Google Workspace Updates: January 2020

Use a phone for audio in a Hangouts Meet video call

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

[March 5, 2020]: The rollout of this feature has resumed for Scheduled Release domains. Thank you for your patience.

[February 19, 2020]: The rollout of this feature has been completed for Rapid Release domains. The rollout for Scheduled Release domains is currently paused while we evaluate performance. We apologize for the delay — we’ll provide an update here when rollout resumes.

What’s changing

You can now use different sources for your audio and video feeds in a Hangouts Meet video call. Specifically, you can use a phone call for audio while still using your computer's camera and web browser for video.

This can be done by dialing into the call directly, or by having Meet call your phone. You can use your phone for audio immediately upon joining, or anytime after joining if you’d like to switch.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

You can use your phone for audio on Hangouts Meet calls to ensure you have consistent and reliable audio quality, even if your network connection is poor, or if your computer’s microphone and speaker aren’t working. You’ll still be able to share and see video and presentations in the meeting.

Additional details

Please note that the Meet dial-out option is currently only available in the US and Canada.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be ON by default if dial-in functionality is enabled. If you’d like to disable the dial-in functionality for Meet meetings, it can be done at the domain, OU, or group level. To disable this feature, in the Admin console go to Apps > G Suite > Settings for Google Hangouts > Meet settings and disable the setting “Provide a phone number and PIN for each video meeting.”

Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning dial in/out on or off for your organization.

End users: This feature will be ON by default for all calls with dial-in/out enabled. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using a phone for audio in a video meeting.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 29, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 12, 2020

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

Update

[March 5, 2020]: The rollout of this feature has resumed for Scheduled Release domains. Thank you for your patience.

What’s changing

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

Additional details

Please note that the Meet dial-out option is currently only available in the US and Canada.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 29, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 12, 2020

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

G Suite Admin Help: Manage Meet video meeting settings
Google Help: Use a phone for audio in a video meeting

New system to improve data loss prevention (DLP) in Google Drive

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

More advanced rules can leverage nested conditions, targeted detection, and more.

Incident management dashboard

The new system includes a DLP dashboard that will help you test, understand, and manage rules and alerts in your domain, including by showing incident trends. Features include:

“Dry Run” for your data protection rules - Generate reports without having the rule active so you can start monitoring your environment without enforcing blocking actions.
New alert delivery options - Choose who receives alerts for specific rules, including additional members of the organization outside the super admin groups.
Detailed incident reports - See more detailed reports for all the DLP actions (block, warn, audit).
Integration with policy investigation tool - Help DLP response teams dig deeper into violations when needed.

New dashboard helps you see violation trends.

New dashboard gives insight into your DLP alerts.

Simplified deployment
The new system makes it easier to deploy DLP rules with features like:

Roles-based access for administrators - Assign delegated admins for DLP functions in the Admin console. Learn more.
Predefined content detectors - Use 90+ predefined content detectors to help expand coverage and better manage policy violations.
Policy exports - Download a copy of DLP policies.
Flexibility for scoping policies - Scope DLP policies to include or exclude specific groups or OUs.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be OFF by default and can be controlled at the domain, OU, or group level. Find the new DLP system at Admin console > Security > Data Protection. Use our Help Center to learn more about the new Drive DLP system.
End users: No action needed.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 28, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 28, 2020

Availability

Available to G Suite Enterprise, G Suite for Education, G Suite Enterprise for Education, and Drive Enterprise customers
Not available to G Suite Basic, G Suite Business, and G Suite for Nonprofits customers

Resources

G Suite Admin Help: Prevent data loss using new DLP for Drive

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

What’s changing

We’re introducing a new data loss prevention (DLP) system that will make it easier to deploy more advanced detection policies for content on Google Drive. The new Drive DLP functionality can be found at: Admin console > Security > Data Protection. Key updates include:

Advanced detection policies that enable more detailed rules using nested conditions, volume-based detection, finer detection thresholds, and more.
New DLP incident management dashboard to see incident trends, view detailed incident reports, dry run rules, and more.
Simplified deployment with more flexible scoping, roles based access for admins, and more.

