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What’s New in G Suite – January 2019




Check out the latest "What's New in G Suite" launch recap (pdf) for a roundup of all G Suite launches from January 2019.

Archive and translated versions (coming soon for January issue)

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Dedicated Hangouts Meet IP addresses

What’s changing

We’re adding a range of official, fixed IP addresses to be used exclusively for classic Hangouts and Hangouts Meet in G Suite domains. That means that you can identify video conference traffic used in G Suite and deprioritize Hangouts traffic from consumer accounts. This can help you better configure and optimize network and firewall access.

Who’s impacted

Admins and network operators only

Why you’d use it

Hangouts Meet IP addresses allow you to recognize the G Suite video conference traffic. Use the IPs to:

  • Open Meet’s TCP and UDP ports for Meet IPs
  • Avoid tunneling or DPI for Meet IPs
  • Reduce latency by providing the shortest path possible to the internet for Meet traffic

How to get started



Additional information

Hangouts Meet and classic Hangouts will stop using the old IP address on February 14, 2019. As this change might interfere with previous network optimization you might have set up, we recommend adopting these IP addresses as part of your firewall and network configuration.

Helpful links


Availability

Rollout details

  • Rapid Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on February 14, 2019
  • Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on February 14, 2019

G Suite editions
Available to all G Suite editions

On/off by default?
This feature will be ON by default.

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Feedback requested: New blog post format

Over the past few weeks, you may have noticed a new format to our launch announcements on this blog. Based on customer feedback, we tried to:

  • Use headings to make our posts more scannable 
  • Reorder information to call out what’s most important for you to know. 

We hope that this new formatting saves you time and makes our launch announcements more useful for you. If you haven’t already provided feedback, we’d love to get your thoughts on the new style. Please let us know what you think of the changes by filling out this form.


Thanks, The G Suite Launch Announcement team

Updated roadmap for classic and new Google Sites

We have updated our plans for Google Sites and want to let you know two key things:


  1. We're going to build more enterprise-focused features into new Sites (including ones from classic Sites): We listened to extensive feedback from customers and have identified a number of features in classic Sites that are particularly valuable to larger organizations. We plan to add comparable functionality for those features, along with new and unique features, to new Sites. We believe these will help you use new Sites in different and exciting ways, while making the transition process to new Sites easier and more streamlined. See below for more details on specific features. 

  2. The final date to transition from classic Sites to new Sites will be the end of 2021: Also based on customer feedback, we realize that classic Sites still offers unique value to our enterprise customers today. While we add more of the requested features to new Sites, we will continue to invest in maintaining core classic Sites functionality until end of year 2021. 

More features coming to new Sites 


Here are some examples of commonly requested functionality that you will see in new Sites in the future:
Create richer, more customized sites: 
  • New site themes so your sites can match your company look, feel, and brand. 
  • Improved text controls to provide you with a greater choice of fonts, colors, styles, and more. 
  • Standard templates from Google to help you quickly create common types of sites (such as team sites, project sites, and events sites). 
  • Custom templates to provide simple access to starter websites specific to your domain. 
  • Better integration with other G Suite products so you can easily embed content in Sites. 
  • New API capabilities, including AppScript support, so you can automate and manage sites. 
  • New page elements, like tables of contents and image carousels. 

Create and manage larger sites: 
  • Additional functionality and controls to help you create and manage larger sites. 
  • Increased size limits so you can build larger sites. 
  • Ability to see what’s changed between the previous published version and current draft of a site, so you can make more informed publishing decisions. 
  • Version history so you can see and restore previous versions. 
  • Richer and more comprehensive search from within a site. 
  • Google Vault support for content from new Sites. 


Transitioning from classic Sites to new Sites 


In 2016 we announced a new version of Google Sites, and in 2017 we announced that new Sites would eventually become the only version of Google Sites. We’ve heard feedback that classic Sites remains valuable for our customers. While we work to add some of the features detailed above, we plan to maintain core classic Sites functionality. This will extend the deadline to transition from classic to new Sites, which we detailed in this post, to the end of 2021.

