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What’s changing

Earlier this year, we announced a beta for assigning SSO profiles to organizational units or groups. This feature is now generally available and allows admins to specify groups or organizational units (OUs) to authenticate a subset of your users using Google.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why it’s important

Currently, when you configure SSO with a third-party identity provider, the setting applies to your entire domain. However, there are some instances where you may want a subset of your users, such as vendors or contractors, to authenticate with Google instead. The Partial SSO feature gives you the flexibility to specify the authentication method for various users in your organization as needed.


Getting started


  • End users: No action required.

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
  • Available to all Cloud Identity customers
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials customers

Resources

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Update
[January 11, 2022]: The five additional immersive backgrounds, new light & color filters, and stylized backgrounds are now available to Google Workspace Individual customers.
Quick launch summary

We’re adding five new immersive backgrounds for Google Meet on the web. The backgrounds feature subtle animation that give your background life or change your lighting. Cafe and condo interiors will have various iterations, such as snowy or rainy weather, which will help dispersed teams better represent their current time zone and climate. 



Various lighting and weather effects will be available



Additionally, we’re giving you more options to customize your video with various light and color filters and more stylized backgrounds.



The new backgrounds and styles are available on Google Meet on the web and can be added before joining a call or during a call using the recently launched effects settings panel.  


Getting started

Rollout pace
  • Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout to eligible devices (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 17, 2021
  • Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout to eligible devices (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 2, 2021

Availability
  • There are three immersive backgrounds available to all Google Workspace customers, G Suite Basic and Business customers, as well as users with personal Google Accounts
  • Five additional immersive backgrounds, along with several new light & color filters and stylized backgrounds are available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. 

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Quick launch summary

You can now add people chips directly into a Google Sheet. These chips allow you to quickly view more information about colleagues or contacts, including their location, job title, and contact information. You can also take actions such as booking a meeting, starting a Chat, sending an email, and more, directly from a smart chip. This feature is already available for Google Docs.


To insert a people chip, type  “@” in any cell to search your directory or by selecting Insert > People chip.


Getting started
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: This feature will be available by default. To insert a smart chip in a cell, press “@” or by selecting Insert > People Chip. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using smart chips in Google Sheets.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
  • Available to users with personal Google accounts

Resources


Roadmap

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What’s changing 

We’re bringing the ability to delete a named space in Google Chat to the Google Workspace Business Standard and Business Starter editions. We plan to extend this capability to more Google Workspace editions next year. 

With this capability, creators of a space can fully delete it from Chat, which includes all owned contents of the space, room tasks, and files and attachments not saved elsewhere. In addition, members will no longer be able to access the space, its files, or the member list after it has been deleted. 


Deleting a space from the drop down menu
Who’s impacted

End users 

Why it’s important 

Through deletion, you can more easily navigate to and stay on top of your most relevant spaces and eliminate clutter in Google Chat. 

Additional details 

Important note: This feature is not available for Google Workspace editions that have Google Vault. If you upgrade from Google Workspace Business Standard or Business Starter to an edition that supports Google Vault, you will lose the ability to delete named Spaces. 

We anticipate that this feature will be available for all Google Workspace editions in 2022. We’ll provide an update on the Workspace Updates Blog when that becomes available. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin setting for this feature 
  • End users: This feature will be available by default. To delete a space, from the dropdown menu press "Delete Space". Only the creator of the room has this ability and will delete the space for everyone. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, G Suite Basic and Business Starter customers 
  • Not available to Google Workspace, Google Workspace Essentials, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as Business customers

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Quick launch summary 
For select Google Workspace editions, users can now host meetings in Google Meet with up to 500 participants. See below for more information on availability.

500 participants in a meeting


We hope that by increasing the meeting size, it will be easier to connect and collaborate with your colleagues, clients, and customers. 


Getting started
  • Admins: No action required.
  • End users: No action required. The new participant limits will occur automatically for all meetings in your domain. If you need to host an even larger meeting, you can enable live streaming, allowing up to 100,000 viewers to watch at once.

