Recently, we announced that your organization’s private apps would move from the “Private Channel” (i.e. the “domain.com” tab) to the “Work Apps” tab in the Google Play Store. We envision this Work Apps section as a single destination where users can find all of the applications they need to be productive on mobile. Using Google Mobile Management, G Suite administrators can offer a curated set of both public and custom apps to their employees in the Work Apps section of Google Play.

Previously, however, employees with Android devices that did not support work profiles could not see the Work Apps tab and the apps their admins had curated. This included any users with Android devices running 5.0 Lollipop or less. With this launch, employees with these older devices can now access the Work Apps tab in Google Play (in their personal profile) and the apps their admins have curated.


Note that on devices that do support work profiles, the Work Apps tab can only be accessed from Google Play in the work profile.

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: Manage Google Play private apps
Help Center: Publish private apps
Help Center: Manage apps on mobile devices 


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Available to G Suite users with Google Drive since 2013, Google Keep helps employees capture their thoughts, ideas, action items, and more in one easy-to-access place. As of today, Google Keep is a G Suite core service when used within a domain, and it has been added to existing G Suite agreements for most customers. In addition, Keep is now accessible in Google Docs, so employees can easily revisit and repurpose their notes.

G Suite core service
Keep now has the same technical support and service level commitments as any other core service, like Gmail or Google Drive. Going forward, domains using Keep will receive the following benefits:

• Keep content will be handled as specified in your G Suite agreement.
• Keep will be compliant with the terms, conditions, and service levels defined in the G Suite Technical Support Services Guidelines and the G Suite Service Level Agreement.
• Keep will be added as a monitored service to the G Suite Status Dashboard.

Additional admin controls
In addition, we’re giving G Suite admins greater control over Keep usage in their organizations, by allowing them to turn the app on or off for their domains. The steps to do so will depend on an organization’s current use of Google Drive. For example:

1. If you currently have Google Drive enabled for your organization, your users have had access to Keep and will continue to have access to Keep following this launch. If you would like to turn Keep access OFF, you can now do so from the Admin console (Apps > G Suite > Keep).

2. If you do not have Drive enabled for your organization, your users have not had access to Keep. Should you choose to turn on Drive in the future, Keep will be turned ON for your organization if you’ve opted into automatically receiving new services in the Admin console and turned OFF for your organization if you’ve chosen to manually enable new services. You will be able enable or disable the application from the Admin console at any time.


When turned on, Keep will respect a subset of the sharing settings applied to Google Drive.

View and create Keep notes in Docs
The improvements to Keep don’t just apply to admins. End users can now view and create Keep notes in Google Docs on the web. Starting today, simply select “Keep notepad” from the Tools menu to pull up a sidebar containing your notes from Keep (and the option to search them). You can then edit those notes and drag and drop them into your document.

If you’re inspired by the content already in your doc, you can create a new note by highlighting the relevant text, right-clicking, and selecting “Save to Keep notepad.” Or, if you simply want to create a new note with brand-new content, you can start typing in the “Take a note...” box in the notepad. All notes you create while in a document will be added to a “related” section within the sidebar. When you then view those notes in Keep, they will include a link back to the document in which they were created.


For additional details, check out More Information below.

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

Editions:
Available to G Suite Basic, Business, Enterprise, Education, and Nonprofit editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins and end users

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
G Suite Learning Center: Keep
Help Center: Get started with Keep
Help Center: Turn Keep on or off for users
Help Center: Set Keep sharing settings
Help Center: Use Google Keep in a document


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Launch Details
Release track:  
Desktop and Android launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release on February 27, 2017
Already available in iOS

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact: 
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI



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Last October, Mozilla Corporation announced that it would end support for browser pluginsin its Firefox 52 release in order to ensure better browser performance, security and improved user experience. Because Google Hangouts in Firefox currently relies on browser plugins to enable video and audio calls, users of Hangouts will not be able to make audio or video calls in the upcoming Firefox 52 release. Google is actively working to develop a solution that will enable Hangouts to work in Firefox without a plugin. In the meantime, we recommend you take the following steps to minimize any future impact before the Firefox 52 release scheduled for March 7.

