Google Workspace Updates: Currents

New community features for Google Chat and an update on Currents

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

What's Changing

Last year, we announced plans to wind down Currents, to focus efforts on community experiences that are better integrated with the rest of Google Workspace. To help our customers manage this transition, we published detailed guidance for Workspace administrators and enabled customers to opt-in for automated migration of Currents data to spaces in Google Chat.

We are nearing the end of this transition. Beginning July 5, 2023, Currents will no longer be available. Workspace administrators can export Currents data using Takeout before August 8, 2023. Beginning August 8th, Currents data will no longer be available for download.

Although we are saying goodbye to Currents, we continue to invest in new features for Google Chat, so teams can connect and collaborate with a shared sense of belonging. Over the last year, we've delivered features designed to support community engagement at scale, and will continue to deliver more. Here is a summary of the features with additional details below:

This month, we’re enabling new ways for organizations to share information across the enterprise with announcements in Google Chat. This gives admin controls to limit permissions for posting in a space, while enabling all members to read and react, helping ensure that important updates stay visible and relevant. Later this year, we plan to simplify membership management by integrating Google Groups with spaces in Chat, enable post-level metrics for announcements, and provide tools for Workspace administrators to manage spaces across their domain.

New announcements feature in Google Chat on mobile device

Announcements in Google Chat

Adding a Google Group during space creation in Google Chat.

Managing space membership with Google Groups

We’ve already rolled out new ways to make conversations more expressive and engaging such as in-line threading to enable rich exploration of a specific topic without overtaking the main conversation and custom emojis to enable fun, personal expression.

In-line threaded conversations

Creating a custom emoji in Google Chat on a mobile device.

Discover and join communities with up to 8,000 members

We’ve also made it easier for individuals to discover and join communities of shared interest. By searching in Gmail, users can explore a directory of available spaces covering topics of personal or professional interest such as gardening, pets, career development, fitness, cultural identity, and more, with the ability to invite others to join via link. Last year, we increased the size of communities supported by spaces in Chat to 8,000 members, and we are working to scale this in a meaningful way later this year.

A directory of spaces in Google Chat for users to join.

As communities grow, it’s essential to provide tools for content moderation and data management. Last year, we introduced space managers, a community lead with abilities to moderate conversation and manage membership, and last year at NEXT, we rolled out data loss prevention (DLP) for Chat. We will continue to enhance community health and data security for Google Chat.

Our partner community is extending the power of Chat through integrations with essential third-party apps such as Jira, GitHub, Asana, PagerDuty, Zendesk and Salesforce. Many organizations have built custom workflow apps using low-code and no-code tools, and we anticipate that this number will continue to grow with the GA releases of the Chat API and AppSheet’s Chat app building capabilities later this year.

For teams to thrive in this rapidly changing era of hybrid work, it’s essential to build authentic personal connections and a strong sense of belonging, no matter when or where individuals work. We will continue to make Google Chat the best option for Workspace customers seeking to build a community and culture for hybrid teams, with much more to come later this year.

Who's impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s important

The transition from Currents to spaces in Google Chat removes a separate, siloed destination and provides organizations with a modern, enterprise-grade experience that reflects how the world is working today. Google Workspace customers use Google Chat to communicate about projects, share organizational updates, and build community.

Recommended action

Admins:

Review the Change Management Guide.
Use Takeout to explore your organization’s Currents data before August 8, 2023.

End users: Read more about how to get started using spaces in Google Chat.

Availability

Spaces in Google Chat are available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts.

Resources

Google Admin Help: Transition from Google Currents to Google Chat
Google Admin Help: Export your organization’s Google Currents data
1 Space manager role (Feb 22)
2 Invite others to join via link (Mar 22)
3 Create & manage spaces via API (May 2022)
4 Larger spaces (July 22)
5 Discoverable spaces (Aug 22)
6 In-line threaded conversations (Oct 22)
7 Custom emojis (Oct 22)
8 Data loss prevention (DLP) (Oct 22)
9 Create low-code/no-code Chat apps (Dec 2022)
10 Improved membership management (Jan 23)
11 New capabilities for space managers (Mar 23)
12 Admin installation of Chat apps (Mar 2023)
13 Announcements (Apr 2023)

Note: This blog post outlines upcoming changes to Google Currents for Workspace users. For information on the previous deprecation of Google+ for users with personal Google accounts, please see this post.

