Google Workspace Updates: January 2021

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - January 29, 2021

Friday, January 29, 2021

New updatesThere are no new updates to share this week. Please see below for a recap of published announcements.

Previous announcementsOops! You may have noticed we missed publishing last week’s recap. To make up for it, below we’re including announcements published on the Workspace Updates blog in the past two weeks. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

Resize the Chat and Rooms sections in Gmail on the webYou can now resize the Chat and Rooms sections in the left-side navigation of Gmail on the web. | Learn more.

Quickly navigate to active cells and ranges with the new range name box in Google SheetsWe’re adding a range name box, located to the left of the formula bar, to improve navigation in Google Sheets. | Learn more.

Enable offline support for Google Calendar on web from your computerYou can now enable offline support for Google Calendar on Google Chrome from your computer. | Learn more.

Better privacy when screen sharing with muted web notificationsNow when you’re sharing your screen, Chrome will automatically hide the content of web pop-up notifications. This includes notifications from Google Chat, email notifications, and other third party websites. | Learn more.

Out of office information will now display when replying to or mentioning a user in a Google Docs commentIn Google Docs, you’ll now see out of office information when replying to or mentioning other users in a comment. | Learn more.

Control background replacement in Google Meet with a new admin settingWe’re adding the ability for admins to enable or disable the use of custom or preset backgrounds in Google Meet for meetings organized by an organizational unit (OU) level. | Learn more.

Indirect membership visibility and membership hierarchy APIs now generally availableWe’re making it easier to identify, audit, and understand indirect group membership via the Cloud Identity Groups API. Specifically, we’re making the membership visibility and membership hierarchy APIs generally available. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Enterprise for Education and Cloud Identity Premium customers. | Learn more.

Indirect membership visibility and membership hierarchy APIs now generally available

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Quick launch summary We’re making it easier to identify, audit, and understand indirect group membership via the Cloud Identity Groups API. Specifically, we’re making the membership visibility and membership hierarchy APIs generally available. These were previously available in beta.
Using “nested” groups to manage access to content and resources can help decrease duplication, simplify administration, and centralize access management. However, nested groups can create a complex hierarchy that can make it hard to understand who ultimately has access and why. These APIs help provide all of the information you need to understand complex group structures and hierarchies, and can help you make decisions about who to add to or remove from your groups.
See our beta announcement for more information and use cases for the APIs.

Getting started

Admins and developers: See our developer documentation for more details on the Cloud Identity Groups API and the Membership Hierarchy and Visibility API Guide.
End users: End users can use the API within the scope they have to create and manage groups. See our developer documentation for more details on how to use the Cloud Identity Groups API.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on January 28, 2020.

Availability

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

Resources

Control background replacement in Google Meet with a new Admin setting

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Update:
February 1, 2021: We’ve updated this blog to better explain how this setting impacts meeting organizers and participants.
What’s changingcustom or preset backgrounds

Important Note: the meeting organizer’s setting will determine whether or not meeting participants can change their background or use custom background images.

For example: if this feature is OFF for students, but ON for teachers, students will be able to use custom or preset backgrounds when joining a meeting organized by their teacher.

For Education and Enterprise for Education customers, the “let users select custom images” option will be disabled by default. We recommend admins leave this option disabled, as well as turning off the use of preset backgrounds, to help prevent students from changing their background to distracting or inappropriate images.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled at the OU or group level. Note: the “Let users select custom images” option will be disabled by default for Education and Enterprise for Education domains. Visit the Help Center to learn more about controlling whether users can change their backgrounds in Meet.

In the Google Meet section of the Admin console, within the Meet video settings, you can control whether users can change their backgrounds in Meet.

End users: No action required. When enabled by your admin, visit the Help Center to learn more about changing your background in a video meeting.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 27, 2021

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers

Resources

Out of office information will now display when replying to or mentioning a user in a Google Docs comment

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Quick launch summary

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about adding information to a user’s Directory profile.
End users: No action required, you’ll automatically see OOO information when replying to or mentioning a user in a comment. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting your OOO status, sharing your calendar, or how to stop sharing availability information with other apps.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers

Resources

Better privacy when screen sharing with muted web notifications

Monday, January 25, 2021

Quick launch summary

You’ll see where the notification is from, but the content of pop-up notifications will be hidden. When you’re done presenting, all muted notifications will be displayed.

There has been a dramatic shift in how many of us work – now more than ever, we’re relying on the use of Google Meet and other screen sharing solutions. We hope this feature will reduce distractions and prevent sensitive or personal information from accidentally being displayed while sharing your screen.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: When sharing your screen, notification content will automatically be hidden. You can select “Show All” to display content for the current and future notifications.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on January 25, 2021

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers
Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Enable offline support for Google Calendar on web from your computer

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Quick summary You can now enable offline support for Google Calendar on Google Chrome from your computer. When enabled, you can view your calendar and events from four weeks prior or any time in the future by week, day, or month. This is particularly useful when you’re offline or have unreliable internet access.
Getting started

Admins: This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled on ___domain or OU level. To disable this feature for your organization, in the Admin console go to Workspace > Calendar > Settings for Calendar > Advanced Settings > Calendar web offline and uncheck “Allow using Calendar on the web when offline”.

End users: When enabled by your admin, this feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled on a per device basis. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Calendar offline on your desktop.

Rollout pace Admin Control

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) beginning on January 20, 2021

End User Setting

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 25, 2021
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 8, 2021

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers

Resources

Google Help: Use your Google Calendar offline

Quickly navigate to active cells and ranges with the new range name box in Google Sheets

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Quick launch summary We’re adding a range name box, located to the left of the formula bar, to improve navigation in Google Sheets. Previously, active cells were only indicated by a blue outline and could be located by scrolling or using the arrow keys. Now, you can use the range name box to jump directly to coordinates and named ranges in a sheet.

Additionally, this box provides a dropdown menu to easily access, manage, and create new named ranges in the sheet.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. The new range name box can be found at the left of the formula bar. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using named ranges in Sheets.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) beginning on January 19, 2021
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) January 25, 2021

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers
Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Help: Name a range of cells in Sheets

Resize the Chat and Rooms sections in Gmail on the web

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Quick launch summary You can now resize the Chat and Rooms sections in the left-side navigation of Gmail on the web. This makes it easier to stay on top of your most important conversations and navigate to relevant chats faster.

Hover over a section header and drag up or down to resize.
Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: There is no end-user setting for this feature. To resize a section, click on a section header and drag to adjust as needed.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on January 19, 2021

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - January 15, 2021

Friday, January 15, 2021

New updatesUnless 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.
Smart Compose in Google Docs available in French and PortugueseSmart Compose helps you write high-quality content in Google Docs faster and more easily—helping you cut back on spelling and grammatical errors and repetitive writing. It's rolling out now in French and Portuguese. | Learn more.

Previous announcementsThe announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.
Deploy and manage Google Credential Provider for Windows via the Admin consoleYou can now deploy and manage Google Credential Provider for Windows (GCPW) in the Admin console. | Learn more.
Expanding the Gmail delegate limitWe’re expanding the number of allowed Gmail delegates from 25. In addition, to help with delegate management, delegation for Contacts is now available via the Contacts API. | Learn more.
New tools to troubleshoot network and performance issues in Google MeetWe’ve added tools in Google Meet that make it easier for end users to understand how their local desktop and network environments affect meeting quality. | Learn more.
New option to block devices with basic management from accessing your organization’s dataWe’re adding the ability for admins to manually block or unblock mobile apps from accessing their organization’s Google Workspace data on Android and iOS devices with basic mobile management. | Learn more.
Improved mobile device management rules experience in the Admin consoleWe’re making improvements to how you manage rules related to mobile device management (MDM) in the Admin console. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Enterprise for Education and Cloud Identity Premium customers only. | Learn more.

New option to block devices with basic management from accessing your organization’s data

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

What’s changing We’re adding the ability for admins to manually block or unblock mobile apps from accessing their organization’s Google Workspace data on Android and iOS devices with basic mobile management. These actions can be automated using device management rules (for supported editions).

Who’s impacted Admins

Why it’s important Previously, admins had a limited set of actions they could perform with basic management—they could wipe an account or delete the device from inventory. However, they couldn’t block apps on those devices from accessing organizational data in the way that they could for devices with advanced mobile management. This launch makes that possible, helping to keep your organization’s data secure.
While the blocking action is the same for devices with basic and advanced management, advanced management allows you to proactively block devices based on the Require Admin Approval setting. With basic management, you can only do this on a per-device basis.

Getting started

New option to block a device available for devices with basic management

Once a device is manually blocked, admins can unblock the device

Those trying to access Google Workspace apps on a blocked device will see a message to contact the administrator for help

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 13, 2021.

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers

Resources

Improved mobile device management rules experience in the Admin console

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Quick launch summary

A new ___location for MDM rules: You can now manage rules at Devices > Security rules. Previously, MDM rules were managed at Admin console > Rules.
New rule options and creation workflow: You’ll see a new flow to create MDM rules, including new conditions which can trigger rules, and new device management and notification actions to take as a result.

Use our Help Center to learn more about managing MDM rules for your organization. Note that any previously created rules will continue to function as before. However, you’ll be able to use the new flow and options if you update the rules.

Getting started

Admins: The new interface and rule creation workflow will be ON by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing MDM rules for your organization.
End users: No end user impact.

Device management rules are now in the Security rules section of the Admin console

A sample screen from the new rule creation flow
Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 13, 2021

Availability

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

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Automate mobile management tasks with rules

New tools to troubleshoot network and performance issues in Google Meet

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

What’s changing We’ve added tools in Google Meet that make it easier for end users to understand how their local desktop and network environments affect meeting quality. During a call, you can now go to the three-dot menu and select “Troubleshooting and Help” to see:

CPU load and network stability over time
Time segments highlighted when the local environment likely affects the call quality
Suggested actions to help improve call performance
Real-time feedback on the effect of any action taken on network and processing load
Tips for performing common tasks, like presenting content and recording meetings

Who’s impacted
End users

Why it’s important Meet shares processing power and network connections with all other applications and browser tabs running on a computer. When the system is overusing its processing power or suffering from a bad network connection, Meet will try to adjust and maintain performance while consuming less resources. Some of those adjustments are less visible, but if resource shortages are severe or persistent, users may notice blurry video, stuttering audio, or other issues.
With this launch, we’re providing more visibility into how the system is performing. We hope this will help diagnose and alleviate any noticeable performance issues if they occur.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature, but you can use our Help Center to learn how to prepare your network for Meet video calls.
End users: This feature will be available by default, To find it, go to the three-dot menu and select “Troubleshooting and Help” during a call. Visit the Help Center to learn more about troubleshooting performance in Google Meet.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 12, 2021

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers

Resources

Expanding the Gmail delegate limit

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

What’s changing We’re expanding the number of allowed Gmail delegates from 25. In addition, to help with delegate management, delegation for Contacts is now available via the Contacts API.
Who’s impacted Admins, end users, and developers
Why you’d use it We’ve heard from you that allowing more than 25 users to access a single mailbox can sometimes help manage the messages. For example, in certain cases, the volume and variety of inquiries necessitated having a larger group of individual users be able to read and respond to them. To address this need, we‘ve enabled higher limits.
Additionally, we’re now offering programmatic access to managing Contacts delegation, similar to how Gmail delegation can be managed via the API. Note that delegation limits for Contacts delegation are not changing.
Additional details Where previously we advised that a technical limit of 25 delegates applied for email delegation, our updated guidance is as follows:

With typical usage, up to 40 of those configured users may concurrently access the account. However, please note that

Up to 1000 delegates may be configured as delegates for the purposes of setting up access control.
For high-volume operations such as sales or support teams, we continue to recommend the use of a dedicated ticketing system. Gmail is not intended to replace a ticketing system for scaled operations.
Contacts delegation is still limited to 25 delegates per user.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 12, 2021

Availability

Available to Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Deploy and manage Google Credential Provider for Windows via the Admin console

Monday, January 11, 2021

What’s changing You can now deploy and manage Google Credential Provider for Windows (GCPW) in the Admin console. Previously, you had to edit registry entries to manage GCPW. The new, organization-specific installation file and setting management in the Admin console makes it easier to deploy and manage GCPW in your organization.

Who’s impacted Admins

Why you’d use it GCPW is an aspect of Enhanced desktop security for Windows that makes using Windows 10 devices with Google Workspace easier and more secure. Once set up, users can:

Sign in to a Microsoft Windows 10 device using their Google Workspace Account.
Take advantage of security protections on Windows 10 devices, including 2-step verification (2SV) and login challenges.
Access Google Workspace and other single sign-on (SSO) apps without the need to re-enter their credentials.

With this launch, you can configure and manage GCPW in the Admin console instead of in each device’s registry settings. This can make setting up and updating GCPW deployments less manual and time-consuming for if you don’t have standard software deployment tools.

