Rapid Release domains: A gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) began on May 24, 2021.
Scheduled Release domains: A gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) will begin on June 1, 2021.
Users using Google Meet with a personal Google account: rollout began on May 24, 2021.
Additionally, users will have the option to revert to legacy Google Meet experience until June 10, 2021. On June 11, 2021, the new Google Meet experience will become the standard experience for all users.
Use of 3rd party Chrome extensions (including the Grid View extension) could impact your experience — disabling any extensions that interact with Google Meet could resolve this.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: No action required. To revert to the legacy Google Meet experience, select “Use the legacy experience for this call” from the banner. You can also disable any Chrome extensions that interact with Meet if you notice issues.
Rollout pace
Google Workspace Customers
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) started on May 24, 2021
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 1, 2021
Users with personal Google accounts
Rollout began on May 24, 2021
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available to users using Google Meet with a personal Google account
Admins who have enabled Keep for their users will see Keep audit events from May 1, 2021 onward. These audit logs are also available in the Reports API, where admins can expand their automated reporting to include Keep. The event log and Reports API do not include information about the content of notes or attachments, only that an internal user has taken a particular action on a note.
Next, in the coming days, the rollout of a new API for Keep will begin. The API will allow admins and admin-enabled apps to manage Keep access controls for an organization, enabling support for cases such as enterprise data protection. For example, an admin could use the API to create Keep notes, or use an app to monitor Keep usage and help ensure that notes with sensitive information are not shared too widely.
Note: These features are only available for Google Workspace customers, and are not available for users with personal Google accounts.
Who’s impacted
Admins and developers
Why it matters
Audit events for Keep allow administrators to better understand domain activity on Keep and monitor compliance with organizational guidelines. The Keep API gives admins more ways to manage how Keep data is accessed.
Together, we hope these features make it easier for admins to add a layer of security and compliance around Keep data in their organization.
Getting started
Admins:
Keep audit logs will appear automatically for organizations who allow their users to use Keep. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Google Keep Audit logs.
Use the Save to Photos option while previewing an image in Gmail
Who’s impacted
End users
Why you’d use it
This new feature frees you from having to download photo attachments from Gmail messages in order to then manually back them up to Google Photos.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be ON by default. For an eligible photo, you can choose the "Save to Photos" button which is alongside a similar option to "Add to Drive." Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to upload files and folders to Google Drive.
Further, it eliminates a non-inclusive term from our products, helping us build toward our goal of having inclusive language throughout Google Workspace products.
You’ll see the new option for positioning an image above or below text within the image options sidebar and in the image toolbar when clicking directly on an image.
New options for positioning images in front of and behind text in Google Docs.
New options for positioning images in front of and behind text in Google Docs
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers
Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, available as an add-on to Frontline, available to domain-verified Enterprise Essentials, GSuite Business.
Engineering documents that contain annotations or labels
Physical customer invoices, and more
This makes PDFs with images containing text, such as scanned documents, easily searchable by users and improving discoverability of such PDFs.
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why it’s important
Many critical business documents are either in physical form or as scanned versions of those physical documents. With OCR support, admins can now easily index these documents for Cloud Search, making it easier for users to quickly find relevant scanned documents.
In addition, this feature eliminates the need to extract the text offline from PDFs containing images before indexing these documents on Cloud Search.
Getting started
Admins: The feature is ON by default. Use this guide to learn more about how to use enhanced search for PDFs containing images. Important Note: PDFs must be submitted using the Asynchronous Indexing mode and must contain only images.
Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus and Google Cloud Search customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Drive for desktop (formerly known as Drive File Stream) is a simple and efficient way for users to access Drive data on Windows and Mac devices. This launch more fully integrates it with Google endpoint management, and enables admins to restrict use to company-owned devices only. This helps admins to ensure users can access the files they need safely and efficiently whether they’re online or offline, while helping to protect corporate data on devices.
