Beginning today, the new Gmail user interface is rolling out for scheduled release domains, with anticipated completion by February 3, 2023. This will become the standard experience for Gmail, with no option to revert to the original UI. For more information, see our previous announcement.
Display space names when granting access to files
When sharing a Google Drive file to a space in Google Chat, you will now see the space name and associated image if you are a member of the space. If you are not a member of the space, but would still like to share a file to that space, the space name will show as “Private Space.”
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.
Check availability across multiple calendars when using appointment schedules on Google Calendar
We’ve introduced the ability to check and see a visual preview of multiple calendars when setting up your appointment schedules. Your booking page will show you as unavailable when you’re busy based on the calendars you choose. | 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 customers only. | Learn more.
Easily share access to presented content in Google Meet with all attendees
We’ve made two improvements which will make file sharing in Google Meet even easier. First, you can now share access to the content you’re presenting in a meeting with attendees, including everyone on the Calendar guest list, directly from Meet. Second, whenever you paste a link into the meeting chat, you’ll be prompted with the file access dialog — from here you can adjust access as needed and choose to attach the file to the calendar event. | Learn more.
Improved membership management for spaces
We’ve introduced a new fullscreen experience for managing members in a space that replaces the current "View members" and “Add people and apps” options in Google Chat. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Frontline customers only. | Learn more.
Upon clicking the new “Manage members” option, you can view a list of those added and invited to the space, in addition to space settings. From there you can add or remove members and update settings. In addition, you can manage Chat apps or integrations by using a newly added “Apps & integrations” option in the space menu.
Who’s impacted
End users
Why you’d use it
This simplification makes the process of viewing and organizing space membership much easier.
Additional details
This update is currently available on web only and will become available on mobile later this quarter.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users:
To manage members of a space, click the space header and then select “Manage Members” to view, add or remove members from the member list.
You can change the access setting of a space by selecting the “Space settings” option below “Manage Members”
Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 26, 2023
Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 13, 2023
Availability
Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Frontline customers
Not available to Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts
Meeting attendees will see a notification when you’ve shared a file, and a link to the file will be automatically shared in the meeting chat.
Second, whenever you paste a link into the meeting chat, you’ll be prompted with the file access dialog — from here you can adjust access as needed and choose to attach the file to the calendar event.
Who’s impacted
End users
Why it’s important
By allowing sharing directly from Meet, you can seamlessly share presented content without having to switch into another window to grant access, which can be disruptive. This makes it easier for meeting attendees to follow along with your presentation, find and reference your material later on, and continue working on action items from the meeting.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
As a result, we’re introducing the ability to check and see a visual preview of multiple calendars when setting up your appointment schedules. Your booking page will show you as unavailable when you’re busy based on the calendars you choose.
Who’s impacted
End users
Why you’d use it
This update will prevent scheduling conflicts by checking your availability across multiple calendars, enabling others to set up meeting times that best fit your schedule.
Additional details
In addition to your primary calendar, you can check availability from all of your calendars added to Google Calendar on the web, such as calendars you own, calendars you have edit and manage rights to, and subscribed calendars.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 24, 2023
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 7, 2023
Availability
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 customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Frontline, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts
Google Vault support for client-side encrypted emails
Vault now supports retention, search, and export of client-side encrypted emails. Note that admins can't preview the email body and attachments, including inline images — they’ll only be able to see the subject line, sender, and receiver.
Google Workspace already uses the latest cryptographic standards to encrypt all data at rest and in transit between our customers and Google facilities. Client-side encryption helps strengthen the confidentiality of your data while helping to address a broad range of data sovereignty and compliance needs. Visit the Help Center for more information on client-side encryption and our original announcement regarding client-side encryption for Gmail.
Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Education Standard customers only.
Set and share personal pronouns across Google Workspace products
Google Workspace admins can now give their users the option to set their pronouns and choose who can see them from their Google Account at aboutme.google.com.
This is opt-in only and can be enabled for all users or a subset of them (such as for a specific location or department). Admins can use this Help Center article to learn more about enabling this feature for their users.
User-defined pronouns will appear in personal information cards displayed when hovering over or clicking someone’s profile photo across Workspace apps like Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Chat, and Drive. Support for pronouns in Google Meet will roll out in the coming months. Pronouns will also appear in Google Contacts, accessed by clicking “Open detailed view” from the personal information cards. If enabled by their admin, end users can use this Help Center article to learn more about changing their pronouns in their Google Account settings.
