Google Workspace Updates: March 2023

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - March 31, 2023

Friday, March 31, 2023

3 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.

Full mouse support now available for Google Sheets and Slides on Android

Last year, we announced full mouse support while using Google Docs on Android devices that mirrors mouse behavior on the web. This week, we’ve expanded this to Sheets and Slides, enabling you to resize unselected rows and columns, click, drag, hover, and more with your mouse. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for April 12, 2023.

Move folders from My Drive to shared drives

Earlier this year, we introduced a beta that allows end users to move folders from My Drive into shared drives. We’re happy to announce this is now generally available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits, and legacy G Suite Business customers. | Rollout to Rapid Release domains complete; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for April 11, 2023. | Learn more.

Multi-instance support now available for Google Keep on large screen Android devices

Following the recent update to view Google Keep notes on the home screen of Android devices, we’re introducing the ability to open a second instance of the Keep app on the same device. Having two windows open side-by-side enables better insight into your notes and gives you more ways to work with, display, and organize your content across Google Workspace.

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.

Connected Sheets for Looker now available for all Looker-hosted instances

We’re making Connected Sheets available for Looker instances hosted on non-Google Cloud providers like AWS and Azure. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Frontline, and Nonprofits only. | Learn more.

Launching in beta: manage working locations with the Calendar API

Available now in beta through our Developer Preview Program, you can read working location data using the Calendar API and get notified when those working locations change. |Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade and Nonprofits customers, as well as legacy G Suite Business customers only. | Learn more.

Admins can install Chat apps for use in direct messages

Starting this week, admins can install Chat apps for direct messages on behalf of users within their domain from the Workspace Marketplace. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Frontline, and legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers only. | Learn more.

Find files quicker with search chips in Google Drive

Last month, we pre-announced numerous features that offer new experiences in smart canvas, including enhancing Google Drive to help you complete your most frequent tasks more quickly. This week, we introduced search chips in Drive that enable you to filter by criteria like file type, owner, and last modified date. | Learn more.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog post for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains:

Improvements to content organization in Google Docs (Table of contents)

[Weekly Recap] Enhancing the Google Drive mobile experience on Android tablets

Scheduled Release Domains:

Introducing new smart canvas features in Google Sheets and Google Docs (Sheets)

Save time with suggested work locations in Google Calendar

Improving Filters in Google Sheets

Refreshed interface for Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides

External label for Google Meet participants

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

Provide custom Google Meet background images for your users

Improvements to content organization in Google Docs (Sidebar)

Connected Sheets for Looker now available for all Looker-hosted instances

Launching in beta: manage working locations with the Calendar API

Quickly access Google Drive files in Chrome browser

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

Find files quicker with search chips in Google Drive

Thursday, March 30, 2023

What’s changing

Last month, we pre-announced numerous features that offer new experiences in smart canvas, including enhancing Google Drive to help you complete your most frequent tasks more quickly.

Today, we’re introducing search chips in Drive that enable you to filter by criteria like file type, owner, and last modified date. Filtering by these criteria helps you narrow down and find relevant files faster in any view throughout Drive.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about finding files in Google Drive.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 30, 2023
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting in Q2, 2023. (We will provide an update once the date approaches.)

Availability

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

Resources

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming release.

Admins can install Chat apps for use in direct messages

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

What’s changing

Google Chat apps integrate with productivity tools, enable you to collaborate with others, and can also help automate your work. Previously, to start using an app in Chat, users had to individually install apps as described here.

Starting this week, admins can install Chat apps for direct messages on behalf of users within their domain from the Workspace Marketplace. Users will automatically see when an app has been enabled, eliminating the need to manually install the app themselves.

Admins can deploy Chat apps as they see fit: to an entire domain, OU, or group of users using the Workspace Marketplace apps management controls.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why you’d use it

This feature enables admins to provide their users with instant access to the Chat integrations they need for their workflow within an organization.

Getting started

Admins:

Visit the Help Center to learn more about installing Marketplace apps in your domain and allowing users to install Chat apps.

When a Chat app is installed for an end-user, they will be automatically notified.

End users cannot uninstall the apps installed by admins, but they can turn notifications OFF.
See the list of Chat apps available from Google and consider performing an admin install from the Marketplace (using your administrator account).