What's Changing

Announcements in Google Chat

Managing space membership with Google Groups

In-line threaded conversations

Discover and join communities with up to 8,000 members

A directory of spaces in Google Chat for users to join.

Who's impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s important

Recommended action

Admins:

Review the Change Management Guide.
Use Takeout to explore your organization’s Currents data before August 8, 2023.

End users: Read more about how to get started using spaces in Google Chat.

Availability

Spaces in Google Chat are available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts.

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - February 22, 2022

Friday, February 11, 2022

Japanese grammar suggestions for Google Docs

You'll now see grammar suggestions as you type in Japanese in Docs. Grammar suggestions can help you write faster and more accurately. | Learn more.

Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

Manage overdue tasks in Google Calendar You can now easily see and manage your overdue tasks in Google Calendar.

If you have uncompleted tasks that were due in the past 30 days, you will have an all day entry that will tell you how many tasks are pending from that timeframe. | Learn more.

Participate in Google Meet polls and Q&As on Chromebase for meetings

You can now participate in Google Meet polls and Q&As when joining from a Chromebase for meetings all-in-one touchscreen device. | Learn more.

The future of Currents and the next generation of collaboration in Spaces

With Spaces now available, starting in 2023 we are planning to wind down Google Currents and bring remaining content and communities over to the new Spaces experience. | Learn more here and here.

Google Voice calls between many European numbers are now included in Google Voice licenses

Beginning February 8, 2022, calls from European Google Voice numbers to mobile and landline numbers in many European countries will be included with the cost of the Google Voice license. | Learn more.

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

New updates Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are fully launched or in the process of rolling out (rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete), launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time (if not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete), and available to all Google Workspace and legacy G Suite customers.

Japanese grammar suggestions for Google Docs You'll now see grammar suggestions as you type in Japanese in Docs. Grammar suggestions can help you write faster and more accurately. | Learn more.

Previous announcements The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

Manage overdue tasks in Google Calendar You can now easily see and manage your overdue tasks in Google Calendar. If you have uncompleted tasks that were due in the past 30 days, you will have an all day entry that will tell you how many tasks are pending from that timeframe. | Learn more.

Participate in Google Meet polls and Q&As on Chromebase for meetings You can now participate in Google Meet polls and Q&As when joining from a Chromebase for meetings all-in-one touchscreen device. | Learn more.

The future of Currents and the next generation of collaboration in Spaces With Spaces now available, starting in 2023 we are planning to wind down Google Currents and bring remaining content and communities over to the new Spaces experience. | Learn more here and here.

Google Voice calls between many European numbers are now included in Google Voice licensesBeginning February 8, 2022, calls from European Google Voice numbers to mobile and landline numbers in many European countries will be included with the cost of the Google Voice license. | Learn more.

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

The future of Currents and the next generation of collaboration in Spaces

Thursday, February 10, 2022

With Spaces now available, starting in 2023 we are planning to wind down Google Currents and bring remaining content and communities over to the new Spaces experience. Before we do this, we’ll deliver new capabilities in Spaces to help you communicate and collaborate more effectively. These include support for larger communities and leadership communication, investments in advanced search, tools for content moderation, and more. We’re also investing in search and discoverability, platform capabilities for app development, and enterprise-grade security and compliance, including data protection, data loss prevention (DLP) and Vault support.

If your organization is using Currents, we’ll share a timeline for opting in to data migration and other milestones in the coming months, as well as guidance to assist with the transition. Spaces are available to all Google Workspace customers today.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it matters

The accelerating transition to hybrid work has significantly changed the way people collaborate, and Google Workspace customers are using Chat and Spaces to communicate about projects, share organizational updates, and build community.

Upgrading Google Currents to Spaces removes a separate, siloed destination for users, and provides organizations with a modern, enterprise-grade experience that reflects how the world is working today. Spaces provide a central place for teams to engage in topic-based discussions, share knowledge and ideas, move projects forward, and build communities and team culture.

Additional details

In preparation for the migration from Currents to Spaces, we’ll start turning down features with very little usage. Please see the Help Center for more details.

Getting started

Admins: If your organization is using Currents, we’ll share more details, including a migration guide, in an email to the primary admin at your domain in the coming months. Please stay tuned.
End users: Read more on how to get started with Spaces.

Availability

Spaces are available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts.

