Google Meet is now available on Logitech Android appliances

What’s changing 

Google Meet is now supported on Logitech’s Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini Android-based appliances for collaboration rooms and spaces of just about any size. After initial setup, admins can easily enroll, manage, and monitor these devices using the Google admin console. Google Meet on Logitech Android-based devices is supported on CollabOS v1.11 as a video conferencing provider.

The following Logitech Android devices now support Google Meet: 

Logitech Rally Bar Logitech Rally Bar Mini
Tap IP

Additional details

As part of this launch, we are also providing admins with a new capability to protect their room devices using a passcode. This ensures that only authorized users are able to access and change the room’s device settings. This feature is only available for Logitech Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini in appliance mode, where Rally Bar’s built-in computer supports Google Meet without the need for an additional computer or a user’s laptop. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up Logitech devices as Meet Hardware and enrolling your devices.

Getting started

Admins: Logitech Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini appliances will need to be updated to CollabOS 1.11 in order to select Google Meet as the conferencing partner application. Once the device is updated to CollabOS 1.11 and the conferencing partner is set to Google Meet, follow the on-device prompts to enroll the device onto the Google Meet hardware admin console. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up Logitech devices as Meet Hardware.Google Meet on Logitech Android appliances require Google Meet hardware licenses, please reach out to a Google Meet hardware reseller. 

End users: No action required. Once a Logitech Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini have been successfully enrolled, you can join Google Meet meetings normally.

Rollout pace

This update is available as part of Logitech’s CollabOS 1.11 release. For more information, please reach out to your Logitech account team or reseller.

Availability

Available on Logitech Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini customers. Support for additional Logitech devices will be added over time. Available to all Google Workspace customers.

Resources

Easily share Google Drive files to Google Calendar meeting attendees

What’s changing

Since introducing the new sharing dialog for Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms in 2020, we’ve made several enhancements to make sharing effortless across Workspace. Today, we’re excited to announce the option to share any file with all meeting participants on a Google Calendar invite via the sharing dialog within a file. 
As a file owner or editor, go to the Share button in a file > type in the title of a calendar event > select the event > confirm the correct list of meeting attendees are added > select the users’ access level > click Share. 
If you’d like to link the file to the calendar invite, you can select “Attach to calendar event” before clicking Share. 

Who’s impacted 

End users 

Why you’d use it 

We know sharing files is critical to building a collaborative environment. With this new feature, users can easily share files with meeting attendees before a meeting, ensuring everyone is prepared and able to collaborate on the same file. 

Additional details 

If you attach a file directly to a Calendar invite, you will see a pop-up asking if you’d like to share the file with the meeting attendees. 

Getting started 

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. End users: To share a file to a calendar event, you must be the file owner or editor and be a participant on the meeting that you’re sharing to on your calendar. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sharing files from Google Drive. 

Rollout pace 

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 11, 2024 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Launch the Lucidspark whiteboarding app directly from Google Meet Series One Board 65 and Desk 27 devices

What’s changing 

In September 2023, we announced the next phase of digital whiteboarding for Google Workspace. At that time, we announced that new whiteboarding tools would soon be integrated with Series One Board 65 and Desk 27 devices. By the end of the month, Lucidspark by Lucid Software can be launched directly from these devices. With this integration, users will be able to share and participate in a Lucidspark whiteboard session in a Meet call, either initiated from the Series One Board 65 and Desk 27 or a remote participant on the call.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it 

Integrating third-party collaboration tools is a key component of the new digital whiteboarding experience in Google Workspace. Specifically, we’ve heard from our customers that whiteboarding tools like Lucidspark by Lucid Software help their teams work better together with features like infinite canvas, templates, and diagramming. Today, Lucidspark can already be launched inside a Meet call from your laptop. Now, you also have the option to use Lucidspark on the Board 65 and Desk 27 devices within a Meet call.
Later this year we’ll introduce support for launching FigJam and Miro directly from Board 65 and Desk 27 devices. We’ll provide an update here on the Workspace Updates blog with more information at that time. For more information on the future of digital whiteboarding in Workspace, please refer to our initial announcement.

Getting started

Admins: When the Lucidspark add-on is installed for your organization, your users will automatically be able to access the app from Board 65 or Desk 27 devices. Visit the Help Center to learn more about installing add-ons for your organization.