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus customers
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, Nonprofits, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, or G Suite Basic and Business customers
Visit the Help Center to learn more about the participant limits for other Google Workspace editions.


Resources

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What’s changing

In 2017, we announced that we would replace classic Google Sites with new Google Sites. We’re extending the previously announced timeline to make the migration process easier for Google Workspace customers. The new timeline is: 

  • Starting June 1, 2022 (previously December 1, 2021): You will no longer be able to edit any remaining classic Sites in your domain.  
  • Starting July 1, 2022 (previously January 1, 2022): Classic Sites will no longer be viewable unless they are converted to new Google Sites.

Additionally, the bulk conversion tool in the Classic Sites Manager will be temporarily unavailable as we make improvements to conversion fidelity for sites settings. We will update the Google Workspace Known Issues page when the feature is re-enabled. 

In the meantime, end-users and admins can still convert individual classic Sites to new Google Sites and use other tools in the Classic Sites Manager to make progress on migration. 

Note: This timeline change does not impact the transition for users with personal Google accounts. 

Who’s impacted

Admins and end-users  

Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • We recommend notifying your end-users about the updated timeline.
    • Use the Classic Sites Manager to help your users make the transition. 

  • Google Workspace end-users:
    • Users need to transition from classic to new Sites according to the new timeline outlined above. Visit our Help Center to learn how to convert a classic Site to a new Site.
    • To ensure a smooth transition, we recommend the following best practices when migrating your sites:
      • Create an archive of your classic Sites in the Classic Sites Manager so that you can refer to them later, if needed. 
      • Since sharing settings work differently in new Sites than in classic Sites, always check your sharing settings after conversion:

Availability

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What’s changing
We’re adding two new cards to the Admin console homepage:
  • Product updates: showing the latest posts from the Google Workspace Updates blog
  • Alerts: showing recent account-specific alerts from the alert center

These new cards help organizations stay up to date with the latest Google Workspace product updates and improvements along with easy access to new administration and security notifications— bringing together critical information for a more dynamic and insightful landing page experience.
Admin home page with new updated cards
Admin console home page, now with Product updates and Alerts cards



Who’s impacted
Admins
Why you’d use it
Previously, updates on new Google Workspace feature releases and updates were only accessible by visiting or subscribing to the Google Workspace Updates blog, but now you can directly access recent posts from the Admin console.

Before this change, to see the latest alert center notifications, you would have needed to navigate to the alert center to check for new notifications. Now these notifications will be visible directly from the homepage as well.

We hope these cards make the Admin console an even more centralized location for all the information you need to best manage your organization.

Additional details
Google Workspace Updates Card
This card will display the latest blog posts from the Google Workspace Updates blog.
  • Clicking on an announcement will open that blog post for more information
  • Clicking on ‘View all’ will open the Google Workspace Updates blog.

Please note that this card is currently only available in English.

Product updates card
New Product updates card



Alerts card
This card will automatically update with the latest alerts from the Admin console alert center.
  • Clicking on an individual alert will open the details of the alert
  • Clicking on ‘View alert center’ opens the alert center for a more robust view of open alerts

Note that the card will only display open alerts with “Not started” or “In progress” status. “Closed” alerts will not be displayed, but can be accessed in the alert center by using the status filter for closed.

Visit our Help Center to learn how to create custom alerts.

New Alerts card
New Alerts card


Getting started
  • Admins: The Product update card is available for all admins and can be expanded or collapsed. The Alerts card is only available for admins with alert center privilege with the same expand or collapse options. Visit the Help Center to learn more about alert center privileges.
  • End users: There is no end user impact for this feature.

Rollout pace
  • Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 15, 2021
Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources
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Quick launch summary
In July of this year, we introduced new RSVP options for Calendar invitations to make Google Calendar more flexible in the hybrid workplace. We’re now adding this same functionality to RSVPs in Gmail.

