Tag Archives: Weekly Recap

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – February 16, 2024

2 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.



New formatting sidebar in Google Docs, Slides and Sheets apps on Android Tablets 
This week, we’re further improving the Google Workspace experience on large screen Android devices by adding a new formatting sidebar in Google Docs, Slides and Sheets. In addition to meeting the Google Material Design 3 guidelines, this new sidebar reduces the number of taps needed to navigate to formatting options, enabling you to more easily arrange text, tables, images and more. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for March 6, 2024. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. 
New formatting sidebar in Google Docs, Slides and Sheets apps on Android Tablets
New sidebar experience in Google Docs on an Android tablet 

Easily drag and drop an image to replace the background in Google Slides
Hovering over the border of an empty slide before dropping in an image (from your desktop, Content Library or another webpage) will now set the image as the background in Google Slides. Dropping the image anywhere else will simply insert the image onto the slide. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for February 26, 2024. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about changing the theme, background, or layout in Google Slides.
Easily drag and drop an image to replace the background in Google Slides

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.


Google Meet “companion mode” is now supported on your mobile device for great hybrid meetings
Beginning this week, you’ll be able to use companion mode with your Android and iOS devices. | Learn more about Google Meet companion mode. 

Creating more immersive presentations in Google Slides
Starting this week, Speaker spotlight in Slides, an experience that lets presenters insert their video feed directly into their Slides content, is generally available for select Google Workspace editions. With Speaker spotlight, you can deliver your message with greater impact by embedding your camera feed directly into your Slides presentations. This feature helps keep your audience focused on you and can help make your content more compelling. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus customers only. | Learn more about speaker spotlight.

Assign mobile device management admin privileges based on organizational unit
We’re giving admins more granular control over how mobile device management privileges are delegated. Specifically, admins can be assigned privileges for specific organizational units (OUs). | Learn more about mobile device management. 

Sort, filter and manage comments faster in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides
We’re introducing an improved comments experience in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides to help you find and take action on comments easier than ever before. While you will continue to see and interact with the comments experience you’re familiar with, you’ll also notice updates to our comment cards, icons, and more. | Learn more about comments across Workspace. 


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

  

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – February 9, 2024

New updates 

There are no new updates to share this week. Please see below for a recap of published announcements. 


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.


Google Meet hosts can pin multiple tiles for all meeting participants 
If you’re a meeting host or co-host, you can now pin up to three specific tiles for all meeting participants. By doing so, you can help ensure the meeting is focused on key presentations and speakers. | Learn more about pinning multiple tiles in Meet.

Share spaces smart chips in Google Chat
You now have the ability to search for and insert a smart chip that links to a space. These new smart chips will make it easier to share and collaborate on content related to specific spaces. | Learn more about space smart chips.


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.


Rapid Release Domains: 
Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

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

  

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – February 2, 2024

3 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.


New ways to work with filters in Connected Sheets for Looker and Connected Sheets for BigQuery 
  • With Looker: Connected Sheets for Looker users will now be able to see whether Looker-defined filters, always_filters and conditionally_filters, are applied in their Google Sheets. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains now. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about always_filter and conditionally_filter in Looker. 
  • With BigQuery: Connected Sheets for BigQuery users can now right-click any value in the Connected Sheets preview and filter rows in the preview on that specific value. As a result, a new query will be sent to BigQuery to re-fetch the preview. This new option provides an additional way to easily explore data in the Connected Sheets preview for BigQuery. | This is now available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about sorting & filtering BigQuery data in Google Sheets.

Latest improvement for page setup in Google Docs 
We’re introducing a new menu item within the Format option that enables you to easily switch between pageless and pages mode in Google Docs. | Rollout to Rapid Release domains is complete; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for February 5, 2024. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about changing a document’s page setup. 
Latest improvement for page setup in Google Docs


Developers can now choose which calendar events to be notified about 
Developers using the Calendar API can now subscribe to specific changes in users’ calendars — this includes event types such as working location, out-of-office, or focus time. This update reduces the amount of notifications down to those that are most relevant to the developer. | Use our Developer Documentation for more information about subscribing to alerts for specific calendar event changes. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains. | The Calendar API is available to all Google Workspace customers, however Calendar features may vary across Google Workspace editions.



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.


