by | Aug 7, 2024 | News
What's changing
We're introducing a new feature that surfaces richer student engagement data on assignments with Google Drive attachments in Google Classroom.
With this update, teachers will have easily accessible visibility into whether students have made progress on assignments with Drive attachments through pre-existing workflows in Classroom. This can help to identify students who may need additional support and make more informed decisions about how to assist their students.
Specifically, teachers can see:
From the Classwork page: The number of students who haven't edited attachments for assignments. From the student work page on individual assignments: When the attachments were last edited by each student.
With this information, teachers can:
Quickly see whether students have started on their assigned work Provide timely interventions like sending reminders to the class or individual students Adjust instruction based on class progress
Who's impacted
End users
Why you'd use it
This feature gives teachers visibility into student progress on academic work and helps them provide effective interventions to best support students.
Additional details
The feature is currently only available on assignments with Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings attachments.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. End users: Teachers can view edit activity for a Drive attachment associated with a student submission by going to the Student work page and viewing submissions with Drive files attached. Visit the Help Centre to learn more about
viewing student engagement on assignments with Drive attachments. Rollout pace
Availability
Resources
by | Sep 7, 2024 | News
1 New update
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.
Improved user experience for Google Meet on Android devices
If you’re joining a Google Meet call from Android phone, tablets or large screen devices, you’ll now see a more streamlined, space-efficient experience with edge-to-edge video. We’ve expanded the video feed to encompass spaces where there were previously margins around the video feed. This helps provide a richer, more immersive viewing experience. You’ll also notice a sleeker user interface for meeting controls, and clearer indicators for information such as the meeting title. | Rollout to
Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Available now for all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about
joining a meeting.
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.
Gemini (gemini.google.com) now shows related content links in its responses
You can now access additional information on topics directly in Gemini’s (gemini.google.com) responses to your prompts. Specifically, you’ll see links to related content in responses to fact-seeking prompts — you can click the arrow chips to dive deeper into the topic. If you have a Gemini for Workspace license and Google Workspace extensions in Gemini are enabled, Gemini will also now include inline links to relevant emails referenced in responses where the Gmail extension is used. | Learn more about
related content links shown in Gemini.View your most relevant Google Drive folders and files on a single page
You will now see a combined, unified view for file and folder suggestions on the Drive homepage that leverages machine learning to help you find and organize your most relevant content faster and intuitively. | Learn more about the
view in Drive.
Empowering Google Workspace customers to take control of their emissions with Electricity Maps
To help our customers continue to understand and measure the carbon intensity of their cloud computing, we have partnered with Electricity Maps to provide hourly emissions data within the Carbon Footprint report. | Learn more about
Electricity Maps.
by | Aug 13, 2024 | News
What's changing
Following the introduction of
tables in Google Sheets and the recently announced
improvements to tables, we're excited to support a new automated way for users to transform their data into a well-formatted table, with rich data types.
If you have a meaningful range of data, Sheets will show a "Convert to table" suggestion when you click into your data range. By hovering over that indicator, you can preview the suggestion and then convert your range to a table in one click.
Who's impacted
End users
Why you'd use it
This update encourages the use of tables, a feature that enables users to transform the way they organise their data, simplify data creation, and reduce the repetitive tasks needed to format, input, and update data in Sheets.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. End users: This feature will be on by default and can be disabled by going to Tools > Suggestion controls > (deselect) Enable table suggestions. While the suggestion to convert to table will likely appear automatically, you can also convert data to a table manually by selecting a data range and going to Format > Convert to table. Visit the Help Centre to learn more about
using tables in Google Sheets. Rollout pace
Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 13, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 4, 2024
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts
Resources
by | Aug 13, 2024 | News
What's changing
We're introducing a new setting that enables education admins to restrict which users can create and manage members in Google Chat conversations.
This can be useful for admins who want to prevent groups of students from initiating or adding users to a conversation.
Who's impacted
Admins and end users
Why it's important
This is a highly-requested feature that restricts the creation of unsupervised activity among K-12 students and helps provide a safer and easier way for teachers to communicate with students.
