Tag Archives: Other

Gmail contextual gadgets going away on August 1st, 2018

On August 1st, 2018, we’re planning to shut down all Gmail contextual gadgets. A Gmail contextual gadget is a gadget that is triggered by clues in Gmail, like the content of a subject line or an email message.

We recently launched Gmail Add-ons, which satisfy many of the same needs as Gmail contextual gadgets but also offer a better developer experience, cross-platform support, and more stability. We recommend that admins turn off their contextual gadgets and develop new or install existing Gmail Add-ons to serve their use cases. If Gmail contextual gadgets aren’t removed before August 1st, 2018, they’ll disappear automatically.

More Information
Developer Guide: Gmail Contextual Gadgets
Developer Guide: Gmail Add-ons
G Suite Marketplace: Gmail Add-ons 


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Upcoming change to setup flow for company-owned Android devices

As a G Suite admin, you can use Google Mobile Management to manage, secure, and monitor mobile devices in your organization. Additionally, if you provide your employees with devices, you can apply policies that regulate app installation, network settings, security options, and more.

If you have Advanced management enabled, you can set up Android devices* your company owns in one of two ways. (1) You can add devices in the Admin console, automatically assigning their ownership to your organization, or (2) you can allow individual users to assign ownership of their devices to your organization when they set them up. If you choose the second option, those users will see changes to their setup flow starting on February 12th, 2018. (*These devices must be running Android 6.0 or higher.)

Currently, when a user with a brand new Android device (or one that’s recently been factory reset) adds their G Suite account to that device before adding their personal account, they have to check a box to assign device ownership to their organization. (If they add their personal account first, then they’re prompted to set up a work profile when they add their G Suite account later on.) We’ve learned that some users skip checking the box to assign device ownership, even if their phone is company-owned, resulting in a fragmented management experience.

Current setup screen

To encourage more users to make the correct selection, we’re changing the language and option on this screen. Starting on February 12th, 2018, 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. Again, this will only occur when a user adds their G Suite account to a device before adding their personal account.

New setup screen

We hope this will result in fewer company-owned devices that are incorrectly set up and an improved mobile management experience.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release on February 12th, 2018

Editions:
Available to all G Suite 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: Get started with Google Mobile Management
Help Center: Set up Android devices your company owns


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Legacy Google Drive desktop sync client now shutting down on May 12th, 2018

When we launched Drive File Stream last year, we announced that the Drive desktop sync client for Mac and PC—a feature officially known as “Google Drive for Mac/PC”—would shut down completely on March 12th, 2018. In response to your feedback, we’re delaying that shutdown date to May 12th, 2018.

We encourage enterprise organizations still using Drive for Mac/PC to transition to Drive File Stream. For non-G Suite users, we recommend Backup and Sync. For more information on choosing the right sync solution for your users, check out this Help Center guide.

To help with the transition, on January 30th we’ll start showing pop-up notifications to G Suite accounts still using Drive for Mac/PC. These notifications will include instructions on how to install Drive File Stream. They’ll only be shown if your domain both allows Drive File Stream and shows Drive File Stream download links in the Drive interface.

IMPORTANT: This shutdown has no impact on other Google Drive services.

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What’s New in Google Data Studio?

The Data Studio team has been hard at work launching some new features, including clearer tables, colorful numbers, and more ways to visualize your data. Let's take a look at the highlights:
Need to narrow down a large data set? Pivot Tables take the rows in a standard table and pivot them so they become columns. This lets you reorganize metrics and dimensions, and group and summarize the data in ways a standard table can't provide. Pivot tables also help you analyze relationships between data points that might otherwise be hard to spot.

Learn more about pivot tables (and see how Sheets can now intelligently suggest them for you!) »
Coordinated Coloring binds colors to specific data for easy comparison of metrics and dimensions across different visualizations. When a new visualization is created, Data Studio automatically binds colors to the data, so that color:data pairs stay consistent with all filters and versions. Coordinated coloring is automatically turned on for all new reports, and you can add it yourself to old reports.

Learn more about coordinated coloring »

In this image, the table and pie charts both show sampled Google Analytics 
data (with orange indicator); the geo chart doesn't. 


Google Analytics often samples data to provide accurate reporting in a timely manner. Data Studio reports now includes a simple Google Analytics Sampling Indicator to show you any component that contains sampled Analytics data.

Learn more about sampling indicators »


Field Reports Editing: Data Studio has recently added new functionality that makes it easier to create and edit the visualizations that you need, rather than going back and forth to the data source. You can use these new options to:
  • Rename fields
  • Change aggregation types, semantic types and date functions
  • Apply % of total, difference from total, or % difference from total to metrics from within the report. 


Display Images in Tables: The new IMAGE function is a useful way to display images in tables -- for instance, adding YouTube video thumbnails or product images to your reports.


Data controls let each team select the accounts that are relevant to them. 

Data Control updates: Data Control lets every user bring their own data to existing Data Studio reports. This means every user can select from a list of their own accounts to populate the visualizations -- so there's no need to build new reports for every account and user. This makes it possible to scale report “templates” across a number of users with different access to accounts, an important use case for agencies or companies with subsidiaries. And now Data Control supports Attribution 360 (TV Attribution) and DFP (DoubleClick for Publishers) data sets.

Learn more about Data Control »

We hope these new features will help you continue to make the most from Data Studio. Keep the data rolling!

Note: Though not an official G Suite service, Data Studio is currently available globally for free.

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New Google Calendar web UI to begin automatically upgrading users on January 8th, 2018

In October 2017, we announced a new user interface (UI) for Google Calendar on the web. As a reminder, admins have several options for how their users will transition to this new UI.

On January 8th for Rapid Release domains (and January 15th for Scheduled Release domains), we’ll begin auto-upgrading users whose domains are set to the automatic (default) rollout option.

In this phase, users will still have the option to opt out of the new UI until February 28th, 2018, when all users will be fully upgraded.

Please note, any individual users who had manually opted out of the new web UI previously will not be upgraded until February 5th for Rapid Release and February 12th for Scheduled Release.

Additionally, while this opt-out phase does not impact domains whose admins have selected a manual rollout, users in these domains will still be upgraded to the new UI on February 28th, 2018, with no option to opt out.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid Release, with Scheduled Release coming on January 15th

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: Control access to the new Calendar (admin-facing)
Help Center: Learn what's new in Google Calendar (user-facing)
G Suite Updates blog: Time for a refresh: meet the new Google Calendar for web


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Introducing release notes for Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync

Earlier this year, we launched Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync to help users in your organization more easily access files on their desktop computers. Many of you asked for a way to keep track of the changes to those two products. In response to your feedback, we’re now publishing regular release notes for both Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync on the Help Center. These release notes should help you stay on top of the additions and improvements made to each new version of the two products. We’ll continue to announce major changes on the G Suite Updates Blog as well.


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