Use our Help Center to learn more about the differences between the legacy and new DLP systems.

The new system is separate from the legacy Drive DLP system.

Currently, the new DLP system (at Admin console > Security > Data Protection) will exist alongside the legacy DLP system (at Admin console > Rules). Rules created in the new system will be separate from rules in the legacy system, and both will continue to work. You can migrate legacy DLP rules to the new DLP by manually creating a new rule in the DLP and then deleting the legacy DLP rule. When you perform this migration, we encourage you to consider reconfiguring them to use the more advanced functionality offered by the new system. Use our Help Center to learn more about migrating from the legacy to the new DLP system.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why you’d use it

Protecting your company’s confidential data is critical. DLP supports this by giving you control over what users can share, and prevents unintended exposure of sensitive information. You can use it to prevent or warn users from sharing sensitive content (such as confidential information and customer social security numbers) outside of the domain on a per file basis. As an admin, you can also use the system to get alerts about policy violations and DLP incidents and to investigate information on the policy violation.

We have developed this new system to provide a more advanced way for you to configure DLP for Drive, going beyond the previously announced Drive DLP systems (DLP for Drive, and DLP for shared drives). You can use it to make your deployment more powerful and flexible with more granular policies customized for the specific needs of your organization. Combined with added deployment flexibility, it will be easier to deploy more advanced DLP policies that add visibility into and control over your data. Use our Help Center to learn more about how the new DLP system is different from the legacy system.

Additional details

Advanced detection policies
The new Drive DLP system provides more advanced functions to help admins configure deeper content detection rules including:

Nested conditions with AND, OR, and NOT - You can now define complex DLP rules leveraging a wide variety of conditions.
Volume-based detection - Enforce DLP actions based on the number of violations to reduce the incident volume.
Finer detection thresholds - Additional detection confidence thresholds help to balance DLP settings and reduce false positives.
Targeted detection - Choose to target detection to comments, suggestions, title, body or all content of a Drive file.

Additionally, you can now utilize DLP rule templates to quickly author new policies. Templates utilize predefined content detectors, which can then be fine-tuned with appropriate threshold levels suitable for your environment.

More advanced rules can leverage nested conditions, targeted detection, and more.

“Dry Run” for your data protection rules - Generate reports without having the rule active so you can start monitoring your environment without enforcing blocking actions.
New alert delivery options - Choose who receives alerts for specific rules, including additional members of the organization outside the super admin groups.
Detailed incident reports - See more detailed reports for all the DLP actions (block, warn, audit).
Integration with policy investigation tool - Help DLP response teams dig deeper into violations when needed.

New dashboard helps you see violation trends.

New dashboard gives insight into your DLP alerts.

Simplified deployment
The new system makes it easier to deploy DLP rules with features like:

Roles-based access for administrators - Assign delegated admins for DLP functions in the Admin console. Learn more.
Predefined content detectors - Use 90+ predefined content detectors to help expand coverage and better manage policy violations.
Policy exports - Download a copy of DLP policies.
Flexibility for scoping policies - Scope DLP policies to include or exclude specific groups or OUs.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be OFF by default and can be controlled at the domain, OU, or group level. Find the new DLP system at Admin console > Security > Data Protection. Use our Help Center to learn more about the new Drive DLP system.
End users: No action needed.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to G Suite Enterprise, G Suite for Education, G Suite Enterprise for Education, and Drive Enterprise customers
Not available to G Suite Basic, G Suite Business, and G Suite for Nonprofits customers

Resources

G Suite Admin Help: Prevent data loss using new DLP for Drive

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

Google App Maker will be shut down on January 19, 2021

Monday, January 27, 2020

Due to the specific source code used for App Maker, you can’t directly migrate your apps to another platform. Depending on your use case, we recommend the following:

If you use App Maker to automate business processes: Use AppSheet, a new addition to our application development portfolio that has capabilities similar to App Maker. App Maker data is stored in Cloud SQL, and App Sheet supports Cloud SQL databases. This allows you to build an application on the existing database tied to your App Maker app.
If you use App Maker to develop apps: Use App Engine to build and deploy applications on a fully managed platform. App Maker data is stored in Cloud SQL, allowing you to build an App Engine application on the existing Cloud SQL database tied to your App Maker app.
If you use App Maker for data collection: Use Google Forms, which has many new features that were not available when App Maker launched.