Recommended next steps
Using chat on Hangouts will continue to work for Firefox users; however, if you need to make phone or video calls from Hangouts, we encourage you and your employees to temporarily switch to one of the supported browsers below:

• Mozilla Firefox ESR: Download
• Google Chrome: Download
• Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE): Download
• Safari: Download

We will publish a follow-up announcement once we have a fix in place that will support Hangouts on Firefox again.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release after March 7

Editions:
Affects all G Suite editions using Mozilla Firefox

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

Impact:
All end users on Mozilla Firefox

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

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We know that you work with a variety of file formats in Google Drive. That’s why, starting today, we’re making it possible to preview password-protected Microsoft Office documents, presentations, and spreadsheets in Drive. Going forward, when you attempt to open one of these file types in Drive on the web, you’ll be prompted to enter the password and, upon doing so successfully, you’ll see a read-only preview of that document.


Note that this feature also works when you open password-protected Office files sent as attachments in Gmail.

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


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It’s now even easier to find your Google Drive files wherever and whenever you need them. Following this launch, Drive files and folders will be indexed via Firebase App Indexing and appear as results when you search for them in the Google app on your Android phone. Simply type your query and tap the “IN APPS” tab to view any Drive files relevant to your search. Select those files to open them in the appropriate app.


Visit the Google Play Store to download the latest versions of the Drive Android app.

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

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI


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We’re working hard to ensure that Google Sheets meets your business needs. As part of that effort, today we’re introducing several enterprise-friendly features that you’ve been asking for in Sheets on the web, Android, and iOS:

Rotated text
You can now rotate the text in a cell in Sheets (Format > Text rotation). This is especially useful when you need to fit long header names into thin columns, or when you simply want to fit more text on a single screen.


Accounting number formats
We’re making it easier to read your budgets, expense reports, and other spreadsheets containing monetary amounts by aligning the currency symbols within them (Format > Number > Accounting). We’re also making improvements to the way numbers, decimal points, and repeated characters line up to make them simpler to scan and analyze.


More border styles
You can now choose from several new border styles in Sheets, including various thicknesses and double borders, which are commonly used in financial statements like balance sheets (Toolbar > Borders > Border styles).

Additional improvements on mobile
In addition to the features described above, we’re also launching the following improvements to our mobile apps:

• Support for using a mouse with the Sheets Android app
• Ability to view and select existing custom colors in the Sheets Android app
• Ability to drag and drop rows and columns in the Sheets Android and iOS apps
• Formatting suggestions in Explore in the Sheets iOS app

For more details, check out the Help Center articles below.

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

• All mobile features

Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming on March 6, 2017

• All web features

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Edit and format a spreadsheet
Help Center: Format numbers in a spreadsheet
Help Center: Edit rows, columns & cells in a spreadsheet
Help Center: See and use suggested charts and analysis in a spreadsheet


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In June 2016, we introduced phone prompts for 2-Step Verification, giving users another option to keep their accounts safe. Starting this week, users who have opted into receiving phone prompts for 2-SV will notice improvements to the notifications they get when trying to sign in. For instance, when available, they’ll see additional details about the sign-in request, like when and where it was made. These improved prompts will appear on both Android and iOS devices.


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

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Sign in faster with 2-Step Verification phone prompts


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In November 2016, we introduced custom templates in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms, allowing teams to spend less time formatting and more time brainstorming, collaborating, and sharing their ideas. We also gave G Suite Business, Education, and Enterprise customers the following optional controls in the Admin console:

• Moderated - require that user-submitted templates be approved by admins with the Drive and Docs admin privilege
• Restricted - restrict template submission to admins with the Drive and Docs admin privilege

With this launch, it’s no longer necessary to provision the full Drive and Docs privilege to admins who want the ability to moderate and manage templates. Instead, you can grant those admins a new Docs Templates privilege, which gives them the ability to approve templates and modify template settings in the Admin console, but not the authority to change other Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms settings. Admins who retain the full Drive and Docs privilege will continue to be able to manage templates.



