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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Rescheduling in Google Calendar just got easier. We’re introducing a new feature that enables more efficient meeting scheduling. Now, each guest invited to a meeting can propose a new time and the organizer can easily review and accept time proposals. This allows for richer communication between attendees, reduces time spent on meeting practicalities, and makes meetings more productive with key stakeholders in attendance.

When a user is invited to a Calendar event, they can respond “Yes,” “No,” Maybe,” and now, “Propose a new time.” If calendar access permissions have been granted, guests can see the other attendees' availability side by side, so they can suggest a time that works for everyone.




This functionality works across domains and with Microsoft Exchange. Guests can send proposals to organizers using Exchange, and organizers can receive proposals from guests using Exchange. Available on the web now, this is coming to mobile on August 13th, so your users can act while on the go.

For more information, check out the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid Release, with Scheduled Release coming on August 13th

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: Respond to event invitations

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We’re improving how search works in Google Drive. When you click in the search box, you’ll now see a range of options. Click on an option to quickly perform a search with a relevant filter applied. You may see:

• Your top collaborators. Click on a person to search for files that you’ve collaborated with them on. 
• Suggested search queries. Click on a term to search for it. 
• File types, edit history, priority items, and more. Click to show files that match the highlighted criteria. 

Quicker searches powered by machine learning 

These filters can help you find files more quickly without having to remember a specific title or keyword. Each category of suggested filter uses multi-variant machine learning to predict what you’re most likely to use, and the filters will improve over time. We hope that these suggestions help you find and filter content more efficiently in Drive.

Launch Details 
Release track:
Launching to Rapid Release, with Scheduled Release coming on August 8, 2018

Editions: 
Available to G Suite Enterprise edition only

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

Impact: 
All end users

Action: 
Change management suggested/FYI


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We’re adding a new feature to Google Drive that lets you see when other people are editing files in Microsoft Office products. This will help you collaborate better and avoid version conflicts. This feature uses the Drive File Stream cloud sync solution. Make sure you’re using Drive File Stream to take advantage.

Avoid version conflicts 

When you open a Microsoft Word, Powerpoint or Excel document in Drive, we’ll check if anyone else is currently editing the document. We’ll then let you know if it’s safe to edit or if you should wait. Drive may tell you:

• Safe to edit: No one else is editing. 
• Wait to edit: Other people are editing, so your edits will create multiple, conflicting versions. 
• New version created: Another editor saved a newer version of the file. 
• New version created (conflict): While you were editing the file, another editor also edited it. Click for a side-by-side comparison to help you create one version.

See when it's safe to edit a file

If conflicts do happen, compare and resolve side by side

If version conflicts do occur, Drive will show the two document versions and their changes side by side. This unique feature will help you quickly merge the multiple versions into a single, up-to-date document.

Compare conflicting versions to create one up to date document

We believe this feature will go a long way to eliminating “document collisions,” and reduce the frustration and duplicative work caused when they do occur. We also hope that this makes it easier to collaborate on more file types in Drive.

Use Drive File Stream to see this feature 

This features is a part of Drive File Stream. Drive File Stream is a cloud file sync solution that we believe is best for most G Suite organizations. It lets you stream My Drive and Team Drive files directly from the cloud, which:

• Makes Drive files available for offline access 
• Frees up disk space and network bandwidth 
• Minimizes the amount of company data stored on users’ hard drives 
• Enables new features such as version conflict alerts for Microsoft files 

See the Help Center for how to choose and deploy a sync solution for Google Drive.

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



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(Cross-posted from The Keyword)

In 1958, U.S. corporations remained on the S&P 500 index for an average of 61 years, according to the American Enterprise Foundation. Fast forward to today and companies are being replaced approximately every two weeks. In this rapidly changing market, traditional companies are looking for ways to stay competitive and more and more enterprises, including Nielsen, Colgate and Airbus, are turning to G Suite to help them reimagine how they work to keep pace.

We know that enterprises want to move to cloud-first collaboration to transform how they work, but, understandably, they have questions about how to make it work in a business of their size. What happens with email security? How can they manage their data? How does G Suite work with the tools and systems they already have in place?

Yesterday we announced new products to help businesses reimagine how they work, and today we’re sharing additional solutions we’ve built to address these concerns.

Here’s a snapshot of what we’re announcing today. Read on for more detail.

• New Gmail (redesigned security warnings, snooze, offline access and more generally available for G Suite users)
• Cloud Search (being deployed by an initial set of customers)
• Google Voice for G Suite (available in our Early Adopter Program*)
• Drive Enterprise SKU (available for purchase)

Keeping businesses (and emails) secure

Keeping your data secure is our top priority, which is why we use machine learning to analyze threat indicators across billions of messages in Gmail to help quickly identify potential security attacks in the making. Machine learning helps protect more than 1.4 billion active Gmail user accounts from nearly 10 million spam and malicious emails every minute.

