Tag Archives: Other

Reminder: Website creation in classic Google Sites will no longer be available starting May 15, 2021

What’s changing 

As previously announced, we are replacing classic Sites with new Sites. All Google Workspace customers will have until the end of 2021 to complete this transition. 


We’d like to remind you that starting May 15, 2021, users will no longer be able to create new websites in classic Google Sites. We recommend that you turn off site creation in classic Sites for your domain before May 15, 2021. 


Note that the timeline for this transition varies for users with personal Google accounts — see the “Getting Started” section below for more details.


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important 

If you haven’t already, we strongly recommend enabling new Sites creation for your users today, to ensure all newly-created websites use the new Google Sites. If you want your organization’s classic Sites content to continue to be viewable without interruption, make sure all of your existing classic Sites are migrated by December 31, 2021.


Admins should also review the remaining transition timeline and take any necessary action: 
  • Starting May 15, 2021: New website creation will no longer be available in classic Sites. This means that any new websites created in your organization will only be in new Sites. 
  • Starting December 1, 2021: Editing of any remaining classic Sites will be disabled. 
  • Starting January 1, 2022: When users try to visit a classic Site, they will no longer see the website content. Any remaining classic Sites will automatically be: 
    • Downloaded as an archive and saved to the website owner’s Google Drive. 
    • Replaced with a draft in the new Google Sites for site owners to review and publish.

We anticipate the transition process for all remaining classic Sites that starts January 1, 2022 will take one to three months to complete. You’ll receive a notification once this is completed for your domain. During the transition period, you and your users will still be able to take action on remaining classic Sites. Visit the Help Center for more details on the Classic Sites migration. 


If you don’t take any action, the changes outlined in the transition timeline above will automatically be applied to your domain. Use our Help Center to learn more about the transition from classic Sites to new Sites.


Getting started 

  • Admins: Follow the disable creating classic Sites instructions to turn off site creation in classic Sites before May 15, 2021. This change will help ensure all newly-created websites are using the new Google Sites experience. 

    • Use the Classic Sites Manager to help your users make the transition. Using this console, admins can: 
      • View all classic Sites in your domain with the option to export to Google Sites for project management. 
      • Convert, archive, or delete your websites. 
      • Bulk delete and restore sites within the Classic Sites Manager. 
      • Bulk update ownership of sites from within the Classic Sites Manager.

  • Google Workspace end users: Users need to transition from classic to new Sites according to the timeline outlined above. Learn more about how to use the Classic Sites Manager tool, or visit our Help Center to learn how to convert a classic Site to a new Site. 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – April 16, 2021

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.

Improved suggestions when inserting links in Google Docs
Now when you insert a link to selected text, you’ll see intelligent suggestions for Drive files, section headings, and bookmarks within your document based on the context of your selection. This makes it easier to link to the most relevant content faster, without switching applications.

Q&A and polls now available for Google Meet on mobile devices and tablets
Meeting participants can now see and respond to Q&A and polls on their Android and iOS devices. Q&A and polls are already launched on the web. | Learn more.

Adding present and chat Meet safety locks for education users on mobile
We’re giving hosts Google Workspace education meetings new meeting safety controls on Android to manage who can share their screen and who can send chat messages within the meeting. These controls were previously available on the web. | Available to Google Workspace Education Fundamentals and Education Plus customers only. | 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.

New Google Meet Hardware Admin console features: peripheral status, default volume, and static URLs
We’re adding three new features to the Google Meet Hardware section of the Admin console: peripheral status, default volume, and static URLs | Learn more.

New Rules homepage in the Admin console makes security simpler
We're making some updates to how you create, view, and manage rules in the Admin console. We hope this information makes it easier for admins to decide which rules to proactively implement, easier to maintain with centralized management, and easier to investigate with direct Investigation tool integration. | Learn more.

School matches are available in originality reports for Education customers
In addition to checking student work for matches across billions of web pages and books, originality reports can now check for matches against a repository of student work within your domain. | Available to Google Workspace Education Plus customers. Also available with the Teaching and Learning Upgrade only. | Learn more.

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

 

Changes to Google Workspace storage policies timeline

What’s changing

We’re extending the previously announced timeframe for upcoming changes to the Google Workspace storage policy. The updated timeline is:

  • June 1, 2021: High-quality photos will count towards Drive quota beginning June 1, 2021. There is no change to this timeline.
  • February 1, 2022: Any newly created Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files will count toward storage. Existing files within these products will not count toward storage, unless they’re modified on or after February 1, 2022. Read more in our Help Center.

