Manage access to eSignature in Google Workspace

What’s changing

Starting today, the admin control for Google Workspace’s eSignature feature is live for select Google Workspace editions. Admins can control users’ ability to request signatures before eSignature rolls out to end users in the coming weeks.
To configure this setting, go to Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > eSignature in the Admin console. Admins can manage eSignature access at the Organizational Unit (OU) level or the Group level, as shown below:
The eSignature control in the Admin console

Why you’d use it 

Admins can manage access to eSignature in advance of the feature rollout to end users so only the appropriate groups will have the ability to request eSignatures. Note: the admin control does not restrict users from providing eSignatures via the feature.

Additional details

eSignature for Google Docs is rolling out to end users soon
In the coming weeks, we will roll out eSignature for Google Docs to end users on select Google Workspace editions. eSignature offers a variety of features to help you streamline requesting and capturing signatures, helping you stay organized and keep your work moving along. Specifically, you can:
Request eSignatures, including signatures from more than one user and from non-Gmail users.View the status of pending signatures and find completed contracts.Keep contract templates to initiate multiple eSignature requests.View an audit trail of completed contracts,Use custom text fields to request additional information from signers, such as job titles, email addresses and more. Sign contracts from both mobile devices and PCs. 

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be ON by default and can be configured at the OU and Group level. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning eSignature on or off for your users.End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending signature requests & sign documents with eSignature.

Rollout pace

Admin setting
Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) June 24, 2024
End user availability
Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 8, 2024

Availability

Available to Google WorkspaceBusiness Standard and PlusEnterprise Starter, Standard and PlusEnterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus Education Plus customers
eSignature is already available for Google Workspace individual subscribers. 

Google Classroom add-ons now generally available to Google Workspace developers

What’s changing

In 2022, we made it easy to seamlessly access popular Education Technology tools directly in Google Classroom. We partnered with 20+ EdTech companies, including Kahoot!, Pear Deck, IXL, ReadWorks, and Nearpod, to build Google Classroom add-ons. These new integrations let educators and students easily find, use, and grade great content in their favorite EdTech tools without having to navigate to external websites and apps. 
Today, we’re excited to make Classroom add-ons generally available to all developers. Now, developers can build an add-on to allow teachers to do the following within Classroom: 
Discover and attach content to coursework 
Preview content from student perspective 
Review student responses to activities 
Save time with automatic grading of student responses 

Who’s impacted 

Admins, end users, and developers 

Why it’s important 

Add-ons complement other Classroom API features and let educators and students experience content without having to leave Google Classroom. In addition, Classroom add-ons show up directly in Google Classroom as well on the Google Workspace Marketplace, which is the hub for administrators to manage tools across all of their Google products. 

Getting started 

Admins: District admins must enable access to add-ons in order for educators to use these features. Visit the Help Center to learn more about installation instructions for setting up the add-ons feature and individual add-ons for a domain, OU, or group. Once you’ve set up add-ons, your district can use this professional development kit, which includes a presentation and lesson plan, to train educators on how to get started with add-ons. Developers:
All developers can now build a Classroom add-on. Learn how to get started using the Developer Documentation here. Educators: Browse the Google Workspace Marketplace or Google for Education App Hub to find and install add-ons that you can install for yourself. Once you or an administrator has installed an add-on, you will see an “add-ons” module when creating Announcements, Assignments, or Materials. Select one of the listed providers to launch their add-on. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using add-ons in Classroom. 

Rollout pace 

This feature is now available 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
Education Plus and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

Bringing our Learning Interoperability Tools under one umbrella: Google Workspace LTI™

What’s changing 

Going forward, all Learning Interoperability Tools, including Assignments LTI™, and Google Drive LTI™, will be consolidated into a single category: Google Workspace LTI™. There are no functionality changes with this update, but you will notice the following: 
Assignments will be renamed to Google Workspace LTI™ in the Admin console and Google Workspace LTI™ in the Google Cloud console All LTI tools managed in the Admin console with the Google Workspace LTI™ service The Google Assignments Help Center will be rebranded to Google Workspace LTI™. The community forum will remain the same. 

Getting started 

Admins: You’ll notice these updates automatically. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Google Workspace LTI™.End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

Rollout pace

Available now.

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:
Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade

Resources

Introducing Colab Pro and Colab Pro+ for Google Workspace

 What’s changing

Currently, Google Workspace admins can turn Colab on for their users, allowing them to access the free version of Colab. Beginning today, we’re pleased to announce the Colab Pro and Colab Pro+ standalone subscriptions for Google Workspace customers:

Collab Pro offers 100 compute units that grant access to additional powerful GPUs, memory, features, and productivity enhancements enabled with AI assistance.Colab Pro+ gives you all the benefits of Colab Pro like productivity enhancements enabled with AI assistance, plus an additional 400 compute units for a total of 500 per month that grant access to additional powerful GPUs, along with background execution for our longest-running sessions.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s important

Colab provides access to Google’s powerful computational resources, which can be used to train machine learning models and perform other data-intensive tasks — all from your web browser. It can be used for a variety of data science and machine learning tasks, including:
Exploratory data analysisDeveloping with the Gemini APIMachine learning model developmentNatural language processing such as text classification and sentiment analysisImage processing such as object detection and image classification.
We know that many Colab users are also Google Workspace users, especially those within educational institutions. Colab Pro and Colab Pro+ can help enhance their work and research with more compute units, faster GPUs, more memory and more.
Further, these offerings can help admins efficiently subscribe an entire team or organization to Colab, thereby minimizing the friction associated with setting up individual accounts for each user. By managing subscriptions at the group level, organizations can more effectively support collaborative workflows and ensure that all team members have access to the resources they need.

Getting started

Admins: Access to the Admin console is required to initiate purchase. To purchase Workspace Colab Pro or Colab Pro+, go to Billing > Get more services > More products. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to assign licenses to users after purchase, as well as available Google Workspace subscriptions.For Google Workspace for Education K-12 customers: The access control for Colab is OFF by default and requires Admins to enable this control if they want users in their domain to access Google Colab. Before turning access to Colab ON, Admins are required to obtain parental consent for <18 users because Colab is included as an Additional Service. Consent can be requested with this notice template

End users: Colab is OFF by default and can be enabled by your Admin. Note that if you have purchased Colab’s “Pay As You Go” offering for yourself, you can continue using it in addition with Colab Pro and Pro+. 

Additional admin space management capabilities in Google Chat API are now available

What’s changing 

We recently announced several new features for the Google Chat API that enable admins to manage spaces at scale. These features include the ability to audit spaces, delete inactive spaces in bulk, and more. 
Today, we’re pleased to announce more space management capabilities, which include the ability to: 
Look up details about specific space.Update space details, including the name of a space, space description, and space guidelines. Verify user’s membership status in a specific space. Upgrade a role from space member to space manager. 

These features are available now through our Developer Preview Program — see here for more information on how to enroll in the Developer Preview program

Getting started 

Admins and developers: If you are part of the Google Workspace Developer Preview, you will get these features by default. Otherwise, you must apply for access using this form. Use our Developer Documentation to learn how to authenticate and authorize using administrator privilege. End users: There is no end user impact or action required. 

Rollout pace 

This feature is available now through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program 

Availability

New features for the Google Chat API scoped to admin users are available to participants of Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. 

Resources