Today, we’re excited to announce that even more users across Google Workspace editions can now create customized email layouts using a new email layout editor that is accessible from the compose screen in Gmail or Google Drive. In the layout editor, you can create a new email layout from scratch or select from a predefined set of email templates, which include images, text elements and buttons.
You can then fully customize these templates by placing elements such as color schemes, logos, images, footer text and links wherever you’d like.
You can also share a layout file directly from the email layout editor using the Share button. Once another user has edit access, they can open the same layout in their Gmail or from Drive and you can collaborate with them in real time.
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why you’d use it
With Google Workspace, you can create, collaborate and communicate seamlessly across our apps. This new feature is yet another way we are striving to help you do so as you create fully customized announcements, newsletters, and other mass-email campaigns.
Getting started
Admins:
Customized layouts are ON by default at the domain level. You can turn layouts ON or OFF for specific domains, OUs, or groups by going to the admin panel for Gmail.
If you don't want users to use Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and email layouts, but to still use Drive for file management, leave Drive turned ON and turn OFF Docs creation.
End users: If enabled by your admin, visit the Help Center to learn more about using layouts in Gmail and Drive.
Gmail:
You can access custom email layouts in Gmail from the layout icon in your Compose toolbar.
You can then open the full screen editor from the embedded editor in Gmail using the “Edit in full screen” button in the top-right:
Drive:
You can open an email layout that you have in Drive (an email layout created previously or an email layout shared with you) by double clicking the email layout file in Drive.
Your custom layouts are stored in Drive as a special file type associated with the layouts editor. You can find email layouts in Drive by searching: “type:email-layouts”
Mail-merge tags work with email layouts when enabled in Gmail. You can insert mail merge tags in email layouts. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending personalized emails with mail merge.
Rollout pace
Embedded layout editor (in Gmail's compose window):
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 12, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 8, 2024
Full screen editor for email layouts & feature availability via Google Drive:
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 25, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 15, 2024
Availability
Available to Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus and Workspace Individual subscribers
“Application load failures” will now be displayed in the “Device status” column.
When you click on the alert, you’ll see more detailed information on the error.
Getting started
Admins:
To filter for devices that are in the “Application load failure” state specifically, navigate to Admin Console > Google Meet hardware > Devices > Filter by ‘Device Status’ and select ‘Application load failure’.
Hovercards for group messages and spaces are now available in Google Chat
When hovering over a space or group chat within the left navigation in Google Chat, you will now see a hovercard that displays an abridged list of members and their avatars. This is especially useful when you need to distinguish one chat from another. In addition, you can include space hovercards across Chat apps using the shared hovercard library. | Available now to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts.
New Google Calendar lock screen widgets on iOS mobile devices
We’re excited to announce the launch of Google Calendar lock screen widgets on iOS mobile devices (iOS16+) and iPads (iOS17). These will surface an upcoming event or task, giving you a quick glance right from your lock screen.
| Available now to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about how to add widgets to your Lock Screen.
Remove the background from your images in Google Slides
You can now easily remove the background from images added to your Google Slides presentations. To do so, simply select an image on your slide > right-click and select "Remove background" or select the “Remove background” button in the toolbar. | Available now to Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Business add-ons, and to users on personal accounts through Google One AI Premium. | Learn more about removing an image background.
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.
Smooth scrolling in Google Sheets now available on desktop
With smooth scrolling, you can scroll to a specific part of a row or column and stop wherever you’d like within the spreadsheet. | Learn more about scrolling in Sheets.
New enhancements in the Space Management Tool For admins: add multiple members or groups, review settings and details
We’re introducing several updates for the Space Management Tool in the Admin console, including an improved user interface and additional management capabilities. | Learn more about Space Management Tool For admins.
Migrate email data from one Google Workspace account to another, available in open beta
Beginning today, a new data migration experience is available: you can migrate your users’ email data from one Google Workspace account to another in a more reliable and efficient manner. You can configure your data migration for up to 100 users at a time and also run delta migrations, which smartly brings over any newly generated data from the source without duplicating previously migrated content. | Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus; Essentials Starter, Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus, and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more about migrating email data.