End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about using add-ons with Google Meet on Desk 27 and Board 65 devices.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on January 29, 2024

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet Board 65 and Desk 27 devices

Updates to metrics in Google Drive Apps Reports and Reports API

What’s changing

We’re making some updates to the Google Drive metrics in the Admin Console Apps reports and the Reports API. As a result of these improvements, admins who analyze metrics will have more reporting clarity and can better understand activity trends within their domain. Specific changes include: 
Metric dates will shift from Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) to Pacific Standard Time (PST).Moving files between team drives and directly sharing items inside shared drives will now be included in the sharing metrics.Sharing items with embedded content will now be counted as a single action in the sharing metrics, versus being counted twice. Metrics that calculate the number of owned items added or removed will no longer include activity for changing permissions that do not impact a user’s ability to access a file.

Who’s impacted 

Admins 

Getting started 

Admins: Admins with Drive Audit-enabled SKUs can access the metrics in the Admin Console > Reporting > Apps Reports or through the Reports API. End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. 

Rollout pace 

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 9, 2024

Availability 

Metrics are available to customers on Drive Audit-enabled SKUs with access to the Admin Console and Reports API. This includes: Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline Starter, Frontline Standard, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Nonprofits, Cloud Identity and Cloud Identity Premium customers

Resources 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – January 5, 2024

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.

Updates for managed iOS devices with the release of Chrome 120 

In the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing several improvements to Chrome-on-iOS that will help admins more seamlessly apply policies and preferences across their users’ managed devices. This launch will align with the planned release of Chrome 120. | Learn more about updates for managed iOS devices. 

Improvements to Google Meet ultra-low latency live streaming 
We’re introducing several improvements for the overall experience of the ultra-low latency viewing experience for video meetings that are streamed within an organization. | Live streaming is available for Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus customers only. Live streamed meetings can be viewed by Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus, Essentials Starter, and Essentials users only. | Learn more about Google Meet ultra-low latency live streaming.
Convert Google Forms into practice sets in Google Classroom 
Teachers can now import a Google Form into practice set questions, and benefit from the assistive features, such as suggested resources and hints, in-the-moment support for students and insights. | Available to Google Workspace Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade only. | Learn more about importing questions from Google Forms.

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).

Convert Google Forms into practice sets in Google Classroom

What’s changing

Last year, we announced a new tool in Google Classroom called practice sets that enables educators to transform new and existing content into engaging and interactive assignments. Students get real-time feedback on answers as they complete practice sets and then teachers receive performance insights and snapshots into student progress. 
Since launching, we’ve given teachers more control over the resources for students in practice sets and today we’re excited to announce an additional way to save teachers time when creating assignments. We know teachers have already invested a lot of time creating quiz assignments using Google Forms, and with this update, they can simply import a Google Form into practice set questions, and benefit from the assistive features, such as suggested resources and hints, in-the-moment support for students and insights. 

Getting started 

Admins: Practice sets are enabled by default, but admins need to add teachers to the verified teacher group in order for them to receive a shared practice set from other teachers in their Google Workspace. End users: To access practice sets, go to Google Classroom > Practice sets > Create (or practicesets.classroom.google.com). Visit the Help Center to learn more about Practice sets. Forms import to Practice sets is ON by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about importing questions from Google Forms

Rollout pace 

This feature is now available. 

Availability 

Available to Google Workspace Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

Improvements to Google Meet ultra-low latency live streaming

What’s changing 

Earlier this year, we announced a new ultra-low latency viewing experience for video meetings that are streamed within an organisation. Since launch, we’ve introducing several improvements for the overall experience: 
Meeting hosts can now add or start live streaming from any ongoing Meet call, even if it wasn’t initially planned to be live streamed. 


To start a live stream, at the bottom right select Activities > Live Streaming

Live stream viewers can now see the size of the audience (call participants and viewers) in the top left live stream indicator. 

The join screen now has a quick-access button, which meeting participants can use to join a live stream if they prefer that experience over the regular call.Video feed will start even faster when joining live streams with large audiences.Viewing live streams from the Google Meet mobile app on Android and iOS devices is now supported. These improvements will be available for Google Meet on web and meeting room hardware. Support for the Meet mobile app is outlined below in the “Rollout” section.

Getting started

Admins: Visit our Help Center for more information turning live streaming on or off for Meet and how to prepare your network. End users: When enabled by your admin, use the Help Center to learn more about live streaming a video meeting. Viewers: On the computer, you can join streams as before. Reactions, polls and live Q&A work like in a regular Meet video meeting. On mobile, you can now join streams within the Meet app with some feature restrictions. Learn more. Live stream hosts: Live streams are scheduled and managed just like before. 