Dropdown menu showing new RSVP methods in Gmail
New RSVP options in Gmail



With these RSVP options, you can indicate how you plan to join a meeting—in the meeting room, or virtually. Then, both the organizer and guests will be able to see how attendees are planning to attend the meeting in the event detail. This will help meeting attendees know what to expect when joining a meeting, and prepare accordingly.

Note that if you select the new RSVP options, the join method details (e.g. “joining virtually”) are not shared with contacts on other platforms, such as Microsoft Outlook.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources
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Quick launch summary

In new Google Sites, we’re adding the ability for editors to copy a single page or subset of pages into a new site. Previously, it was only possible to make a copy of an entire site. This feature gives site editors more control, allowing users to reuse part of a site or easily break up a large site into smaller sites. 

We hope this feature, in addition to other recent site editing capabilities such as restoring a specific page from a site, make it easier for site editors to collaborate on large sites.

Getting started

To copy specific pages in Google Sites, select Make a copy > Pages > Selected Pages from the three-dot overflow menu.


Rollout pace

Availability

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What’s changing

Google for Education transformation reports are available for K-12 Google Workspace for Education customers worldwide, at no additional cost. The next reporting window is open as of November 2, 2021 and will close December 10, 2021. 

Additionally, we’ve introduced several improvements for transformation reports:

  • Immediate access: Starting today, super admins for any Google Workspace for Education domain can login to view their transformation report. We've removed the waiting period between logging in to request a report and receiving a report. 
  • Realtime updates: You can now adjust the product data windows and the number of teachers and students you expect to be using Google products. This will allow you to view real time updates for your report regarding what’s most useful to you. any time between November 2, 2021 and December 10, 2021.  (The report will be locked for editing after December 10)
  • Ease of use: Reports are now available immediately upon login without having to request one in advance. Additionally, reports can now be customized with updates in real time any time Nov 2- Dec 10. 

See below for more information on generating your transformation report.


Who’s impacted
Admins


Why you’d use it
The transformation report is a free tool designed to help quantify your organization’s Google for Education implementation across our products and programs. Semester-based reports track usage trends over time and make it easy to understand how your organization is using Google Workspace for Education, Chromebooks, and progressing through Certification programs. 


Based on usage information and survey responses, you’ll receive tailored recommendations and resources from Google for Education to help you drive more impact across your organization. 


See here for more information about Google for Education transformation reports, as well as a list of frequently asked questions.


Getting started
Super Admins: Super admins may log in to g.co/edutransformationreport to access a custom transformation report:


  • Log in to view your report 
    • Note: All Google for Education customers will have a report available without having to proactively request one in advance.



  • Take and share the transformation survey [optional]
    • Survey participation is optional, but we encourage you and your leadership team to complete the survey at least once a year to reflect on your digital transformation and receive customized feedback.  
    • See our FAQs for recommendations on who to share the survey with and this email template when sharing with your leadership team.

End users: No action required.


Rollout pace
  • Transformation reports are available now for all users. 


Availability
  • Available to K-12 Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade customers
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers


Resources 

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Quick launch summary 
Earlier this year, we enabled users to block another user in Google Drive. If blocked, the user will not be able to share any Drive items with you, and items owned by the user will not be able to be shared with you or be shown when you’re browsing Google Drive. 


Now, we’re enhancing this feature by also preventing notifications when there’s an @-mention between you and a blocked user in comments or action items on Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides. This block will apply to both email and in-app notifications. This will make the feature more predictable and comprehensive. 


Getting started 
Rollout pace 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. 
Resources 
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What's changing

Previously we launched a new beta that allows you to request and review formal approvals on Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and now we are rolling out that ability to more users. Once requested, approvers can approve, reject, add comments, or edit the document in response. All of this can be done without leaving the secure environment of Google Workspace. 



Requesting an approval on a Google Doc

Requesting an approval on a Google Doc


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 

Why you’d use it 

Securing document approvals can be difficult when collaborating with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities. This feature makes it easy to secure those approvals and see who has approved them.

This feature also ensures that when edits are made to a document, all reviewers are notified and the latest version of the document is re-approved. It also ensures that once all reviewers have provided their approval, the file locks and cannot be edited, securing the integrity of your document. 

We hope this feature streamlines the workflow needed to secure approvals on contracts, legal documents, and other situations where formal approval is required. 

Additional details 

Once a document is sent for approval, reviewers get email, browser or Google Chat notifications, based on where they have selected in Google Drive’s web settings to receive notifications. They will then receive a link they can follow directly to the document. 

If you set a due date, your reviewers will receive email reminders that their approval is needed or past due. You’ll also be able to prevent any user from editing the item’s content or leaving comments and suggestions by choosing to lock the document. 

Note: Documents by default will remain unlocked until they are fully approved. 

If you request approval from multiple people, the document is considered approved once all reviewers approve the file. If an edit is made during the approval process, all reviewers will need to re-approve the latest version of the file and will receive email notifications in those instances. The document approval request is rejected for all reviewers if a single reviewer rejects the file. 

Once all reviewers approve the document, the file will be locked. Locked files can't be edited until they're unlocked or approved. Unlocking the file cancels the current approval request. 

Getting started 


Enabling the approvals feature in the Admin console

Enabling the approvals feature in the Admin console

Rollout pace 

Admin setting 

Note: While the Admin console setting will be visible and configurable, your setting will not be enforced until November 15, 2021 

End user feature 

Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Business, G Suite Enterprise, Drive Enterprise, G Suite for Education, G Suite Enterprise for Education, and G Suite for Nonprofits 
  • Not available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Frontline, and G Suite Basic customers 
  • Not available to users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Roadmap 

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New updates 

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are fully launched or in the process of rolling out (rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete), 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), and available to all Google Workspace and G Suite customers.


Updated emoji experience in Google Chat on iOS
It’s now easier to express yourself more authentically in Chat on iOS. We’re making the following updates to the emoji experience: The Emoji set is updated to the latest version (Emoji 13.1), reflecting the latest emoji set and diversity and inclusion options; Gender-neutral options for gender-modifiable emojis have been added; Emoji skin tone and gender preferences are saved per individual emoji. | Available to all Google Workspace and G Suite customers, as well as users with personal Google accounts.


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.


More easily add citations in Google Docs with new search and automated entry function
When adding citations in Google Docs, you can now search for books and online sources, then automatically populate some attributes for those sources.  | Learn more.



Refine search results in Google Drive with search chips, launching in beta
We’re launching a new beta for Google Drive that will help users refine their search and locate files faster using search chips. This beta will be available for all Google Workspace editions—eligible customers can use this form to express interest in the beta. | Learn more.



Enable advanced context-aware access to Google Workspace in the Admin console
You can now configure context-aware access (CAA) custom access levels using advanced attributes directly from the Google Workspace Admin console. You can use more advanced signals such as time/date restrictions, credential strength, Chrome browser attributes or verified ChromeOS as well as third-party signals via BeyondCorp Alliance partners. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, and Education Plus. Also available to Cloud Identity Premium customers. | Learn more.



Google Workspace Client-side encryption beta expanded to include Google Meet and Google Drive for desktop
We’re now expanding the client-side encryption beta to include desktop data for Google Meet and Google Drive. Additionally, key access service APIs are now publicly available for anyone to use. Lastly, we are adding two new Key access service partners (Fortanix, Stormshield) for customers looking for a dedicated partner that integrates with the key access service APIs. | Learn more.



For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

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What’s changing 

Earlier this year, we announced the beta for Google Workspace Client-side encryption, specifically for Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, with support for all file types in Drive including Office files, PDFs, and more. 

We’re now expanding the beta to include desktop data for Google Meet and Google Drive. Additionally, key access service APIs are now publicly available for anyone to use. 