Today, we’re making the new Gmail generally available to G Suite customers so that, in addition to these baked-in security features, more companies can take advantage of features like redesigned security warnings, snooze, offline access and more. You can learn more in this post.

Bringing the best of Google Search to enterprise data

Searching through your company’s data should be as easy as doing a web search. But the reality is most companies’ information is spread across different silos and systems that don’t talk to each other, which makes finding things a lengthy chore. We introduced Cloud Search last year to make it easy to find information across G Suite in a way that’s intuitive and assistive. Today, we are announcing new Cloud Search functionality to help companies intelligently and securely index their third-party data beyond G Suite, whether that data is stored in the cloud, or on-prem.

Companies, like Whirlpool Corporation, have started deploying Cloud Search’s new capabilities to unify search across multiple data sources. Using Cloud Search’s new SDKs, APIs and connectors for third-party connectivity, Whirlpool created a custom app called Whirlpool SearchPro that indexes more than 12 million documents across different on-prem and cloud systems and returns results in 100s of milliseconds on average. Moreover, search results reflect the specific permissions and access controls from each of the source systems to ensure that individuals only see the information they should.

New Cloud Search functionality helps companies intelligently and securely index their third-party data.

Cloud Search’s new functionality will be available to G Suite Enterprise customers as well as any company looking to power their enterprise search needs as a new standalone offering. We’re also pleased to offer qualifying Google Search Appliance customers an upgrade path to Cloud Search. Cloud Search is currently being deployed by an initial set of customers, and we’re excited to have 15 launch partners on board, including SADA, Onix and Accenture. Learn more.

Enabling smarter and easier collaboration

We first introduced Hangouts Chat, Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Meet hardware last year to make it easier for employees to collaborate with colleagues across the globe, be it face-to-face or via chat. Aside from bringing the best of video conferencing to businesses, we also want to create better telephony solutions so that employees can be more productive over the phone. For close to a decade, millions of consumers have used Google Voice to connect with folks across the globe. Now we’re bringing an enterprise version of Voice to G Suite.

On top of the existing features that users love, Google Voice is tightly integrated with G Suite apps, like Hangouts Meet and Google Calendar, and provides administrator capabilities best suited for the enterprise. Admins can manage users, provision and port phone numbers, access detailed reports and set up call routing functionality. Voice also lets you deploy phone numbers to employees, or even entire departments, at once, and assigns a number that’s not tied to a specific device. AI-powered features in Voice also help facilitate voicemail transcription and spam filtering, which helps eliminate disruptions for employees so they can focus on what’s important.

We’ve been testing this enterprise version with key customers since last October. As a part of the Trusted Tester* program, Nielsen noticed major improvements in reliability and call quality compared to previous phone solutions. “Google Voice quickly emerged as our preferred telephony solution for remote teams and frequent travelers,” says Kim Anstett, Chief Information Officer at Nielsen. “In fact, we’re excited to announce plans to leverage Voice as the standard for remote work telephony at Nielsen.”

To try out Google Voice within your organization, you can sign up for the Early Adopter Program.

Making transitioning to the cloud simple

Lastly, we want to make it simpler for businesses to adopt and use G Suite, and a large part of this is ensuring a smooth transition off legacy enterprise content management (ECM) systems. To help, our customers will now be able to purchase Drive Enterprise as a standalone offering with usage-based pricing.

With Drive Enterprise, businesses can move their content to the cloud in Google Drive, and employees can create and collaborate securely with tools like Docs, Sheets and Slides without disrupting other legacy office productivity tools. More than 2 trillion files are stored in Google Drive to date, and most recently, Google was named a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Collaboration Platforms (CCP) for the second year in a row. Learn more about the new Drive Enterprise.

Customers can now purchase Drive Enterprise as a standalone offering with usage-based pricing.

We’ve also made a concerted effort to make it easier to use G Suite with existing legacy tools so that you can avoid interruptions at work. Whether it’s making sure your calendar details stay intact between Microsoft Exchange and Google Calendar, providing new ways to integrate Hangout Meet with existing hardware, making it easier to collaborate with teams outside of your domain and more, we’re focused on building solutions to make your work day easier. Read more about our latest interoperability capabilities in this post.

Try today

Visit the G Suite website to see how you can transform how your enterprise operates, and stay tuned to the G Suite Updates blog today for more details on these and other features launching at Next.