Rollout pace 

Join live streams from the Google Meet mobile apps: 
Android Rapid Release domains: Available now. Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) beginning on January 3, 2024, with anticipated completion by January 11, 2024 
iOS Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) beginning on January 3, 2024, with anticipated completion by January 8, 2024 Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) beginning on January 8, 2024, with anticipated completion by January 18, 2024
Meet in GmailRapid Release domains: Available now. Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) beginning on January 3, 2024, with anticipated completion by January 11, 2024 
All other updates mentioned in this post are available now. 

Availability

Live streaming is available for Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus customers. 

Live streamed meetings can be viewed by Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning. Upgrade, Education Plus, Essentials Starter, and Essentials users.

Not available to users with personal Google accounts. 

Updates for managed iOS devices with the release of Chrome 120

What’s changing

In the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing several improvements to Chrome-on-iOS that will help admins more seamlessly apply policies and preferences across their users’ managed devices. This launch will align with the planned release of Chrome 120. Specifically, these improvements are: 
Cross-device policy application: Whether it’s a company-owned or personal device, Chrome User Policies can be applied when a user signs into the Chrome browser with their managed account. This ensures a consistent and secure browsing experience across all devices.Management notice for end-users: Managed end-users will begin seeing a management notice, informing them that their organization manages the account they are signing into. This transparency not only fosters trust but also keeps users informed about the security measures in place to protect their data. Admin console integration: Admins can easily activate this functionality through the Admin console under the “Chrome on iOS” Browser setting. This centralized control allows admins to tailor policies to meet the specific needs of their organization, ensuring a customized and secure browsing environment for all users.

Getting started

Admins: In the Admin console, navigate to Chrome browser > Settings > Chrome on iOS to start applying policies and preferences. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting Chrome policies for users or browsers.

End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about how your iOS device is managed.

 
We’ll remind you that your account is managed upon login and when you’re logged in.

Rollout pace

End user notifications
Rapid and Scheduled release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) beginning on January 3, 2024
Admin console integration
Rapid and Scheduled release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) beginning January 24, 2024.

Availability

Available to all Chrome Browser Cloud Management and Google Workspace customers

Resources

Certain Google Meet hardware information will no longer be accessible on the admin console

What’s changing

We’re making some changes to how certain Google Meet hardware information can be accessed: 
The following fields will no longer be exported from the Meet Devices list page of the Admin console (Devices > Google Meet hardware > Devices): assignedCalendarGeneratedResourceName assignedRoomResourceName assignedRoomBuilding assignedRoomFloor If you receive email alerts when a hardware issue is detected, those emails will no longer include the “Asset location” value. This information can still be found by going to the device detail page under the Calendar card or by querying the resources.calendars.list method in the Admin SDK API using the resource calendar email. 

Getting started 

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about connectivity and peripheral alerts. End users: There is no end user impact or action required. 

Rollout pace 

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 2, 2024 

Availability 

This update impacts all Google Workspace customers with Meet Hardware devices. 

Resources 

New beta to add granular control options for who can respond to Google Forms

What’s changing

We’re introducing a beta that gives Google Forms creators more granular control over who can respond to their forms via sharing settings. 
Previously, forms creators had two sharing options: restrict responses to users within their domain (and trusted domains) or make forms public (i.e. anyone with the URL can respond). With this new option, form creators can limit response access to specific users, groups, or target audiences—similar to how file owners can restrict the sharing of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides or Sites in Drive. 

Who’s impacted 

Admins, end users and developers 

Why you’d use it 

This feature is useful in any scenario where you’d like to control who can respond to a form. For example, teachers can use this to ensure a quiz is only accessible to select students who receive the link. Similarly, business leaders can better collect feedback from specific organizational units and prevent the form from collecting email addresses or from being forwarded. 

Getting started 

Admins: For a limited time, you can sign your organization up for the beta using this form. Upon signing up, users within the Google group signed up for the beta should see the new feature within 2-3 weeks. End users: All new forms created by users who are allowlisted will be enabled into this feature. Form creators must publish their form to enable responders to view the form or submit a response. Form creators can see who has access to the form and share response access to specific users, groups, or target audiences. Visit the Help Center to learn more about creating a form in Google Forms. Users with personal Google Accounts or Workspace Individual subscribers can sign up using this form. 

Availability 

Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts Note: The target audiences feature mentioned above is only available for the Google Drive and Docs and Google Chat services. Supported editions for this feature on Drive, Docs & Chat include: Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus, Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus. Supported editions for this feature on Drive & Docs only include: Business Standard, Nonprofits and G Suite Business. 

Resources