Deleting apps

If you no longer use apps created with App Maker, please follow these steps to fully delete each app:

(Optional) Export the app before deleting to save database information.
Delete the app in App Maker
Delete the associated Cloud project.

Data retention

Your App Maker data belongs to your organization. App Maker user data is stored in CloudSQL and will continue to be retained according to the policies established by your GCP account. Data composing the App Maker app itself can be exported from within the App Maker editor until January 19, 2021.

Getting started

Admins: We recently emailed the primary admin in your domain and provided a CSV file with a list of the App Maker apps being used in your organization. This list includes the application name, creator name, and last modified date for each app. It also contains a link to your Admin console with application-specific usage stats and project information.

Notify app creators in your domain as necessary of the upcoming shutdown and alternative solutions.

Resources

What’s changing

Due to low usage, Google App Maker will be turned down gradually over the course of 2020 and officially shut down on January 19, 2021. Prior to the shutdown, you’ll need to review App Maker usage in your domain and take any necessary action.

See the Additional details section below for a timeline of the shutdown and alternatives you can deploy in your organization.

Who’s impacted

Admins, end users, and developers

Why it’s important

As soon as possible, review your organization’s App Maker applications. App creators should review the uses cases listed in the Additional details section below and take action as necessary by the dates listed in the turndown schedule.

Additional details

Turndown schedule
App Maker will be disabled gradually according to the schedule below:

Today, existing apps continue to work. Though App Maker is no longer under active development, the service will continue to be maintained.
Starting April 15, 2020, you will no longer be able to create new App Maker apps. You will still be able to edit and deploy existing apps.
Starting January 19, 2021, existing App Maker apps will stop working and you will no longer have access to them. App maker data stored in Cloud SQL will remain unchanged and continue to follow the policies established by your Google Cloud Platform (GCP) account.

Alternative solutions

Due to the specific source code used for App Maker, you can’t directly migrate your apps to another platform. Depending on your use case, we recommend the following:

If you use App Maker to automate business processes: Use AppSheet, a new addition to our application development portfolio that has capabilities similar to App Maker. App Maker data is stored in Cloud SQL, and App Sheet supports Cloud SQL databases. This allows you to build an application on the existing database tied to your App Maker app.
If you use App Maker to develop apps: Use App Engine to build and deploy applications on a fully managed platform. App Maker data is stored in Cloud SQL, allowing you to build an App Engine application on the existing Cloud SQL database tied to your App Maker app.
If you use App Maker for data collection: Use Google Forms, which has many new features that were not available when App Maker launched.

Deleting apps

If you no longer use apps created with App Maker, please follow these steps to fully delete each app:

Data retention

Getting started

Notify app creators in your domain as necessary of the upcoming shutdown and alternative solutions.

Resources

View data for only selected call participants in the Meet Quality Tool

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be available by default when using the Meet Quality Tool. To select participants, use the participant list on the left-hand side of the Meeting Details page. As selections are made, the information displayed to the right will update accordingly.

End users: This feature has no impact on end users.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 22, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 22, 2020

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

G Suite Admin Help: Troubleshoot meeting quality

Quick launch summary

You can now select specific participants when viewing meetings in the Meet Quality Tool. This allows you to display data and statistics for just a subset of the participants. When viewing calls with many participants, this helps limit the amount of information displayed on the screen at one time. By fitting just the most relevant information into the view, pagination can often be avoided even for very large meetings.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 22, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 22, 2020

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

G Suite Admin Help: Troubleshoot meeting quality

Originality reports and rubrics now generally available for Google Classroom users

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Rubrics: Visit the Help Center to learn more about creating a rubric in Classroom.

