Tag Archives: Rapid Release

Now generally available: Chat interoperability between Google Chat and other messaging platforms

This announcement was part of Google Cloud Next ‘24. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about the next wave of innovations in Workspace, including enhancements to Gemini for Google Workspace.

What’s changing

At Google Cloud Next 2023, we announced interoperability between Google Chat, Microsoft Teams and Slack— powered by Mio and previously available to Workspace customers through a Beta program. We’re pleased to announce that as of today, this solution is generally available for Google Workspace customers. 


Interoperability will enable organizations that use Google Chat and other messaging platforms within their domain to provide a more seamless experience for their users.




Getting started

  • Admins: Learn more about Mio and visit the Mio Help Center for more information.
  • End users: There is no end user action required.

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers. Note that separate Mio licensing is required to enable interoperability.


Google Chat apps can now subscribe to event notifications

This announcement was part of Google Cloud Next ‘24. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about the next wave of innovations in Workspace, including enhancements to Gemini for Google Workspace.


What’s changing

Google Workspace developers registered in our Developer Preview Program have been able to build Chat apps that can subscribe to Chat events using the Google Workspace Events API. We’re pleased to announce that as of today, this functionality is now available to all Workspace developers.


Chat apps can receive events about the following types of changes in Google Chat:

  • New memberships
  • New or removed reactions to a message
  • New, updated, or removed members in a space
  • Changes to a space, such as the space name or description

Subscribing to these notifications allows Chat apps to respond to important actions in real-time. For details, see subscribe to Google Chat events in the Google Workspace Events API documentation.


Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability


Use annotations to enhance your presentations in Google Meet

What’s changing 

We’re excited to introduce annotation tools in Google Meet. Presenters and their appointed co-annotators can use these tools to highlight content or make other notations over presented content. Annotations will be on by default when you begin presenting — you can open the annotations menu to access various tools such as a pen, disappearing ink, sticker, text box, and more. 


To assign a co-annotator, from the people panel or by hovering over a user’s video tile, select more options (three-dot icon) > add as co-annotator. For more information about who can co-annotators, see the “Additional details” section below. 


Annotating and co-annotating are available for select Google Workspace editions (see availability section below). Anyone can view annotated content during a meeting.


Selecting various annotation tools


Using the pen tool to highlight a specific section of presented content




Who’s impacted

End users


Why you’d use it

Annotation tools can help you better showcase content and engage with your audience while presenting content in Google Meet. They can be useful in a variety of situations, including:

  • Guiding large groups of users through content, such as a new software training
  • Capturing information in real time, like jotting down brainstorming ideas
  • Building on concepts in the classroom, like creating a sentence structure or highlighting key information to help students think through a problem
  • Demonstrating steps to solve a math equation


Additional details

At the time of launch, please note that:
  • Android users can use annotations when they present their screen and select the Entire Screen option. Android co-annotation will follow in a future release.
  • iOS users cannot use annotations when presenting. They can use annotations if they are appointed a co-annotator by a web user.
We’ll provide more information here on the Workspace Updates blog as functionality for mobile devices expands.


Meet hardware availability
Annotations will be available on Series Desk 27 and Board 65 devices during a future release. When support is added, you’ll be able to add these boards as a co-annotator.

Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: This feature will be available when you initiate a presentation in Google Meet. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using annotations in Google Meet.

Rollout pace


Availability

Available for Google Workspace:
  • Business Starter, Standard, and Plus
  • Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
  • Frontline Starter and Standard
  • Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus
  • Education Standard, Plus, the Teaching & Learning Upgrade
  • Workspace Individual subscribers


Resources


Launch the FigJam whiteboard app directly from Google Meet Series One Board 65 and Desk 27 devices

What’s changing 

Since September 2023, Workspace users have enjoyed the convenience of launching FigJam, Figma’s free online whiteboard, directly in Google Meet. We’re excited to announce that you can now launch FigJam both in and out of an active Meet call from the Series One Board 65 and Desk 27 devices.




Who’s impacted

Admins and end users


Why you’d use it

Prior to this update, these rich collaborative tools were only available within a Meet call — now you can launch them from Board 65 and Desk 27 devices outside of a call for on-demand collaboration and problem solving. Existing Jamboard customers can find more resources related to the FigJam and Google Meet integration here.


Additional details

Migrating your Jamboard files to Figma
Figma’s integration allows users to easily migrate their existing Jamboards to FigJam files through the FigJam importer. 


Device support for additional apps
This enhancement is part of the next phase of digital whiteboarding for Google Workspace. We’ll continue to keep you updated as we add support for launching additional applications directly from Board 65 and Desk 27 devices. 


Getting started

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet Board 65 and Desk 27 devices

Resources


Dark mode now available in Google Drive web

What’s changing

Today, we’re introducing a highly requested feature: Dark mode in Drive on web. This new setting aims to provide you with a more comfortable, customizable viewing experience for Drive. 
Dark mode now available in Google Drive web


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: To use Dark Mode, go to Drive > Settings > Appearance > Dark. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Dark theme in Google Drive.

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 

Resources 

Build a Dialogflow CX Google Chat app that understands and responds with natural language

This announcement was part of Google Cloud Next ‘24. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about the next wave of innovations in Workspace, including enhancements to Gemini for Google Workspace.


What’s changing

Earlier this year, we introduced the integration between Google Chat and Dialogflow CX through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. 