End users:

End users will continue to be able to install chat apps from Chat. Installation from the Workspace Marketplace isn't available for end users at this time.
When a Chat app is installed by your admin, you will be automatically notified.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 29, 2023

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Frontline, and legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Not available to Nonprofits
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Launching in beta: manage working locations with the Calendar API

Monday, March 27, 2023

What’s changing

Available now in beta through our Developer Preview Program, you can read working location data using the Calendar API and get notified when those working locations change. Previously, we said this functionality would be available through a separate API. However, in order to provide a more streamlined experience, this functionality will be instead available in the Calendar API.

Using the API to read a Calendar user’s working location values can help you:

Analyze the flow and volume of people through physical campuses, helping you adapt on-site resources to the needs of your employees.
Share whereabouts across other internal or third-party surfaces, making it easier to enable tasks such as hot desk booking or schedule in-office or remote working days.

We anticipate write support for the API to become available in Q3 2023 — we’ll share an update here on the Workspace Updates Blog at that time.

Getting started

Admins and Developers:

Developers can apply to Google Workspace Developer Preview Program to use this feature. For more information, see our developer documentation for reading a user's working location.
Important Note: While all developers will be able to use the API, the working location feature is only available for eligible Workspace editions.

Admins:

Visit the Help Center to learn more about configuring the working location feature for your organization.

Availability

While all developers will be able to use the API, the working location feature is only available for eligible Workspace editions:

Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade and Nonprofits customers, as well as legacy G Suite Business customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Frontline, G Suite Basic customers

Resources

Connected Sheets for Looker now available for all Looker-hosted instances

Monday, March 27, 2023

What’s changing

In 2020, we introduced Connected Sheets on Google Sheets, to help you analyze, visualize, and share billions of rows of data from your spreadsheets. Since then, we’ve made numerous improvements to the feature, including the recent announcement that you can now explore Google Cloud hosted Looker instances using Connected Sheets.

Today, we’re expanding upon this by making Connected Sheets available for Looker instances hosted on non-Google Cloud providers like AWS and Azure.

Connected Sheets for Looker now available for all Looker-hosted instances

Getting started

Admins:

End users:

If enabled by your admin, follow these steps to explore Looker data using Connected Sheets:

Rollout pace

This feature is available now for all users.

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Frontline, and Nonprofits
Not available legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Use Connected Sheets in your organization
Google Cloud: Connected Sheets for Looker is now generally available
Google Workspace Updates Blog: Explore Google Cloud hosted Looker instances using Connected Sheets
Google Help: Using Connected Sheets for Looker
Google Help: Get started with Connected Sheets for Looker
Google Cloud: Get started with Looker

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - March 24, 2023

Friday, March 24, 2023

1 New update

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.

Enhancing the Google Drive mobile experience on Android tablets

We’re optimizing the Google Drive app for tablet displays through several modernizations, including shifting the navigation bar to the side, optimizing visual components to take advantage of the larger screen, and making it easier to see file details for a selected file. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for April 3, 2023.

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 to content organization in Google Docs

We’re rolling out improvements to the formatting and customization options for tables of contents in Google Docs. We’re also reorganizing the options included in the table properties sidebar in Docs to make it easier for you to find and utilize table formatting options. Learn more.

Add or remove client-side encryption from a Google Doc

You can now choose to add client-side encryption to an existing document or remove it from an already encrypted document (File > Make a copy > Add/Remove additional encryption). This update gives you the flexibility to control encryption as your documents and projects evolve and progress. | Learn more.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog post for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains:

Refreshed interface for Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides

External label for Google Meet participants

Scheduled Release Domains:

[Weekly Recap] New free-hand PDF annotation support in the Google Drive app on Android

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

Expanding noise cancellation in Google Meet to more devices

New updates for Google Meet on Poly Android-based appliances

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

Add or remove client-side encryption from a Google Doc

Thursday, March 23, 2023

What’s changing

You can now choose to add client-side encryption to an existing document or remove it from an already encrypted document (File > Make a copy > Add/Remove additional encryption). This update gives you the flexibility to control encryption as your documents and projects evolve and progress.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 23, 2023
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 6, 2023

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: About client-side encryption
Google Help: Get started with encrypted files in Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides
Google Workspace Updates Blog: Stronger data security and privacy with Google Workspace Client-side encryption, GA support for Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Improvements to content organization in Google Docs

Monday, March 20, 2023

What’s changing

We’re rolling out improvements to the formatting and customization options for tables of contents in Google Docs. You now have the options to:

Toggle between three default styles
Toggle page numbers
Toggle tab leader styling (adds lines between a heading and the page number)
Include and indent headings based on levels

With these enhanced customizations, we hope this highly requested feature refines titles and headings to personalize the content of your document.