We continue to have dedicated engineers maintaining core functionality, but classic Sites was originally built many years ago and its infrastructure and integrations with other products and gadgets are quickly becoming outdated. As a result, we cannot guarantee all features will continue to work as they currently do.

As we make progress along the roadmap and expand the features and functionality of new Sites, we plan to improve our migration tools and processes to help make the migration from classic Sites to new Sites easier.

We’ll provide more updates as work progresses. Keep an eye on the G Suite Updates blog for details of these announcements.


Try new Sites today  

The new Google Sites has a simple interface that makes it easy for anyone to create functional and attractive sites. Many of our customers already prefer it to create common types of sites, including team sites, product sites, and event sites. If you want to try it:



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Upcoming Hangouts service consolidation for all G Suite customers

What’s changing

As we announced in 2017, Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet are the next generation of Hangouts that focus on team communication. Later this year, we'll transition classic Hangouts users on G Suite domains to Chat and Meet. As a first step, some changes are coming on April 16, 2019.

Key dates to note

G Suite customers can expect the following timeline of changes:
  • April 16, 2019 – Several changes that may require administrator action (see below for details).
  • Between April and September 2019 – Features from classic Hangouts will come to Chat.
  • October 2019 – Start retiring classic Hangouts for G Suite customers.


Consumer impact
The above dates are specific to G Suite customers and their end users who use classic Hangouts. We will continue to support consumer use of classic Hangouts, and expect to transition consumers to free Chat and Meet following the transition of G Suite customers. A more specific timeline will be communicated at a later date.

What changes will take place on April 16, 2019?
For G Suite domains that have classic Hangouts enabled, Chat will also become available to users on the web and via mobile apps. They can also continue using classic Hangouts in Gmail, mobile, web or the Chrome extension. See these details for how interoperability works between Chat and classic Hangouts.

The following admin-facing changes will begin taking place on April 16, 2019:
  1. For Google Vault customers, Mail retention rules and holds will stop protecting chat messages in classic Hangouts. Instead, Chat retention rules and holds will protect chat messages in both classic Hangouts and Chat.
  2. Chat admin settings will now control chat capability in both classic Hangouts and Chat.
  3. A new setting in the Admin console under Apps > G Suite > Hangouts Chat will be added so you can disable classic Hangouts user interfaces at a time of your choosing.
  4. The "Google Hangouts" settings page in the Admin console will be renamed "Hangouts Meet." This setting will control both classic Hangouts video and Hangouts Meet.

Google Vault customers need to take action before April 16, 2019
Between March 16 and April 16, 2019, Vault customers that have any Mail retention rules or holds will have an indefinite retention rule automatically created for Chat. This rule is to protect all your chat messages in classic Hangouts when Chat rules start protecting them on April 16, 2019. Before April 16, 2019, you must:

  • Review and set new retention rules for Chat in Google Vault.
  • Duplicate any existing Mail holds for Chat in Google Vault.
  • Set any new holds on chat messages from Chat in Google Vault.
  • Once you have set your preferred retention rules and holds for Chat, in order for them to take effect, remove the indefinite retention rule that may be overriding your rules.

If you don’t take set your preferred retention rules or holds in Chat and then remove the indefinite retention rule by April 16, 2019, all your chat messages in classic Hangouts and direct messages in Chat will be retained indefinitely. Refer to this Help Center article to learn more about completing these actions.

What will happen in October 2019?
Classic Hangouts will be retired for all G Suite customers starting in October 2019 and all remaining users will be transitioned to Chat. More notices and details will be shared on the G Suite Updates blog in the future. In order to make the transition easier for your users, you can review our Chat documentation.


What is the best time to move my users to Hangouts Chat?
You can transition your users immediately if you’d like. If there’s more functionality that your organization needs before switching, rest assured that between April and September 2019, we’ll add features that will make it easier for your users to move from classic Hangouts to Chat such as:

  • Integration with Gmail
  • Chatting with external users
  • An improved video calling experience
  • Making calls with Google Voice

We will communicate availability of these new features via the G Suite Updates blog so stay tuned!