Note that there are no changes to the previously announced dates for personal Google accounts.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users. Storage limits differ across Google Workspace and G Suite editions, but we estimate that the majority of users will not be affected by these changes. See “Getting Started” below for more information on determining storage usage across your organization.

Why it’s important

People are uploading more content than ever before—in fact, more than 4.3 million GB are added across Gmail, Drive, and Photos every day. These changes to our storage policy are necessary to provide our users with a great experience and to keep pace with the growing demand.



We recently announced changes to the pooled storage policy for Workspace for Education customers. As a part of these updates, to empower Google Workspace admins to adapt to this model and optimize their storage, we will provide new admin tools to identify and manage how storage is used and allocated before the policy goes into effect. We’ve decided to delay the count of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files count toward storage quotas until that tooling is in place.

Getting started


Rollout pace

High-quality photos
Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard

Availability

  • These changes will apply to all customers with Google Workspace and G Suite licenses.

Resources

Automatically save your response progress in Google Forms: Beta available for Google Workspace for Education customers

What’s changing 

Next week, we’re launching draft responses for Google Forms in beta. When responding to a Google Form, Quiz or Quiz assignment in Classroom while signed into your Google Workspace account, your progress will automatically be saved as a draft for 30 days from your last edit or until the form is completed. 

This beta is only available to Google Workspace for Education customers. Admins can use this form to express interest in participating in the beta. 



Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 

Why it’s important 

With this new feature, you won't have to start over if you can't complete a form or quiz in one sitting, if you want to switch between multiple devices, or if your internet connection cuts out before your answers have been submitted. 

Additional details 

Note that during the beta, Forms will only automatically save your progress as a draft for users in your domain when they’re signed in to their Google Workspace for Education account. 


Data location requirements 
In order to participate in the beta, your domain cannot have data location requirements. To determine if you have data regions, use this Help Center article regarding geographic location for your data. 


Feature availability 
While this beta is only available for Google Workspace for Education customers, this feature will be made available to all Google Workspace customers later this year. We’ll provide an update on the Workspace Updates blog when this feature becomes generally available. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: Google Workspace for Education admins can use this form to express interest in joining the Draft Responses Beta for Google Forms. You’ll be notified via email once accepted into the beta and when the beta becomes available. 
  • End users: No action required. Once the beta starts, your draft responses will automatically be saved when logged in to your Google account. To view your drafted responses, simply reopen the form link when logged in to your Google account. 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Google Workspace Frontline is now available

What’s changing

We previously announced Google Workspace Frontline, our newest offering built specifically for frontline employees. Today, we’re excited to announce that Google Workspace Frontline is available for purchase through Sales and resellers, to give frontline workers secure access, on any supported device, to the information they need to be at their best.



Who’s impacted

Admins and end users 

Why you’d use it

Google Workspace Frontline can help open up communication and collaboration channels between frontline workers and corporate teams in a way that’s safe and secure, even from their own personal devices. It’s a custom solution that includes communication and collaboration apps like Gmail, Chat, Docs, Drive, and more, as well as business-grade support and security features like advanced endpoint management that help keep a company’s data secure.

Additional details

With Google Workspace Frontline, your employees will have access to:
  • Gmail
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Chat
  • Google Meet
  • Google Docs
  • Google Sheets
  • Google Slides
  • Google Sites

In addition, you’ll get 2GB Drive storage per user and the ability to view content in shared drives. This offer also includes business-grade support and security features like advanced endpoint management, which enables admins to require strong mobile passcodes, set up work profiles for Android devices, manage apps forAndroid and iOS devices, and wipe devices remotely if needed.

Getting started

  • Admins: To learn more about Google Workspace Frontline, visit the Help Center or contact our Sales team.
  • End users: Users will automatically get access to the features in Google Workspace Frontline after signing up.

Rollout pace

  • This edition is available now.

Availability

  • Google Workspace Frontline is available for both new and all existing customers.

Resources

New and improved Google Chat UI on the web

What’s changing

Starting March 24, we’re making some changes to the interface of Google Chat on the web (i.e. chat.google.com) and the Progressive Web Application (PWA).

Old and new Google Chat on the web



Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

The new interface is similar to that of Chat in Gmail, giving users a consistent and predictable Chat experience no matter where they are. We’ve also added some new integrations to help your users be more productive. See Additional details below for more information.

