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New updates

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


Delegate Information is now available in Gmail Log Search
Email log search now indicates when an email was sent on behalf of the user by a delegate. In cases where a delegate sent the email, the delegate will be listed, along with the sender, in message details in email log search. Delegate information will only be available on emails sent after this change rolls out. | Available to all Google Workspace with Gmail enabled. | Learn more.


New font in Workspace improves accessibility for vision impaired
Now there's a new font in Workspace optimized for vision impaired users.  When you create or want to read a document, set the font to Atkinson Hyperlegible for improved legibility.


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.


Improvements for braille mode in Google Docs provide a richer, more interactive experience
We've improved how suggestions are announced in braille mode in Google Docs. You’ll now hear detailed suggestion information inline with the rest of the text — this includes whether the suggestion is an insertion or deletion, and the author of the suggestion. | Learn more.



Disabling File Transfer in Google Chat
Admins can now disable or limit file sharing for their users in Chat. Specifically, admins
will be able to specify controls within and outside their organization, and will be able to choose between restricting all files, allowing images only, or allowing all files. | Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Enterprise Essentials | Learn more.



Alert Center enrichment with VirusTotal threat context now generally available
Earlier this year, we pre-announced an integration between the Alert Center and VirusTotal. Currently, the Google Workspace Alert Center provides admins with actionable, real-time alerts and insights regarding security-related activity in their domain. With the VirusTotal (now part of Google Cloud) integration, admins have the ability to dig into their alerts at a deeper level. | Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals and Education Plus customers. | Learn More.



Use dynamic security groups for group based policies
Google Workspace admins can now use dynamic groups to manage policies for their users in the Admin console. Previously, it was only possible to apply these policies to static groups and OUs. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Cloud Identity Premium customers. | Learn more.



Workspace for Education Plus now syncs Google Classroom courses and rosters with Student Information Systems
U.S. school districts with Google Workspace for Education Plus will be able to automatically set up Google Classroom courses and keep rosters in sync with their Student Information System (SIS). IT admins will do the setup via Clever, meaning teachers will no longer need to manually create classes and invite students to join them. | Learn More.



Enhancements to Google Voice
We’ve made several enhancements to Google Voice, including information and troubleshooting tips for missed calls, the ability to easily redial dropped calls, the ability to delete SMS messages in bulk, and an option to show your Google Voice number as the caller ID when forwarding calls. | Learn more.



Search within a folder in Google Drive on iOS
You can now search for content inside a specific folder in Google Drive on iOS. Simply navigate to the folder you want to search within and select the search bar — you’ll see a list of suggested folders, documents, and users to refine your search results. Select the folder chip before typing your search query. | Learn more.



Assign SSO profile to organizational units or groups with the new SAML Partial SSO beta
Currently, you can configure to authenticate your users using a third-party identity provider — this configuration applies to all users within your domain. Now, you have the option to specify groups or organizational units (OUs) to authenticate a subset of your users using Google. This feature is available as an open beta. | Learn more.



New enrollment privilege and naming updates for Google Meet hardware in the Admin console
We are making two improvements to the admin controls for Google Meet hardware: a new enrollment privilege admins and updates for hardware management in the Admin console. | Learn more.



Use the new Google Meet web app for better meetings on desktop devices
We’ve launched a new Google Meet standalone web app. This Progressive Web Application (PWA) has all the same features as Google Meet on the web, but as a standalone app it’s easier to find and use, and it streamlines your workflow by eliminating the need to switch between tabs. | Learn more.


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

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Quick summary
We’ve launched a new Google Meet standalone web app. This Progressive Web Application (PWA) has all the same features as Google Meet on the web, but as a standalone app it’s easier to find and use, and it streamlines your workflow by eliminating the need to switch between tabs.

The PWA runs on any device with Google Chrome browser version 73 and up (version 73 was released in March 2019). This means it works on Windows, MacOS, Chrome OS, and Linux devices.


Image showing Google Meet PWA in the app launcher screen

Google Meet PWA app (far right column, second down) in app launcher screen



Image showing Meet PWA app opened for a meeting

Meet PWA app opened for a meeting



Getting started
Image of offer to try the Google Meet web app that appears in the main Google Meet opening page

There will also be an offer to try the Google Meet web app in the upper right-hand corner of the main Google Meet opening page

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers and users with personal Google Accounts.

Resources
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What’s changing 
We are making two improvements to the admin controls for Google Meet hardware: 
  • A new enrollment privilege: You can use the new "Enroll Google Meet hardware" admin privilege to limit the enrollment of new devices to authorized users. 
  • Updates for hardware management in the Admin Console: Legacy references to “Chromebox for meetings” will be renamed “Google Meet hardware,” and there will be a minor settings reorganization. 

Read below for more details. 


Who’s impacted
Admins only 


Why it’s important 
This new admin privilege provides enhanced security functionality by enabling you to restrict who in your organization is able to enroll new Google Meet hardware devices and consume licenses. The naming updates will help increase the consistency and clarity of managing hardware devices in the Admin console. 


Additional details 
A new enrollment privilege 
As part of this launch, we are creating: 
  • A new “Enroll Google Meet hardware” privilege that can be granted to Google Meet hardware administrators. 
  • A new “Require enrollment privilege” policy in the new Service settings group in the Google Meet hardware settings. 
Enabling the Require enrollment privilege policy for your organization will require any user attempting to provision a new device to have the Enroll Google Meet hardware admin privilege. If they do not, enrollment will be blocked during setup and no license will be consumed. 


Updates for hardware management in the Admin Console 

For consistency and clarity, we will begin updating a handful of remaining legacy references to Chromebox for meetings with the correct product name, Google Meet hardware. You may notice this change in the Admin console Policies page, Admin roles and privileges page, and the Subscriptions page. 

Additionally, the Google Meet hardware settings page will now have a single combined tab for Device settings. These were previously separated out across Meet settings and System settings. See image below.


Getting started 
  • Admins: The new enrollment privilege and related enforcement only be applied to your whole organization, not to specific groups or OUs. Changes to this enrollment will only affect future devices; it will not affect devices that have already been successfully provisioned and enrolled into your organization. Visit the Help Center to learn more about enrolling Google Meet hardware devices into your organization. 
  • End users: No end user impact. 

Alt text - Admin console screen showing new admin privilege
The new “Enroll Google Meet hardware” admin privilege in the Admin console

Alt text - Admin console screen showing new enforcement option
The setting to enforce the new Admin privilege for enrollment of new Google Meet Hardware devices

Alt text - Admin console screen showing new device settings section
The new ‘Device settings’ section in the Admin console

Rollout pace 
  • This feature is available now for all users. 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware licenses 
Resources 
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What’s changing 
Currently, you can configure to authenticate your users using a third-party identity provider — this configuration applies to all users within your domain. Now, you have the option to specify groups or organizational units (OUs) to authenticate a subset of your users using Google. This feature is available beginning today as an open beta, which means you can use it without enrolling in a specific beta program. 


Who’s impacted 
Admins 


Why you’d use it 
Currently, when you configure SSO with a third-party identity provider, the setting applies to your entire domain. However, there are some instances where you may want a subset of your users, such as vendors or contractors, to authenticate with Google instead. The Partial SSO beta gives you the flexibility to specify the authentication method for various users in your organization as needed.



Getting started
Image description: Within the Admin console, navigate to Security > Settings > Set up single sign-on (SSO) with a third party iDP > Manage SSO Profile assignments to specify a specific OU or Group who should identify using Google.

Rollout pace


Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace and Cloud Identity customers


Resources

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What’s changing 

You can now search for content inside a specific folder in Google Drive on iOS. Simply navigate to the folder you want to search within and select the search bar — you’ll see a list of suggested folders, documents, and users to refine your search results. Select the folder chip before typing your search query.


Searching for content in a folder in Drive




Who’s impacted 

End users 

Why you’d use it 

We’ve heard from our users that they often navigate to specific folders to streamline their search experience. We hope this change makes it easier for you to quickly find your important files. 


Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 
 Resources 
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Update

[August 3, 2021]: The “Delete multiple SMS messages at once” feature is only available in the U.S.