Dialogflow helps developers build and host Chat bots that understand natural language with minimal coding effort. The enhanced Dialogflow CX version, now generally available, provides a new way of designing virtual agents by taking a state machine approach to agent design. Now, developers have clear and explicit control over a conversation, enjoy a better end-user experience, and gain access to an improved development workflow. 


The Dialogflow CX integration with Google Chat allows developers to easily create Google Chat apps that are useful in all kinds of interactions, especially those that require natural human speech. For example, consider a Chat app that helps people rent cars. A user might write, "I'd like to rent a car". The Chat app might respond with a question like "Where would you like to pick up the vehicle?" which starts a human-like conversation with the user in which the Chat app both understands and responds with human speech while booking the car rental. 
Build a Dialogflow CX Google Chat app that understands and responds with natural language

Who’s impacted 

Developers 


Why it’s important 

Dialogflow CX enables developers to create Chat apps with virtual agents that are more conversational and capable of performing specific tasks. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers 

Resources 

Changes to displaying the “deprovisioned” status for Google Meet hardware devices

What’s changing 

Back in 2021, we introduced the “enrollment privilege”, which restricts who in your organization can enroll or re-enroll Google Meet hardware devices. Prior to introducing this privilege, Admins had to put devices in a “deprovisioned” state to prevent end users from re-enrolling devices until they were moved to a “pending” state. 



Since the enrollment privilege makes those labels obsolete, we are removing the “deprovisioned” state from the Admin console. You’ll no longer see devices in this state from the device status page (Devices > Google Meet Hardware > Devices), nor will you be able to filter for those labels.


Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about enrolling and re-enrolling  Google Meet hardware devices into your organization, as well as licensing FAQs.
    • To prevent unauthorized users from re-enrolling devices, opt in to Enrollment Privilege Enforcement: Menu > Google Meet hardware > Settings > Service Settings and toggle ‘Require enrollment privilege’ to ON.
  • End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

Rollout pace

  • Available now.

Availability


Protect sensitive admin actions with multi-party approvals

This announcement was part of Google Cloud Next ‘24. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about the next wave of innovations in Workspace, including enhancements to Gemini for Google Workspace.

What’s changing

To protect our customers from malicious actors taking sensitive admin actions, we’re launching multi-party approvals where one admin must approve certain sensitive actions initiated by another. Multi-party approvals will be required for the following settings:
  • 2-Step verification
  • Account recovery
  • Advanced Protection 
  • Google session control
  • Login Challenges
  • Passwordless (beta)
This feature is available for eligible Workspace customers with multiple super admin accounts — see the “Getting started” section below for more information.


Who’s impacted

Admins


Why it’s important

Multi-party approvals adds an extra layer of security for sensitive actions taken in the Admin console by ensuring no sensitive action happens in a silo and, most importantly, helps prevent unauthorized or accidental changes from being made. This added layer of approval helps ensure actions are being taken appropriately and not too broadly or too often. Additionally, this is more convenient for admins because the action is executed automatically after approval and the requester doesn’t need to take additional action. Multi-party approvals makes super admins aware of what changes are being attempted and gives them the opportunity to accept or reject these sensitive actions.


Outlined below is an example of the feature in action, in this case there is an attempt to make a change to 2-step verification policies:

When 2-step verification changes are attempted, admins will be required to submit the change to a super admin for approval.

Super admins can review and take action on these requests in the Admin console by navigating to Security > Multi-party approval. Super admins will also receive email alerts when a 2-step verification change is requested or any other protected action is attempted.

Admins can open a specific approval request to view more information including who is impacted by the change, what the configuration was before the change and what it will be after the change.

Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • This feature is available for eligible Workspace customers with two or more super admin accounts. Multi-party approvals are OFF by default and can be turned on in the Admin console by going to Security > Multi-party approval settings. Visit the Help Center to learn more about multi-party approvals for sensitive actions.


Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus, and Cloud Identity Premium customers


Assign the audit and investigation privilege on a per-application basis

What’s changing

When delegating admin privileges for the Audit and Investigation Tool, you can now restrict access levels to audit data on a per application basis (eg: Admin, Drive logs etc.). This change ensures that access isn’t too broadly provisioned and delegated admins only have access to the apps relevant to their scope.

Assigning access levels for audit data on a per application basis



Getting started


Rollout pace



Launch Miro directly from Google Meet Series One Board 65 and Desk 27 devices

What’s changing

For more than a year, Workspace users have enjoyed the convenience of launching Miro’s visual collaboration tools that can be directly installed in Google Meet.

We’re building upon this by giving users the ability to launch Miro from a Series One Board 65 or Desk 27, either in an active Meet call or directly from the device home screen. 


Who’s impacted

Admins and end users 


Why you’d use it 

Previously, you could access Miro’s rich tools and templates on the Board 65 and Desk 27, such as brainstorming with digital sticky notes and planning agile workflows, during a Meet call. With this update, you can access these tools directly from the Board 65 and Desk 27 whenever collaboration strikes, outside of a Meet call. Visit the Google Workspace Blog for more information on the Google Meet and Miro integration.


Additional details

In late 2024, we will wind down the Jamboard whiteboarding app and continue with the previously planned end of support for Google Jamboard devices. Leveraging our partner ecosystem, including Miro, FigJam and LucidSpark, is part of our effort to continue providing the best whiteboard experiences in Workspace. Please use the following article in the Miro Help Center for more information about migrating your Jamboard files to Miro.


Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability

  • The Miro import tool is available to all Workspace customers.
  • The ability to open Miro on Board 65 and Desk 27 is available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet Board 65 and Desk 27 devices.