Resources

Google Workspace Learning Center: Use Spaces in Google Workspace

What’s happening Last year, we introduced Spaces, a dedicated place for organizing people, topics, and projects in Google Workspace. Since launching Spaces, many customers have told us that they appreciate the tight integration with Google Workspace products, including Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and Meet, and the seamless collaboration experience.

With Spaces now available, starting in 2023 we are planning to wind down Google Currents and bring remaining content and communities over to the new Spaces experience. Before we do this, we’ll deliver new capabilities in Spaces to help you communicate and collaborate more effectively. These include support for larger communities and leadership communication, investments in advanced search, tools for content moderation, and more. We’re also investing in search and discoverability, platform capabilities for app development, and enterprise-grade security and compliance, including data protection, data loss prevention (DLP) and Vault support.

If your organization is using Currents, we’ll share a timeline for opting in to data migration and other milestones in the coming months, as well as guidance to assist with the transition. Spaces are available to all Google Workspace customers today.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it matters

Additional details

In preparation for the migration from Currents to Spaces, we’ll start turning down features with very little usage. Please see the Help Center for more details.

Getting started

Admins: If your organization is using Currents, we’ll share more details, including a migration guide, in an email to the primary admin at your domain in the coming months. Please stay tuned.
End users: Read more on how to get started with Spaces.

Availability

Spaces are available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts.

Resources

Google Workspace Learning Center: Use Spaces in Google Workspace

Currents to become generally available on July 6, 2020, replacing Google+ for G Suite

Monday, June 22, 2020

Getting started

Admins: Review our getting started guide for admins, and send our getting started guide for users to your organization.
End users: Upgrade your iOS or Android Google+ mobile app to Currents on July 6, 2020.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Schedule Release domains: Gradual rollout starting on July 6, 2020. We expect Currents to roll out to all domains within five days.

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

What’s changing

At Google Cloud Next in 2019, we launched Currents in beta. On July 6, 2020, we’ll make it generally available to G Suite customers.

If your domain is currently participating in the Currents beta, your experience will remain the same. If your domain uses Google+, you’ll be automatically upgraded to Currents, which has an updated look and feel and provides additional features for users and administrators.

Please note that starting on July 6, users will not be able to opt out of Currents or revert back to Google+.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s important

Currents offers a more streamlined experience that makes it easy for employees to have meaningful discussions across an organization and to view suggestions for useful and timely content. It provides users access to new features, including custom streams and tags. In addition, Currents allows super admins to enable content moderation and administrative privileges for specific users in their organization.

Additional details

If you’re currently participating in the Currents beta, your experience will remain the same. If your organization uses Google+, however, you can expect the following as you transition to Currents:

Starting July 6, 2020, your users and all of your organization’s existing Google+ content will be automatically transitioned to Currents. Your users will have no option to revert back to Google+.
The Currents Android and iOS apps will replace the Google+ Android and iOS apps, which will no longer be supported. Users will be prompted to upgrade to the new Currents app to continue to use the service on mobile; those who have auto-update enabled will be automatically upgraded.
All existing links to plus.google.com will continue to work—users will automatically be redirected to currents.google.com.
In the days prior to the switch, users may see a banner in Google+ notifying them of the launch and providing links to relevant Help Center content.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid and Schedule Release domains: Gradual rollout starting on July 6, 2020. We expect Currents to roll out to all domains within five days.

Availability

Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming G Suite release.

Embed Google+ search streams in new Google Sites

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

What’s changing

You can now embed a stream of posts from a Google+ search in the new Google Sites. This search could contain simple keywords or advanced search operators.

This builds on our previous launch, which helped you embed community pages, profiles, and other Google+ streams in new Sites.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

When you embed a stream from G+, users will see the exact same content, whether they’re viewing it on plus.google.com or within an embedded module in a Sites page. They’ll also be able to interact with the content, and have that interaction show in both locations. This can help you create more engaging sites with dynamic and collaborative content from Google+.

By embedding a stream from a Google+ search, you could embed posts from specific people, or you can embed a Google+ stream that aggregates posts from multiple G+ communities. Users will be able to see the content and interact with it if they choose.

How to get started

Admins: No action needed.
End users: Use the Help Center to find out how to embed Google+ content in Sites.