Rollout pace

Originality reports

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 3, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 3, 2020

Rubrics

Rapid Release domains: Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) starting on February 3, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) starting on February 3, 2020

Availability

Originality reports and rubrics:

Available to G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers and Classroom users
Not available to G Suite Basic, G Suite Enterprise, G Suite Business, and G Suite for Nonprofits customers

Beta availability

International language options for originality reports: available to G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers.
Student-to-student comparison: available to G Suite Enterprise for Education customers only.

Resources

Roadmap

Rubrics for Classroom was listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

What’s changing

Last year, we announced betas for originality reports and rubrics, two new tools for Google Classroom. Beginning today, these features are generally available for G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education Classroom users.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use them

Help students turn in their best work
Originality reports check a student's work for matches across billions of web pages and books. This can make it easier for instructors to evaluate the academic integrity of the student’s work and provide them constructive feedback.

Students can also use originality reports to check for missed citations or poor paraphrasing before they turn in a document. This gives them the opportunity to improve their work and learn from their mistakes before final submissions.

Enhance feedback to students with rubrics
A rubric is a scoring framework that makes it easier for educators to evaluate student assignments, set clear expectations, and provide actionable feedback.

With the new rubrics feature, educators can now:

Create a rubric as they create an assignment.
Reuse rubrics from previous assignments rather than creating them from scratch.
Export and import Classroom rubrics to share with other instructors.
Grade students work with a rubric from both the “student listing page” and Classroom’s grading view, where instructors can select rating levels as they review the assignment.

Additionally, rubrics can be helpful for business users. For example, you can create a rubric to assess marketing plans or performance in key business areas.

Additional details

Language availability for originality reports:
Note that originality reports are only available in English and for Google Docs at the moment. See below for details on expanded language options available in beta.

Number of originality reports available per assignment:
Classroom instructors can enable originality reports on three assignments per class for free. Instructors who use G Suite Enterprise for Education can turn on originality reports for unlimited assignments per class.

Regardless of what G Suite for Education edition their instructor uses, students can run originality reports on a document three times per assignment before submitting. When students submit their work, a new originality report is created for the instructor.

More options for originality reports available in beta:

International language options: Originality reports are launching in beta for the following languages: French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.
Student-to-student comparison: Originality reports will also compare student work against past student submissions within a school's domain. This feature is only available to G Suite Enterprise for Education customers.

You can learn more and sign up for these betas using this form.

Getting started

End users:
Originality reports: Once originality reports are available in your domain, instructors can turn them on per assignment by checking the originality reports checkbox within the assignment creation process. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using originality reports.

Rubrics: Visit the Help Center to learn more about creating a rubric in Classroom.

Rollout pace

Originality reports

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 3, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 3, 2020

Rubrics

Availability

Originality reports and rubrics:

Available to G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers and Classroom users
Not available to G Suite Basic, G Suite Enterprise, G Suite Business, and G Suite for Nonprofits customers

Beta availability

International language options for originality reports: available to G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers.
Student-to-student comparison: available to G Suite Enterprise for Education customers only.

Resources

Roadmap

Rubrics for Classroom was listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

G Suite Add-ons now generally available in Calendar, Gmail, and Google Drive

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Installing the Workfront add-on directly from Calendar

Access G Suite Add-ons from the side panel of Calendar, Google Drive, and Gmail

Take action without leaving G Suite

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s important

G Suite Add-ons connect G Suite with third-party applications so you can work directly from the G Suite app you’re using, rather than toggling from one app to another. They also surface relevant information and suggest actions based on what you’re working on.

Add-ons from SignEasy, WebEx, Workfront, Lucidchart and more will be available once this feature has fully rolled out and can be installed from the G Suite Marketplace.

Organizations can also build their own add-ons using Apps Script. Note that the developer feature will be fully available in early February — we’ll provide an update here once it’s fully rolled out.

Additional Details

G Suite Add-ons will work across G Suite products, allowing developers to create a single add-on that works across G Suite, rather than building a separate add-on for each application within G Suite.

G Suite Add-ons are currently accessible in Calendar, Gmail, and Google Drive, with support for other G Suite products coming later this year.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be available by default. If you allow users to install only whitelisted applications from the G Suite Marketplace, you can specify those apps within the Admin console. Or, you can install chosen G Suite Add-ons for your entire domain via the listing in the G Suite Marketplace.
End users: This feature will be available by default. You’ll be able to install G Suite Add-ons using the “+” button in the G Suite quick access side panel. The add-ons you install will appear in the side panel across G Suite apps.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 21, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 21, 2020

Resources

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

What’s changing

Last year we announced the beta of G Suite Add-ons, a new cross-suite platform that connects G Suite to your favorite workplace apps. Beginning today, G Suite Add-ons will begin rolling out to all users.

With G Suite Add-ons, workflows that require third-party applications can be executed inside G Suite, allowing users and teams to use the applications they want without leaving G Suite. For example, you can install the Workfront add-on for quick access across Calendar, Gmail, and Google Drive.

Installing the Workfront add-on directly from Calendar

Access G Suite Add-ons from the side panel of Calendar, Google Drive, and Gmail

Take action without leaving G Suite

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s important

Add-ons from SignEasy, WebEx, Workfront, Lucidchart and more will be available once this feature has fully rolled out and can be installed from the G Suite Marketplace.

Additional Details

G Suite Add-ons will work across G Suite products, allowing developers to create a single add-on that works across G Suite, rather than building a separate add-on for each application within G Suite.

G Suite Add-ons are currently accessible in Calendar, Gmail, and Google Drive, with support for other G Suite products coming later this year.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 21, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 21, 2020

Resources

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

See a filterable, searchable list of the latest G Suite launches

Friday, January 17, 2020

We’ve recently updated the “What’s new in G Suite?” Help Center article to include recent launches. The article has a list of all the G Suite launches from the past six months. You can filter by product or search by keyword to find and learn about any launch.

Feedback? Let us know.

Manage Windows 10 devices through the G Suite Admin console

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Availability

G Suite editions

Available to G Suite Enterprise, G Suite Enterprise for Education, and Cloud Identity Premium customers
Not available to G Suite Basic, G Suite Business, G Suite for Education, G Suite for Nonprofits, and Cloud Identity Free customers

Beta sign up
Find more information and sign up for the beta here.

What’s changing

We’re enabling enhanced desktop security for Windows with a new beta. This will allow you to manage and secure Windows 10 devices through the Admin console, just as you do for Android, iOS, Chrome, and Jamboard devices today. It will also enable SSO so users can more easily access G Suite and other SSO-enabled applications on Windows 10 devices.

With these new controls G Suite admins can:

Enable their organization to use existing G Suite account credentials to login to Windows 10 devices, and easily access apps and services with SSO
Protect user accounts with anti-phishing, anti-hijacking, and suspicious login detection technologies
Ensure that all Windows 10 devices used to access G Suite are updated, secure, and within compliance
Perform admin actions, such as wiping a device and pushing device configuration updates, to Windows 10 devices from the cloud without specific network requirements

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why you’d use it

Automatic device registration, the ability to secure all of your devices in a single Admin console, and cloud-based policy and device configuration deployment will simplify device management and security for your organization. Additionally, the ability to remotely wipe devices can help increase your organization’s data security.

Additionally, this makes life easier for users by reducing the hurdles and logins needed to access applications and get work done. Users need to log in just once to their Windows 10 device using their G Suite login credentials, and they’ll be able to access Google apps and any other enterprise cloud applications with SSO enabled without further logins.

How to get started

Admins: Learn more and sign up for the beta here.
End users: No action required until admins activate the beta.

Additional details

Set policies, push configurations to devices, and wipe devices as needed

Admins can deploy policies and device configuration updates from the cloud, removing any network or other restraints for installing these updates on user devices. Policies and updates that can be applied by admins include BitLocker, Windows Update, and desktop customization. Additionally, admins can block or wipe devices if needed from the device page in the Admin console.