Set up dropdown chips more easily in Google Sheets
Instead of manually creating values for your dropdown chips, you can now insert preset dropdown chips that are configured for common use cases like priority or review statuses. | Learn more about preset dropdown chips.
Google Meet co-host support added for client-side encrypted meetings
Client-side encrypted meetings are now getting support for using the co-hosts feature. This means that an organizer can plan and book client-side encrypted video meetings on behalf of other users and assign those as co-hosts to allow them to join and open the meetings independently from the organizer. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Education Standard customers only. | Learn more about client-side encrypted meetings.
User enrollment for managed iOS devices is now generally available
In late 2023, we introduced user enrollment in beta, an additional option for iOS mobile management. User enrollment separates work and personal data on iOS devices, giving admins control over Workspace data on the device while users retain privacy over their personal data. Beginning today, user enrollment is now generally available. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Frontline Standard, Frontline Starter, Business Plus, Cloud Identity Premium, Education Standard, Education Plus and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more about user enrollment.
End users: The user enrollment process starts when a user signs-in to an app for the first time or re-signs into an app. They’ll be prompted to begin downloading the configuration profile, which will open in an internet browser with more instructions and information. Once the profile has been downloaded, the user will be directed to their devices settings to complete user enrollment.
Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 7, 2024 with anticipated completion by the end of the month.
Availability
Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Frontline Standard, Frontline Starter, Business Plus, Cloud Identity Premium, Education Standard, Education Plus and Nonprofits customers.
Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) beginning on March 6, 2023 with anticipated completion by March 13, 2024.
Note: This feature is only available on the web as planning meetings with co-hosts can only be done on a computer.
Availability
Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Education Standard customers
Today, we’re building upon this by introducing preset dropdowns. Instead of manually creating values for your dropdowns, you can insert preset dropdown chips that are configured for common use cases like priority or review statuses. After inserting a preset dropdown, you can use the data validation sidebar to easily adjust the options or add styles.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
The existing DMS app continues to be available in Admin Console at the same link as before: admin.google.com/ac/dms
End users: There is no end user action required
Rollout pace
This feature is available now in open beta.
Availability
Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus; Essentials Starter, Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus, and Nonprofits customers
Adding multiple members and groups to a space at once
Review detailed space settings
Review invited members
Space Management Tool for Admins provide visibility into all spaces in an organization
Groups are now included in the list of Space members
Admins can now see detailed information regarding space settings, including those defined by space managers, who can access the space, post new messages, and more.
Admins can now see detailed setting information
Who’s impacted
Admins
Why it’s important
Spaces in Google Chat are an essential part of collaboration and community building across organizations of all sizes. As such, it’s important for admins to easily view and manage their spaces to keep them productive and safe. This update makes it easier for admins to execute space management tasks and view more information about spaces.
Finally, you’ll notice that we’ve aligned the look-and-feel of the interface and workflows for individual space management across Google Chat on the web and the Admin console for a more consistent experience.
Getting started
Important note: Both Super admins and Delegated admins must have Google Chat turned on for their account in the Google Chat service settings. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning on Google Chat.
Super admins: The space management tool is available by default and can be accessed in the Admin console by going to Apps > Google Workspace > Google Chat > Manage Spaces. Visit the Help Center to learn more about the Space Management Tool and managing Spaces in the Google Admin console.
This update works with all Sheets features, such as frozen rows, hidden columns, charts, buttons, comments, on right-to-left layouts, and when you use scrollbars (instead of a mouse/trackpad).
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: Use a trackpad, mouse or the scrollbar to access this update in new and existing spreadsheets.