Getting started
Admins: This feature will be off by default. To turn it on for your organization or specific OUs, go to Admin console > Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Features and Applications. Visit our Help Center to learn more about using Drive for desktop with Google endpoint management.
End users: No end user impact unless configured by an administrator. If personal (not company-owned) devices already have Drive for desktop when the admin restricts usage for your account, devices will lose access after they're restarted or Drive for desktop checks the device's compliance (a maximum of 3 hours), whichever comes first.
Rollout pace
This feature is available now for all users.
Availability
Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Frontline, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, and Enterprise Essentials, and Nonprofits customers.
When the data protection setting is enabled, users can only share or save content–such as files, emails, or copied & pasted content—within Workspace accounts. This will protect users from sharing a file with their personal Google accounts or saving a file to their personal Google Drive.
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why it’s important
Google applications on iOS support multi-user logins, allowing users to access Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides with their personal and Google Workspace accounts. Giving admins the ability to control how data is shared across user accounts helps minimize accidental data sharing. Together with the previously released copy and paste and drag and drop restrictions, these security measures help increase the security of your corporate data on iOS.
Getting started
Admins: This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the OU and domain level. Visit the Help Center to learn more about applying settings for iOS devices.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. When enabled by your admin, you will be able to securely share enterprise Google Workspace content between your Google Workspace apps.
Rollout pace
Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: This feature is available now for all users.
Availability
Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Public holidays and other holidays: Will continue to display all holidays, as it does today.
Public holidays only: Will only show official public holidays for your region.
Getting started
Admins: This new option will be available to users by default. The default will remain to show all holidays, so there will be no change unless a user specifically changes it.
End users: To manage holidays on your calendar, go to Google Calendar on the web and go to Settings > Add Calendar > Browse Calendars of Interest > Regional holidays, or on Mobile go to Settings > Holidays > Regional holidays. Use our Help Center to learn more about managing holidays in Google Calendar.
In the coming months, we’ll be announcing new features that will make collaboration a more flexible, interactive, and intelligent experience. Specifically for more collaboration flexibility, you can now present content from Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides directly to an active Google Meet call.
As a result, you can present with fewer clicks, and then once you’re presenting, you can see your audience and your content at the same time back in the Meet tab.
Who’s impacted
End users
Why it’s important
We hope this feature makes collaboration easier by bringing your team together in the places you’re already working, eliminating the need to switch between apps. By helping the conversation stay on track, people can more easily pull content into conversations, share ideas and solve problems together.
In the coming months, we’ll be announcing new features and functionality to products like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. These new features will create a more flexible, interactive, and intelligent experience, enhancing the content and connections that fuel collaboration across Google Workspace.
Beginning today, in Google Docs you can:
Insert smart chips for Google Docs, Sheets, Slides files, other Google Drive files, and Calendar events
Create checklists
Insert links more easily with intelligent suggestions in the insert link dialog
See below for more information.
Who’s impacted
End users
Why it’s important
In Google Docs, we’re adding new interactive building blocks to connect people, content, and events into one seamless experience:
Smart chips are already available when you mention a person in a document, displaying additional information such as the person’s location, job title, and contact information. We’ve expanded this functionality to include the ability to insert smart chips for files and events. This makes it easy for your collaborators to quickly scan associated meetings and people, and preview linked documents all without context switching.
Additionally, we’ve improved the insert link experience. You’ll now see intelligent suggestions for Drive files or headings and bookmarks within your document based on your highlighted text.
You can also create checklists in Docs, making it easier to keep projects moving forward and track progress.
Smart chips and Checklists are currently rolling out. Table templates, topic-voting tables, and the additional Checklist capabilities are coming soon.
Coming soon, you’ll be able to assign checklist action items to other people. Additionally, these checklists will appear in Google Tasks, making it easier for everyone to manage their part on a project’s To-Do list. We’ll provide an update on the Workspace Updates Blog when this becomes available.
Additional details
In the coming months, we plan to introduce more features like:
Table templates to quickly insert various tables in Docs, such as topic-voting tables, where feedback can be seamlessly gathered in one place.
Meeting note templates which will automatically import any relevant information from a Calendar meeting invite, including smart chips for attendees and files.
Pageless format in Docs will allow you to remove the boundaries of a page to create an infinite surface to work on.
Timeline view in Sheets that makes it easier and faster to track tasks by allowing you to organize your data by owner, category, campaign, or whichever attribute fits best.
You can read more about these features on the Google Cloud Blog. Stay tuned to the Workspace Updates Blog, as we’ll provide updates here when these features become available.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin action required.
End users: This feature will be available for all users. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using smart chips and checklists in Google Docs.
Rollout pace
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 18, 2021
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 7, 2021
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Most meeting codes will expire 365 days after the last use, but there are instances where the meeting code will expire instantly once the meeting ends. See below for a complete breakdown of meeting code expirations according to the product they were generated by.
These meeting code expirations will take effect beginning May 19, 2021.
We strongly recommend you use the table below to ensure your meeting codes are valid, especially for meetings you plan far in advance.
Where the meeting is Generated
How long the meeting code is valid
Google Calendar
Meeting codes expire when the following two conditions are met:
1) The meeting code has not been used for 365 days, and
2) The meeting code isn’t associated with any future calendar events.
Note: If a code is created in another product and pasted in a Calendar invite, the code will expire according to the product it was generated from.
Gmail and the Google Meet homepage
Meeting codes expire 365 days after last use.
Google Chat and Google Hangouts
Meeting codes expire 365 days after last use.
Breakout Rooms
Breakout rooms expire instantly once the parent meeting ends.
Jamboard and Meeting room hardware
Meeting code expires instantly once all users leave the meeting.
Nicknamed meetings
Note: Available to Google Workspace subscribers only.
Meeting code expires instantly once all users leave the meeting.
Google Classroom
Meeting code expires instantly once all users leave the meeting.
Other Third Party Applications
Meeting codes expire 365 days after last use. If someone uses the code within the 365 day window, then it will add another 365 days to the shelf life.
Google Nest
Meeting code generated by speaking into your Nest device and saying “Hey, Google start a meeting” expires 365 days after last use.
For users in the Google Workspace with Google Assistant Beta: Meeting generated by usage of meeting nicknames, expire instantly after the last user leaves.
Getting started
Admins and end users: We recommend reviewing the meeting code expiry limits to ensure your meeting codes are valid, especially for meetings planned far in advance.
To help Admins and end users manage the transition to new Sites, we introduced the Classic Sites Manager in 2020. Recently, we’ve added several new options to the Classic Sites Manager to help you and your users manage the transition from classic Sites:
Super Admins can now delegate admin-level Classic Sites Manager access to other users in their organization via a new assignable privilege, allowing them to do things like assign site owners or convert websites to the new Google Sites experience on behalf of their end users
Admins and site owners can now bulk delete and restore sites within the Classic Sites Manager
Admins can now bulk update ownership of sites from within the Classic Sites Manager
See below for more information.
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why it’s important
We hope these new options help admins and their end users navigate the transition from classic Sites to new Sites.
Admins can delegate admin-level access to the Classic Sites Manager to the right people within their organization, allowing them to view all classic Sites and determine which migration actions need to be taken (convert, delete, assign site owners, etc.).
With the addition of the delete bulk action in the Classic Sites Manager, admins (or delegated admins) can quickly remove any sites that are no longer relevant within their domain. End users will be able to remove any sites they own. Once a site is deleted, a user or admin has 30 days to restore it before it is permanently deleted.
For sites that have no owners, admins (or delegated admins) can now use the update owners action to assign ownership of sites to a point of contact in your organization who can best advise on whether the site should be deleted or converted to new Sites.
Additionally, sites can be converted to the new Sites experience using the Classic Sites Manager, with the option to export a filtered view from the Classic Sites Manager to Google Sheets for record keeping or further analysis.
The Classic Sites Manager can be used to convert, delete, restore, and assign ownership of sites within your domain.
Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Not available to Google Workspace Frontline customers
We will remove support for iOS 11 in the first release of the Device Policy app beginning September 2021. Therefore please ensure your users upgrade their devices by the end of August 2021 to avoid any disruption to their work.
We’re updating the way Google Docs renders documents. Over the course of the next several months, we’ll be migrating the underlying technical implementation of Docs from the current HTML-based rendering approach to a canvas-based approach to improve performance and improve consistency in how content appears across different platforms.
We don’t expect this change to impact the functionality of the features in Docs. However, this may impact some Chrome extensions, where they may no longer work as intended.
Who’s impacted
Admins and developers
Why it’s important
Some Chrome extensions rely on the way the backend of a Google Doc is structured or specific bits of HTML to function properly. By moving away from HTML-based rendering to a canvas-based rendering, some Chrome extensions may not function as intended on docs.google.com and may need to be updated.
If you are building your own integrations with Google Docs, we recommend using Google Workspace Add-ons framework, which uses the supported Workspace APIs and integration points. This will help ensure there will be less work in the future to support periodic UI implementation changes to Docs.
If your company has developed a private Chrome Extension that you believe will be impacted and you are unable to migrate to the Google Workspace Add-ons framework, you can submit this form to provide feedback and notify our team.
Additional details
Compatibility for supported assistive technologies such as screen readers, braille devices, and screen magnification features, will not be impacted by the canvas-based rendering change. We will continue to ensure assistive technology is supported, and work on additional accessibility improvements enabled by canvas-based rendering.
Getting started
Admins and developers:
To see an example of a Google Doc using canvas-based rendering, please see this example file. We strongly recommend reviewing the current extensions used in Google Docs that are deployed within your organization.
Set unthreaded room history behavior separately from 1:1 and group conversations: Admins can set the default history state to be either on or off. They can also prevent users from changing the default history setting for unthreaded rooms. Note: this setting does not impact threaded rooms. Threaded room history is always on.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.
Rollout pace
Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout starting on May 10, 2021. You can set the new Admin console controls when you see them, but it may take a few days before they take effect. This is a one-time delay during the rollout. The settings should work by late May.
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.
The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.
Google for Education transformation reports window open, available worldwide
The next reporting window for Google for Education transformation reports is now available for K-12 Google Workspace for Education customers worldwide. | Learn more.
“Show Editors” provides more context on changes made in Google Docs
You can now view richer information on the edit history of a particular range of content in Google Docs. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus customers. | Learn more.
Improve Google Cloud Search results with Contextual Boost
We’re adding the ability to boost Google Cloud Search results using the Cloud Search Query API for third party data sources. Contextual boost is one of the key ways used to enable search personalization.| Available to Google Cloud Search customers. | Learn more.
Additional admin controls for Google Voice ring groups
Admins can now configure a “fixed order” pattern for their ring groups and change the maximum duration a call should ring before proceeding to the “unanswered call” behavior. | Available to all Google Workspace and G Suite customers with Google Voice standard and premier licenses. | Learn more.
Specify which attributes are available for the Secure LDAP client
Admins can now specify which attributes they’d like to make available for the LDAP Client, such as system, public and private attributes. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, and Education Plus, G Suite Enterprise, and Cloud Identity Premium customers. | Learn more.
More options for customizing a charts line and fill styling in Google Sheets
We’ve added more for line and fill customization options for series and series items. | Learn more.
System attributes: Default user attributes that are available for all user accounts—for example, Email, Phone, and Address. Note that you can't disable this option.
Public custom attributes: Custom user attributes that are marked as visible to the organization.
Private custom attributes: Custom user attributes that are marked as visible only to the user and administrators. Use caution when using private custom attributes, as you're exposing private information to the LDAP client.