This change will allow your organization to manage custom templates in a scalable way, without relinquishing control over sensitive admin settings. For more details on the Docs Templates privilege and for instructions on managing templates, check out the Help Center articles below.

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

Editions:
Available to G Suite Business, Education, and Enterprise editions only

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

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Administrator privilege definitions - Docs Templates
Help Center: Enable custom templates for Docs, Sheets, and Slides


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If your organization recently made the jump to G Suite, you may have employees who previously set up personal Google Accounts using your company’s domain name. With this launch, we’re making it easier to identify and transfer those accounts before they become conflicting accounts.

Using the new Transfer tool for unmanaged users, you can view all personal Google Accounts with email addresses that match the G Suite email addresses for your organization. You can then send emails to those individuals, requesting that they convert their personal accounts to G Suite accounts. Later, you can view the statuses of those requests and cancel them as necessary.


If an employee accepts your request to transfer their account, you’ll be granted access to their data and given the ability to manage that account. If they decline or ignore your request, they’ll be asked to rename their personal account with a different email address when you create a new G Suite account for them. They’ll retain sole access to and control over all of the data in their personal account.


Note that these actions must be performed manually. While you can send requests, cancel requests, and download request statuses for multiple users at once, you can’t yet do so in bulk via an API.

We hope this launch will make the transition to G Suite easier for you and your end users alike. For more information about the Transfer tool, please visit the Help Center.

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

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)
Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: About conflicting accounts
Help Center: Use the transfer tool to manage your users
Help Center: Find and manage existing Google accounts
Help Center: For users: moving to a domain-managed account


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Because it can be difficult to navigate large and complex spreadsheets, we’re introducing the ability to link to specific cell ranges in Google Sheets on the web.

With this new functionality, you can create a “table of contents” for your spreadsheet, direct others to specific content within your spreadsheet, and retain links to cells when you import spreadsheets from other applications.

To link to cells in your spreadsheet, simply go to "Insert link" > "Select a range of cells to link" and type or highlight the desired range. For more details, visit the Help Center.


Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming on February 21st, 2017

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: Add, edit, or remove a link, bookmark, or page break


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Starting today, you can insert and play your Google Drive videos in Google Slides, in addition to videos from YouTube.


Once you’ve added a Drive video to your presentation, you can choose when to start and end it, whether it should autoplay when presenting, and whether it should be muted or play with audio. Simply right-click on the video and select Video options.


If a person viewing your presentation doesn’t have permission to view a video embedded within it, they’ll be prompted to request access.

Note that while you can play Drive videos in Slides on the web and mobile, you can only insert them from the web application. For more details, visit the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming in two weeks

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: Insert or delete images or videos


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(Cross-posted from The Keyword)

Posted by: Brent VerWeyst, Product Manager, Google Cloud

Every day, people around the globe rely on the power of Google Search to access the world’s information. In fact, we see more than one trillion searches each year. As we continue to invest in new cloud-based technologies like machine learning to power our web search engine, we want to help businesses harness the same technology to search for internal information. Today, we’re announcing Google Cloud Search (formerly known as Springboard), a new product that uses machine intelligence to provide a unified search experience across G Suite.

Sorting through internal information has become increasingly complex as more and more companies move their data and workloads to the cloud. As a result, teams are working on hybrid environments and storing immense amounts of data all over and in various formats. From emails and docs to spreadsheets, slides, forms, internal sites, and many more. In fact, according to McKinsey, the average knowledge worker spends 20% of the workweek searching for and consolidating information. Simply put, employees are wasting a lot of time in the process of finding information they need to do their job.

A smarter search experience, tailored for you

Cloud Search brings the best of Google Search and machine intelligence to G Suite. It provides both comprehensive search and proactive recommendations to help you throughout your day.

