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Work reimagined: new ways to collaborate safer, smarter and simpler with G Suite

(Cross-posted from The Keyword)

Over the last decade we’ve witnessed the maturation of G Suite—from the introduction of Gmail and Google Docs to more recent advancements in AI and machine learning that are powering, and protecting, the world's email. Now, more than 4 million paying businesses are using our suite to reimagine how they work, and companies like Whirlpool, Nielsen, BBVA and Broadcom are among the many who choose G Suite to move faster, better connect their teams and advance their competitive edge.

In the past year, our team has worked hard to offer nearly 300 new capabilities for G Suite users. Today, we’re excited to share some of the new ways organizations can use G Suite to focus on creative work and move their business forward—keep an eye out for additional announcements to come tomorrow as well.

Here’s what we’re announcing today:

  • Security center investigation tool (available in an Early Adopter Program* for G Suite Enterprise and Enterprise for Education customers)
  • Data regions (available now for G Suite Business, Enterprise, and Enterprise for Education customers)
  • Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat (coming soon to G Suite customers)
  • Smart Compose (coming soon to G Suite customers)
  • Grammar Suggestions in Google Docs (available in an Early Adopter Program for G Suite customers today)
  • Voice commands in Hangouts Meet hardware (coming to select Hangouts Meet hardware customers later this year)


Nothing matters more than security

Businesses need a way to simplify their security management, which is why earlier this year we introduced the security center for G Suite. The security center brings together security analytics, actionable insights and best practice recommendations from Google to help you protect your organization, data and users.

Today, we’re announcing our new investigation tool in security center, which adds integrated remediation to the prevention and detection capabilities of the security center. Admins can identify which users are potentially infected, see if anything’s been shared externally and remove access to Drive files or delete malicious emails. Since the investigation tool makes it possible to review your data security in one place and has a simple UI, it makes it easier to take action against threats without having to worry about analyzing logs which can be time-consuming and require complex scripting. Investigation tool is available today as part of our Early Adopter Program (EAP) for G Suite Enterprise and Enterprise for Education customers. Learn more.

Investigation tool in G Suite security center
Our new investigation tool adds integrated remediation to the prevention and detection capabilities of the security center.

In addition to giving admins a simpler way to keep data secure, we’re constantly working to ensure that they have the transparency and control they need. That’s why we’re adding support for data regions to G Suite. For organizations with data control requirements, G Suite will now let customers choose where to store primary data for select G Suite apps—globally distributed, U.S. or Europe. We’re also making it simple to manage your data regions on an ongoing basis. For example, when a file’s owner changes or moves to another organizational unit, we automatically move the data—with no impact on the file’s availability to collaborators. Plus, users continue to get full edit rights on content while data is being moved.

Data regions in G Suite
Data regions let customers choose where to store primary data for select G Suite apps—globally distributed, U.S. or Europe.

Rob Tollerton, Director of IT at PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PwCIL), and his team are using G Suite to manage global data policies: "Given PwC is a global network with operations in 158 countries, I am very happy to see Google investing in data regions for G Suite and thrilled by how easy and intuitive it will be to set up and manage multi-region policies for our domain.“

Data regions for G Suite is generally available to all G Suite Business, Enterprise, and Enterprise for Education customers today at no additional cost. We're continually investing in the offering and will expand it further over time. Learn more.

Let machines do the mundane work

We’ve spent many years as a company investing in AI and machine learning, and we’re dedicated to a simple idea: rather than replacing human skills, we think AI has endless potential to enhance them. Google AI is already helping millions of people around the world navigate, communicate and get things done in our consumer products. In G Suite, we’re using AI to help businesses and their employees do their best work.

Many of you use Smart Reply in Gmail. It processes hundreds of millions of messages daily and already drives more than 10 percent of email replies. Today we’re announcing that Smart Reply is coming to Hangouts Chat to help you respond to messages quicker, so you can free up time to focus on creative work.

Our technology recognizes which messages most likely need responses, and proposes three different replies that sound like how you typically respond. The proposed responses are casual enough for chat and yet appropriate in a workplace. Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat will be available to G Suite customers in the coming weeks.

Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat
Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat recognizes which messages most likely need responses, and proposes three different replies that sound like how you typically respond.

Smart Reply makes sending short replies easy, especially on the go. But we know that the most time-consuming emails require longer, more complex thoughts. That’s why we built Smart Compose, which you may have heard Sundar talk about at Google I/O this year. Smart Compose intelligently autocompletes your emails; it can fill in greetings, sign offs and common phrases so you can collaborate efficiently. We first launched Smart Compose to consumers in May, and now Smart Compose in Gmail is ready for G Suite customers.