We’re also reorganizing the options included in the table properties sidebar in Docs to make it easier for you to find and utilize table formatting options. Upon adding or editing a table, you will notice a new “Table” section with alignment preferences and a new “Cell” section with clearer cell-specific formatting options within the table properties sidebar.

Getting started

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

Plain text
Dotted
Links

Right-click the newly created table of contents and select “Table of contents options” to open the sidebar. Visit the Help Center to learn more about adding a title, heading, or table of contents in a document.

Rollout pace

Table of Contents:

Table sidebar:

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 16, 2023

Availability

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

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - March 17, 2023

Friday, March 17, 2023

New updates

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

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.

Introducing new space manager capabilities in Google Chat

Space managers now have additional capabilities to ensure effective conversations take place in spaces: space configuration, member management, and conversation moderation. | Learn more.

External label for Google Meet participants

“External” labels will be available in Google Meet. Users will see a label in the top-left corner of their meeting screen indicating that participants who are external to the meeting host’s domain have joined the meeting. In the people panel, external participants will be denoted with the same icon. | Learn more.

Provide custom Google Meet background images for your users

Admins can now provide a set of images for the background replace feature in Google Meet. This will enable users to easily select an image that properly represents their company's specific brand and style. | Learn more.

Improving your security with shorter Session Length defaults

To further improve security for our customers, we are changing the default session length to 16 hours for existing Google Cloud customers. Note that this update refers to managing user connections to Google Cloud services (e.g. Google Cloud console), not connections to Google services (e.g. Gmail on the web). | Learn more.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog post for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains:

Save time with suggested work locations in Google Calendar

Improving Filters in Google Sheets

Scheduled Release Domains:

New option to view non-printing characters in Google Docs

Introducing new smart canvas features in Google Sheets and Google Docs (stopwatch chips)

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

Increasing efficiency through better meeting room management with room release

Google Sheets adds powerful new functions for advanced analysis

Improving accessibility of the “connect device” feature on Google Meet hardware devices

Improving the contact management experience

Google Keep notes now available on home screen of Android devices

Indicate your Google Voice availability with more options

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

Improving your security with shorter Session Length defaults

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

What’s changing

For existing customers who have session length configured to Never Expire, we are updating the session length to 16 hours. See below for more information.

Who’s impacted

Admins, end users, and developers

Why you’d use it

Many apps and services can access sensitive data or perform sensitive actions. Because of this, managing session length is foundational to cloud security and compliance. It ensures that access to the Google Cloud Platform is finite after a successful authentication, which helps deter bad actors should they gain access to credentials or devices.

Additional details

Google Cloud session controls

For existing customers who have session length configured to Never Expire, we are updating the session length to 16 hours. This ensures customers do not mistakenly grant infinite session length to users or apps using Oauth user scopes. After the session expires, users will need to re-enter their login credentials to continue their access. This impacts the following:

Settings can be customized for specific organizations, and will impact all users within that org. This is a timed session length that expires the session regardless of the user's activity. When choosing a session length, admins have the following options:

Choose from a range of predefined session lengths, or set a custom session length between 1 and 24 hours.
Configure whether users need just a password, or require a Security Key to re-authenticate.

Third-party SAML identity providers and session length controls

If your organization uses a third-party SAML-based identity provider (IdP), the cloud sessions will expire, but the user may be transparently re-authenticated (i.e. without actually being asked to present their credentials) if their session with the IdP is valid at that time. This is working as intended, as Google will redirect the user to the IdP and accept a valid assertion from the IdP. To ensure that users are required to re-authenticate at the correct frequency, evaluate the configuration options on your IdP and review the Help Center article to Set up SSO via a third party Identity provider.

Trusted applications

Some apps are not designed to gracefully handle the re-authentication scenario, which can cause confusing app behavior. Other apps are deployed for server-to-server purposes via user credentials — because they don’t require service account credentials, they are not prompted to periodically re-authenticate.

If you have specific apps like this, and you do not want them to be impacted by session length reauthentication, the org admin can add these apps to the trusted list for your organization. This will exempt the app from session length constraints, while implementing session controls for the rest of the apps and users within the organization.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 15, 2023

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace and Cloud Identity customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Set session length for Google Cloud services
Google Workspace Admin Help: Control which third-party & internal apps access Google Workspace data
Google Workspace Admin Help: Set up SSO via a third party Identity provider
Google Help: Use a security key for 2-Step Verification
Google Cloud Docs: Creating and managing organizations
Google Identity Docs: Using OAuth 2.0 for Server to Server Applications

Provide custom Google Meet background images for your users

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

What’s changing

We’ve heard from our users that having backgrounds that match your brand guidelines are important for visual polish during critical meetings. Now, admins can now provide a set of images for the background replace feature in Google Meet. This will enable users to easily select an image that properly represents their company's specific brand and style.

Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about letting your users change their backgrounds and special effects. Specifically, please refer to the “Set up custom images and “Set image access” instructions to ensure your users can use custom backgrounds.
End users: When enabled by your admin, visit the Help Center to learn more about changing your background in Meet.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout starting on March 14, 2023

Availability

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

Note: Use this Help Center article to learn more about how to properly set image access so your users can use your custom backgrounds.

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Let users apply backgrounds & special effects
Google Help: Change background and apply visual effects in Google Meet

External label for Google Meet participants

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

What’s changing

Getting started

Admins: External labels will be on by default and can be configured in the Admin console at Apps > Google Workspace > Google Meet > Google Meet Safety Settings. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing Meet settings for your users.
End users: No end user action is required — you’ll see warning labels for external participants when configured by your admin.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Frontline, and Nonprofits customers
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Manage Meet settings

Introducing new Space Manager capabilities in Google Chat

Monday, March 13, 2023

What’s changing

Last year, we announced several improvements to spaces in Google Chat to help you better organize people, topics, and projects, which included introducing the space manager role. Currently, managers can:

Remove and add participants
Assign or remove the space manager
Delete a space
Delete messages
Edit the space description
Update space access from restricted to discoverable or vice versa

Starting today, space managers will now have additional capabilities to ensure effective conversations take place in spaces:

Space configuration: enables space managers to choose if members can change space details, such as name, icon, description, and guidelines, or turn Chat history on/off for the space.
Member management: allows space managers to decide if members can add or remove members or groups to a space.
Conversation moderation: authorizes space managers to determine whether members can use @all in a space.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about optimizing Chat spaces for your organization.
End users: Go to the space menu > select “Space settings” > configure space settings and modify permissions as needed. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing your space settings.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Not available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - March 10, 2023

Friday, March 10, 2023

1 New update

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.

Additional details for the updated Gmail experience on Android foldable devices and tablets

Last month, we announced an improved Chat, Meet, and Gmail experience on Android foldable devices and tablets. To provide additional details on functionality, Gmail supports a 2-pane view in landscape orientation only. | This is now available. | 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.

Indicate your Google Voice availability with more options

We’re making it easier for you to indicate your availability in Google Voice on web and mobile. Previously, you could only indicate your availability for all of your ring groups. This update gives you greater flexibility to manage your Ring Group availability in Google Voice, without the need to sign-out of Voice or block all incoming calls using “Do Not Disturb”. | Available to Google Voice Standard and Premier customers only. | Learn more.

Refreshed interface for Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides

In the coming weeks, you’ll notice a new look and feel for Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides on the web. Following the release of Google Material Design 3, the refreshed user interface is purposefully designed to streamline core collaboration journeys across our products. | Learn more.

New updates for Google Meet on Poly Android-based appliances

We are rolling out updates to Google Meet to support our upcoming launch of Google Meet on Poly Android-based appliances. Within the Google admin console, admins can enroll Poly devices and include reporting of these new appliances. The Google Meet hardware experience will become available in the upcoming Poly OS 4.0 update as part of the Poly Studio X series family. | Learn more.

Managed Android devices must upgrade to Android Device Policy during March 2023

In 2019, we announced that a new Android management client, Android Device Policy, would replace the legacy Google Apps Device Policy client. We’re now in the final stages of this upgrade. All devices with the Google Apps Device Policy will lose access during March 2023 if they have not already upgraded. | Learn more.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog post for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains:

New option to view non-printing characters in Google Docs

[Weekly Recap] New free-hand PDF annotation support in the Google Drive app on Android

Introducing new smart canvas features in Google Sheets and Google Docs

Scheduled Release Domains:

Improved membership management for spaces

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

[Weekly Recap] More ways to work with BigQuery data in Google Sheets (4 new Sheets functions)

[Weekly Recap] 360 degree video backgrounds available for Google Meet on mobile

Programmatically manage and apply Google Drive label taxonomy changes

Expanding noise cancellation to phone participants

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

Managed Android devices must upgrade to Android Device Policy during March 2023

Thursday, March 9, 2023

What’s changing

In 2019, we announced that a new Android management client, Android Device Policy, would replace the legacy Google Apps Device Policy client. We’re now in the final stages of this upgrade.

All devices with the Google Apps Device Policy will lose access during March 2023 if they have not already upgraded. Existing Google Apps Device Policy app users must switch to Android Device Policy before then to continue syncing work data. Note that, per our last update, the new user registration flow on the legacy Google Apps Device Policy will be blocked and users may see errors during the registration process as of January 2022. Admins can act directly from the alert in the Admin console to identify users who need to upgrade.

Visit the Help Center to learn more about migrating to Android Device Policy and our previous announcement for more information.

Getting started

Admins: Admins can find devices which may need to act in the Admin console. Visit our Help Center to learn more about the differences between Android Device Policy and Google Apps Device Policy. Different devices may need to take different steps to upgrade:

Advanced management devices:

Basic management devices:

Find basic management devices by going to Admin console > Mobile devices and filtering for Type: Android and Management level: Basic.
Instruct users of these devices to upgrade the Android OS to version 6.0 Marshmallow or later.

End users: Affected users can visit our Help Center to learn how to transition devices from Google Apps Device Policy to Android Device Policy.

Rollout pace

Devices on the old agent will lose access during March 2023.
Android Device Policy is available now and all users should upgrade to avoid disruption.

Availability

This change impacts Google Workspace customers who use basic and advanced mobile management.

Resources

New updates for Google Meet on Poly Android-based appliances

Thursday, March 9, 2023

What’s changing

This update will become available over the next few weeks. However customers and admins can try out this experience ahead of the official Poly OS 4.0 launch by downloading the current beta candidate for their Studio X series device. For more information, please reach out to your Poly account team or reseller.

Additional details

The Google Meet hardware experience will be available on the Poly Studio X series family once they have been updated to Poly OS 4.0. Admins can enroll these devices and manage them as part of the regular Google Admin console experience. The Poly Studio X family offers appliances of all sizes: Studio X30 for small rooms, Studio X50 for medium rooms, and Studio X70 for large rooms.

This latest update will make it easier for customers currently using the Studio X line to switch to Google Meet from other conferencing platforms. It also offers new customers more choice and flexibility in their hardware options for Google Meet.

Google Meet on Poly Android appliances require Google Meet hardware licenses; these can be purchased through authorized resellers. Please contact your existing Google Meet hardware or Poly reseller for more details.

Getting started

Admins

End users: No action required. Once a Studio X Series device has been successfully enrolled, you can join Google Meet meetings normally.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature availability) beginning March 9, 2023

Availability

Available on Poly X30, X50 and X70 with support for additional Poly devices will be added over time
Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Licensing FAQ

Refreshed interface for Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides

Monday, March 6, 2023

What’s changing

In Docs, Sheets, and Slides, you’ll see improvements such as:

A simplified user interface at the top of your docs, sheets, and slides, helping you find frequently used actions faster
Additional user experience improvements in commenting, background, rulers, and gridlines.
Note that while there are no changes in functionality, some features have been relocated to reduce clutter within the new interface. Notably, you can find the latest status info for the doc, such as last edit and version history, via a single entry point: the clock icon in the top right corner.

In Drive, you’ll see improvements such as:

Key actions surfaced inline on files, for quick access and increased productivity.
Ability to select multiple items at a time and undertake batch operations for frequent tasks.
New search chips (including type, owner, and last modified) to help you find files faster.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why it matters

These key visual and interactive design changes will help you get your best work done faster by emphasizing the tools within our products used most frequently. For more information, check out the latest on the Workspace blog.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available to users with personal Google accounts

Resources

Workspace Blog: New experiences in smart canvas deliver more flow, less work

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.

______________

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.

______________

Updates

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - March 31, 2023

Find files quicker with search chips in Google Drive

Admins can install Chat apps for use in direct messages

Launching in beta: manage working locations with the Calendar API

Connected Sheets for Looker now available for all Looker-hosted instances

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - March 24, 2023

Add or remove client-side encryption from a Google Doc

Improvements to content organization in Google Docs

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - March 17, 2023

Improving your security with shorter Session Length defaults

Provide custom Google Meet background images for your users

External label for Google Meet participants

Introducing new Space Manager capabilities in Google Chat

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - March 10, 2023

Managed Android devices must upgrade to Android Device Policy during March 2023

New updates for Google Meet on Poly Android-based appliances

Refreshed interface for Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides

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