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why it’s important
LDAP clients are in the secure LDAP service, which enables users to access traditional LDAP-based apps and IT infrastructure using their Google Workspace credentials. This new feature gives admins more control over the connections your LDAP-based applications and services use to interact with Google Workspace and Cloud Identity services.
Additional details
Custom attribute naming requirements and guidelines:
Names for custom attributes can contain only alphanumeric text and hyphens.
There should be no duplicate attribute names across all custom schemas.
If the custom attribute name matches with an existing system attribute, we will return the system attribute value.
Important: If attribute names don't adhere to the above guidelines, the attribute values in question are excluded from the LDAP response.
Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, and Education Plus, G Suite Enterprise, and Cloud Identity Premium customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Configure a “Fixed order” pattern where incoming ring group calls will ring members in a predetermined order.
Change the maximum duration that a call should ring before proceeding to the "unanswered call" behavior — previously this was fixed at 30 seconds.
Set your Call Routing Pattern, Ring Duration, and Order of Call Ringing
Setting the Call Routing Pattern to Simultaneous
Who’s impacted
Admins
Why you’d use it
We've heard from you that you'd like more options to customize the ringing behavior for your ring groups. With the new “Fixed order” pattern, you can define exactly what order to ring your members when the ring group receives a call, skipping members who are already in a call or have “Do not disturb” enabled. You can also customize the maximum ringing duration for fixed and round robin patterns that allows you to limit how long an incoming call should ring, which may be particularly useful for large ring groups.
Some examples of the contextual attributes you can define are:
Location: Certain results can be more relevant to users from a specific location. For example, an employee in Japan might search for "benefits," and want to receive benefits information specific to their office in Japan
Department: Certain results can be more relevant to a user's department. For example, a member of the Sales team might search for "pitch decks," and want to discover pitch decks specific to their team
Tenure: Certain results can be more relevant to the user's tenure. For example, a new employee might search for "onboarding documents," and want to discover documents specific to employee onboarding
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why you’d use it
Context is a critical element in providing highly relevant search results. By providing a wide range of contextual attributes, users will see more tailored results based on inputs such as location, department, and job role. This helps reduce the time spent searching by surfacing more relevant content faster.
With this launch, we provide support for a wide range of contextual attributes that can be used to personalize the results for the end users. This launch also supports combining contextual attributes for deeper context. Combining attributes helps to further triangulate the right results tailored for a specific end user.
This makes it easier to track edits made by multiple collaborators, giving greater insight into who the recent editors were, what changes were made and when.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 3, 2021
Availability
Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
The next reporting window is open as of May 3, 2021. See below for more information on generating your transformation report.
Who’s impacted
Admins
Why you’d use it
The transformation report is a free tool designed to help quantify your organization’s Google for Education implementation across our products and programs. Semester-based reports track usage trends over time and make it easy to understand how your organization is using Google Workspace for Education, Chromebooks, and progressing through Certification programs.
Based on usage information and survey responses, you’ll receive tailored recommendations and resources from Google for Education to help you drive more impact across your organization.
Admins: Google Workspace for Education super admins must log in to the transformation report tool between May 3rd and May 21st to ensure a report will be available on June 2, 2021. Within the tool, we strongly recommend Admins:
Update their settings, specifically their student enrollment and faculty count.
Customize the product reporting windows — we recommend selecting two 12-week periods of time, current and previous, to display product data.
Take and share Transformation Survey:
If you log in within that time frame, but don’t take or share the survey, you’ll still receive a report—it will simply lack a valuable section of survey data, recommended next steps, and resources.
Available to K-12 Google Workspace Education Fundamentals and Education Plus customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
In the Google Cloud Community, connect with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like yourself. Participate in product discussions, check out the Community Articles, and learn tips and tricks that will make your work and life easier. Be the first to know what's happening with Google Workspace.
On the “What’s new in Google Workspace?” Help Center page, learn about new products and features launching in Google Workspace, including smaller changes that haven’t been announced on the Google Workspace Updates blog.