Additional details Device setup and management: To set up GCPW on a new device, download a GCPW installation file customized for your company from the Admin console. After GCPW is installed, you can manage GCPW settings in the Admin console. When a user signs in to a device managed with GCPW, GCPW fetches and applies the settings from in the Admin console. GCPW settings in the Admin console may take up to one hour to be implemented on the device. If you already installed GCPW on a device, you can set a token to manage GCPW from the Admin console.
Settings available in the Admin console: You can manage most of the settings in the Admin console that you can in registry settings, including offline access, multiple account management, and more.
Working with existing registry settings: Admin console settings supersede registry settings. To continue to use registry settings instead of Admin console settings, leave GCPW settings in the Admin console as “not configured.”

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 11, 2021

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers.

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - January 8, 2021

Friday, January 8, 2021

New updatesUnless 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.

Google Voice now generally available in Germany and Italy

Google Workspace customers based in Germany and Italy can now sign up for Google Voice. These customers, as well as international customers with Google Voice Premier edition, can assign and port numbers with Germany country codes (+49) and Italy country codes (+39) to users. | 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.

Smart compose and spelling autocorrect available when adding comments in Google Docs

Smart compose and spelling autocorrect are now available when adding comments in Google Docs. | Learn more.

Join a meeting with new options on the Google Meet landing page

We’re changing the options for a more tailored experience when Google Workspace users join or start a meeting from meet.google.com. | Learn more.

Join a meeting with new options on the Google Meet landing page

Thursday, January 7, 2021

Update

January 25, 2021: We updated this post to reflect a change in the rollout timing for both Rapid and Scheduled Release domains. Rollout to Rapid release domains will now start today, January 25, 2021, with Scheduled release domains planned for February 8, 2021.Quick launch summaryWe’re changing the options for a more tailored experience when Google Workspace users join or start a meeting from meet.google.com.
When you click “New meeting,” you’ll now see the following three options:

Create a meeting for later: Generate joining information for a new meeting. You can save this information to use later.
Start an instant meeting: Join a meeting in one click, without first going to the Meet greenroom. Once in the meeting, you can add others or copy the joining information to share. Please note, your camera and microphone will be on automatically if you select this option. You can turn them off once in the meeting.
Schedule in Google Calendar: Go to Calendar in a new tab to create an event with Meet conferencing details automatically populated.

New options to start a meeting from meet.google.com

Users will still be able to enter a meeting code or nickname to join a meeting.
Getting startedAdmins: There is no admin control for this feature.End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about joining a video meeting.
Rollout pace

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers. Also available to users with personal Google Accounts Google
Workspace Essentials customers will not see the “Schedule in Google Calendar” option, but will have the other two options available.

Resources

Google Help: Start a Google Meet video meeting

Smart compose and spelling autocorrect available when adding comments in Google Docs

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Quick SummarySmart composespelling autocorrect

Smart Compose suggestions will appear in light grey when typing—to accept a suggestion, press “tab.”

Smart compose suggestions will appear in light grey while typing a comment.

Misspelled words will be automatically corrected while typing and denoted with a grey dashed underline. As you continue typing, this dashed line will disappear.

Misspelled words will automatically be corrected. The corrected word will appear with a dotted grey underline.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Smart compose in Google Docs comments

Spelling autocorrect in Google Docs comments

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: This feature is available now.

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers

Resources

Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

In the Google Cloud Community, connect with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like yourself. Participate in product discussions, check out the Community Articles, and learn tips and tricks that will make your work and life easier. Be the first to know what's happening with Google Workspace.

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Learn about more Google Workspace launches

On the “What’s new in Google Workspace?” Help Center page, learn about new products and features launching in Google Workspace, including smaller changes that haven’t been announced on the Google Workspace Updates blog.

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Updates

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - January 29, 2021

Indirect membership visibility and membership hierarchy APIs now generally available

Control background replacement in Google Meet with a new Admin setting

Out of office information will now display when replying to or mentioning a user in a Google Docs comment

Better privacy when screen sharing with muted web notifications

Enable offline support for Google Calendar on web from your computer

Quickly navigate to active cells and ranges with the new range name box in Google Sheets

Resize the Chat and Rooms sections in Gmail on the web

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - January 15, 2021

New option to block devices with basic management from accessing your organization’s data

Improved mobile device management rules experience in the Admin console

New tools to troubleshoot network and performance issues in Google Meet

Expanding the Gmail delegate limit

Deploy and manage Google Credential Provider for Windows via the Admin console

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - January 8, 2021

Join a meeting with new options on the Google Meet landing page

Smart compose and spelling autocorrect available when adding comments in Google Docs

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