For Google Meet Hardware, ‘Auto-Update Expiration (AUE)’ will now be referred to as 'end of Meet support' 
We’re making changes to the terminology that refers to when a Meet hardware device is no longer supported. | This update impacts all Google Workspace customers with Meet hardware devices. | Learn more about 'end of Meet support'.

Local data storage exports your organization's Workspace data into the geographic location of your choice, launching in beta 
We’re introducing Google Workspace’s new feature, local data storage. This feature allows admins to export their organization’s Workspace data into the geographic location or locations of their choice. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers with Assured Controls add-on only. | Learn more about the local data storage exports beta.

Improving the Google Calendar appointment scheduling experience with new features 
We’re improving upon the current appointment scheduling experience with four new features. | Co-hosts, secondary calendars and delegate access features are available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits only. Check Calendars for availability feature is available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Nonprofits, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts only. | Learn more about the appointment scheduling features. 

Shareable class templates and classwork in Google Classroom are now generally available 
Last year, we announced a Google Classroom beta that simplifies lesson planning with shareable class templates and classwork. We’re excited to announce that this is now globally available for Google Workspace for Education Plus customers in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. | Available to Education Plus only. | Learn more about shareable class materials. 

Pin chat messages in Google Meet 
You can now pin messages to the top of the meeting chat. Pinned messages will appear for all users, even if they join the meeting after the message was initially sent. | Learn more about messaging pinning.


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains: 

Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

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

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – January 26, 2024

2 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.


Updated List / Grid toggle now available in Google Drive 
To make the List / Grid toggle more visible in Google Drive, we’ve introduced a new split-button toggle with the updated Google Material Design 3. This toggle is now available across all Drive web pages, making it easier for you to switch between viewing modes based on your preference. | The List / Grid toggle is now available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about viewing and reordering your files and folders.
new grid view in drive

Jump to where your collaborator is while editing in Google Sites
When working on content in Google Docs or Slides, you can go to wherever your collaborator is working within the document or presentation by clicking their avatar in the top right corner. This week, we’re excited to announce a similar feature in Google Sites. Now, when a Site editor clicks on a collaborator’s avatar, they will jump to the selected tile of the clicked collaborator. If the collaborator is on a different page, the site editor will be taken to that page. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for February 12, 2024. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about following a collaborator on Google Sites.



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.


Manage reported Google Chat content from the new moderation tool in the Admin console 
We’re introducing a centralized location for reviewing and taking action on reported Google Chat content in the Admin console under Apps > Google Workspace > Moderation, alongside the email quarantine tool for Gmail. | Google Chat content reporting and moderation is available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers only. | Learn more about reported Google Chat content. 

Closed caption support in Google Meet expands to an additional thirty-one languages 
We’ve expanded support for closed captioning to include additional languages. | Learn more about captions & translated captions in Google Meet. 

Improving space creation in Google Chat 
We are making two improvements to the space creation flow in Google Chat: preventing duplicate space names and providing a method to configure spaces for specific use cases. | Learn more about space creation in Google Chat.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains: 

Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

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

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – January 19, 2024

2 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.


Unsubscribe from emails on Gmail more easily 
We know managing unwanted emails is a source of frustration for many users. That’s why we announced new guidelines for bulk senders a few months ago to ensure users stay safe. Now, we’re introducing new ways to make it even easier to unsubscribe from unwanted emails in Gmail on web and mobile by:
  • Adding the unsubscribe button to the hover actions in the threadlist on web. When the unsubscribe button is clicked, Gmail sends a http request or an email to the sender to remove your email address from their mailing list. 
    Unsubscribe from emails on Gmail more easily
  • Moving the unsubscribe button from the three dot menu to appear more prominently in your email on your Android and iOS devices.
Additionally, we know it is common for people to receive unwanted messages, despite initially signing up to receive them from brands or organizations. These messages often originate from legitimate senders, and marking them as spam can negatively impact the sender's email reputation and can potentially affect the deliverability of future emails. For this reason, we're changing the text of the buttons to make it clearer for users to choose between unsubscribing or reporting a message as spam. 

These features are now available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts on web and iOS devices, and are rolling out now on Android devices at an extended pace (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility). | Learn more about unsubscribing from emails and reporting spam in Gmail.