Getting started
Admins: To restrict users from accessing features in Chat, go to the Admin console > Apps > Google Workspace > Google Chat > click the Chat and Space restrictions setting > Inside the Google Chat box, search for the group of users you'd like to apply Chat restrictions to > check the box for Restrict creating direct messages, group messages, and spaces > hit Save. Note: groups can be restricted at the group level only.We recommend admins enable the "
automatically accept chat invitations" setting for their OU. This will ensure teachers can easily initiate messages to students that instantly deliver without the need to accept an invitation. We also recommend
turning OFF Chat with external users.Visit the Help Centre to learn more about
setting up Chat restrictions for Education accounts.End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.
Rollout pace
Admin setting:
Chat UI:
Availability
Available for Google Workspace:
Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, the Teaching & Learning Upgrade
Resources
by | Aug 15, 2024 | News
What's changing
We're introducing a new feature that enables users to more easily view and structure their Google Form data in Sheets.
Starting today, when a user initiates the creation of a new sheet using their Forms data, Sheets will automatically open the data as a table, bringing format and structure to your data. If a user opens a pre-existing sheet connected to a Form, there will be no change and the user will need to convert the data to a table by going to Format > Convert to table.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. End users: For pre-existing spreadsheets connected to Form data, you can convert the data to a table manually by selecting the data range and going to Format > Convert to table. Visit the Help Centre to learn more about
using tables in Google Sheets.
Rollout pace
Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 15, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 5, 2024
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts
Resources
by | Aug 12, 2024 | News
What's changing
We're pleased to announce a new set of features to help you conduct deeper analysis and more flexible issue detection within your Google Meet hardware fleet:
First, Meet hardware log events are now captured in the security investigation tool. Within the tool, you'll be able to view historical events for your devices and create customised alerts. You can also click out to Meet hardware log events from individual device pages (Devices > Google Meet Devices > [Device Name]), allowing you to find information on specific devices even faster.
Meet hardware logs in the security and investigation tool
Secondly, through integration with BigQuery, Meet hardware logs can be imported from the security investigation tool to be analysed at scale. This is a powerful new tool that can be used to build customised views of your historical data across your entire hardware fleet. For example, you can use this data to identify which devices are the most used across your organisation, which devices are experiencing the most issues within a specific timeframe, and more.
Specifically, you'll be able to filter by the following details:
Availability
The security investigation tool is available for Google Workspace:
Enterprise Standard and PlusEducation Standard and PlusEnterprise Essentials PlusFrontline StandardCloud Identity Premium
Reporting logs in BigQuery is available for Google Workspace:
Enterprise Standard and PlusEducation Standard and PlusEnterprise Essentials PlusFrontline Standard
by | Aug 9, 2024 | News
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.
Appointment slots booking pages are no longer available in Google Calendar
Earlier this year, we announced that the appointment slots feature will be replaced by appointment schedules in Google Calendar. Starting this week, appointment slots booking pages will no longer be available and all new appointments will need to be booked through appointment schedules. | Rollout to
Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains is scheduled to complete by the end of August 2024. | Appointment schedules are available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Nonprofits, Google Workspace Individual, Google One Premium users and users with personal Google accounts. | Visit the Help Center for
detailed information about appointment schedules.
Dark mode now available in Google Classroom on mobile
Similar to the recent announcement of
dark mode in Google DriveIn a new feature, users will now be able to change the colour theme of Google Classroom on their mobile device. This new setting aims to provide users with a more comfortable, customisable viewing experience and also reduces battery usage. | Available to Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, the Teaching & Learning Upgrade customers. | Rollout to
Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Visit the Help Centre to learn more about
using Dark Mode in Classroom.New automation event for AppSheet databases is now generally available
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.
Available in open beta: configure third-party apps by selecting API scopes
Providing student engagement signals for Google Drive file attachments in Google Classroom
We're introducing a new feature that surfaces richer student engagement data on assignments with Google Drive attachments in Google Classroom. With this update, teachers will have easily accessible visibility into whether students have made progress on assignments with Drive attachments through pre-existing workflows in Classroom. | Learn more about
Drive file attachments in Classroom."Take notes for me" in Google Meet is rolling out soon; pre-configure access with a new admin setting
"Take notes for me," an AI-powered feature in Google Meet that automatically takes notes during your meetings, will be rolling out soon. Prior to end user availability, admins can now configure whether their users can use this Google AI note-taking feature with a new Admin console setting. | Learn more about the
admin setting for "Take notes for me."
by | Aug 5, 2024 | News
What's changing
When your users sign in to third-party apps using the "Sign in with Google" option (single sign-on) or use OAuth to share their data with those apps, you can control what access those apps have to your organisation's Google data using
app access controls.