Additional details

In addition to the visual interface updates, you’ll also see the following changes on Chat on the web:
  • In Chat rooms, you can now access shared files and tasks via tabs at the top of the room
  • We’ve added the quick access side panel on the right side, like in Gmail, to provide access to apps like Calendar, Keep, Tasks, and Maps
  • Search for existing conversations or for people to start new conversations is now under the “+” on the left-side navigation.
  • You can use the search bar at the top to look for content across all rooms and direct messages (DMs). To search for content within each room or direct message, click on the search button at the top right corner of the room/DM first and then proceed to search for content in the search bar.
  • The “Chat” and “Rooms” sections on the left-side navigation bar are static, allowing you to scroll more easily within each section. You can readjust the height of each of the sections based on your preference.
  • Feature to toggle between full screen view and pop-up view for both rooms and DMs, allowing easier multi tasking between conversations.
  • Integration with Google Meet so you can join or start a call directly from Chat
  • chat.google.com will now redirect to mail.google.com/chat. However, users can continue to use chat.google.com to access Chat.

Note that these changes will only impact domains with the Gmail service turned on. We’ll launch these changes to domains with Gmail turned off in the coming months.

Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for these changes.
  • End users: These changes will take place automatically at chat.google.com and in the Chat PWA.

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Changes to Google Drive search operators may alter your Google Vault search results

Quick launch summary

We’ve updated Google Drive Search operators to enable better results when searching for files in Google Vault. This includes changes to the behavior of the to: and from: operators, and a new sharedwith: operator.


Starting April 27, 2021, to: and from: won't match files shared before March 2021, but will better reflect actual sharing actions compared to the current logic. See this Help Center article for more information.


Before April 27, 2021, please check your saved Drive search queries in Google Vault and, if needed, make updates to ensure you get the results you expect:
  • If you search for files in Vault using the to: or from: Drive search operators, you might want to change to: to sharedwith: and from: to owner: to keep the current search behavior.
  • If you do not search for files in Vault using the to: or from: Drive search operators, no action is required.

Note, you’ll know when the new behavior is applied to your to: or from: Drive searches within Vault as you’ll see the below notification near the Terms field:




Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, and Education Plus, as well as G Suite Business customers and customers with the Vault add-on license
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, and Business Standard customers, or G Suite Basic customers

Resources

Alternate runtimes makes it easier to build Google Workspace Add-ons, now generally available

What’s changing 

We’re launching a new way to create Google Workspace Add-ons. With alternative runtimes, developers can write Add-ons in any language and on any infrastructure, and then publish them to the Google Workspace Marketplace. Alternate runtimes was previously available in beta. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins and developers 

Why it’s important 

Google Workspace Add-ons allow you to use third-party applications within Google Workspace. These integrations between Google Workspace and other productivity applications allow work to happen more seamlessly across platforms, helping you get work done faster without switching from one app to another. 

Previously, developers had to write Add-ons in Apps Script. With this launch, developers can write them in whatever language, and on whatever infrastructure, they want. This change enables developers to use the tools and systems they’re used to, making it quicker and easier to create and publish high-quality Add-ons. 

Getting started 


Rollout pace 

  • This feature is available now for all users. 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Reminder: Switch to the new desktop Google Chat app before March 30 2021

What's changing

As previously announced, we plan to switch users from the old electron-based Google Chat app to the new Chat standalone app in March 2021. If you or your users are still using the old version of desktop Google Chat, you should upgrade to the new desktop Chat app before March 30 to minimize any potential disruption. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it matters 

Last year, we introduced a new Google Chat standalone app. The app is a Progressive Web Application (PWA), which provides a fast, reliable, and engaging way to use Chat on any desktop device with the Google Chrome web browser. 

In February, users of the old app started seeing banners prompting them to install the new desktop Chat. Clicking on the banner takes them to chat.google.com, where they see a pop-up nudge asking them to install the new Chat app. 

Regardless of whether the new Chat app is installed, users will be able to use Chat on the web at chat.google.com or within Gmail, if permitted by their admin. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 

  • The new Google Chat app is available now to all users. 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Reminder: Switch to the new desktop Google Chat app before March 30 2021

What's changing

As previously announced, we plan to switch users from the old electron-based Google Chat app to the new Chat standalone app in March 2021. If you or your users are still using the old version of desktop Google Chat, you should upgrade to the new desktop Chat app before March 30 to minimize any potential disruption. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it matters 

Last year, we introduced a new Google Chat standalone app. The app is a Progressive Web Application (PWA), which provides a fast, reliable, and engaging way to use Chat on any desktop device with the Google Chrome web browser. 

In February, users of the old app started seeing banners prompting them to install the new desktop Chat. Clicking on the banner takes them to chat.google.com, where they see a pop-up nudge asking them to install the new Chat app. 

Regardless of whether the new Chat app is installed, users will be able to use Chat on the web at chat.google.com or within Gmail, if permitted by their admin. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 

  • The new Google Chat app is available now to all users. 

Availability 

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

Resources