Streamlining the user experience in Google Chat to help you find what you need much faster

What’s changing 

We recently introduced numerous enhancements across Google Chat, and today we’re excited to announce the general availability of three features highlighting a new integrated experience. 
The redesigned navigation panel brings direct messages and spaces together and introduces shortcuts, a new framework to help you stay on top of your messages. 
To reduce friction while navigating between messages, home helps you quickly catch up on any new activity across all conversations in a single location. Additionally, you can narrow down your view by filtering for unread messages. 

Mentions give you visibility into the messages addressed specifically to you. Within this single destination for important, actionable messages, you can see and navigate to the messages that @-mention you. 

In addition to these improvements to the user experience, we’re updating the icon for Google Chat over the coming weeks. The new icon has a cohesive look with other popular Workspace products and reflects the central role of business messaging and collaboration in Workspace. 

Who’s impacted 

End users 

Why you’d use it 

These features are designed to help you stay on top of the busy flow of communication and make it easier to prioritize and find the conversations that are most important to you. 

Additional details 

The direct message and spaces sections will be listed separately, but are scrollable and collapsable in one unified list. 
The list of messages where you have been @-mentioned are sorted by recency. 
Each row represents the message within the thread that mentions you. If you are mentioned multiple times in a conversation, each mention will show up as one row. Unread messages are highlighted in light blue and include a blue dot. Clicking on a message in the Home or Mentions view will bring you directly to the conversation or thread where you can respond. 

Getting started 

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. End users: These features will be ON by default. Visit the Help Center to learn how to use Google Chathow to get started with Google Chat and how to mention someone else in a message.

Rollout pace 

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 9, 2023 Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 4, 2023 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Filter by people or groups in Google Drive

What’s changing

We’re adding a new filter to Google Drive that lets you see which files or folders have been shared with specific people or groups. 
Whether you’re trying to share a file with more audiences or reduce oversharing, this feature will give you greater visibility into who has access to files within and outside of your organization. 

Getting started 

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. The groups that appear in the People filter are based on the target audiences set up at the domain level by admins.  End users: To find files shared with a person or group in drive.google.com: Navigate to My Drive, Shared drives, Shared with me, or RecentClick on “People” filterSearch for a person or group who the files are shared with in the filterSelect “Shared with”View the filtered list of filesTo find files shared outside of your organization: Navigate to My Drive, Shared drives, Shared with me, or RecentClick on “People” filterSelect “External users”View the filtered list of filesTo find files you own that are shared with a specific person or group: Navigate to My Drive, Shared drives, Shared with me, or RecentClick on “People” filterSearch for yourself and select “Owner”Click on “People” filterSearch for a person or group who the files are shared with in the filterView the filtered list of files

Rollout pace 

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 9, 2023 Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 5, 2023 

Availability 

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

Improvements for scheduling large scale meetings on the web

What’s changing 

We’re making several changes which will make scheduling large scale meetings (up to 100k guests per event) easier and guide schedulers through the process with more context. Once you’ve created and saved a Calendar event which contains a large group of attendees, you can open the event to check on the invitation progress. As groups are successfully added, they will appear in the guest list and you will see an “invitation in progress” message as invitations are being sent.
Note the “invitation in progress” message as invitations are being sent.

As groups are successfully added, they will appear in the guest list
You’ll see these updates when using Calendar on the web and as such we recommend using Calendar on the web to schedule larger events.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why it’s important

Coordinating events with a large number of attendees can be complex — including ensuring that all attendees have been successfully invited. We’ve introduced these updates to help you more confidently schedule large group events. Specifically, you will now have clarity whether the event was successfully saved and invitations sent to all participants, or still in progress. If the scheduling fails, you’ll be informed of the exact status including who has been invited and who has not, to make it easy for you to fix the issue. We hope this improved experience helps you confidently schedule larger meetings, like all-hands meetings or town halls. 