Admins currently can configure the third-party apps as "Trusted", giving them access to all OAuth scopes or as "Limited", giving them access to scopes only from Google services which are not restricted. Beginning today, we're giving admins another layer of granular control for third-party apps. Specifically, you can now configure apps to be limited by selected
OAuth 2.0 Scopes for Google APIssuch as
Drive or
Gmail scopes. This helps ensure that these apps do not gain additional access without admin consent based on new API scopes that they might request in the future, keeping data access limited to only what is deemed absolutely necessary by admins.
by | Aug 15, 2024 | News
What's changing
As we continue to make improvements for managing Meet Hardware fleets, we're pleased to announce eighteen additional filters in the Admin console, which include:
Alert silence expiration timeBoot modeCameraChrome versionContent camera (i.e., whiteboard cameras)Controller (i.e., MIMO, Logitech Tap, Juno Remote, etc.)Device IDDisplayEnrollment dateHas userCamera home position modeMicrophoneNoise cancellation (denoising state)NotesOperating system versionPrimary framing strategySpeakerSoftware audio processing mode
The new filters can be added as chips to filter the device table:
From Menu > Devices > Google Meet hardware > Devices, select "Add a filter". Any filters you select will be added to the URL so you can save the link or share it with others.
New data columns have been added that enable you to view additional device info at a glance, which include:
Boot modeCameraCamera home positionChrome versionContent cameraControllerDevice IDDisplayEnd of Meet supportEnrollment dateMicrophoneNoise cancellationNotesOperating system versionPrimary framing strategyVolumeSpeaker
From Menu > Devices > Google Meet hardware > Devices, select the gear icon to add columns. Any columns you select will be added to the URL so you can save the link or share it with others.
Increasing the number of searchable fields makes it easier and faster to find specific groups of devices, which is particularly helpful when managing a large fleet of devices. Quickly finding groups of devices allows you to save time and resources managing and troubleshooting your devices.
Getting started
Admins: Visit the Help Centre to learn more about using
filters to show devices that meet specific criteriaEnd users: There is no end user impact or action required.
Rollout pace
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices
Resources
by | Aug 8, 2024 | News
What's changing
"Take notes for me," an AI-powered feature in Google Meet that automatically takes notes during your meetings, will be rolling out soon. Prior to end user availability, admins can now configure whether their users can use this Google AI note-taking feature with a new Admin console setting. This setting can be configured in the Admin console by going to Apps > Google Workspace > Google Meet > Gemini Settings.
Apps > Google Workspace > Google Meet > Gemini Settings > Google AI note-taking
Similar to Meet transcripts Admin settings, this control gives admins more flexibility to test the feature within specific Organizational units (OUs) or Groups before deploying the feature more broadly within their organisation.
"Take notes for me" is available for customers who have a Gemini Enterprise, Gemini Education Premium, or AI Meetings and Messaging add-on. Only users who are assigned one of these licences will be able to use the note-taking feature.
We'll provide more information and timing on end user availability about "Take notes for me" in the coming weeks here on the Workspace Updates blog.
Additional details
Notes documents will be stored in the meeting owner's drive folder and will follow the
Meet retention policy that your organisation has configured. If you are currently testing this feature in Workspace Labs and Alpha, your experience will change from respecting the Drive retention policy to respecting the Meet retention policy.
Getting started
Admins: Take notes for me will be ON by default and can be configured at the OU and Group level in the Admin console by going to Apps > Google Workspace > Google Meet > Gemini Settings > Google AI note-taking. If you want all of your users to receive the feature at once, you may want to consider turning this setting OFF and then after rollout switching it to ON.
Rollout pace
Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout of the admin setting (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 13, 2024 with expected completion on August 21, 2024
Availability
Available for Google Workspace customers with the:
Gemini Enterprise add-onGemini Education Premium add-onAI Meetings & Messaging Add-on