Playback improvements to videos uploaded on Google Drive
We’re enabling the generation and playback of Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) video transcodes for all new videos uploaded to Google Drive. DASH transcodes provide adaptive bitrate playback, which allows users to receive higher or lower resolution playback based on aspects like their local network quality. As a result of this change, you’ll also notice:
Improvements in join time (the time it takes from clicking play to actually starting playback)
A reduction in re-buffering, both in normal playback as well as during playback at higher speeds
While this feature applies to all new videos uploaded to Drive, existing videos in Drive will be updated by the end of the year. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains now. | Available to Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts.
Enhancing search within the Google Drive app
We’re improving Google Drive’s search experience on iOS devices (with Android coming soon) by:
Simplifying how you access query filters by introducing filter categories that are accessible directly below the search bar and include filters for File Type, Owners and Last modified.
Showing you relevant query filters as you type your query, enabling you to easily select a filter and saving you the time and effort of typing out the full search.
Adding the option to further refine your search after reaching the search results page.
These updates are available now to Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts using iOS devices. | We will provide an update when this is available on Android devices. | Learn more about finding files in Google Drive.
Further extending long running queries within Connected Sheets
Last year, we extended the timeout time from 5 minutes to 10 minutes for BigQuery and Looker. Now, the timeout time has increased to 20-30 minutes, and starting this week Connected Sheet users can view the status of a query and easily cancel it on Google Sheets. In addition to the ability to analyze data from queries that scan even larger data sets in Sheets, we hope these increased user controls give you even more oversight, especially in cases where queries might be taking a while to complete. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains now. | Available to Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about Connected Sheets for Looker and Analyze & refresh BigQuery data in Google Sheets using Connected Sheets.
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.
Now generally available: Import and convert sensitive Excel files into client-side encrypted Google Sheets
You can now import and convert sensitive Excel files into Google Sheets with client-side encryption. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Education Standard customers only. | Learn more about working with encrypted files in Sheets.
Easily identify which unread threads are most relevant to you in Google Chat
With multiple threads across numerous spaces, we know it can be difficult to identify which unread threads are most relevant to you. In order to provide you with more context upfront, you will now see participant avatars for unread threads in the conversation view. Without having to click to open the thread side panel, it will now be much easier to decide which threads to read and reply to. | Learn more about participant avatars for unread threads in Chat.
Available in open beta: the Groups Admin role can now be provisioned for specific group types
The Groups Admin role can now be assigned for security groups or non-security groups. Previously, those with the Groups Admin role had access to all groups within an organization. This change gives administrators more granular delegation of group admin responsibilities, helping limit access to the most sensitive groups to only those who absolutely need it. | Learn more about the beta for the Groups Admin role.
New ways to annotate Google Docs
We’re excited to announce a new feature, markups in Google Docs, which gives you more flexibility when providing feedback in a document. The new markups experience lets you add handwritten annotations to documents with a stylus or your finger when using an Android device. | Learn more about markups in Docs.
Conduct direct 1:1 calls with people outside your video calling network on Google Meet mobile
Earlier this year, we introduced cloud-encrypted 1:1 video calls between users in the same domain using the Meet mobile app. In the coming weeks, users from outside of your domain will be able to initiate 1:1 video calls with your users and vice versa. Admins will be able to pre-configure this functionality as on or off for their users with a new admin control. | Learn more about 1:1 calling using Google Meet mobile.
Easily manage and secure your school’s accounts and mobile devices centrally in Google Admin console with the Endpoint Education Upgrade
This year, we announced Endpoint Education Upgrade, which adds enterprise endpoint management features to your Google Workspace for Education edition. Using endpoint management, admins can better manage and secure the phones and tablets used across their school directly from the Admin console. | Available to Education Standard and Education Plus only. | Learn more about the Endpoint Education Upgrade.
Set client-side encryption as the default mode for new emails, events, and files on mobile
Admins can now set client-side encryption (CSE) to be on by default on Android and iOS for:
newly drafted Gmail messages and replies, newly created Google Calendar events, and newly uploaded Google Drive files. | Available to Workspace Enterprise Plus customers only. | Learn more about client-side encryption default mode.
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.