What’s changing

We continuously listen to customer feedback as we make refinements to Google Voice, and based on your feedback we’ve made the following enhancements:



Missed Call Reason:  Now you can see why a call did not ring and what you can do to fix it by changing your settings. Just go to the Missed Call details section or the Voicemail section (in case you received a voicemail for the call), and take the recommended steps in settings such as turning off the Do Not Disturb or setting the device to receive incoming calls

Image showing how to easily find out why a call did not ring and correct it in Settings
Easily find out why a call did not ring and correct it in Settings




Call Drop Reason and Redial:  Find out why a call dropped and easily redial. If the call dropped due to poor internet connectivity, you'll have the option to call using your mobile carrier network.

Image showing an example of why a call didn't connect
See the reason your call didn’t connect




Caller ID:  Google Voice customers using iOS now have a setting that allows them to see their Google Voice number as the caller ID when a call comes in to a number linked to Google Voice. When this setting is on, you will see the number you linked to Google Voice as the caller ID.

Image showing how you can chose to see your Google Voice number as the caller’s number for calls to numbers you linked to Voice

You can chose to see your Google Voice number as the caller’s number for calls to numbers you linked to Voice




Delete multiple SMS messages at once:  Now you can delete multiple SMS messages at one time to streamline your workflow - a capability frequently requested by our users. To use this feature, simply tap on the avatar on one or more SMS threads, and a trash bin will appear on the app bar above the messages allowing the message threads to be easily deleted.  Note:  This feature is only available in the U.S.


Gif showing how to select multiple SMS messages and delete them at once

Select multiple SMS messages and delete them at once




Who’s impacted

End users

Getting started
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: This feature will be OFF by default for the Caller ID feature and can be enabled by the user from within Settings. Visit the Help Center to learn more about changing the caller ID for incoming calls

Rollout pace
  • Missed Call Reason: Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting July 15.
  • Call Drop Reason and Redial: This feature is available now for all users.
  • Caller ID: This feature is available now for all iOS users.
  • Delete multiple SMS messages at once: This feature is available now for all users.

Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers who subscribe to Google Voice, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.

Resources
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What’s changing
U.S. school districts with Google Workspace for Education Plus will be able to automatically set up Google Classroom courses and keep rosters in sync with their Student Information System (SIS). IT admins will do the setup via Clever, meaning teachers will no longer need to manually create classes and invite students to join them. Note that this will not overwrite Classroom courses that teachers create individually.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

This feature, created in partnership with Clever, improves the interoperability and integration between Google Classroom and most major SIS in the U.S. It saves teachers time with class setup and keeps Classroom classes and SIS rosters in sync with less manual and duplicative work.

Getting started
  • Admins: This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled in the Admin console under Classroom settings. After that, go to Clever, link to the Google Classroom rostering app & follow the setup wizard.
  • End users: This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled by your admin. There is no end user setting for this feature. When your admin sets up rostering via Clever, teachers will receive an invite within Classroom to teach the class with the roster pre-populated.

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to Education Plus

Resources


Roadmap

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What’s changing 
Google Workspace admins can now use dynamic groups to manage policies for their users in the Admin console. Previously, it was only possible to apply these policies to static groups and OUs. 

Workspace admins can use dynamic attribute-based groups to automate tasks such as "turn drive off for everyone in Europe through the Admin Console".

Who’s impacted
Admins

Why it’s important
This change gives admins greater control and flexibility when managing Workspace policies for users in their organization. For instance, rather than applying policies to a specific group which is updated manually at large, admins can apply policies to a dynamic group which stays up-to-date automatically.

Further, this reduces manual work for Admins and helps improve security by relying on external source of truth systems for user attributes.

Getting started

Rollout pace
  • This feature is available now.

Availability
  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Cloud Identity Premium customers
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

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What’s changing 
Earlier this year, we pre-announced an integration between the Alert Center and VirusTotal. Currently, the Google Workspace Alert Center provides admins with actionable, real-time alerts and insights regarding security-related activity in their domain. With the VirusTotal (now part of Google Cloud) integration, admins have the ability to dig into their alerts at a deeper level. 


When an Alert Center notification contains a supported VirusTotal entity, such as a domain, file attachment hash, or IP address, the VirusTotal report enrichment widget (VT Augment) is available directly in the Alert Center. For paid VirusTotal subscribers, an enhanced version of the report will automatically populate.


The Standard version of VirusTotal reports includes the following:
  • Observable identification—Identifiers and characteristics allowing you to reference the threat and share it with other analysts (for example, file hashes).
  • Threat reputation—Maliciousness assessments coming from 70+ security vendors, including antivirus solutions, security companies, network blocklists, and more.
  • Threat time spread—Key dates that enable you to understand when a given threat was first observed in-the-wild and how long it’s been active.
  • Domain/IP Whois lookup—Registrar and registrant details for domains, as well as ownership and network range information for IP addresses.
  • Domain and server security-relevant metadata—HTTPS certificates for web servers, DNS resolution records, and web server HTTP headers.
The Enhanced version of VirusTotal reports includes additional features such as:
  • Multi-angular detection—Additional threat analysis coming from crowdsourced rule matches and community scoring (for example: YARA, Sigma, and IDS rules).
  • Related indicators of compromise (IOCs)—Examples of IOCs include a network infrastructure distributing a malware file, servers acting as a command-and-control for a given threat, malicious URLs seen under a given domain, domains seen behind a given IP address, and more.
  • Interactive threat graph—Graphical format that maps out entire threat campaigns by visualizing the relationships between IOCs.
  • Security-relevant metadata—Includes software publisher information, identification of malicious macros in documents, popularity ranks for domains, domain content categorization, and more.
  • In-the-wild details—Geographical and time-spread details for threats, common attacker deception techniques, and more, through VirusTotal submission metadata.
  • Suspicious attribute pivoting—Clickable details in VirusTotal reports, allowing you to explore the global VirusTotal dataset for other threats that share the same properties.
Visit the Help Center and learn more about using VirusTotal security threat context and reputation reports from the Alert Center to power improved threat identification, expedited investigations & decision making, enhanced threat remediation, and proactive defense.


Who’s impacted
Admins


Why it’s important
The VirusTotal integration provides an added layer of investigation on top of existing alerts, empowering admins to take deeper look into threats and potential abuse, helping them better protect their organization and data.


Additional details
VirusTotal provides an investigation layer on top of alerts but isn’t being used directly for detection or alerting. No customer information is shared from Google to VirusTotal unless an admin clicks to retrieve a VirusTotal report for a specific entity. 


The VirusTotal report has two versions: Standard and Enhanced. Standard reports are displayed for admins who have the alert center privilege. The Enhanced version is automatically shown for paid VirusTotal subscribers who have an active virustotal.com login session with their VT Enterprise user account.


For existing VT Enterprise customers, viewing VirusTotal reports within the alert center does NOT use any of your VT Enterprise quota. If an admin opens the VirusTotal website to do more research from the Alert Center, that would count towards standard quota usage in the same way as directly visiting virustotal.com.


Getting started
Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals and Education Plus customers
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Enterprise Essentials, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

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What’s changing 
Admins can now disable or limit file sharing for their users in Chat. Specifically, admins
will be able to specify controls within and outside their organization, and will be able to choose between restricting all files, allowing images only, or allowing all files.

Who’s impacted 
Admins and end users 

Why it’s important 
Files often contain confidential information, and some organizations, particularly in regulated industries, need to control the flow of this information within and outside of their organization. With this launch, admins now have more ability to help manage sharing in specific scenarios. 

Additional details 
These policies will have no impact on links. For example, sharing links to Google Drive files or giphy links will all continue to work. Emojis will also not be impacted. 


Admins will have the option to enable this feature




 Getting started 



  • End Users: If an admin has disabled file sharing, the upload button may be disabled or changed, and when possible we will provide text to explain the change. See images below for examples. 

The file upload button may be disabled 

 If a user is only able to upload images, the file upload icon may change to an image icon.


 Error messages will be displayed if a user attempts a restricted action

 

Policies will be also applied while using Google Chat on web and mobile platforms

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard,Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Enterprise Essentials 
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Resources
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Quick launch summary
We've improved how suggestions are announced in braille mode in Google Docs. This change makes it easier for users of assistive technology, including screen readers and refreshable braille displays, to interact with suggestions in documents.

You’ll now hear detailed suggestion information inline with the rest of the text — this includes whether the suggestion is an insertion or deletion, and the author of the suggestion.


Getting started
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled by the user by going to Tools > Accessibility settings > Turn on braille support. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to Use a braille display with Docs editors.