*The G Suite Trusted Tester and Early Adopter Programs will soon be renamed as Alpha and Beta, respectively. More details to come.



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We launched an Early Adopter Program (EAP) for the new Gmail in April to help businesses work safer, smarter, and more efficiently. We’re now making the new Gmail generally available so that more businesses can take advantage of its innovative features, like snooze, nudging, offline access, and more.

Take advantage of helpful features, like snooze, nudging, offline, and more

As announced in April, the new Gmail features a brand-new UI alongside several features designed to help you better manage your email (and your time). For example, in the new Gmail you can:

• Snooze an email until you’re ready to reply.
• Get reminded to follow up or respond to old emails.
• Reply with a response automatically suggested based on the email you received.
• Use Gmail offline, without the Chrome app.

Options for moving your users to the new Gmail

As a G Suite admin, you can migrate your users to the new Gmail at a pace that makes sense for your organization. Starting now, the following options are available in the Admin console:

• Allow my users access to the new Gmail UI and features after August 21, 2018. Your users will stay on the legacy Gmail experience for four weeks. On August 21st, 2018, they’ll start seeing the option to try the new Gmail. If they don’t choose to opt in by September 18th, 2018, we’ll automatically migrate them to the new experience starting on that date (note that this migration may take a few days). They’ll continue to have the option to opt out of the new experience until October 16th, 2018. Soon after that date, they’ll be automatically transitioned to the new Gmail and lose the ability to opt out. [NOTE: This is the default setting if your organization did not participate in the EAP.]

• Allow my users access to the new Gmail UI and features. Your users can opt in to the new Gmail at any time. If they don’t choose to opt in by September 18th, 2018, we’ll automatically migrate them to the new experience starting on that date (note that this migration may take a few days). They’ll continue to have the option to opt out of the new experience until October 16th, 2018. Soon after that date, they’ll be automatically transitioned to the new Gmail and lose the ability to opt out. [NOTE: This is the default setting if your organization participated in the EAP.]

• Default my users to the new Gmail UI and features. Your users will be transitioned to the new Gmail as soon as you select and save this setting, but they’ll have the ability to opt out until October 16th, 2018. Soon after that date, they’ll be automatically transitioned to the new Gmail and lose the ability to opt out.

Option to opt out to be removed after October 16th, 2018

Soon after October 16th, 2018, any users who’ve opted out of the new Gmail will be automatically migrated to the new experience. They won’t be able to opt out after that date. Users who’ve already transitioned to the new Gmail will lose the ability to opt out as well.

Update (October 26, 2018): Please note that we're still migrating some remaining G Suite users to the new Gmail. We anticipate completing this migration in the next few weeks.

A note about Gmail offline and confidential mode settings

Gmail offline will continue to have its own Admin console setting. If your organization participated in the new Gmail EAP, your setting for Gmail offline will remain the same. If you didn’t participate in the EAP, Gmail offline will be OFF by default; you’ll need to enable it in the Admin console.

Note that confidential mode is not yet available to G Suite; stay tuned for more information on the G Suite Updates blog when it launches to G Suite users.

Launch Details
Release track:

• Admin console settings launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release
• End user impact: see post for details

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:

• Admin console settings: full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)
• End user impact: see post for details

Impact:
Admins and end users

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Gmail Learning Center
User Help Center: Learn what’s new in Gmail
User Help Center: Reply to Gmail messages
Admin Help Center: Work offline in Gmail
The Keyword: Helping enterprises stay competitive with new updates in G Suite


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Because over-the-phone collaboration is a critical part of the modern workplace, we’re expanding our meeting solution beyond just messaging and video and introducing an enterprise telephony offering with the Google Voice for G Suite Early Adopter Program (Beta).

Google Voice for G Suite gives you a phone number that isn’t tied to a device, so you can place and receive calls from any device, anywhere. Using Google Voice in conjunction with Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat, your organization can standardize on Google as the single partner for all your communication needs.

Participants in the Google Voice for G Suite Early Adopter Program (EAP) can expect:

• An app for web, Android and iOS where users can link their Google account to their Google Voice phone number
• Saved time with fast deployment and instant flows to let admins assign numbers to users individually and in bulk
• Flexibility to let users choose their own numbers and set up their forwarding preferences
• Assigned phone numbers automatically syncing with the company directory and surfaced in Google Contacts
• G Suite integrations with Hangouts Meet and Calendar

Once accepted into the EAP, G Suite admins can begin provisioning their users with phone numbers for Google Voice. Please note, we are only accepting G Suite customers who don't need support for data location at this time. Additionally, this EAP is not currently available to G Suite for Government domains.