Availability

G Suite editions

Available to G Suite Enterprise, G Suite Enterprise for Education, and Cloud Identity Premium customers
Not available to G Suite Basic, G Suite Business, G Suite for Education, G Suite for Nonprofits, and Cloud Identity Free customers

Beta sign up
Find more information and sign up for the beta here.

Grant SAML app access to specific groups

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Control SAML apps by groups

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 15, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 15, 2020

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Quick launch summary

You can now enable SAML apps for specific groups of users in your organization. You could previously only enable them by organizational unit (OU). This provides extra flexibility, as you can now turn apps on or off for sets of users without changing your organizational structure.

SAML apps enable users to access enterprise cloud applications after signing in just once through Single-Sign-On (SSO). You can easily enable SAML with many pre-integrated applications in our third-party apps catalog, or you can set up custom SAML applications.

Use our Help Center to find out how to configure SAML applications.

Getting started

Control SAML apps by groups

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Use phones as security keys in the Advanced Protection Program

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

What’s changing

You can now use your mobile phone as a security key in the Advanced Protection Program for the enterprise. This means you can use your Android or iOS device’s built-in security key for 2-Step Verification, which makes it easier and quicker to protect high-risk users with our strongest account security settings.

Users can learn more and sign up for the Advanced Protection Program at g.co/advancedprotection.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

The Advanced Protection Program for the enterprise enforces a package of several security policies, which can help protect the accounts of employees who are most at risk for targeted attacks. By adding the option to use your phone as a security key with this program, we hope more G Suite users will be able to take advantage of the protection it offers due to:

Simpler enrollment - Users can sign up quickly using devices they already have.
Intuitive user experience - Users are familiar with the phone interface, and often already carry phones with them.
Lower costs - This reduces the need to purchase security keys.

Additional details

Targeted attacks describe sophisticated, low volume handcrafted attacks that are often carried out by highly motivated professional or government backed groups. Employees at risk of targeted attacks that may benefit from the program include, for example, IT admins, executives, and employees in regulated industries such as finance or government.

The individual policies currently included in the Advanced Protection Program are also available to G Suite admins and users outside of the program. However, the Advanced Protection Program for the enterprise offers an easy-to-use bundle of our strongest account security settings

Getting started

Admins: By default, users will be able to sign up for the Advanced Protection Program. You can disable it at the OU level. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing the Advanced Protection Program in your organization.

End users: Android users can go directly to g.co/advancedprotection to enroll their phone as a security key. iPhone users must first activate the security key with Google’s Smart Lock app, then enroll in the Advanced Protection Program.

Rollout pace

This feature is available now for all users.

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

Use an iPhone as a security key for 2-Step Verification

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Getting started

Admins: If 2-Step Verification or Security Key Enforcement is turned on for an organization, iOS devices will be available as an option for security keys by default. Use our Help Center to see how to enforce the use of security keys in your organization.
End users: Use the Help Center to see how to activate the security key on your phone or enroll in the advanced protection program.

Rollout pace

This feature is available now for all users

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

What’s changing

We’re adding an option to use your iPhone as a security key for your Google Account. Security keys provide the strongest form of 2-Step Verification (also known as two-factor authentication or 2FA) to help protect your account against phishing, and are an essential part of the Advanced Protection Program for the enterprise. To use your iPhone as a security key, you need to install the Google Smart Lock app.

Read more about this launch in our Security Blog post, or use our Help Center to learn more about security keys and 2-Step Verification. Also see our other announcement today - Use phones as security keys in the Advanced Protection Program.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

2-Step Verification adds another layer to your account security, making it more resistant to phishing and account takeover attacks. By adding the option to use iPhones as a security key, we’re making the strongest form of phishing protection more accessible and convenient. As a result, we hope you’ll be able to implement Advanced Protection in your organization more quickly, while also minimizing user training and overall costs.

We previously announced that you can use the security key built into your Android phone, in addition to physical security keys, including Google’s Titan Security Keys.

We also announced today that you can use phones as security keys in the Advanced Protection Program for the enterprise. We hope that these launches bring the added protection of security keys to more users, including making it easier to enrol in the Advanced Protection Program, and helps ensure that all users have access to more convenient forms of security.