Updating the mobile experience on Android tablets and foldable devices 
Last year, we announced enhancements to the Google Drive mobile experience on Android tablets. This included several modernizations, such as shifting the navigation bar to the side of the Drive app. Similarly, we’ve moved the navigation bar for Gmail to the side to optimize the experience on tablets and foldable devices. This migration will make it easier for users to switch tabs in Gmail. | Available now to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. 
Updating the mobile experience on Android tablets and foldable devices




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.


Launch the Lucidspark whiteboarding app directly from Google Meet Series One Board 65 and Desk 27 devices 
By the end of the month, Lucidspark by Lucid Software can be launched directly from Google Meet Series One Board 65 and Desk 27 devices. With this integration, users will be able to share and participate in a Lucidspark whiteboard session in a Meet call, either initiated from the Series One Board 65 and Desk 27 or a remote participant on the call. | Learn more about the Lucidspark whiteboarding app. 

Use comments & action items on your client-side encrypted Google Docs 
You can now collaborate with others on client-side encrypted Google Docs to add, edit, reply, filter, or delete comments. You can also assign action items to yourself or others. This added functionality helps bring parity to unencrypted docs while also ensuring your data is behind encryption keys you control, including the identity provider used to access those keys. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers only. | Learn more about CSE comments & action items in Docs. 

Combine multiple video effects, improve lighting and audio in Google Meet 
We’re launching three new features to personalize your appearance in Google Meet. | Learn more about combining multiple video effects on web and mobile, studio lighting on web and studio sound. 

Join meetings as a guest without a Google account on mobile devices 
You can now quickly join a meeting as a guest without signing into a personal or work Google account or creating a new Google account. This functionality already exists for meetings on the web and, by expanding to mobile, guests now have greater flexibility for joining Meet meetings on the go. | Learn more about joining meetings as a guest.

Star messages in Google Chat on mobile
Last November, we introduced starred on web, an additional shortcut in the redesigned Google Chat navigation panel that helps you stay on top of your most important messages. We’re excited to announce this is now available on Android and iOS mobile devices. | Learn more about starring messages.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains: 

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

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

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – January 12, 2024

4 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.


Version history limits for Apps Script projects 
For all new scripts, you’ll be able to create and save up to 200 versions of your script. If needed, you can permanently delete a script version from the project history page. | This is available now to all Google Workspace customers. | Learn more using our developer documentation on working with Apps Script versions. 


Share a link to a specific time in a Google Drive video 
We’re adding new functionality to the Drive sharing button that lets you share timestamped links to specific parts of a video. On web, simply navigate to drive.google.com > find and open a video file > play the video (you can pause the playback before performing the following steps) > select the dropdown on the “Share” button in the top-right corner > select “Copy link to this time” > send the link. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about copying a specific time in the video. 
Share a link to a specific time in a Google Drive video

Introducing dropdown options on the sharing button in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings We’re adding a new feature that ensures a seamless sharing experience across Workspace. In Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings, you will now see a dropdown on the Share button that surfaces quick actions, such as pending access requests and the “Copy link” option. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. 
dropdown options on the sharing button

Using functions in Connected Sheets for BigQuery 
Today, Connected Sheets for BigQuery supports 23 Sheets functions, such as AVERAGE and XLOOKUP. However, all of these functions behave somewhat differently than their native counterparts. Thus, to help Connected Sheets users write better functions, we now display context-aware Help Center content in Sheets. The ‘formula help’ shows descriptions for Connected Sheets functions when writing a formula that would query BigQuery, and otherwise shows descriptions of native Sheets functions. | This is available now to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about the XLOOKUP function.
Using functions in Connected Sheets for BigQuery


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.


Updates to metrics in Google Drive Apps Reports and Reports API 
We’re making some updates to the Google Drive metrics in the Admin Console Apps reports and the Reports API. As a result of these improvements, admins who analyze metrics will have more reporting clarity and can better understand activity trends within their domain. | Learn more about metrics in Drive Apps Reports and Reports API. 

Easily share Google Drive files to Google Calendar meeting attendees 
We’re introducing the option to share any file with all meeting participants on a Google Calendar invite via the sharing dialog within a file. | Learn more about sharing Drive files to Calendar. 

Google Meet is now available on Logitech Android appliances 
Google Meet is now supported on Logitech’s Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini Android-based appliances for collaboration rooms and spaces of just about any size. After initial setup, admins can easily enroll, manage, and monitor these devices using the Google admin console. Google Meet on Logitech Android-based devices is supported on CollabOS v1.11 as a video conferencing provider | Learn more about Meet on Logitech Android appliances. 