In addition to autocompleting common phrases, Smart Compose can insert personalized information like your office or home address, so you don’t need to spend time in repetitive tasks. And best of all, it will get smarter with time—for example, learning how you prefer to greet certain people in emails to ensure that when you use Smart Compose you sound like yourself.

Smart Compose in Gmail will be available to G Suite customers in the coming weeks.

Smart Compose in Gmail
Smart Compose in Gmail intelligently autocompletes your emails.

We’re also using AI to help people write more clearly and effectively. It can be tricky at times to catch things like spelling and grammatical errors that inadvertently change the meaning of a sentence. That’s why we’re introducing grammar suggestions in Docs. To solve grammar corrections, we use a unique machine translation-based approach to recognize errors and suggest corrections on the fly. Our AI can catch several different types of corrections, from simple grammatical rules like how to use articles in a sentence (like “a” versus “an”), to more complicated grammatical concepts such as how to use subordinate clauses correctly. Machine learning will help improve this capability over time to detect trickier grammar issues. And because it’s built natively in Docs, it’s highly secure and reliable. Grammar suggestions in Docs is available today in our Early Adopter Program.

Grammar suggestions in Google Docs
Grammar suggestions in Docs uses a machine translation-based approach to recognize errors and suggest corrections.

Beyond writing, we’re also working to improve meetings. Last fall, G Suite launched Hangouts Meet hardware, enabling organizations to have reliable, effective video meetings at scale. Many people still view connecting to video meetings as daunting, which is why we’re using Google AI to create a more inviting experience.

We're excited to see so many people actively engaged with Google Assistant through voice—managing their smart home and entertainment—and today, we’re bringing some of that same magic to conference rooms with voice commands for Hangouts Meet hardware so that teams can connect to a video meeting in seconds. We plan to roll this out to select Meet hardware customers later this year.

Simplify work with G Suite

One of the reasons why G Suite is able to deliver real transformation to businesses is that it’s simple to use and adopt. G Suite was born in the cloud and built for the cloud, which means real-time collaboration is effortless. This is why more than a billion people rely on G Suite apps like Gmail, Docs, Drive and more in their personal lives. Instead of defaulting to old habits—like saving content on your desktop—G Suite saves your work securely in the cloud and provides a means for teams to push the boundaries of what they create.

In fact, 74 percent of all time spent in Docs, Sheets and Slides is on collaborative work—that is, multiple people creating and editing content together. This is a stark difference from what businesses see with legacy tools, where the work is often done individually on a desktop client.

So that’s how we’re reimagining work. Learn more by visiting the G Suite website—or stay tuned for more updates in G Suite tomorrow. And keep an eye on the G Suite Updates blog today for more details on several of the new features we're launching at Next.

 *The G Suite Trusted Tester and Early Adopter Programs will soon be renamed Alpha and Beta, respectively. More details to come.


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Triage and remediate threats with new investigation tool in G Suite security center Early Adopter Program

We’re launching an Early Adopter Program (EAP) for a new “investigation tool” in the G Suite security center. It will help G Suite admins and security analysts identify, triage, and remediate security threats within their organization. This tool builds on the existing capabilities in the security center to help admins: 


  • Identify security issues within the domain using advanced search capability. 
  • Triage threats targeting users, devices, or data. 
  • Take bulk actions to limit the propagation and impact of threats. 


A new pillar in the G Suite security center 

IT admins and analysts who operate in the cloud seek tools, visibility, and assistive insights to stop threats or gaps in operations before they become security incidents. This is why we introduced the security center for G Suite earlier this year. The security center brings together security analytics, actionable insights, and best practice recommendations from Google to help you protect your organization, data, and users.

The investigation tool adds to the security center with powerful incident investigation and integrated remediation capability. Using it admins can:
  1. Use comprehensive queries - Conduct organization-wide searches across multiple data sources, such as Gmail, Google Drive and device logs. 
  2. Delete malicious email - Identify and delete malicious emails from user inboxes. 
  3. Monitor file sharing - Examine Drive files being shared externally, and take action to stop potential misuse. 
  4. Identify correlation - Pivot across searches to connect results. 
  5. Perform device analysis - Suspend accounts or wipe devices that are compromised or running a vulnerable OS version. 
  6. Audit Drive files - Execute domain-wide access changes, and set IRM controls on Drive files. 

Early Adopter Program for the investigation tool now open 

We’ve been previewing the investigation tool with a small set of testers and customers. We’re excited to extend this capability to more customers through our investigation tool EAP. The EAP is available to G Suite Enterprise and G Suite Enterprise for Education domains. G Suite admins may apply with their primary domain on behalf of their organizations. Apply to join the EAP here.

More Information 
Early Adopter Program sign-up form
The Keyword: Work reimagined: new ways to collaborate safer, smarter and simpler with G Suite


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New grammar suggestions in Google Docs launching to Early Adopter Program

We’re introducing grammar suggestions in Google Docs along with a revamped interface for spelling and grammar review. The new features build on the existing spell check functionality to also highlight possible grammar errors in your text and help you correct them. This will help you spend less time checking and proofreading your work and make your writing easier to understand.

These features will initially launch as an Early Adopter Program (EAP). Find out more at g.co/GrammarEAP.

New grammar suggestions 

When Docs detects a possible grammar correction, it will underline it in blue to indicate you might want to check it. You can right-click to see a suggested correction or dismiss the alert. Possible grammar errors will also show up when you run a spelling and grammar check through the tools menu.

New comprehensive language review interface 

We’ve also made it easier to review all language suggestions for a given document with an updated the spelling and grammar check tool in Docs. To launch it, either use the “Tools” menu or right-click on a suggestion and select “Review more suggestions.” The tool will then show you each suggestion and help you take action to correct any errors.


Automated tool to make working in Docs more efficient 

Docs uses machine learning technology to recognize and help correct potential grammar errors in real time. Docs already uses intelligence to help you assign action items, find relevant content, and identify spelling mistakes. We’ll continue to build intelligent solutions to help you get more done and collaborate better through G Suite.

Early Adopter Program for grammar suggestions now open

To take advantage of these features, apply to join the EAP. You can review the eligibility requirements and apply to join at g.co/GrammarEAP.

More Information 
Early Adopter Program sign-up form
The Keyword: Work reimagined: new ways to collaborate safer, smarter and simpler with G Suite 


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Migration to the new Google Forms UI starting August 22nd

In September 2015, we launched a new interface for Google Forms designed to simplify the form creation experience, produce beautiful forms by default, and make analyzing form responses easier. In February 2016, we made that new version of Forms the default option for users. More than 90% of forms are now managed in the new interface, and we’re ready to completely replace the legacy interface.

As part of the replacement process, we will be upgrading forms that use the legacy interface to the new interface. These changes will update the look and feel of some forms, but the functionality of the forms and any data that has been collected from forms will not change.

Limited options to use legacy Forms interface from August 22nd

Starting from August 22nd, 2018:


  • New forms can only be created and managed in the new interface. All new forms will be created and managed in the new UI. There will be no option to move them to the legacy UI. 
  • Forms previously created in the new UI will only be available to manage in the new interface. All forms which were previously created in the new Forms interface will no longer have the option to revert back to the legacy UI. 
  • Forms created in the legacy interface will be upgraded. When an editor opens a form previously created in the legacy UI, the form will be automatically converted to the new Forms interface. Editors will see a notification and have the option to revert to manage the form in the legacy UI until November 2018. We’ll also automatically upgrade forms that haven’t been edited or received any responses in the last year. 


Interface upgrade complete by November 21st 

Starting from November 21st, 2018:


  • All forms in the legacy UI will gradually be auto-upgraded to new UI. Once they are upgraded, you will only be able to manage them through the new interface. 


Making sure new Forms meets your needs

Throughout this transition period, we’ve listened closely to your feedback and incorporated your top requests as new features in the new version of Forms. These features include:


The recently launched new theme options to customize your forms

Upgrade to the new Google Forms interface today

If you haven’t already, we encourage you and your users to start using the new Forms interface today:

  • To create a form in new Forms, go to forms.google.com and select “Start a new form.” 
  • To upgrade a form in legacy Forms, open the form and look for a banner that says “Try the new Google Forms.” 

The locations of some options have changed, but the Forms features you know and love still exist, and there are many new ones we think you’ll find useful.



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Google+ will no longer support Internet Explorer 10 in October 2018

Beginning on October 23, 2018, Internet Explorer 10 will no longer be a supported browser for use with Google+. Before this time, we recommend referring to the Help Center to ensure you’re using a supported browser for uninterrupted access to Google+.

For more information on supported browsers for all G Suite apps, refer to the Help Center.

Deprecation Details
Impact:
All end users using Internet Explorer 10

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

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Introducing Course Kit: new ways to collaborate with G Suite in your LMS, designed for Higher Ed

(Cross-posted from The Keyword)

Effective teaching and learning require seamless collaboration between instructors and students. The right technology and training can help facilitate this connection, which is why many universities, colleges, schools and other educational institutions provide their instructors and students with a Learning Management System (LMS). In addition to using an LMS, educators and students often also use G Suite's cloud-based productivity tools to create, collaborate and communicate in real time. Until now, there hasn’t been an easy way to integrate G Suite with many LMSs.

Enter Course Kit—a free toolkit that allows instructors to use Google Docs and Drive to collect assignments, give faster and richer feedback to students, and share course materials within the LMS they’re already using. Course Kit is built using the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard so it's easy to set up and works with all LMSs that support LTI. Course Kit currently includes an assignment tool and a file embed tool, making it fast and secure to integrate G Suite's powerful collaboration capabilities into teaching and learning workflows. We piloted Course Kit over the last semester with higher ed institutions, and are now making it available more widely through a beta program.


Save time for thoughtful feedback with Course Kit's assignment tool

Creating and collecting assignments in an LMS with Course Kit's assignment tool is efficient and secure. When submitting their work, students don’t have to worry about the format of their files because any file that can be stored in Google Drive works with Course Kit. Once students turn in their completed work, Course Kit automatically manages permissions and students no longer have edit access to their submitted files while being graded. For instructors, being able to use Google’s cloud-based tools that their students use every day is critical.


Educators can use Course Kit's grading interface to easily toggle between students and their submitted files, all in one tab. They also have the ability to privately give feedback on assignment submissions with the rich collaboration features of Docs and Drive—such as in-line suggestions and margin comments. To save time for deeper, personalized feedback, Course Kit includes a new feature that lets instructors quickly insert commonly used margin comments using a customizable comment bank. “Educator comments are added to a bank, which can be easily reused over and over, or edited to make feedback more personal. Our professors found that very useful,” said Ben Hommerding, Instructional Technologist at St. Norbert College.


When educators are finished reviewing assignments, grades and feedback are synced to the LMS and files are returned to students. “This saves a lot of time managing grades manually,” said Hommerding. Course Kit also creates an archival copy of every returned assignment so professors have an easy-to-access record of submissions -- especially helpful if the assignment needs to be turned in several times. Students get notified when their assignment is returned and can view the instructor’s comments and feedback directly in their LMS.

Embed course materials in an LMS with Course Kit's file embed tool

Using Course Kit's file embed tool, LMS users can add course materials from Google Drive directly into LMS pages, making it easy to share materials seamlessly. Instructors can embed anything from assignment information and syllabi to lecture presentations and videos. This tool simplifies the process of sharing related materials because embedded files are right there in the LMS, organized in Drive and automatically shared, saving faculty from manually configuring sharing settings.


Join the beta

Now with the Google Docs and Drive integration within your LMS, it’s possible to streamline assignment workflows, give richer feedback, and collaborate with students. Course Kit meets industry standards for accessibility and is available in 44 languages. If your institution uses G Suite for Education, get started by requesting access to the beta. Once whitelisted, your IT administrator can install Course Kit in your LMS. Currently using Google Classroom? We are also working to add new and improved feedback functionality directly to Classroom, so stay tuned for more updates in the next few months.

It’s our goal to build tools that enable meaningful connections and lead to effective learning. As always, we’d love your feedback about Course Kit so we can continue to improve these tools, and build others that help improve teaching and learning.


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Discounted price of Jamboard devices for Education domains

Jamboard is designed to make learning a more interactive and engaging experience through real-time, peer-to-peer collaboration. With its online platform for shared problem solving and ideation, Jamboard has been bringing collaboration to new heights in the classroom. To help make this technology more accessible to educational institutions, we’re offering a new, discounted price for Jamboard, specifically for G Suite for Education domains.

G Suite for Education customers in the United States are now eligible to purchase a Jamboard for a one-time cost of $5600. This price also covers:

  • A single management and support fee payment of $600 with no repeating annual payment
  • A wall mount (a rolling stand can be purchased as an optional extra)
  • Two styluses
  • An eraser
G Suite for Education customers who have already purchased Jamboards will qualify for the one-time management and support fee program.

While all devices come with a free one-year warranty, our partner BenQ is offering an optional three-year warranty at a discounted rate. See here for details.

To purchase a Jamboard at this newly discounted price, email [email protected] or contact your reseller. For more information on these new prices, please reference this guide.

Launch Details
Editions:
Available to G Suite for Education editions only

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

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Help Center
FAQ

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