Additional details
  • Users should make sure to update to the latest versions of their assistive technologies and browsers to fully benefit from these improvements.

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Frontline, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Nonprofits, Cloud Identity Free, Cloud Identity Premium

Resources
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New updates

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

Gmail now displays the latest emojis
Now you can see all the latest emojis in Gmail, with emojis now rendered in the latest Unicode standard 13.1.

Improved Tabular Data Handling for Gmail DLP
We are improving the way we handle Tabular data files like .csv or .xlsx to best account for the structure of these files. This will result in more accurate content scans. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise, Education Fundamentals, Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Plus customers. | Learn more.


Previous announcements

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

Updates to Google Workspace Public Status Dashboard and service status alerts
We're introducing a new Public Status Dashboard experience for Google Workspace. As part of this update, we’re enhancing the functionality of the existing Apps outage alert system-defined rule, which provides email notifications regarding service disruptions or outages via the Public Status Dashboard. | Learn more.


Hangouts to Google Chat upgrade beginning August 16th, with option to opt-out
Beginning August 16, 2021, we will start upgrading users who have the “Chat and classic Hangouts” setting selected to “Chat preferred,” unless you explicitly opt out. Additionally, the “Chat and classic Hangouts'' setting will also be removed for all users in your domain unless you opt out of the upgrade. | Learn more.


Fundamental data regions now available to more Google Workspace customers
Data regions give you the ability to choose where covered data for select Google Workspace apps is stored at rest. We’re introducing a more limited version of data regions, known as Fundamental data regions, which will be available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Business Plus, Business Standard and Frontline customers. | Learn more.


Bulk convert Classic Sites to new Sites using the Classic Sites Manager
Beginning today, you can now bulk convert Classic Sites to new Sites using the Classic Sites Manager. | Learn more.


Block shares from another user in Google Drive
We’re adding the ability to block another user in Google Drive. If blocked, the user will not be able to share any Drive items with you, and items owned by the user will not be able to be shared with you or be shown when you’re browsing Google Drive. In addition, your files will not be available to the user you’ve blocked, even if you’ve previously shared items with them.  | Learn more.



Select multiple tabs in Google Sheets and perform basic actions on the selection
Now you can select multiple tabs in Google Sheets and perform basic actions on the selection (such as moving the tabs together, deleting, duplicating, copying, coloring, or hiding). | Learn more.



Image placeholders make it easy to work as a team with images in Slides themes and layouts
Now when you create a theme in Slides, you can add image placeholders to your layouts. | Learn more. 



Easily collaborate and share Slide presentations with side-by-side viewing in Google Chat
In Google Chat, you can now open and edit a Slide presentation in a side-by-side view. | Learn more. 



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

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Quick launch summary
In Google Chat, you can now open and edit a Slide presentation in a side-by-side view. By enabling you and your collaborators to directly edit presentations without leaving Chat, we hope to make it easier to transform your ideas into impact.


Image of how Chat users can open a Slide presentation by clicking on the preview thumbnail image in the chat stream.

Chat users can open a Slide presentation by clicking on the preview thumbnail image in the chat stream.

Getting started
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: Use this feature by clicking on the document preview thumbnail image in the chat stream. To open the presentation directly in Google Slides, click on the blue link in the chat conversation. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to Manage your files in Gmail rooms.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources
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Quick launch summary
Now when you create a theme in Slides, you can add image placeholders to your layouts. Slides editors can then easily replace these image placeholders with the desired images. This new feature should improve your team’s workflow efficiency, design quality, and ease of formatting.


Gif if how a user creates a slide from a layout that uses image placeholders, they can click directly on the placeholder, select a source for the upload, select the file, and the image is inserted.


When a user creates a slide from a layout that uses image placeholders, they can click directly on the placeholder, select a source for the upload, select the file, and the image is inserted.




Getting started

Image placeholders can be inserted from the Theme Builder View through the Insert menu.

Image placeholders can be inserted from the Theme Builder View through the Insert menu.

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources




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Update
[July 23, 2021]: This feature is also available to users with personal Google Accounts.  This was not noted in the original post. 

Quick launch summary
Now you can select multiple tabs in Google Sheets and perform basic actions on the selection (such as moving the tabs together, deleting, duplicating, copying, coloring, or hiding). Work in Google Sheets with confidence and make workflows faster as you perform basic actions on more than one sheet at a time.