Additional details

Getting started

Rollout pace

This feature is available now for all users

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

Admin Help Center: Deploy 2-Step Verification
End user Help Center: Use your phone's built-in security key
Apple App Store: Google Smart Lock app
G Suite Updates blog: Use an Android phone as a security key for 2-Step Verification
Security Blog: Have an iPhone? Use it to protect your Google Account with the Advanced Protection Program

Present to meetings using the HDMI cable on Hangouts Meet hardware

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Quick launch summary

You can now present high-quality video content with audio in your meeting using the HDMI cable included with Hangouts Meet hardware kits.

Please note: Hangouts Meet already supported using this HDMI cable for local presentations. This additional functionality allows users to present into meetings with remote participants as well.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be ON by default.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

Google Help: Use the Meet touchscreen

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

Password recovery for super admins and a new interface for security settings

Monday, January 13, 2020

Super admin account recovery setting in the Admin console

In addition, we’re starting to gradually migrate your other security settings to a more streamlined, card-based interface. These changes will take place slowly over time, and most will have no impact on the configuration of your settings themselves. If any updates require changes to your workflows, we’ll let you know on the G Suite Updates blog and/or via email.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why you’d use it

Previously, super admins in many organizations who were locked out of their accounts had to contact another super admin or Google Support to recover their password. This new setting makes it much easier for super admins to get back into their accounts and back to work.

Getting started

Admins: For most current and all new customers, the Super admin account recovery feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the domain, OU, or group level. If you’re an existing customer with fewer than three super admins or 500 users, however, the setting will be ON by default, to match previous behavior. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Super admin account recovery on or off for your organization.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)] starting on January 13, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)] starting on January 13, 2020

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

G Suite Admin Help: Allow super administrators to recover their password

What’s changing

We’re making it easier for super admins to recover their own passwords, as well as updating the look of some basic security settings in the Admin console.

Going forward, super admins who enable “Super admin account recovery” at Admin console > Security > Account recovery can recover their own accounts by clicking the “Forgot password?” link on the sign-in page (provided they’ve added recovery options to their accounts).

Super admin account recovery setting in the Admin console

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why you’d use it

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

G Suite Admin Help: Allow super administrators to recover their password

Break out a single value within a pie chart in Google Sheets

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Getting started

End users: This feature is available by default. Visit the Help Center article to learn more about using this feature.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 8, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) starting on January 21, 2020

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

Google Help: Pie Charts

Quick launch summary

You can now “pull out” and highlight a slice from a pie or donut chart in Google Sheets. This feature gives you more ways to control the look of your charts and better display the most important data in Sheets.

Getting started

End users: This feature is available by default. Visit the Help Center article to learn more about using this feature.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

Google Help: Pie Charts

Manage Hangouts Meet and classic Hangouts video calls with one setting

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 7, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 7, 2020

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

G Suite Admin Help: Turn video calling on or off

What’s changing

Video calling from Hangouts Meet and classic Hangouts is now controlled by the same setting. This means that the setting in the Admin console that controls classic Hangouts video calling now also controls Hangouts Meet.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why it matters

By combining these settings, we’re making it easier for you to manage all video calling within your organization.

Getting started

Admins: You can find the new, consolidated setting in the Admin console at Apps > G Suite > Settings for Google Hangouts > Meet settings. Learn more in the Help Center. The new setting will respect your previous setting. For new G Suite customers, video calling will be enabled by default.

End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

G Suite Admin Help: Turn video calling on or off

New controls for displaying sender attribution for shared mailboxes

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Why you’d use it

Organizations use shared mailboxes in Gmail in multiple ways. For example, if an executive admin is responding on behalf of a CEO, from the CEO’s mailbox, sender attribution makes it clear who specifically drafted and sent the email.

Or, if you use an info@company.com mailbox to communicate with customers, customers will view all responses as equally valid, without knowing whether they were sent by sally@company.com, or jim@company.com.