Lastly, the free version of Google Voice will still be available to consumers with the existing feature set, and consumer users will continue to receive updates to the app. The Android, iOS and web apps will also get a new icon along with this update.



For more information, or to apply for this Early Adopter Program, visit the sign-up page.

More Information
The Keyword: Helping enterprises stay competitive with new updates in G Suite

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We introduced Cloud Search a year ago to allow teams to search quickly and easily across all of their company’s content in G Suite, from Gmail and Drive to Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar and more. We’re now announcing a significant expansion to the capabilities of Cloud Search that will help your organization get the speed, performance, and quality of Google Search across all of your content systems.

With new third-party indexing capabilities, Cloud Search can now intelligently and securely index your data beyond G Suite, whether it is stored in the cloud or on-premise. We’re excited to have 15 launch partners on board, including SADA, Onix and Accenture, and we’ll be adding more in the future.



We’re beginning to offer Cloud Search third-party indexing to a first wave of G Suite Enterprise customers who express interest. We’re also making this new functionality available as a standalone offering to non-G Suite customers. As part of this, we’re offering qualifying Google Search Appliance (GSA) customers an upgrade path to Cloud Search.

To learn more about this new functionality, express interest, or become a partner, sign up through this form and our sales team will be in touch with more information.

More Information
Help Center: Manage third-party data sources
Help Center: Google Search Appliance End of Life
The Keyword: Helping enterprises stay competitive with new updates in G Suite

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We’re making it easy for G Suite Enterprise customers to move G Suite reporting and audit data from the Admin console to Google BigQuery. This can help you create highly customizable, comprehensive, and scalable reports to audit and analyze G Suite usage and adoption.

A new G Suite reporting option 

The Admin console already includes robust reporting to deliver insights from G Suite apps and their usage. This includes information in the Admin console’s “Reports” section, as well as the Reports API. However, some users need a more scalable solution to extract and analyze their information, which is why we’re adding the connection to BigQuery. You may want to use it to:

• Create highly customized reports. BigQuery enables more customizable reports than those available in existing pre-defined reports in the Admin console. 
• Keep and analyze a longer data history. BigQuery enables indefinite data storage (existing Admin console reports cover 180 days) to help long-term trend analysis. 
• Join Google apps data with other data sets. BigQuery enables users to join other data sets, for example Payroll or Finance, to create comprehensive reports. 

Specific capabilities of the new BigQuery reports 

This integration can help you get more insight into specific areas of your organization. For example, you can:

• Analyze individual activity behavior information for Admin, Calendar, Devices, Drive, Login, Groups, oAuth Tokens, and SAML Audit logs, as well as any forthcoming updates to the Reports API. 
• Report aggregated usage metrics for Accounts, Google Drive, Chrome OS, Classroom, Calendar, Google+, Hangouts, Device Management, and Gmail, as well as any forthcoming updates to the Reports API. 
• Perform advanced analysis using the BigQuery web UI, command line, or third party tools. 
• Create custom reporting and dashboards using analytics tools like Google Data Studio and other visualization tools supported by BigQuery. 

A fast and customizable solution for analytics at scale 

BigQuery is a powerful and scalable reporting solution. Its advantages for reporting include:

• Scalability: Customers don’t have to worry about storage limits and can store hundreds of terabytes of Google apps usage and audit data. 
• Simple querying interface: BigQuery allows SQL-like queries to build highly customized reports without writing any code. 
• Out-of-the-box reporting: BigQuery’s integration with various data visualization applications allows enterprise firms to generate engaging reports without custom development. 
• Pay only if you use: BigQuery bills customers based on the number of queries that they make against their data, so billing is closely linked to actual usage. See more about BigQuery costs. 

See our Help Center to find out how to get connect your G Suite data to BigQuery.



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

Editions: 
Available to G Suite Enterprise and G Suite Enterprise for Education editions only

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

Impact: 
Admins only

Action: 
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Enable Activity and Usage logs in BigQuery


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We’re publishing an add-on for Google Sheets to connect with Salesforce.

You can use it to import data and reports from Salesforce into Sheets, and to push updates you make in Sheets back to Salesforce. This seamless integration will help your users optimize workflows and reduce duplicate work between the two products.

For example, your Finance team could use the add-on to perform an in-depth forecast based on all current deals in the pipeline. The add-on would pull all data from the relevant Salesforce report into Sheets, where Finance team members could then use other powerful Sheets features, such as Explore, pivot tables, or macro recorder. Or the Sales team could use the add-on to import the details of their accounts from Salesforce and use Sheets to do a bulk update that pushes the changes back to Salesforce.


Get and use the Salesforce add-on for Google Sheets 

This add-on, made by Google Cloud, is currently in Beta. Add-ons are covered by Google Apps Script Additional Terms. To get the add on:

• End users can install “Data connector for Salesforce” from the G Suite Marketplace. 
• G Suite admins can deploy the add-on to their entire domain. 

As a G Suite admin you can control access to this add-on the same way you can with any other Sheets add-on.

• If you have add-ons disabled for your domain but want to allow your users to use this specific add-on, you can whitelist this add-on. 
• If you want to control add-ons across you domain, see disable or enable add-ons overall in Docs editors. 

See our Help Center for more details on how to import, edit, and sync Salesforce data with Google Sheets.

More information 
G Suite Marketplace: Data Connector for Salesforce add-on
Admin Help Center: Install Marketplace apps
Admin Help Center: Control user installation of Marketplace apps
Admin Help Center: Turn a Marketplace app on or off for users
User Help Center: Use add-ons and Apps Script 
User Help Center: Import, edit and sync Salesforce data with Google Sheets


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We're introducing two new Google Sheets integrations to make it easier to analyze your data. We’re opening a Beta program for a data connector that dynamically connects Sheets with BigQuery. We’re also announcing the general availability of an integration with SAP ERP that enables teams to seamlessly pull their business data into Sheets.

We hope that these features will make powerful business data more accessible through Sheets’ familiar, intelligent, and collaborative interface. By freeing data from large databases that need analytical experts to query it or from specialized software that not everyone has access to, we can help you get more insight into your business and make better, data-driven decisions.

Easier and better big data collaboration with Sheets and BigQuery integration Beta 

BigQuery can provide powerful analysis of multiple data sets, but needs specialized skills and knowledge which can make collaborating on data difficult. Sheets provides familiar spreadsheet tools that can help whole teams collaborate and make better data-driven decisions.

Users in the Beta will be able to create a BigQuery query, get a preview, and insert the results into Sheets without leaving the Sheets interface. The data can then be refreshed from within the Sheets interface. Teams can use this to:

• Streamline reporting and dashboard workflows. Have a single source of truth for big data insights without exports that can get out of date and cause errors. 
• Democratize analysis. The Sheets interface can bring data to wider, less technical teams with a familiar spreadsheet interface and tools like “Explore” and macro recorder. 
• Increase collaboration. Sheets makes it easy for teams to comment, discuss, and share insights as they analyze and use the data. 

For example, an analyst could set up a query that analyzes data from several datasets in BigQuery. The data from that would then be accessible in Sheets, where the business team could get the latest data, ask questions in plain English, and add comments ahead of finalizing their quarterly reports. What’s more, with parameterized queries, a single analyst could set up a query in Sheets so that dozens of different sales teams could get different results depending on their regional needs—all without requiring the salesperson to know any SQL.

Apply to join the Beta for the BigQuery and Sheets connectors

Sheets and BigQuery users can apply to join the Beta program for this feature. Admins can see more details, review the eligibility requirements, and apply for their domains to join at gsuite.google.com/bq-sheets.


Discover additional insights from SAP ERP with new integration 

The integration between Sheets and SAP that we announced in June has now launched. You can now export data directly from SAP GUI and SAP ECC 6.0 to Sheets and analyze that data with tools like charts, pivot tables, and Explore. With this new integration, you can skip manually exporting data to CSVs and uploading them to Drive. This can help you:

• Use the Sheets “Explore” feature to find new insights from data in SAP. 
• Easily analyze and create data visualizations. 
• Collaborate with a single source of truth. 

Find out more about how to integrate Sheets and SAP.


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(Cross-posted from The Keyword)

Over the last decade we’ve witnessed the maturation of G Suite—from the introduction of Gmail and Google Docs to more recent advancements in AI and machine learning that are powering, and protecting, the world's email. Now, more than 4 million paying businesses are using our suite to reimagine how they work, and companies like Whirlpool, Nielsen, BBVA and Broadcom are among the many who choose G Suite to move faster, better connect their teams and advance their competitive edge.

In the past year, our team has worked hard to offer nearly 300 new capabilities for G Suite users. Today, we’re excited to share some of the new ways organizations can use G Suite to focus on creative work and move their business forward—keep an eye out for additional announcements to come tomorrow as well.

Here’s what we’re announcing today:

• Security center investigation tool (available in an Early Adopter Program* for G Suite Enterprise and Enterprise for Education customers)
• Data regions (available now for G Suite Business, Enterprise, and Enterprise for Education customers)
• Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat (coming soon to G Suite customers)
• Smart Compose (coming soon to G Suite customers)
• Grammar Suggestions in Google Docs (available in an Early Adopter Program for G Suite customers today)
• Voice commands in Hangouts Meet hardware (coming to select Hangouts Meet hardware customers later this year)

Nothing matters more than security

Businesses need a way to simplify their security management, which is why earlier this year we introduced the security center for G Suite. The security center brings together security analytics, actionable insights and best practice recommendations from Google to help you protect your organization, data and users.

Today, we’re announcing our new investigation tool in security center, which adds integrated remediation to the prevention and detection capabilities of the security center. Admins can identify which users are potentially infected, see if anything’s been shared externally and remove access to Drive files or delete malicious emails. Since the investigation tool makes it possible to review your data security in one place and has a simple UI, it makes it easier to take action against threats without having to worry about analyzing logs which can be time-consuming and require complex scripting. Investigation tool is available today as part of our Early Adopter Program (EAP) for G Suite Enterprise and Enterprise for Education customers. Learn more.

Our new investigation tool adds integrated remediation to the prevention and detection capabilities of the security center.

In addition to giving admins a simpler way to keep data secure, we’re constantly working to ensure that they have the transparency and control they need. That’s why we’re adding support for data regions to G Suite. For organizations with data control requirements, G Suite will now let customers choose where to store primary data for select G Suite apps—globally distributed, U.S. or Europe. We’re also making it simple to manage your data regions on an ongoing basis. For example, when a file’s owner changes or moves to another organizational unit, we automatically move the data—with no impact on the file’s availability to collaborators. Plus, users continue to get full edit rights on content while data is being moved.

Data regions let customers choose where to store primary data for select G Suite apps—globally distributed, U.S. or Europe.

Rob Tollerton, Director of IT at PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PwCIL), and his team are using G Suite to manage global data policies: "Given PwC is a global network with operations in 158 countries, I am very happy to see Google investing in data regions for G Suite and thrilled by how easy and intuitive it will be to set up and manage multi-region policies for our domain.“

Data regions for G Suite is generally available to all G Suite Business, Enterprise, and Enterprise for Education customers today at no additional cost. We're continually investing in the offering and will expand it further over time. Learn more.

Let machines do the mundane work

We’ve spent many years as a company investing in AI and machine learning, and we’re dedicated to a simple idea: rather than replacing human skills, we think AI has endless potential to enhance them. Google AI is already helping millions of people around the world navigate, communicate and get things done in our consumer products. In G Suite, we’re using AI to help businesses and their employees do their best work.

Many of you use Smart Reply in Gmail. It processes hundreds of millions of messages daily and already drives more than 10 percent of email replies. Today we’re announcing that Smart Reply is coming to Hangouts Chat to help you respond to messages quicker, so you can free up time to focus on creative work.

Our technology recognizes which messages most likely need responses, and proposes three different replies that sound like how you typically respond. The proposed responses are casual enough for chat and yet appropriate in a workplace. Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat will be available to G Suite customers in the coming weeks.

Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat recognizes which messages most likely need responses, and proposes three different replies that sound like how you typically respond.

Smart Reply makes sending short replies easy, especially on the go. But we know that the most time-consuming emails require longer, more complex thoughts. That’s why we built Smart Compose, which you may have heard Sundar talk about at Google I/O this year. Smart Compose intelligently autocompletes your emails; it can fill in greetings, sign offs and common phrases so you can collaborate efficiently. We first launched Smart Compose to consumers in May, and now Smart Compose in Gmail is ready for G Suite customers.

In addition to autocompleting common phrases, Smart Compose can insert personalized information like your office or home address, so you don’t need to spend time in repetitive tasks. And best of all, it will get smarter with time—for example, learning how you prefer to greet certain people in emails to ensure that when you use Smart Compose you sound like yourself.

Smart Compose in Gmail will be available to G Suite customers in the coming weeks.

Smart Compose in Gmail intelligently autocompletes your emails.

We’re also using AI to help people write more clearly and effectively. It can be tricky at times to catch things like spelling and grammatical errors that inadvertently change the meaning of a sentence. That’s why we’re introducing grammar suggestions in Docs. To solve grammar corrections, we use a unique machine translation-based approach to recognize errors and suggest corrections on the fly. Our AI can catch several different types of corrections, from simple grammatical rules like how to use articles in a sentence (like “a” versus “an”), to more complicated grammatical concepts such as how to use subordinate clauses correctly. Machine learning will help improve this capability over time to detect trickier grammar issues. And because it’s built natively in Docs, it’s highly secure and reliable. Grammar suggestions in Docs is available today in our Early Adopter Program.

Grammar suggestions in Docs uses a machine translation-based approach to recognize errors and suggest corrections.

Beyond writing, we’re also working to improve meetings. Last fall, G Suite launched Hangouts Meet hardware, enabling organizations to have reliable, effective video meetings at scale. Many people still view connecting to video meetings as daunting, which is why we’re using Google AI to create a more inviting experience.

We're excited to see so many people actively engaged with Google Assistant through voice—managing their smart home and entertainment—and today, we’re bringing some of that same magic to conference rooms with voice commands for Hangouts Meet hardware so that teams can connect to a video meeting in seconds. We plan to roll this out to select Meet hardware customers later this year.

Simplify work with G Suite

One of the reasons why G Suite is able to deliver real transformation to businesses is that it’s simple to use and adopt. G Suite was born in the cloud and built for the cloud, which means real-time collaboration is effortless. This is why more than a billion people rely on G Suite apps like Gmail, Docs, Drive and more in their personal lives. Instead of defaulting to old habits—like saving content on your desktop—G Suite saves your work securely in the cloud and provides a means for teams to push the boundaries of what they create.

In fact, 74 percent of all time spent in Docs, Sheets and Slides is on collaborative work—that is, multiple people creating and editing content together. This is a stark difference from what businesses see with legacy tools, where the work is often done individually on a desktop client.

So that’s how we’re reimagining work. Learn more by visiting the G Suite website—or stay tuned for more updates in G Suite tomorrow. And keep an eye on the G Suite Updates blog today for more details on several of the new features we're launching at Next.

 *The G Suite Trusted Tester and Early Adopter Programs will soon be renamed Alpha and Beta, respectively. More details to come.


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Our globally distributed data centers reduce latency for multinational organizations and protect their data with geo redundancy. Some organizations, however, have requirements around where their data is stored, and we’re committed to meeting their needs. As a first step toward that commitment, we’re making it possible for G Suite Business, Enterprise, and Enterprise for Education customers to designate the region in which primary data for select G Suite apps is stored when at rest—globally, in the US, or in Europe.



Set up G Suite data regions

Setting up data regions is quick and easy. There are no minimum seat requirements, you can change your covered data’s location at any time, and all data moves are completed within months. In addition, you can assign as many organizational units (OUs) to a single data region as you want, and you can have multiple regions set for the same domain.

Visit the Help Center for instructions on how to set up G Suite data regions.

Manage your data regions

We make it easy to manage your data regions on an ongoing basis. For example, when a file’s owner changes or moves to another OU, we automatically move the corresponding data accordingly—with no impact on the file’s availability to collaborators (e.g. no downtime, no read-only access restrictions, etc.). Similarly, if a new user joins your organization, their data is automatically located based on their specific OU’s policies. Finally, as an added benefit, we give admins up-to-date insight into the status of their data moves, so they can stay on top of any changes they’ve made.


G Suite data covered by data regions

At launch, you’ll be able to designate data regions for primary data in the following G Suite services: Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Hangouts Chat, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Vault. Over time, we’ll add support for additional content and services.

Visit the Help Center for more info on how G Suite data regions can give you greater control over your data.

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

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

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

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Choose a geographic location for your data
The Keyword: Work reimagined: new ways to collaborate safer, smarter and simpler with G Suite


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We’re launching an Early Adopter Program (EAP) for a new “investigation tool” in the G Suite security center. It will help G Suite admins and security analysts identify, triage, and remediate security threats within their organization. This tool builds on the existing capabilities in the security center to help admins: 

• Identify security issues within the domain using advanced search capability. 
• Triage threats targeting users, devices, or data. 
• Take bulk actions to limit the propagation and impact of threats. 

A new pillar in the G Suite security center 

IT admins and analysts who operate in the cloud seek tools, visibility, and assistive insights to stop threats or gaps in operations before they become security incidents. This is why we introduced the security center for G Suite earlier this year. The security center brings together security analytics, actionable insights, and best practice recommendations from Google to help you protect your organization, data, and users.

The investigation tool adds to the security center with powerful incident investigation and integrated remediation capability. Using it admins can:

1. Use comprehensive queries - Conduct organization-wide searches across multiple data sources, such as Gmail, Google Drive and device logs. 
2. Delete malicious email - Identify and delete malicious emails from user inboxes. 
3. Monitor file sharing - Examine Drive files being shared externally, and take action to stop potential misuse. 
4. Identify correlation - Pivot across searches to connect results. 
5. Perform device analysis - Suspend accounts or wipe devices that are compromised or running a vulnerable OS version. 
6. Audit Drive files - Execute domain-wide access changes, and set IRM controls on Drive files. 

Early Adopter Program for the investigation tool now open 

We’ve been previewing the investigation tool with a small set of testers and customers. We’re excited to extend this capability to more customers through our investigation tool EAP. The EAP is available to G Suite Enterprise and G Suite Enterprise for Education domains. G Suite admins may apply with their primary domain on behalf of their organizations. Apply to join the EAP here.