If enabled by the admin, users can set pronouns from aboutme.google.com and specify who they are visible to.
Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers only.
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.
New beta to move folders from My Drive to shared drives now available
Following the announcement of an improved admin experience for moving folders from My Drive to shared drives, we’ve introduced a beta that will allow end users to move folders from My Drive into shared drives. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits, and legacy G Suite Business customers only. | Learn more.
New built-in interoperability between Google Meet and Zoom
As previously announced in October, we’re introducing video conferencing device interoperability for Google Meet with Zoom, which will allow you to join Zoom Meetings from Google Meet hardware devices and join Google Meet meetings from Zoom Rooms. | Zoom interop on Google Meet hardware is available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers with Google Meet hardware. | Learn more.
Left: Zoom Meetings on Google Meet hardware. Right: Google Meet on Zoom Rooms
We hope this latest update makes it even easier for our customers and their users to connect and collaborate with people outside of the Google Meet ecosystem.
Additional details
There is no additional cost associated with using this new built-in interoperability feature on supported devices.
Scheduled join and join via meeting code will be supported, as will the ability to configure no-knock joining (lobby bypass) in either direction.
Similar built-in interoperability is already available between Google Meet and Cisco Webex on each platform’s respective devices. And Pexip continues to enable joining Meet meetings from the widest range of third-party video conferencing hardware, including older devices that may not support built-in interoperability. Use this Help Center article to learn more about Pexip.
Note: This admin setting can be configured before the feature begins rolling out, therefore you will be able to toggle this off before January 25, 2023.
To configure no-knock join for Zoom Meetings from Meet hardware, generate a token in the Zoom Admin at Account Management > Account Settings > Meeting > Allow my organization's 3rd party conference room systems to join my Zoom meetings as an authorized user and paste it in the Google Workspace Admin at Devices > Google Meet hardware > Settings > Service settings > Built-in interoperability direct access.
End users: When enabled by your admin, you can join a Zoom meeting from a Google Meet hardware device by:
Joining an ad-hoc meeting by tapping "Join or start a meeting" on your touch controller and selecting Zoom from the dropdown options.
Joining a scheduled meeting by adding a room to an event with Zoom meeting details.
Note: Calendar events that originate outside of Google Calendar must be duplicated and populated with room details manually, or have their Zoom join details copy and pasted into the description field of a new Calendar event.
Admins: Meet interop on Zoom Rooms will be off by default and can be enabled from the Zoom Admin at Room Management > Zoom Rooms > Meeting > Support Google Meet web client meeting on Zoom Rooms. For more information, visit the Zoom Support page.
To configure no-knock join for Meet meetings from Zoom Rooms, generate a token in the Workspace Admin console at Apps > Google Workspace > Settings for Google Meet > Interoperability tokens and paste it in the Zoom Admin in the Google Meet Interop Token field located at Room Management > Zoom Rooms > Support Google Meet web client meeting on Zoom Rooms.
End users: When enabled by your admin, you can join a Meet meeting from a Zoom Room by:
Joining an ad-hoc meeting from your Zoom Room Controller by entering a Google Meet meeting code
Joining a scheduled meeting by adding a room to an event with Google Meet details
Zoom interop on Google Meet hardware is available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers with Google Meet hardware. All currently supported Google Meet hardware devices that have not yet reached their auto-update expiration date will receive the feature.
Meet interop on Zoom Rooms is available to all Zoom Rooms customers on a supported Zoom Rooms device or appliance. Note that your device may not fully support the feature until its manufacturer has pushed the latest Zoom Rooms software update to its devices.
Please refer to the Zoom Support page to see the most up-to-date list on supported devices and platforms.
Extending the capability for end users to move folders from My Drive into shared drives increases the flexibility of sharing and helps to avoid permission escalations.
Additional details
We’re also updating My Drive and shared drive roles to create a more seamless experience when it comes to members and access levels. Currently, when an admin moves a folder from My Drive into a shared drive, all folder Editors are converted to Contributors by default. Starting today, when an admin or an end-user (opted into this beta), moves a folder from My Drive into a shared drive, Editors will be converted into Content managers. This update will lead to the retention of users' ability to organize content and share folders.