With these new settings, you can now control and customize how attribution is handled for your domain, by OU, or on an individual user level.

Getting started

Admins: Sender attribution is on by default and can be disabled at the OU or domain level. The new setting can be found in the Admin console under Apps > G Suite > Gmail > User settings > Mail Delegation. Note that the default setting will be “Allow users to customize this setting” and “Show the account owner and delegate who sent the email.”

Settings for Mail Delegation in the Admin console

End users: Sender attribution is ON by default. You can view and set sender attribution parameters by going to Settings > Account > Grant access to your account in Gmail. If your admin has hidden sender attribution for your domain or OU, no action can be taken.

End user settings for sender attribution in Gmail

If disabled at the OU or domain level, end users can take no action in Gmail

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 7, 2020
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 7, 2020

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

What’s changing

We’re adding new controls for how the “Sender Attribution for Shared Mailboxes” is displayed. Currently, sender attribution is always enabled — this will remain the default setting unless disabled by the admin or the end user.

For end users, there’s a new setting in Gmail where you can specify what information is included in the email header of messages sent by delegates.

For admins, there’s a new setting in the admin console that allows you to hide all attribution for shared mailboxes in your domain or organizational unit (OU). This will override and disable the user setting in Gmail.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

Getting started

Settings for Mail Delegation in the Admin console

End user settings for sender attribution in Gmail

If disabled at the OU or domain level, end users can take no action in Gmail

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

Google Help: Set up mail delegation
G Suite Admin Help: Turn mail delegation on or off

Get email alerts and see associated tickets for Access Transparency logs

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Sample email alert when an Access Transparency log is created

You can see support ticket numbers in the Access Transparency audit log

Getting started

Admins: Email alerts will be OFF by default, support ticket information in the audit log will be ON by default. Learn more about Access Transparency logs, or how to set up alerts.
End users: Feature is not visible to end users.

Rollout pace

This feature is available now for all users.

Availability

Available to G Suite Enterprise and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers.
Not available to G Suite Basic, G Suite Business, G Suite for Education, and G Suite for Nonprofits customers.

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Quick launch summary

We’re making two improvements which will make Access Transparency logs more useful for G Suite admins. Specifically you can now:

Choose to receive email alerts when specific Access Transparency logs are created.
See any support ticket numbers associated with requests in the Audit log report.

Access Transparency for G Suite provides more visibility into actions taken by Google staff related to your data. Learn more about how Access Transparency can help increase trust in cloud data security.

Access Transparency logs describe the affected resource, the time of the action, the reason for the action, and more. With this launch, you can create automated alerts to get notified via email when specified criteria related to Access Transparency are met and an associated log is created. To get started, create an alert based on the "Event Name = Access" filter.

Learn more about Access Transparency logs, or how to set up alerts.

Sample email alert when an Access Transparency log is created

You can see support ticket numbers in the Access Transparency audit log

Getting started

Admins: Email alerts will be OFF by default, support ticket information in the audit log will be ON by default. Learn more about Access Transparency logs, or how to set up alerts.
End users: Feature is not visible to end users.

Rollout pace

This feature is available now for all users.

Availability

Available to G Suite Enterprise and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers.
Not available to G Suite Basic, G Suite Business, G Suite for Education, and G Suite for Nonprofits customers.

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

What's New in G Suite - December 2019

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Check out the latest "What's New in G Suite" launch recap (pdf) for a roundup of all G Suite launches from December 2019.

Archive and translated versions (coming soon for December issue)

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Check out the latest "What's New in G Suite" launch recap (pdf) for a roundup of all G Suite launches from December 2019.

Archive and translated versions (coming soon for December issue)

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

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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.

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Learn about more Google Workspace launches

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.

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Updates

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Getting started

Rollout pace

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Getting started

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Rollout pace

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Roadmap

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Additional Details

Getting started

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Rollout pace

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Getting started

Rollout pace

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Who’s impacted

Why you’d use it

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Resources

Quick launch summary

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

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Rollout pace

Availability

Resources

Why you’d use it

Getting started

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Resources

Getting started

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