GIF show how multiple tabs are selected in Sheets to be deleted together.

To select multiple tabs, press "Ctrl" to select individual tabs, "Shift" to select contiguous tabs.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Frontline, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Nonprofits, Cloud Identity Free, Cloud Identity Premium. Also available to users with personal Google Accounts. 
Resources
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What’s changing 
As we recently announced on the Cloud Blog, we’re adding the ability to block another user in Google Drive. If blocked, the user will not be able to share any Drive items with you, and items owned by the user will not be able to be shared with you or be shown when you’re browsing Google Drive. In addition, your files will not be available to the user you’ve blocked, even if you’ve previously shared items with them. 


Note that you can’t block users within your domain, and blocking a user on Drive will also block them from interacting with you on other apps and services. 


Who’s impacted 
End users 


Why you’d use it 
Google Drive enables both individuals and organizations to store, share, and collaborate from anywhere. Drive’s sharing capabilities fuel productivity and collaboration, but bad actors can abuse tools that are meant to facilitate helpful sharing. That's why we are creating a way to block other users. By using this feature, you can: 
Block another user from sharing any content with you in the future. This can be a useful control if, for example, another user has a history of sending spam or abusive content. 
Remove all existing files and folders shared by another user. This is an easy way to get rid of all spam or abusive content shared from a specific user at one time. 
Remove another person’s access to your content, even if you’ve previously shared it with them. 


User blocking will not only preserve Drive sharing’s helpfulness, but most importantly preserve the safety of Drive users. 


Getting started 
Block another user in Google Drive
Blocking an individual from future sharing in Google Drive 

Block another user from the shared with me screen in Google Drive


Rollout pace 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. Also available to users with personal Google Accounts. 
Resources 
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Quick summary 
In 2017, we announced that we would replace classic Sites with new Sites, and in 2019 we announced that domains will have until the end of 2021 to complete the transition. 


To help manage the transition, Admins and end users can use the Classic Sites Manager to: 

Beginning today, you can now bulk convert Classic Sites to new Sites using the Classic Sites Manager. We hope this highly-requested feature will make it easier to prepare your organization for the migration completion. 

Using the classic sites manager, you can bulk convert classic sites to new sites.


Additional details
The user who initiates the bulk conversion will become the owner of all converted sites—they can reassign site ownership using the Classic Sites Manager once the conversion is complete.


If sites cannot be converted, they will be skipped and the converter will be notified via email.

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 
  • Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Not available to Google Workspace Frontline customers 

Resources 
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What’s changing
Data regions gives you the ability to choose where covered data for select Google Workspace apps is stored at rest. The existing data regions feature, now known as Enterprise data regions, offer a full range of features to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus and Education Plus customers.

Now, we’re introducing a more limited version of data regions, known as Fundamental data regions, which will be available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Business Plus, Business Standard and Frontline customers.

Who’s impacted
Admins

Why you’d use it
Google Workspace’s globally distributed cloud infrastructure reduces latency and protects data with geo redundancy, so most organizations choose not to geo-restrict their data. If, however, your organization has preference to control where its data is stored at rest, data regions can help you meet those needs. 

Additional details
Fundamental data regions is a more limited version of data regions compared to Enterprise data regions, which is available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus and Education Plus customers. Some key differences include:

  • Single vs multiple regions: Enterprise data regions enables you to set multiple region policies, whereas the Fundamental data regions only offers one region of your choosing.
  • Root OU vs full OU and group controls: Enterprise data regions allows for customizing data regions for different groups and organizational units (OUs) within your organization. Fundamental data regions only allows you to set a single policy at the root OU level.
  • Report availability: Enterprise data regions includes detailed reports on the move progress of your covered data. These reports will not be available to Fundamental data regions users.

Admins that need the full functionality of Enterprise data regions can get access by visiting their Subscriptions page in the Admin console to upgrade licenses to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus or Education Plus.

Getting started
  • End users: No end user impact.

Settings available for Fundamental data regions
Settings available for Fundamental data regions in the Admin console



Rollout pace

Availability
  • Fundamental data regions newly available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, and Frontline customers
  • Enterprise data regions already available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus and Education Plus customers.
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.

Resources
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What’s changing 
Beginning August 16, 2021, we will start upgrading users who have the “Chat and classic Hangouts” setting selected to “Chat preferred,” unless you explicitly opt out. Users who already have “Chat only”, “Chat preferred”, or “Classic Hangouts Only” selected, or users with both services turned off will not be affected. 


Additionally, the “Chat and classic Hangouts'' setting will also be removed for all users in your domain unless you opt out of the upgrade. 


If there are affected users in your domain, you will receive an email notification that contains more information and any necessary action that needs to be taken.


Who’s impacted
Admins and end users


Why it’s important
Unless you opt-out, Google Chat will replace classic Hangouts as the default chat application for your affected users. 


Beginning late 2021, classic Hangouts will no longer be supported and all remaining users will be migrated to Google Chat. Learn more about the Google Chat upgrade timeline.



Getting started

If you don’t take any action, all users in your organization who have the “Chat and classic Hangouts” setting selected will be automatically upgraded to “Chat preferred” and the “Chat and classic Hangouts” setting will no longer be accessible. We anticipate this migration to take around  two weeks.


No action is required if there are no users in your domain with the “Chat and classic Hangouts” service setting selected.


Additional details
The “Chat and classic Hangouts” setting will be removed from the Admin Console regardless of your selected setting, unless you opt out.  


Conversation History: With the exception of a few special cases, messages sent in classic Hangouts 1:1 and group conversations will be available in Chat. Learn more about Chat and classic Hangouts interoperability.


Direct calling: Chat doesn’t yet support direct calling in the same way as classic Hangouts. We anticipate direct calling to become available for Google Chat later this year — we will provide an update here when that feature becomes available. 


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What’s changing 
We're introducing a new Public Status Dashboard experience for Google Workspace. As part of this update, we’re enhancing the functionality of the existing Apps outage alert system-defined rule, which provides email notifications regarding service disruptions or outages via the Public Status Dashboard. Specifically, you can now configure the rule to also deliver Apps outage alerts to the Alert Center, and you can retrieve the alerts using the Alert Center API. 


Who’s impacted 
Admins 


Why it’s important 
New Public Status Dashboard Experience 
Following the Google Maps Platform, the Google Workspace Status Dashboard will soon have a refreshed user interface, which will allow you to find and view important service status information faster. The location of the Public Status Dashboard will not change with this update, and it will continue to support RSS feed subscribers. 

The Google Workspace Status Dashboard will receive a new UI refresh, making it easier to view important information and updates.



Enhanced Apps outage alerts 
By bringing Apps outage alerts to the Alert Center, we are aligning with other Google Workspace alert types. The Apps outage alerts will share a familiar format to other alerts your organization may receive in the Alert Center. 

In addition to the Google Workspace Status Dashboard, you will be able to find Apps outage alerts in the Alert Center.



Additionally, we’ve updated the email notification format to contain structured information such as key issue details, the status of the affected services, and a link to the Google Workspace Status Dashboard.

We've enhanced email notification for Apps outages to include richer information, a status of the outage, and quicklinks to more information.



Finally, the Apps outage alerts are now available via the Alert Center API and can be identified with the "AppsOutage" alert type. This will allow integration with your existing alerting or ticketing systems within your organization. 


Email Notification Sender Changes 
To align with other email notifications from the Alert Center, the sender email address used for Apps outage alert email notifications is changing from workspace-noreply@google.com to google-workspace-alerts-noreply@google.com. 


The subject of these emails will not change (it will still be "Google Workspace status alert"). Any email routing or filtering based on the old sender address should be updated accordingly. 


Getting started 
  • Admins: 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about receiving Apps outage alerts in the Alert Center, by email, or both. Note: You will have to take action to view alerts in the Alert Center even if you have configured your settings to receive alerts via email. 
    • Email Notification Sender Changes: As noted above, please update any email routing or filtering to account for the workspace-noreply@google.com to google-workspace-alerts-noreply@google.com change. 

  • End users: There is no end user impact.

Rollout pace 
  • Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) starting on July 19, 2021. 
  • We anticipate the updated Google Workspace Status Dashboard to become available by July 21, 2021. 

Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. 

Resources 
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