For example, when you open the Cloud Search app on your phone or laptop, you’ll see relevant information organized into simple cards (assist cards) that help you stay on top of your work. Assist cards are a new way to help you find the right information at the right time. Using Google’s machine intelligence technology, these cards can help you prepare for an upcoming meeting or even suggest files that need your attention. Assist cards are designed to be timely and relevant so that you can navigate your workday more efficiently. As we continue to learn how information is most useful to you, we’ll be adding more assist cards to Cloud Search over time.


In addition to searching for information, you can also search for people listed in your company’s directory. You’ll see colleagues’ contact details, plus events and files you have in common. You can even choose to send an email, make a call, or start a Hangout with just a tap.


For businesses, privacy is a top priority. Cloud Search respects G Suite’s file sharing permissions, so people can only search for and find files that they have access to. This means that company resources like vacation policies can be found by everyone in your organization, but your team projects will only surface to people on your team, and your to-do lists will only be available to you.

Breaking down information silos at work

Since launching in the Early Adopter Program last summer, companies have been using Cloud Search to break down internal silos and access information more quickly. QAD, an ERP solutions provider for global manufacturing companies, helps businesses manage their finances, supply chain, business intelligence and more. Very little time can be spared sifting through documents to find what’s needed to make strategic business decisions, so QAD uses Cloud Search to help.

“At QAD, we operate at a high-level of speed and require technology that provides us agility, flexibility and seamless access to information. Cloud Search provides that. It’s given us the ability to break down silos that exist across different content systems and unlock information with very little effort from IT, “ says Scott Lawrence Lawson, Director of IT Architecture.

Coming to G Suite

Cloud Search will begin rolling out globally for customers using the G Suite Business and Enterprise editions. And this is just the beginning. In the future, we’ll be adding more capabilities to Cloud Search including integration with third-party applications. That way, you and your team can find, access and make the most of your information in G Suite and beyond.

Once turned on for your organization, Cloud Search will be accessible at cloudsearch.google.com.


Launch Details
Release track:

• For customers on both the Rapid release and Scheduled release tracks who have opted into automatically receiving new services, Cloud Search will launch on Tuesday, February 14, 2017.
• Customers who have chosen to manually enable new services will need to turn on Cloud Search if they want their organizations to have access to the service. They can do so in the Admin console (Apps > G Suite > Cloud Search) starting on Tuesday, February 14, 2017.*

Editions:
Available to G Suite Business and G Suite Enterprise editions only

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI


More Information
Cloud Search Admin Help Center
Cloud Search User Help Center
Cloud Search Learning Center
Cloud Search Product Page


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Check out the latest "What's New in G Suite" launch recap [pdf] for a roundup of all G Suite launches from January 2017.

Archive & Translated Versions (coming soon for January issue)


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Starting February 8, 2017, we will show a banner at the top of the Gmail interface for users who are still on Google Chrome Browser v53 and below to encourage upgrading to the latest version of Chrome, currently on version 55. Chrome Browser v55 contains several important security updates.

Gmail users that are still on Windows XP and Windows Vista are the most likely to be affected, because v49 was the last released version which supported those operating systems. As previously announced in April 2015 and November 2015, these systems are no longer maintained by Microsoft, and we strongly encourage you to migrate to more secure and supported systems.

What happens if users continue to use Chrome Browser v53 and below?

• Gmail will continue to function on Chrome Browser v53 and below through the end of the 2017. 
• If you continue to use older versions of Chrome Browser now that support has ended, Gmail will be more vulnerable to security risks and users will not have access to new features and bugfixes.
• Users who remain on Chrome v53 and below could be redirected to the basic HTML version of Gmail as early as Dec 2017.

Recommendation

• If you manage Chrome Browser for your users, we strongly encourage you to update users to the latest version of Chrome. Depending on what operating system your users are on, you may need to migrate them to a supported system to get the latest version and features.

Please note: Google does not typically announce when we discontinue support for older versions of Chrome browser because of our current supported browser policy, which states that only the most recent version of Chrome is supported. This announcement was made given the expected impact on Windows XP and Windows Vista users and known security risks.
Launch Details

Release track: