Closed caption support in Google Meet expands to an additional thirty-one languages

What’s changing

We’ve expanded support for closed captioning to include the following additional languages:

-Afrikaans

-Albanian 

-Amharic 

-Armenian

-Australian English

-Basque

-Burmese

-Catalan

-English (India)

-English (Philippines)

-Estonian

-Farsi

-Filipino

-Galician 

-Georgian

-Hungarian

-Javanese

-Latvian

-Macedonian

-Mongolian

-Nepali

-Norwegian

-Sinhala

-Slovak

-Slovenian

-Sundanese 

-Tamil (India)

-Telugu (India)

-Urdu

-Uzbek

– Zulu

You’ll notice that the newly supported languages are denoted with a “beta” tag as we continue to optimize performance.

Getting started

Admins: There is no impact for this update.End users: These languages will be available by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using closed captions in Google Meet.

Rollout pace

This update is available now for all users.

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources

Improving space creation in Google Chat

What’s changing

We are making two improvements to the space creation flow in Google Chat: preventing duplicate space names and providing a method to configure spaces for specific use cases. 
In order to prevent duplicate space names in Google Chat, you will no longer be able to create a space within your company’s domain if the space name already exists. Similar to the experience in Gmail and Google Groups, if a space name already exists, an error message will appear. The same will happen if a user tries to edit the name of a space to another name that already exists. 
This feature will not immediately apply to space names created via Chat API. Starting June 3, 2024, spaces created via Chat API will also be subject to this error. 
Starting this week, you will also notice an updated user interface when creating a new space in Chat. In addition to easily determining access settings, you can now designate the space for Collaboration (useful for discussing a topic or team project) or for Announcements (helpful for facilitating one-way controlled communication such as company-wide updates). 
After creating the space, an updated welcome page will appear with contextual options that provide users with next steps depending on the space type selected. For a Collaboration space, users get the options to add members, share files, assign tasks and create a welcome message that appears when a new member joins the space. You will also have the ability to toggle “History on” and will see contextual suggestions for eligible apps (based on popular apps in your domain) to explore in Marketplace and add into the space. For an Announcement space, users will get the option to add groups, manage space permissions and add guidelines on how to use the space. 

Getting started 

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. End users: You will receive an error message when editing or creating a space in Google Chat that has the name of a space that already exists. Existing spaces with the same name will not be impacted. Visit the Help Center to learn more about the new space creation flow. Developers: Update apps created via Chat API to ensure they do not conflict with this new error code for duplicate space names by June 3, 2024. 

Rollout pace 

Duplicate space name
Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 25, 2024 

New space creation flow

Web: 
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 25, 2024 Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 12, 2024 
Mobile: 
This feature will be available on mobile by the end of Q1 2024 

Availability 

Available to all Google Workspace customers and Google Workspace Individual subscribers 

Resources 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – January 26, 2024

2 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if 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.

Updated List / Grid toggle now available in Google Drive 
To make the List / Grid toggle more visible in Google Drive, we’ve introduced a new split-button toggle with the updated Google Material Design 3. This toggle is now available across all Drive web pages, making it easier for you to switch between viewing modes based on your preference. | The List / Grid toggle is now available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about viewing and reordering your files and folders.
Jump to where your collaborator is while editing in Google Sites
When working on content in Google Docs or Slides, you can go to wherever your collaborator is working within the document or presentation by clicking their avatar in the top right corner. This week, we’re excited to announce a similar feature in Google Sites. Now, when a Site editor clicks on a collaborator’s avatar, they will jump to the selected tile of the clicked collaborator. If the collaborator is on a different page, the site editor will be taken to that page. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for February 12, 2024. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about following a collaborator on Google Sites.

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.
Manage reported Google Chat content from the new moderation tool in the Admin console 
We’re introducing a centralized location for reviewing and taking action on reported Google Chat content in the Admin console under Apps > Google Workspace > Moderation, alongside the email quarantine tool for Gmail. | Google Chat content reporting and moderation is available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers only. | Learn more about reported Google Chat content. 
Closed caption support in Google Meet expands to an additional thirty-one languages 
We’ve expanded support for closed captioning to include additional languages. | Learn more about captions & translated captions in Google Meet. 
Improving space creation in Google Chat 
We are making two improvements to the space creation flow in Google Chat: preventing duplicate space names and providing a method to configure spaces for specific use cases. | Learn more about space creation in Google Chat.

Completed rollouts

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

Rapid Release Domains: 

Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

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

Use comments & action items on your client-side encrypted Google Docs

What’s changing 

You can now collaborate with others on client-side encrypted Google Docs to add, edit, reply, filter, or delete comments. You can also assign action items to yourself or others. This added functionality helps bring parity to unencrypted docs while also ensuring your data is behind encryption keys you control, including the identity provider used to access those keys. 
This feature is available as an open beta, which means you can use it without enrolling in a specific beta program. While this feature is available for Google Docs initially, with support coming for Google Sheets and Slides in the future.

Additional details

Note that when sharing encrypted files, you can only assign “viewer” or “editor” permissions — the “comment only” permission is not supported.
Comments are saved each time the document is autosaved. If you restore the document to a previous version, the comments added to the document in that version are also restored.

Getting started

Admins: Client-side encryption can be enabled at the domain, OU, and Group levels (Admin console > Security > Access and data control > Client-side encryption). Visit our Help Center to learn more about client-side encryption.End users: If client-side encryption is enabled by your admin, use our Help Center to learn more about working with encrypted files in Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 16, 2024Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 1, 2024

Availability

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

Resources

Extending Trusted Types to Gmail

What’s changing

Last year, we improved the client-side security of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, Drawings, Drive, and Calendar with Trusted Types. This browser-based runtime feature limits the uses of Document Object Model (DOM) APIs that are used by the apps listed above or third-party extensions. Trusted Types also reduce the possibility of Document Object Model Cross Site Scripting (DOM XSS), which continues to be one of the most critical threats to web security. 
DOM XSS occurs when a cyber attacker injects malicious code into a web page, which can then be executed by the victim’s browser. This can allow the cyber attacker to steal cookies, hijack sessions, and even take control of the victim’s computer. 
To defend against this, we’re excited to announce the expansion of Trusted Types to Gmail. This will provide a defense against DOM XSS and further enhances our advanced data protection controls to keep users and data safe across more of the apps they use everyday. 

Who’s impacted 

Developers (relying on any Chrome extensions that modify DOM APIs.) 

Additional details 

This new enforcement mode will require third-party extensions to use typed objects instead of strings when assigning values to DOM APIs. Once Trusted Types are fully enforced, the Trusted Types directive will be present in the Content Security Policy (CSP) header: 
Content-Security-Policy: require-trusted-types-for ‘script’;report-uri https://mail.google.com/mail/cspreport 

Getting started 

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. Developers: To make code Trusted Types compliant, signal to the browser that data being used within the context of these DOM APIs is trustworthy by creating a Trusted Type special object. There are several ways to be Trusted Types compliant, such as removing the offending code, using a library (such as safevalues or DOMPurify), or creating a Trusted Types policy. To ensure a seamless experience for users, we recommend employing these techniques before Trusted Types enforcement is rolled out. Failure to make code Trusted Types compliant may cause feature breakages for third-party extensions as their DOM manipulations will be blocked by the browser. End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. 

Rollout pace 

Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 12, 2024 Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 11, 2024 

Availability 

Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources