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

Why you’d use it 

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.

Admins 

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. 

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

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

Previous announcements

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

This feature is now available. 

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

Resources 

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. 

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

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.

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. 

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

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

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

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. 

Admins, end users and developers 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Admins can now view “Sensitive Content Snippets” for data loss prevention (DLP) rules. This applies to DLP events for Drive, Chat, and Chrome. When turned on, snippets will log the matched content that triggered a DLP violation in the security investigation tool. Admins can use the information captured in the snippet to better identify actual security risks, determine whether a false positive was returned, and decide on an appropriate course of action.

Getting started

We’re introducing a new mute/unmute option in Google Chat to assist you in prioritizing and managing your messages. This is the latest feature within the recently announced enhanced Chat experience that helps you increase concentration, eliminate distractions and ultimately focus on the most important conversations. 

Muted conversations will not send push notifications, will not appear in home, and will also be visually deprioritized by being moved to the bottom of each conversation section. Notification badges will still apply to muted conversations when there are new @ mentions for you or everyone in the conversation. 

End users 

This update is particularly useful for those who feel overwhelmed by numerous, highly active conversations as they now have an option to tune out the extra noise, protect their time for heads-down individual work and focus on the most important communication. 

Unmuting a conversation undoes the visual deprioritization applied to the conversation and the notification settings prior to muting will re-apply to the communication. 

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. End users: To mute a notification: Click on the three dot menu in the left hand panel of any conversation Select mute option Alternatively open the notification setting of any conversation and check the mute option To unmute a conversation: Click on the three dot menu in the left hand panel of any conversation Select unmute option Alternatively open the notification setting of any conversation and uncheck the mute option Visit the Help Center to learn more about muting conversations in Google Chat. 

Web: 

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 6, 2023 Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 18, 2023 Mobile: 

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 28, 2023 

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