Helpful links


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New pricing for G Suite Basic and Business Editions

More than a decade ago, we introduced Gmail—our first cloud-native productivity app—to help make email safer and easier for everyone. Since then, we pioneered more ways for teams to collaborate in real-time with products like Google Calendar, Docs, Drive and Hangouts. Together, these apps make up G Suite, our set of intelligent, secure productivity and collaboration tools.

We’ve brought businesses more than a dozen new G Suite services to help them reimagine how they work, including powerful video conferencing (Hangouts Meet), secure team messaging (Hangouts Chat) and enterprise-grade search capabilities (Cloud Search). We’ve also infused our products with advanced artificial intelligence to make it easier to respond to emails, gather insights from data and protect against phishing attacks before they happen.

Today, more than four million organizations use G Suite to collaborate efficiently and securely, and analysts have taken notice. IDC’s Wayne Kurtzman notes, "Google has established G Suite as a secure, enterprise-ready, AI–powered productivity and collaboration platform. With its broad set of capabilities, G Suite offers a strong value proposition to customers.”

Over the last ten years, G Suite has grown to provide more tools, functionality and value to help businesses transform the way they work. The one thing that hasn't changed over this time, is price. Today, we are announcing two incremental list price updates to reflect this value. Starting on April 2, 2019, G Suite Basic Edition will increase by $1 (from $5 to $6 per user/month) and G Suite Business Edition will increase by $2 (from $10 to $12 per user/month), or the local currency equivalent where applicable. These increases will apply globally with local market adjustments for certain regions. Pricing for G Suite Enterprise Edition customers will not change.

For existing G Suite Basic or Business edition customers on the Flexible Plan, the new list prices will go into effect on April 2, 2019. For customers on the Annual Plan, the new prices will go into effect the first time their plan renews on or after April 2, 2019. These changes will not impact current contracts or any renewal events prior to April 2, 2019.

Additionally, for those Basic and Business Edition customers who receive their bill from Google, we’ll send an email with details specific to their domains no later than February 28, 2019. Any customer that licenses G Suite through a reseller should hear from their partners directly regarding the new pricing, or they can reach out to their partners proactively.

We are grateful for the many businesses that use G Suite to empower their teams to work collaboratively, and we remain committed to expanding its functionality to help our customers succeed. Feel free to reference this edition guide to learn more about each offering.

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New format for G Suite launch announcements in 2019

Going forward, you may notice changes to the format of our launch announcements on the G Suite Updates blog. Based on customer feedback, we want to make our posts more scannable and readable. All the same information you’re used to seeing will be included, but it will be reorganized with new sections to help you quickly see what’s changing and how it might affect you and your users.

We hope that this new formatting saves you time and makes our launch announcements more useful for you. If you have any suggestions or feedback on the new style, please feel free to let us know here.

Thanks,
The G Suite Launch Announcement team

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Admin console Uninstall functionality for apps will be removed on January 15, 2019

To simplify how you can control app access for your users, we’re removing the “Uninstall” feature from the G Suite Admin console. Uninstall was a legacy way to remove a G Suite apps or additional Google service for everyone in your organization, but it’s been replaced by settings to turn apps on or off for users. The uninstall feature will be removed on January 15, 2019. There will be no end user visible impact to the change.

No end user impact to changes 

This change will not affect your users’ access to individual apps in any way. Users will continue to have access to the apps they can access today:


  • If an app was OFF for users before it was uninstalled, it will now reappear in the list of Google services in the admin console set to OFF. Users will still not have access to it. 
  • If an app was ON for some users before it was uninstalled, it will continue to be set ON for those users in the Admin console. It will just reappear in the list of Goole services with the state it was in before it was uninstalled. 


Manage access to apps in the Admin console by turning them on or off 

You can control which users can access particular Google apps and additional services by turning them on or off in the Admin console. When users sign in to their account, they see only services that are turned on for them. You can turn apps on or off by Organizational Unit, and we recently added the ability to turn apps on for specific Google Groups.

See our Help Center to find out more about how to control who can access Google services.

More Information 
Help Center: Control who can access Google services



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