Google Meet hardware devices from Poly now support interoperability with Cisco Webex and Zoom 
We’re expanding the existing interoperability between Google Meet, Cisco Webex, and Zoom to include Android-based Meet hardware devices from Poly. Specifically, these devices include: Poly Studio X30, X50, X52, and X70. | Learn more about support interoperability with Cisco Webex and Zoom.

Extending Trusted Types to Gmail
We’re excited to announce the expansion of Trusted Types to Gmail. This will provide a defense against DOM XSS and further enhances our advanced data protection controls to keep users and data safe across more of the apps they use everyday. | Learn more about Trusted Types.


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains: 

Scheduled Release Domains: 

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

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

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – January 5, 2024

New updates 

There are no new updates to share this week. Please see below for a recap of published announcements. 


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.


Updates for managed iOS devices with the release of Chrome 120 
In the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing several improvements to Chrome-on-iOS that will help admins more seamlessly apply policies and preferences across their users’ managed devices. This launch will align with the planned release of Chrome 120. | Learn more about updates for managed iOS devices. 

Improvements to Google Meet ultra-low latency live streaming 
We’re introducing several improvements for the overall experience of the ultra-low latency viewing experience for video meetings that are streamed within an organization. | Live streaming is available for Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus customers only. Live streamed meetings can be viewed by Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus, Essentials Starter, and Essentials users only. | Learn more about Google Meet ultra-low latency live streaming.

Convert Google Forms into practice sets in Google Classroom 
Teachers can now import a Google Form into practice set questions, and benefit from the assistive features, such as suggested resources and hints, in-the-moment support for students and insights. | Available to Google Workspace Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade only. | Learn more about importing questions from Google Forms.


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.


Rapid Release Domains: 
Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

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

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – December 15, 2023

2 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.


We have begun enforcing 2-step verification for all admin accounts 
Two-step verification (2SV) is a critical security measure that has been proven to reduce password-based hijacking by more than 50%. We are committed to protecting the security of our users and are taking additional steps to help customers guard against data compromise and prevent account takeovers.

We have begun enforcing 2SV for all admin accounts and will continue this enforcement on an ongoing basis. As of December 2023, this change is already in effect for some customers. When this goes into effect for your organization, you will receive the following notifications:
  • 30 days prior to enforcement in your domain: Super admins will receive various email and in-app notifications informing them of the forthcoming enforcement, encouraging them to verify their admins’ 2SV status. 
  • Once enforcement goes into effect in your domain: All admins will receive email and in-app notifications upon signing into their accounts for the next thirty days. If they do not enable 2SV within this time period, they will be locked out and will need to follow these steps to recover an administrator account.
We highly encourage all administrators to turn on 2SV as soon as possible. Visit the Help Center for more details and further guidance.



Dynamic groups limit increased to 500 
We’re increasing the number of dynamic groups a customer can have from 100 to 500. Dynamic groups are defined as groups whose membership is managed automatically based on specific criteria, such as a user’s department or location. This increase gives admins more flexibility to create dynamic groups as needed and cuts down on manual group management tasks that would otherwise be required. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains at a gradual pace (up to 15 days for feature visibility). | Available for Google Workspace Frontline Standard, Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, and Cloud Identity Premium customers only. | Learn more about dynamic groups.


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.


Meet Add-ons SDK available in Developer Preview 
The Google Meet Web Add-ons SDK is available through our Developer Preview Program. Developers can use the SDK to bring their app experience right into Meet. End users can install, open, and collaborate in apps right inside a meeting, either as the meeting focal point, or in the sidebar — all without ever leaving Meet. | Learn more about Meet Add-ons SDK .

Huddly cameras bring continuous framing to Google Meet Series One room kits 
As part of our initiative to bring adaptive framing to Google Meet meeting rooms, we’re proud to announce that you can now access Huddly’s continuous framing capability available as part of the Series One room kit hardware devices. | Available to all Google Workspace customers using Google Meet Series One room kits only. | Learn more about Google Meet Series One.

Record and share your name pronunciation across Google Workspace products 
From your Google account settings, you can now record your name and share its pronunciation with other users. The pronunciation can be played from your profile card across various Google Workspace tools such as Gmail or Google Docs on web or mobile devices. | Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline Starter, Frontline Standard, and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more about name pronunciation. 