More Information 
Early Adopter Program sign-up form
The Keyword: Work reimagined: new ways to collaborate safer, smarter and simpler with G Suite


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We’re introducing grammar suggestions in Google Docs along with a revamped interface for spelling and grammar review. The new features build on the existing spell check functionality to also highlight possible grammar errors in your text and help you correct them. This will help you spend less time checking and proofreading your work and make your writing easier to understand.

These features will initially launch as an Early Adopter Program (EAP). Find out more at g.co/GrammarEAP.

New grammar suggestions 

When Docs detects a possible grammar correction, it will underline it in blue to indicate you might want to check it. You can right-click to see a suggested correction or dismiss the alert. Possible grammar errors will also show up when you run a spelling and grammar check through the tools menu.

New comprehensive language review interface 

We’ve also made it easier to review all language suggestions for a given document with an updated the spelling and grammar check tool in Docs. To launch it, either use the “Tools” menu or right-click on a suggestion and select “Review more suggestions.” The tool will then show you each suggestion and help you take action to correct any errors.


Automated tool to make working in Docs more efficient 

Docs uses machine learning technology to recognize and help correct potential grammar errors in real time. Docs already uses intelligence to help you assign action items, find relevant content, and identify spelling mistakes. We’ll continue to build intelligent solutions to help you get more done and collaborate better through G Suite.

Early Adopter Program for grammar suggestions now open

To take advantage of these features, apply to join the EAP. You can review the eligibility requirements and apply to join at g.co/GrammarEAP.

More Information 
Early Adopter Program sign-up form
The Keyword: Work reimagined: new ways to collaborate safer, smarter and simpler with G Suite 


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In September 2015, we launched a new interface for Google Forms designed to simplify the form creation experience, produce beautiful forms by default, and make analyzing form responses easier. In February 2016, we made that new version of Forms the default option for users. More than 90% of forms are now managed in the new interface, and we’re ready to completely replace the legacy interface.

As part of the replacement process, we will be upgrading forms that use the legacy interface to the new interface. These changes will update the look and feel of some forms, but the functionality of the forms and any data that has been collected from forms will not change.

Limited options to use legacy Forms interface from August 22nd

Starting from August 22nd, 2018:

• New forms can only be created and managed in the new interface. All new forms will be created and managed in the new UI. There will be no option to move them to the legacy UI. 

• Forms previously created in the new UI will only be available to manage in the new interface. All forms which were previously created in the new Forms interface will no longer have the option to revert back to the legacy UI. 

• Forms created in the legacy interface will be upgraded. When an editor opens a form previously created in the legacy UI, the form will be automatically converted to the new Forms interface. Editors will see a notification and have the option to revert to manage the form in the legacy UI until November 2018. We’ll also automatically upgrade forms that haven’t been edited or received any responses in the last year. 

Interface upgrade complete by November 21st 

Starting from November 21st, 2018:

• All forms in the legacy UI will gradually be auto-upgraded to new UI. Once they are upgraded, you will only be able to manage them through the new interface. 

Making sure new Forms meets your needs

Throughout this transition period, we’ve listened closely to your feedback and incorporated your top requests as new features in the new version of Forms. These features include:

• New theme options to customize and brand your Google Forms, which helps creators choose colors and fonts to create forms that match your desired branding. 
• Intelligent response validation, which suggests that Forms check the answer format matches an appropriate answer to the question (for example Forms will suggest it checks answers to questions asking for a website are URLs.) 
• Improved notifications and response view options 
• Images in questions and answers in Google Forms 
• Smart quizzes in Google Forms 
• Ability to upload files as answers to questions 

The recently launched new theme options to customize your forms

Upgrade to the new Google Forms interface today

If you haven’t already, we encourage you and your users to start using the new Forms interface today:

• To create a form in new Forms, go to forms.google.com and select “Start a new form.” 
• To upgrade a form in legacy Forms, open the form and look for a banner that says “Try the new Google Forms.” 

The locations of some options have changed, but the Forms features you know and love still exist, and there are many new ones we think you’ll find useful.



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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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Last month, we announced a new look for the Google sign-in screen. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen delays, we’re now rolling out the new design this week, with some minor changes.

Going forward, you may notice that when you sign in to your G Suite account, the screen looks slightly different. Some of the changes include tweaks to the Google logo and center alignment of all items on the screen. See below for before and after images.




Please note that the outline around the text field (mentioned in our previous announcement) will appear in the coming months.

We apologize for any convenience this delay and change may have caused.

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


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