Helpful links

Help Center: Add Google files, video & more to Google Sites

Availability

Rollout details

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on Jan 15, 2019
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on Jan 15, 2019

G Suite editions
Available to all G Suite editions
On/off by default?
This feature will be ON by default
Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Notice the new format for these launch announcements? Give us feedback on it here.

Add users and Google Groups to domain-restricted Google+ Communities

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

If you’d like to enable this setting for an OU or everyone in your domain, in the Admin console go to Apps > G Suite > Google+ > Advanced Settings. Here, check the "Adding users directly" checkbox.

Please note: This feature will only be supported on domain-restricted communities. Additionally, users, groups, and group members that aren't part of the same domain as the community and users that have been banned from the community won't be added.

Check out the Help Center for more information on adding Google Groups to Google+ Communities.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins and all end users

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Allow owners or moderators to add users directly
Help Center: Moderate a Community

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We’re adding the ability to directly add users and Google Groups as members of Google+ Communities. When a moderator adds a group, group members are automatically added to the community. Subsequent updates to the group membership are automatically reflected in the community membership.

This feature is off by default. As a G Suite admin, you can turn it on for certain users, turn it on for certain organizational units (OUs), or turn it on for everyone in your domain.

To enable this setting for select users, open the Admin console and go to Admin Roles. After selecting the appropriate user role, click “Privileges” and scroll to "Google+,” where you can then configure the “Batch-add user groups to communities" privilege for that role.

Embed Google+ streams in the new Google Sites for more engagement

Monday, July 30, 2018

Update (August 17, 2018) - This post originally stated that you could embed a G+ search results page in Sites. This was incorrect, so we’ve updated the post to reflect that embedding a search results page isn’t supported yet.We’re working to expand the page types supported, so keep an eye on the G Suite Updates blog to hear when we add new functionality.

We’re making it easier to embed Google+ streams in the new Google Sites. This feature is a top request from users who want to create more interactive and engaging sites. The launch will help you:

Increase the social aspect of sites. Users can see all the posts, photos, comments, and other content that they’d see with the full G+ experience.
Enable free-flowing communication. Users can add comments, +1s, and more to the G+ content directly from the site.
Keep content fresh. Users can avoid duplicate content management by having G+ updates appear automatically in sites.

How embedded G+ streams work

You can embed many types of G+ post streams in your Google Sites pages. Specifically, you can embed a top-level community page, a community category page, a collection page, or a G+ profile. Formatting of the G+ embed will automatically adjust to the width you set. Once it’s embedded, users can interact with posts just as they can on the full G+ experience.

Permissions to see and interact with the stream are determined by whether users can see the content in G+. So if you embed from a private G+ community, only members of that community will be able to see the content on the site.

See our Help Center for more details on how to embed G+ streams in Google Sites.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Add Google files, video & more

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Google+ will no longer support Internet Explorer 10 in October 2018

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Beginning on October 23, 2018, Internet Explorer 10 will no longer be a supported browser for use with Google+. Before this time, we recommend referring to the Help Center to ensure you’re using a supported browser for uninterrupted access to Google+.

For more information on supported browsers for all G Suite apps, refer to the Help Center.

Deprecation Details
Impact:
All end users using Internet Explorer 10

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Supported browsers for G Suite

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Subscribe to Highlights notifications for Google+ communities and collections

Monday, March 26, 2018

Learn more about Google+ settings in the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Google+ settings

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Google+ communities and collections help people connect around the things they’re interested in. To help you stay on top of these connections, we're adding more options for how often you're notified about new posts in the Google+ communities and collections to which you subscribe. Instead of getting all or no notifications, you can now opt to get "highlights" only.

When the highlights option is selected, we will send you a digest notification of the top posts from across all of your G+ communities and collections. This will help save you time and ensure you’re seeing the posts that matter most.

New Google+ community metrics for G Suite admins and community moderators

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

To access these insights, an owner or moderator can click on the “Manage” button (previously the “Moderate” button) and select the “Insights” tab.

Please note, this dashboard will only be available to owners and moderators of Google+ communities. For more information on moderating a Google+ community, please visit the Help Center.

Communities Report for admins

For G Suite administrators, we've also added the ability to see all communities owned by members of your organization, sortable by metrics such as total members, active members, number of posts recently made, and more. In this report, which can be found in the Admin console by going to Reports > Apps > Google+ > Communities report, you’ll also be able to see the community’s “Visibility,” indicating whether or not it’s restricted to your domain.

You can choose to view either the last seven or 30 days worth of data.

As with our previous reporting additions, these metrics are available in both the Admin console and Reports API.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users (Community insights metrics)
Admins only (Communities admin report)

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Moderate a community
Help Center: Google+ community metrics

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Earlier this year, we announced additions to Google+ metrics to better understand user activity and community-level metrics. We’re continuing this effort to manage Google+ communities by introducing Google+ community metrics, surfaced in two places: the Admin console and in the Google+ community dashboard.

Metrics for community owners and moderators

First, community owners and moderators can now see new membership and engagement statistics about their community using the new "Insights" tab. If they’d like more information on a particular metric, mousing over it will provide additional context to help with interpreting the data.

8 swift steps G Suite admins can take to secure business data

Thursday, October 12, 2017

2. Disable email forwarding
Exercising this option will disable the automatic email forwarding feature for users, which in turn helps reduce the risk of data exfiltration in the event a user’s credentials are compromised. (Admin console > Apps > G Suite > Gmail > Advanced settings)

3. Enable early phishing detection
Enabling this option adds further checks on potentially suspicious emails prior to delivery. Early phishing detection utilizes a dedicated machine learning model that selectively delays messages to perform rigorous phishing analysis. Less than 0.05 percent of messages on average get delayed by a few minutes, so your users will still get their information fast. (Admin console > Apps > G Suite > Gmail > Advanced settings)

4. Examine OAuth-based access to third-party apps
OAuth apps whitelisting helps keep company data safe by letting you specifically select which third-party apps are allowed to access users’ G Suite data. Once an app is part of a whitelist, users can choose to grant authorized access to their G Suite apps data. This helps to prevent malicious apps from tricking people into accidentally granting access to corporate data. (Admin console > Security > G Suite API Permissions)

5. Check that unintended external reply warning for Gmail is turned on
Gmail can display unintended external reply warnings to users to help prevent data loss. You can enable this option to ensure that if your users try to respond to someone outside of your company domain, they’ll receive a quick warning to make sure they intended to send that email. Because Gmail has contextual intelligence, it knows if the recipient is an existing contact or someone your users interact with regularly, so it only displays relevant warnings. This option is on by default. (Admin console > Apps > G Suite > Gmail > Advanced settings)

6. Restrict external calendar
To reduce the incidence of data leaks, make sure that Google Calendar details aren’t shared outside your domain. Limiting sharing to “free” or “busy” information protects you from social engineering attacks that depend on gleaning information from meeting titles and attendees. (Admin console > Apps > G Suite > Calendar > Sharing settings)

7. Limit access to Google Groups
By setting default Google group access to private, you can limit external access to information channels that may contain confidential business information, like upcoming projects. (Admin console > Apps > G Suite > Groups for Business > Sharing settings)

8. Set Google+ access restrictions
Make the default sharing setting for Google+ restricted and disable discoverability of Google+ profiles outside your domain. Both of these actions can help you control access to critical business information. (Admin console > Apps > G Suite > Google+ > Advanced settings)

Every company has their own unique set of business requirements that need to work in rhythm with their security requirements. By evaluating and implementing some of these suggested security controls, you can make a marked difference in your company’s security posture—with just a few clicks. See this post for other security tips.

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(Cross-posted from The Keyword)

Security doesn’t have to be complicated. With G Suite, admins can manage and help protect their users with minimal effort because we've designed our tools to be intuitive—like Vault, which helps with eDiscovery and audit needs, and data loss prevention, which helps ensure that your “‘aha”’ moments stay yours. Here are some key security controls that you can deploy with just a few clicks to get more fine-grained control of your organization's security.

1. Enable Hangouts out-of-domain warnings
If your business allows employees to chat with external users on Hangouts, turn on a setting that will show warnings to your users if anyone outside of your domain tries to join a Hangout, and split existing group chats so external users can’t see previous internal conversations. This substantially reduces the risk of data leaks or falling prey to social engineering attacks. (Admin console > Apps > G Suite > Google Hangouts > Chat settings > Sharing options)

Set restrictions on what content people interact with and share on Google+

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Depending on your preferences and the needs of the people in that OU, you can then pick one of three options:

Public Mode - View/comment on internal and external content. This mode allows G Suite users to view/share/interact with content that is both inside and outside of the domain. This is similar to how Google+ operates today. This mode is best for specific OUs (e.g. those used for outward-facing roles like marketing and support) who should be able to interact with customers and external partners via Google+.
Private Mode - View/comment on internal content only. This setting offers the most control over Google+ activity, as it restricts G Suite users to viewing/sharing/interacting with only people inside their domain. Please note, G Suite users can still view content outside of their domain if they get a direct link or had joined/followed an external community/person/collection prior to being placed into this mode.
Hybrid Mode - View external content (e.g. industry news), but only engage with it internally. This setting offers moderate control over Google+ activity, as it allows G Suite users to view content outside their domain, but only share/interact with it internally.

The table below outlines what G Suite users can do under each setting:

Since these settings can be customized at the OU level, you’ll have the opportunity to differentiate permissions. For example, you can use the Public setting only for OUs that need to interact with people outside of the domain, whether that be the support team, marketing team, or others in customer-facing roles.

For more information on the impact to user experiences at each level of this setting, please review this Help Center article.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Manage Google+ content sharing

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Google+ is a great tool for helping employees discover and engage with external content that can be relevant to work. From an administrative perspective, we’ve heard from you that having more controls around content and commenting rights for your users would be helpful. That’s why today, we’re making this possible by adding new content restriction settings in Google+.

To change Google+ sharing settings for a specific organizational unit (OU), you can go to Apps > G Suite > Google+ > Advanced Settings in the Admin console, where you can first select the appropriate OU.

Depending on your preferences and the needs of the people in that OU, you can then pick one of three options:

Public Mode - View/comment on internal and external content. This mode allows G Suite users to view/share/interact with content that is both inside and outside of the domain. This is similar to how Google+ operates today. This mode is best for specific OUs (e.g. those used for outward-facing roles like marketing and support) who should be able to interact with customers and external partners via Google+.
Private Mode - View/comment on internal content only. This setting offers the most control over Google+ activity, as it restricts G Suite users to viewing/sharing/interacting with only people inside their domain. Please note, G Suite users can still view content outside of their domain if they get a direct link or had joined/followed an external community/person/collection prior to being placed into this mode.
Hybrid Mode - View external content (e.g. industry news), but only engage with it internally. This setting offers moderate control over Google+ activity, as it allows G Suite users to view content outside their domain, but only share/interact with it internally.

The table below outlines what G Suite users can do under each setting:

Find content and communities from all across Google+ with the new Discover stream

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Here they’ll find personalized recommendations of posts to see, people to know, and communities to join -- helping them stay in the loop on information being shared within your company.

To make way for Discover, you may have noticed we removed the Collections tab. ‘Featured Collections’ have a new home within Discover and ‘Your / Followed Collections’ can be found by clicking on ‘Communities and Collections’ on your profile.

Based on user feedback, we’ve also simplified tab navigation. With the addition of the Profile tab on mobile, it’s easier for people to reach their profile pages, where they can then quickly access their communities and collections. With this launch, we aim to make it easy for people to focus on what they’re interested in.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

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To help people using Google+ find the most relevant and useful conversations happening inside their companies, today we’re introducing a new Discover tab on iOS devices and the web.

Find exactly what you want in Google+ with new search options and filters

Monday, July 31, 2017

Improved Autocomplete
As the user types, autocomplete results will be shown from Topics, Collections, Communities, and People/Pages.

Filter results by content type using the new tabbed interface
On the search results page, users can now filter content by five categories: “All,” “Posts,” “Communities,” “Collections,” and “People & Pages.”

A popular ask from admins, the “Posts” tab allows users to sort results by new/top posts, as well as by the source of the post (from just you, from people you follow, or from everyone).

Restrict search results and home stream to show only content from within your domain
While offering a mix of external and domain-restricted content can be a valuable aspect of Google+, showing content from people outside of your domain (especially those sourced from users’ personal contacts) can lead to user confusion. That’s why we’re introducing the ability to toggle between showing domain-only content vs. public content in search suggestions, search results, and the Google+ home stream. This feature is currently available on the web only.

With this toggle, users can enjoy the benefits of mixed content while also being able to focus on company-specific info when appropriate. Filtering out external content can increase users’ confidence that they won’t accidentally leak information by commenting on externally visible posts.

We hope that this new experience will make it easier for your users to locate and engage with their Google+ content and Communities.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information:
Help Center

Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
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Today we’re rolling out a few updates to Google+ to help your users find the content they’re looking for. From an updated look of the search interface to search suggestions and domain-only filters, these new experiences can make users confident that the content they see is the content they want. Read on for more information.

Suggested and recent searches before users start typing
Before a user begins typing in the search box, we'll show them Communities they may be looking for, as well as recent terms they've searched.

Improved Autocomplete
As the user types, autocomplete results will be shown from Topics, Collections, Communities, and People/Pages.

A popular ask from admins, the “Posts” tab allows users to sort results by new/top posts, as well as by the source of the post (from just you, from people you follow, or from everyone).

Adding new Google+ metrics to the Admin console and Reports API to better track usage and adoption at the user level

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Better understand how your users are engaging with Google+ and see which users are most active

Going forward, you can also track the following metrics in the apps usage activity report and aggregate reports in the Admin console or via the Reports API:

Number of activities performed per day by each individual user
Number of communities where at least one of the community owners is within your domain
Number of collections within your organization

These metrics, as well as user-level metrics for all G Suite apps, can now also be viewed for a chosen date in the past.

In the future, we’ll continue to bring even more tools to help you manage Google+ usage within your organization. We’re always working to provide admins with the visibility they need, so please let us know what you think and stay tuned for more updates.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Google+ audit log
Help Center: Apps usage activity reports
Help Center: Aggregate reports
Help Center: Account activity reports
Help Center: Security reports

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Launch detail categories
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From sharing updates with teams to offering advice between offices, more and more organizations are adopting Google+ to transform the way they work. In April of this year, we added aggregated Google+ user activity to the Admin console and Reports API, allowing you to track user signups, posts and comments created, and more. Today, we’re bringing you even more usage reporting so that you can better understand Google+ adoption and engagement in your organization.

Audit Google+ user activity for your organization

To help you get a better sense of the total usage of the product within your organization, we’ve added Google+ user activity data to the auditing section of the Admin console, as well as to the Reports API.

Now, G Suite admins will be able to see when the following events are performed in Google+ in their organization right in the audit logs:

Post created
Post edited
Post deleted
Comment created
Comment edited
Comment deleted
+1 added to a post
+1 added to a comment
+1 removed from a post
+1 removed from a comment
Poll vote added
Poll vote removed

Number of activities performed per day by each individual user
Number of communities where at least one of the community owners is within your domain
Number of collections within your organization

Invite all the right people to your Communities all at once

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Launch Details

Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
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(Cross-posted from the Google+ Product and Feature Updates Collection)

Communities are a great way for groups of people to share around a topic. But when you’re creating a Community for a group you’re a part of, like a book club, parent-teacher association, or work team, the last thing you want to have to do is invite each member one-by-one.

Since so many groups already have a way to get ahold of one another, whether that’s through email, chat, a newsletter or something else, we’ve created a new Community invite link so you can invite all the right people at once.

With the Community invite link, Community owners and moderators can share an invite link with their group however they choose. People with the link will be able to directly join both private and ask-to-join public Communities, and anyone who doesn’t have a Google account or Google+ profile will be able to create one along the way. Communities that are restricted to a given G Suite organization will continue to only be accessible to members of that organization.

If something changes, you can easily disable a shared link or generate a new one at any time. To share an invite link to your Community, just open the invite menu on Google+ web, turn on the “Allow invites by link” option, and grab the link that appears.

Discover more of the things you’re into with Topics on Google+

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Today, there are already hundreds of Topics available in English, Spanish and Portuguese, covering everything from black-and-white photography to hiking and camping. So whether you’ve recently discovered the wonders of woodworking, love gardening, or can’t get enough of street photography, there’s a stream of unique and interesting stuff waiting for you on Google+.

To see the recommended Topics, head to your home stream and look for the “Topics to explore” cards. Topics will be rolling out over the next day or so, so don’t worry if you don’t see any suggestions right away.

Hope you enjoy it!

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Google+ Keyword Blog

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(Cross-posted from the Google+ Keyword blog)

By Anna Kiyantseva, Product Manager, Google+

Millions of people use Google+ to connect around the things they’re interested in. To help you sort through the many Collections and Communities where people share, we’ve created a new feature called Topics. With Topics, you’ll see a high-quality stream of Collections, Communities and people related to things we think you’ll be interested in.

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