Easy access to people, documents, building blocks and more in Google Docs 
When moving to a blank line within your Doc, you will see an “@” button with the option to select, search and insert smart chips, such as people, dates, timers, or files, building blocks, calendar events, groups and more. | Learn more about bringing smart canvas features to the forefront of your workflow. 

Excuse assignments in Google Classroom 
Teachers can mark an assignment for a particular student as “Excused” instead of giving it a 0-100 score. This will exclude that particular assignment from the student’s overall grade. | Learn more about excusing assignments. 

Introducing interactive questions for YouTube videos in Google Classroom 
Educators can now turn any YouTube video into an interactive lesson by adding questions for their students to answer throughout the video. | Available to Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade only. | Learn more about interactive videos. 

Introducing the Bitbucket app for Google Chat 
We’re adding Bitbucket for Google Chat. Bitbucket is a Git-based code and CI/CD tool optimized for teams using Atlassian’s Jira. | Learn more about Bitbucket app for Google Chat. 

Use “Profile Discovery” to display basic information only in search results, available in open beta 
Google Workspace admins can now turn on “Profile discovery” for their users. When turned on, users can customize how they appear across Google products to people who search for them by their phone number or email. Specifically, you can choose how you want your name to be displayed and how your profile picture will be displayed. | Learn more about Profile Discovery.


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.


Rapid Release Domains: 
Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

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

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – December 8, 2023

1 New update

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.


Report sharing and comment push notifications for abuse on Android devices
In order to make the process of reporting abuse much easier and reduce unnecessary exposure to harmful content on Android devices, users will now have the ability to report comment notifications and sharing notifications as spam directly from the notification via the Google Drive app. If users have lost access to a document, they will still be able to perform a user block on the user who sent the share or comment. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains at an extended pace (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) with expected completion in January 2024. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about reporting a violation. 


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.


Access Google Vault audit logs alongside other Workspace audit logs 
We’re excited to announce the general availability of an improved Google Vault audit log experience. As a result of this change, you can now find Vault audit logs in the Admin console alongside other Google Workspace apps like Gmail, Google Drive, and more. | Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus customers or customers with the Vault add-on license only. | Learn more about accessing Vault audit logs. 


Solve math equations easily with Smart Compose 
We're introducing a new feature that extends the power of Smart Compose to help you solve simple math equations. | Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits only. | Learn more about smart compose for math.


Introducing a redesigned search results page in Google Chat 
Chat will now highlight matching keywords in search results and show clear demarcation between results for easier browsing. The highlighted keywords could be an exact match to your search query or terms that are related to your search query. | Learn more about highlighting in Chat. 


Admins in Google Vault can now export hyperlinked Google Drive content from Gmail messages
Starting December 8, 2023, admins can export Drive files hyperlinked in Gmail messages directly in Google Vault. | Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus customers or customers with the Vault add-on license only. | Learn more about exporting hyperlinked Drive content.


Set client-side encryption as the default mode for new emails, events, and files
Admins can now set client-side encryption (CSE) to be on by default for: newly created Gmail messages, Google Calendar events, newly created Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files, and newly uploaded Google Drive files. | Google Workspace Assured Controls is available as an add-on to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers only. | Learn more about client-side encryption as the default mode. 


New beta to add granular control options for who can respond to Google Forms 
With this new option, form creators can limit response access to specific users, groups, or target audiences—similar to how file owners can restrict the sharing of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides or Sites in Drive. | Learn more about Forms controls. 


Turn on snippets for additional context surrounding data loss prevention rule violations 
Admins can now view “Sensitive Content Snippets” for data loss prevention (DLP) rules. This applies to DLP events for Drive, Chat, and Chrome. When turned on, snippets will log the matched content that triggered a DLP violation in the security investigation tool. | Available to Google Workspace Frontline Standard, Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Cloud Identity Premium and BeyondCorp Enterprise customers only. | Learn more about snippets. 


Manage conversations by muting notifications in Google Chat 
We’re introducing a new mute/unmute option in Google Chat to assist you in prioritizing and managing your messages. | Learn more about muting notifications in Chat. 


Updated grace periods for resolving policy violations in managed iOS devices 
We’re adjusting a few components to how this grace period operates to boost compliance and prevent inadvertent circumvention. | Available to Google Workspace Frontline Starter and Frontline Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus and Cloud Identity Premium customers only. | Learn more about policy violations in managed iOS devices.


