A more minimal use of color helps you focus on content and what's important to you. We’ve also replaced the search button with a more prominent search bar at the top of the screen.
And just like on the web, you’ll get big, red warnings to alert you when something looks phish-y.
Who’s impacted
All end users
Why you’d use it
This update is part of a larger effort to bring the look and feel of our G Suite apps together as a whole, and always with ease-of-use in mind.
How to get started
Admins: No action needed
End users: You'll see the changes coming to your Android and iOS devices over the coming weeks.
Additional details
We’ve already updated the web apps for Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and most recently Google Docs and Sites. In the coming weeks, you’ll see the new mobile design in Gmail on Android and iOS, with more G Suite mobile apps to follow later this year.
Hangouts Meet activity logs: Information about Meet usage and quality is now available to admins through Meet activity logs (in the Admin console under Reports > Audit > Hangouts Meet), enabling you both high level and detailed views on usage within your domain.
Who’s impacted
Admins only
Why you’d use it
Meet quality tool: Meet quality tool is designed to help you to troubleshoot your meetings. You can either look at one specific meeting or filter for a time frame, location, device or user. The data visible in Meet quality tool is available in the Hangouts Meet activity log (explained below) to enable further analysis.
Hangouts Meet activity logs: Each time a device or a user leaves a call, an "Activity event" that summarizes usage and quality is generated. The event includes information about the endpoint (such as device type, location, IP, identifier, or call rating), its usage (such as time sharing their video, screen sharing or audio) and network statistics (such as jitter, packet loss, or RTT). Learn more about the data available in the Help Center.
Hangouts Meet activity logs provides data to help better answer questions such as:
Is video conferencing transforming my organization (and if so, how)?
Which locations communicate actively and which locations are isolated?
How many minutes of video conference (VC) are run every day/week for different groups of people?
Does Meet help my organization work remotely?
Analyze Hangouts Meet Hardware usage. How does it change over time or location?
How is my network performing and what is the impact it has on video quality for my users?
How do users rate the quality of the calls on my domain? Does it vary over time or per location?
How much bandwidth does Meet use overall and at a specific location?
How to get started
Admins
Meet quality tool: To use Meet quality tool you need to be a super admin or have the correct delegated admin privilege. Follow the instructions in the Help Center to learn more about Meet quality tool access delegation.
Hangouts Meet activity log: Visit the Admin console and go to Reports > Audit > Hangouts Meet. Here, you can export the data to your favorite analytical tool (using the Activity API or BigQuery for G Suite Enterprise customers) to answer specific questions you may have.
The above dates are specific to G Suite customers and their end users who use classic Hangouts. We will continue to support consumer use of classic Hangouts, and expect to transition consumers to free Chat and Meet following the transition of G Suite customers. A more specific timeline will be communicated at a later date.
What changes will take place on April 16, 2019? For G Suite domains that have classic Hangouts enabled, Chat will also become available to users on the web and via mobile apps. They can also continue using classic Hangouts in Gmail, mobile, web or the Chrome extension. See these details for how interoperability works between Chat and classic Hangouts.
The following admin-facing changes will begin taking place on April 16, 2019:
For Google Vault customers, Mail retention rules and holds will stop protecting chat messages in classic Hangouts. Instead, Chat retention rules and holds will protect chat messages in both classic Hangouts and Chat.
Chat admin settings will now control chat capability in both classic Hangouts and Chat.
A new setting in the Admin console under Apps > G Suite > Hangouts Chat will be added so you can disable classic Hangouts user interfaces at a time of your choosing.
The "Google Hangouts" settings page in the Admin console will be renamed "Hangouts Meet." This setting will control both classic Hangouts video and Hangouts Meet.
Google Vault customers need to take action before April 16, 2019 Between March 16 and April 16, 2019, Vault customers that have any Mail retention rules or holds will have an indefinite retention rule automatically created for Chat. This rule is to protect all your chat messages in classic Hangouts when Chat rules start protecting them on April 16, 2019. Before April 16, 2019, you must:
Review and set new retention rules for Chat in Google Vault.
Duplicate any existing Mail holds for Chat in Google Vault.
Set any new holds on chat messages from Chat in Google Vault.
Once you have set your preferred retention rules and holds for Chat, in order for them to take effect, remove the indefinite retention rule that may be overriding your rules.
If you don’t take set your preferred retention rules or holds in Chat and then remove the indefinite retention rule by April 16, 2019, all your chat messages in classic Hangouts and direct messages in Chat will be retained indefinitely. Refer to this Help Center article to learn more about completing these actions.
What will happen in October 2019? Classic Hangouts will be retired for all G Suite customers starting in October 2019 and all remaining users will be transitioned to Chat. More notices and details will be shared on the G Suite Updates blog in the future. In order to make the transition easier for your users, you can review our Chat documentation.
What is the best time to move my users to Hangouts Chat? You can transition your users immediately if you’d like. If there’s more functionality that your organization needs before switching, rest assured that between April and September 2019, we’ll add features that will make it easier for your users to move from classic Hangouts to Chat such as:
Integration with Gmail
Chatting with external users
An improved video calling experience
Making calls with Google Voice
We will communicate availability of these new features via the G Suite Updates blog so stay tuned!
Over the last ten years, G Suite has grown to provide more tools, functionality and value to help businesses transform the way they work. The one thing that hasn't changed over this time, is price. Today, we are announcing two incremental list price updates to reflect this value. Starting on April 2, 2019*, G Suite Basic Edition will increase by $1 (from $5 to $6 per user/month) and G Suite Business Edition will increase by $2 (from $10 to $12 per user/month), or the local currency equivalent where applicable. These increases will apply globally with local market adjustments for certain regions. Pricing for G Suite Enterprise Edition customers will not change.
For existing G Suite Basic or Business edition customers on the Flexible Plan, the new list prices will go into effect on April 2, 2019*. For customers on the Annual Plan, the new prices will go into effect the first time their plan renews on or after April 2, 2019*. These changes will not impact current contracts or any renewal events prior to April 2, 2019*.
Additionally, for those Basic and Business Edition customers who receive their bill from Google, we’ll send an email with details specific to their domains no later than February 28, 2019. Any customer that licenses G Suite through a reseller should hear from their partners directly regarding the new pricing, or they can reach out to their partners proactively.
We are grateful for the many businesses that use G Suite to empower their teams to work collaboratively, and we remain committed to expanding its functionality to help our customers succeed. Feel free to reference this edition guide to learn more about each offering.
*Note: For customers who sign up for G Suite Basic or Business editions from February 1, 2019 through April 1, 2019, the pricing changes will go into effect starting on June 1, 2019.
Anyone you share the spreadsheet with will see the data contained in the sheet. Only those with edit access in Sheets and view access to the BigQuery table have the ability to refresh the dataset.
For key permissions for the BigQuery data connector see here. As always, use share permissions to control who can view, edit or share your data.
In the coming weeks, you’ll be able to use tools like Apps Script and the macro recorder to schedule automatic updates within Sheets to the connected BigQuery data. For example, you can automatically refresh sales data in your spreadsheet so the data is fresh and ready for analysis at the beginning of the day. To learn more about how to record or run macros in Sheets, check out this G Suite Pro Tip.
Instead of having to create drawings manually in a document, you can embed drawings from Drive in a document and refresh the content to keep it current. When you embed a drawing, the drawing is placed in the document, but linked to the original in Google Drawings. By using the “Update” button, you can update the drawing’s content with one click if changes are made to the source file. You can also choose to unlink drawings at a later date.
How to get started
Admins: No action needed.
End users: This feature can be accessed from the “Insert” menu in Docs. For further instructions, check out the Help Center.
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.