Additional details

If there’s a problem inviting guests, you’ll see an error message when you open the Calendar event, as well as a notification via email. In both cases, we’ll share more context regarding the error and how to fix it. For example, we’ll let you know if you’ve exceeded the Calendar event limit of 100k guests and recommend that you add smaller groups or duplicate the event to accommodate more attendees.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin impact or action required for this update.End users: You’ll notice these improvements automatically. Visit the Help Center to learn more about inviting groups to calendar events.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 10, 2023Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 20, 2023

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers

Resources

Introducing a new homepage in the Google Drive app

What’s changing

We’re updating the homepage of the Google Drive mobile app on Android and iOS mobile devices to help you more easily find the right file much faster. 
An updated suggested view will allow you to see even more recommended files at once, such as those that have been recently opened, shared or edited. 
The Suggested view

In addition, we’re replacing the notifications view with activity view, which recently launched on web. Here you can see items that need your attention such as pending access requests, recent comments, and awaiting approvals, all in one place. 

The Activity view

Getting started 

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. If you do not want to use the home tab, the app will simply open up on whatever tab you last used, such as Shared or Files. 

Rollout pace 

Android: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 6, 2023 
iOS: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 10, 2023 

Availability 

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

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – November 10, 2023

3 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.

Timeline view in Google Sheets now available on Android & iOS 
In 2022, we introduced an interactive timeline view that allows you to track projects in Google Sheets. We’re excited to announce that you can now view your timelines on Android and iOS. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for November 15, 2023. | Timeline viewing is available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about timeline view in Sheets. 
Adding timezone support for existing smart chips in Google Docs 
To more accurately represent time across the world, we’re introducing timezone support for existing date+time smart chips in Google Docs. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for November 27, 2023. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about inserting smart chips & building blocks in your Google Doc
Improved toolbars in the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides apps on Android devices 
We’re introducing enhanced toolbars in the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides apps that are optimized for Android tablets and foldables, and ultimately improve the editing experience across the apps. 
In Docs, there is a new mode switcher that allows you to switch between editing, suggestion, and viewing modes. In Slides, you will have access to an ever-present toolbar while in editing mode. In Sheets, a cell will be selected by default upon opening the app. 
Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for November 28, 2023. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. 
Mode switching in the Google Docs app

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.


Add GIFs and stickers in Google Slides 

We’re bringing GIFs and stickers directly into Google Slides to empower you to build visual, dynamic, and creative presentations that help you connect with your audience in Slides. | Learn more about GIFs and Stickers in Slides
Make more informed decisions using Classroom analytics 
We’re introducing analytics in Google Classroom, providing a centralized view of Classroom data and insights for educators and education leaders. | A Google Workspace for Education Plus license is required to access this feature for both education leaders and educators. | Learn more about assigning licenses in the Help Center and about Classroom analytics.
Google Meet API now available in Developer Preview 
The Google Meet API will give partners and customers the ability to create and configure Meet video conferences, allow their end users to join a conference, and post real-time updates from within their own applications.| Available now through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. | Learn more about Google Meet API
Streamlining the user experience in Google Chat to help you find what you need much faster 
A redesigned navigation panel brings direct messages and spaces together and introduces shortcuts, a new framework to help you stay on top of your messages. To reduce friction while navigating between messages, home helps you quickly catch up on any new activity across all conversations in a single location. Finally, mentions give you visibility into the messages addressed specifically to you. | Learn more about the new Google Chat. 
Filter by people or groups in Google Drive 
We’re adding a new filter to Google Drive that lets you see which files or folders have been shared with specific people or groups. | Learn more about filters in Drive.
Improvements for scheduling large scale meetings on the web
We’re making several changes which will make scheduling large scale meetings (up to 100k guests per event) easier and guide schedulers through the process with more context. Once you’ve created and saved a Calendar event which contains a large group of attendees, you can open the event to check on the invitation progress. | Learn more about large scale meetings in Calendar.
Introducing a new homepage in the Google Drive app 
We’re updating the homepage of the Google Drive mobile app on Android and iOS mobile devices to help you more easily find the right file much faster. An updated suggested view will allow you to see even more recommended files at once, such as those that have been recently opened, shared or edited. In addition, we’re replacing the notifications view with activity view, which recently launched on web. | Learn more about the homepage in Drive.

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.

Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: