scenes into a representation that renders efficiently on mobile hardware. Here’s how ILMxLAB was able to use Seurat to bring an incredibly detailed ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ scene to a standalone VR experience.

Today, we’re open sourcing Seurat to the developer community. You can now use Seurat to bring visually stunning scenes to your own VR applications and have the flexibility to customize the tool for your own workflows.

Behind the scenes: how Seurat works

Seurat works by taking advantage of the fact that VR scenes are typically viewed from within a limited viewing region, and leverages this to optimize the geometry and textures in your scene. It takes RGBD images (color and depth) as input and generates a textured mesh, targeting a configurable number of triangles, texture size, and fill rate, to simplify scenes beyond what traditional methods can achieve.


To demonstrate what Seurat can do, here’s a snippet from Blade Runner: Revelations, which launched today with the Lenovo Mirage Solo.

Blade Runner: Revolution by Alcon Interactive and Seismic Games
The Blade Runner universe is known for its stunning worlds, and in Revelations, you get to unravel a mystery around fugitive Replicants in the futuristic but gritty streets. To create the look and feel for Revelations, Seismic used Seurat to bring a scene of 46.6 million triangles down to only 307,000, improving performance by more than 100x with almost no loss in visual quality:

Original scene:

Seurat-processed scene: 

If you’re interested in learning more about Seurat or trying it out yourself, visit the Seurat GitHub page to access the documentation and source code. We’re looking forward to seeing what you build!

By Manfred Ernst, Software Engineer