End users: Once the beta is enabled by your admin, move a folder by selecting a folder in your My Drive and clicking on "Move to" in the folder menu (toolbar). Visit the Help Center to learn more about moving files & folders into shared drives.
Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits, and legacy G Suite Business customers
Not available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Frontline, and legacy G Suite Basic customers
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts
Google Workspace already uses the latest cryptographic standards to encrypt all data at rest and in transit between our customers and Google facilities. Client-side encryption helps strengthen the confidentiality of your data while helping to address a broad range of data sovereignty and compliance needs. Visit the Help Center for more information on client-side encryption and our original announcement regarding client-side encryption for Gmail.
Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Education Standard customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts
Find apps and app commands in Chat with a new Integration Menu
We’re making it easier to discover and use Chat apps with a new Integration Menu. Simply click the (+) button next to the compose bar in a Chat message to see installed apps. You can also browse the slash commands that the apps support and execute them. On the web, the Integration Menu includes a search functionality that allows you to browse new apps. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Frontline, and legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers only.
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.
New option to view non-printing characters in Google Docs
You can now choose to display non-printing characters in order to see how a document is laid out. | Learn more.
Improvements to voice features in Google Docs and Slides
We’ve improved the features that enable you to type and edit by speaking in Google Docs or in Google Slides speaker notes, and present slides with automatic captions to display a speaker's words in real time. | Learn more.
Manage all Google Workspace API activity from a single location
Within the Google Cloud Console, you can now view and manage all Google Workspace API activity. Here, you’ll find a centralized view of which APIs are currently running and their associated requests. | Learn more.
Increasing efficiency through better meeting room management with room release
Room release, an existing feature that releases booked meeting rooms when all but one attendee declines the invitation will now be ON by default. There will be a transition period, from January 11 - March 6, 2023, where admins can opt out structured meeting rooms or user groups from this room release setting. | Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and legacy G Suite Business customers only. | Learn more.
New in-meeting reactions for Google Meet
You can now use emojis to share in-meeting reactions in Google Meet on Web, Meet Hardware devices, and iOS, with Android coming soon. | Learn more.
Introducing simpler conversation creation in Google Chat
The process to create conversations in Chat will be much simpler by combining the flow for creating one-on-one conversations and group conversations. | Learn more.
View speaker notes while presenting Google Slides in Google Meet
In October of 2022, we introduced the ability to present Google Slides directly in Google Meet. To build upon this, you can now view your speaker notes within Google Meet. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Education Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more.
Simply click the new speaker notes button in the Slides controls bar in Meet to display your speaker notes within the call. Present with greater confidence and engage with your audience without having to context switch between notes and slides.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users:
Select "Present a Tab" in Meet > choose a Google Slide presentation > click the speaker notes button in the controls at the bottom corner of the presentation.
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 10, 2023
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 30, 2023
Availability
Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Education Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts
Starting today, the process to create conversations in Chat will be much simpler by combining the flow for creating one-on-one conversations and group conversations. We’re removing the “Start group conversation” option, and enabling you to create conversations with the desired number of recipients right away by simply typing the names of the recipient(s).
Who’s impacted
End users
Why it matters
With this update, users can create Chat conversations in one consistent and intuitive way, whether with one person or a group.
Additional details
There will be no changes to the process for creating new spaces, browsing spaces, or sending messages to existing spaces.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users:
Open Google Chat on web > select “New chat” > type the names or emails of chat recipients > select from suggestions shown or hit Enter. Once you’ve included everyone you want in the conversation, click “Start chat” or hit Enter again.
Tip: To start a conversation with one person directly, you can click the “Start chat” icon next to their name or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd [icon]+Enter (MacOS) or Ctrl+Enter (Windows, Linux, ChromeOS).
Rollout pace
Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 11, 2023
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 3, 2023
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
To share a reaction, select the smile icon in the control bar to get the reaction bar. You can hover on this bar to select the skin tone of your choice, which will then be applied to all emojis subject to change color.
Who’s impacted
Admin and end users
Why you’d use it
In-meeting reactions provide a lightweight, non-disruptive way to engage and participate in meetings without interrupting the speaker. Further, with options to select skin tones that best represent your identity, you can participate authentically.
We hope these features make it easier for you, your colleagues, and stakeholders to stay better connected and engaged, whether they’re working from home, the office, or anywhere in between.
Getting started
Admins:
Reactions will be ON by default and can be turned off in the Admin console. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing this feature.
Room release, an existing feature that releases booked meeting rooms when all but one attendee declines the invitation will now be ON by default. This update improves upon the opportunity for admins and their colleagues to have better context for location planning, meeting room management, and attendee accommodations.
There will be a transition period, from January 11 - March 6, 2023, where admins can opt out structured meeting rooms or user groups from this room release setting. See the “Getting started” section below for more details.
Who’s impacted
Admins
Why you’d use it
This feature makes meeting room management, especially in a hybrid work environment, more efficient by releasing rooms when most attendees are unavailable.
Additional details
We’re introducing a global setting to turn room release ON/OFF for all rooms in a domain, and an opt-out setting for each individual room resource. This will not be activated until the end of the transition period.
The legacy setting that enables or disables room release will be renamed to "Legacy Calendar-based room release" and will only be available during the transition period.
If you wish to maintain your organization’s current setup and keep only a limited number of rooms enabled for room release, the steps below can be taken to apply the legacy setting values to the new setting:
In the Admin Console, go to Buildings and resources > Manage resources
Click “Add a filter” and select the filters “Legacy Calendar-based room release: “Off” and “Exempt from room release: Off”
Click on the checkbox at the top of the Resources list to select all the resources.
Click the “Edit” dropdown on the right-hand side and select “Edit room release exemption: On”
If you have more than 200 resources, repeat until the applied filters show no more resources.
In order to improve the meeting room experience, we encourage you not to exempt rooms from room release when there is no need.
If you want to modify the behavior of the room release feature before the end of the transition period, you should modify the “Legacy Calendar-based room release” setting for the appropriate rooms. This can be done in the Admin Console by follow these steps:
Navigate to Buildings and resources > manage resources
Select one or multiple resources for which you’d like to modify the room release behavior.
Click the “Edit” dropdown on the right-hand side and select “Edit legacy Calendar-based room release”
Getting started
Admins:
For companies with structured meeting rooms set up, admins will see the option to turn this setting ON or OFF in the Admin Console starting January 11, 2023.
Starting March 6, 2023, this feature will be ON by default for companies with structured meeting rooms set up in the Admin Console.
To individually exempt certain or all structured meeting rooms from this room release feature, go to Buildings and resources > Manage resources > click on the desired room. Then navigate to the room settings section > turn ON "Exempt from room release"
By March 6, 2023 the rooms will no longer be released.
To opt out user groups from this setting, go to Buildings and resources > room settings > click "EDIT GROUP" next to "Exempt user groups from room release" > add the desired groups.
Meeting rooms are not released when the room holds 20+ people or when the meeting is longer than 4 hours.
Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, as well as legacy G Suite Business customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Nonprofits, Frontline customers as well as legacy G Suite Basic customers
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts
This unified experience will eliminate the need to search for APIs manually, making it easier to manage your existing projects and build out your API ecosystem with new integrations.
Getting started
Admins and Developers: From the navigation menu in the Google Cloud console, navigate to View all products > Other Google Products > Google Workspace. Visit the Help Center to learn more about enhancing Google Workspace Apps.
These enhancements will help reduce transcription errors and minimize lost audio during transcription. The improvements also include expanded availability to most major browsers. Additionally, captions in Slides will now contain automatically generated punctuation.
Who’s impacted
End users
Why it’s important
We hope this launch leads to more inclusive and accessible user interactions within Docs and Slides.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
[March 6, 2023] Rollout has resumed. All Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains will have access to this feature by March 10, 2023.
[February 9, 2023]We have paused rollout for this feature while we evaluate performance and quality. We will provide an update once rollout resumes.
What’s changing
When viewing or editing a Google Doc, non-printing characters such as line breaks, section breaks, tabs, and spaces are not visible. Starting today, you can choose to display non-printing characters in order to see how a document is laid out. When turned on, you will see symbols or text to represent the following:
Paragraph/Hard break
Line/Soft break
Section break
Page break
Column break
Tab
Space
Who’s impacted
End users
Why it’s important
This feature provides a visual representation of what controls the formatting in a document, allowing you to make appropriate edits much easier.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
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.