Additional enhancements to the search results page in Google Chat
We’re introducing condensed versions of your search results to only show the relevant parts of a message that match closest to your search query. By selecting “Show more”, you can view the entire message without the need to open the conversation. | Learn more about search in Chat.


Easily fill in smart chips in Google Docs using placeholder chips
When crafting content in Docs, a replaceable chip for people, dates, files, events, and places can be inserted and quickly filled in by collaborators. | Learn more about placeholder chips.



Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.


Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 


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

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – December 1, 2023

3 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.


New ways to use the Google Sheets app on iOS devices 
You can now copy charts from the Google Sheets app on all iOS devices and paste them externally as images or within the same spreadsheet as a duplicate chart. In addition, you can modify text formatting using the contextual toolbar in Sheets when a keyboard is attached to iOS tablets. | Rolling out to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains now. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about adding & editing a chart or graph and editing & formatting a spreadsheet. 
New ways to use the Google Sheets app on iOS devices



Adding ‘Admin managed apps’ category to Google Workspace Marketplace
We’re excited to announce a new featured app category in the Marketplace: Admin managed. These Enterprise apps can be installed only by a Google Workspace administrator for their organization. | Available now to all Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about Featured app categories. 


Bulk select in Gmail on Android and iOS devices 
We’re introducing a feature that enables you to bulk select a batch of messages in the email threadlist with one tap using the Gmail app on Android and iOS devices. After clicking the select all icon, a batch of messages will be selected, enabling you to easily perform email actions such as deleting multiple messages or marking them as “read”. | This feature is available now on Android devices and is rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains on iOS devices. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. 
Bulk select in Gmail on Android and iOS devices



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.



Create shareable video presentations in Google Slides 
We’re introducing slides recordings, a new Google Slides feature that lets you easily record yourself presenting, and then share the presentation with others to view when it works for them. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Education Plus only. | Learn more about slides recordings. 

The next evolution of automated data entry in Google Sheets 
Enhanced Smart Fill in Google Sheets is available for customers with the Duet AI for Google Workspace Enterprise add-on. | Learn more about enhanced smart fill. 

Expanding message bubbles in Google Chat to iOS devices 
In September, we introduced message bubbles in Google Chat on web and Android, enabling users to more easily differentiate incoming versus outgoing messages in the Chat message stream. This week, we’re excited to announce the expansion of message bubbles to iOS devices. | Learn more about message bubbles. 

Updates to the Google Drive scanner on Android & iOS devices 
We’re introducing additional enhancements to the Drive scanner on Android devices, which now powers the Google Pixel camera and includes improvements to the scanner experience when capturing content. We’re also expanding the Google Drive scanner and title suggestion feature to iOS devices. | Learn more about Drive scanner. 

Introducing a new homepage view in Google Drive 
We’ve added a new streamlined homepage for Drive called Home that makes it easier and faster for you to find files that matter most. | Learn more about Drive home. 

Introducing a new mobile experience for Google Chat 
We recently announced a streamlined user experience in Google Chat to help you find what you need much faster, including new features like home and mentions. Starting today, we’re excited to introduce a new bottom navigation bar within the Chat app on Android & iOS devices to help you easily access these features on mobile. | Learn more about the Chat mobile experience. 

Google Vault now supports Google Calendar 
Google Vault now supports Calendar, which means customers can take new actions around Calendar data. | Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus customers or customers with the Vault add-on license only. | Learn more about Vault supporting Calendar. 

More insights to help admins troubleshoot Google Meet hardware issues 
In 2022, we introduced several improvements for managing Google Meet hardware devices. These improvements included surfacing additional information about device issues, such as a description of the issue, when the issue was detected, and more. Now, we’re taking these improvements one step further by providing admins with even more data points. | Learn more about Google Meet hardware issues. 

Monitor insider risk of Google Workspace data with Chronicle 
Admins can now more seamlessly integrate their Google Workspace data with Chronicle (Google’s cloud-native Security Operations platform), to quickly detect, investigate and take action on risky activity and threats. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus customers only. | Learn more about Chronicle. 

Google Classroom now supports roster import from SIS partners
Educators can now easily import students from their student information system (SIS) to Google Classroom using OneRoster. This integration saves educators time and helps make class setup much quicker. | Available to Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade only. | Learn more about roster import. 

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.


Rapid Release Domains: 
Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 


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