Encryption notice in Meet

Encryption notice in Meet

Lastly, we are adding two new Key access service partners (Fortanix, Stormshield) for customers looking for a dedicated partner that integrates with the key access service APIs. Previously, we had announced key service partnerships with Flowcrypt, FutureX, Thales and Virtru. 

The beta is available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus and Google Workspace Education Plus customers—eligible customers can now apply for the beta here. Important note: Customers who are already participating in the beta will have to reapply for access to the Google Meet and functionality, but you will be able to reuse your key service configuration. 

Who’s impacted 

Admins and developers 

Why it’s important 

Google Workspace already uses the latest cryptographic standards to encrypt all data at rest and in transit between our facilities. With Client-side encryption, we’re taking this a step further by giving customers direct control of encryption keys and the identity provider used to access those keys. This can help you strengthen the confidentiality of your data while helping to address a broad range of data sovereignty and compliance needs. 

When using Client-side encryption, customer data is indecipherable to Google. Customers can create a fundamentally stronger privacy posture to comply with regulations like ITAR and CJIS or simply to better protect the privacy of their confidential data 

Read our announcement post to learn more about this beta and our plans for Client-side encryption across Google Workspace. 

Additional details 

If you are looking to choose a key service access partner, Flowcrypt, Fortanix, Futurex, Stormshield, Thales, and Virtru have built tools in accordance with Google’s specifications and provide both key management and access control capabilities. Your partner of choice holds the key to decode encrypted Google Workspace files, and Google cannot access or decipher these files without this key. 

If you prefer to build or integrate your own in-house key services, we have published the key access service API specifications that can be used with Client-side encryption. 

Getting started 

Availability 

  • Available to Enterprise Plus and Education Plus customers 
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. 

Resources 

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What’s changing 

You can now configure context-aware access (CAA) custom access levels using advanced attributes directly from the Google Workspace Admin console. You can use more advanced signals such as time/date restrictions, credential strength, Chrome browser attributes or verified ChromeOS as well as third-party signals via BeyondCorp Alliance partners. 

Who’s impacted 

Admins 

Why you’d use it 

By making more attributes available, and by enabling set up and management of advanced access levels in the Admin console, it will be easier to help ensure your Google Workspace configuration is more secure.

Getting started 

Admin console screen to create an access level

Admin console screen to create an access levelRollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, and Education Plus. Also available to Cloud Identity Premium customers. 
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business, and Cloud Identity Free customers. 

Resources 

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Update
[December 9, 2021]: This beta is now closed and will no longer be accepting new applicants. We will provide an update on the Workspace Updates Blog when this feature becomes generally available.

What’s changing

We’re launching a new beta for Google Drive that will help users refine their search and locate files faster using search chips. This is similar to functionality available in Gmail today. 





See below for more information.


Who’s impacted
Admins and end users


Why you’d use it 
When searching in Drive, users often use a few key words to try and locate the file they’re looking for, such as “marketing plan” or “sales report,” which may return results that are too broad. 


Now, after a query is entered, users can use search chips to surface more relevant results based on:

  • File type, such as a Google Doc, PDF, or image
  • People
  • Location, such as a shared drive or specific folder
  • When the document was last modified
  • File titles only
  • Shared drive labels
  • Tasks
We hope search chips in Drive make it easier to find relevant files faster, eliminating the need to perform multiple searches or sort through irrelevant results.


Getting started
  • Admins: This beta is now closed and will no longer be accepting new applicants. 

  • End users: If accepted into the beta, search chips will be available by default to users in the Google group(s) provided at sign-up. Simply enter a search query and select one or multiple chips to further drill down results.
Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

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What’s changing 

When adding citations in Google Docs, you can now search for books and online sources, then automatically populate some attributes for those sources. 


Citation Search navigation

Citation search navigation

Who’s impacted 

End users 

Why you’d use it 

Citations are an important aspect of many types of documents. This new search and automatic addition function makes it quicker and easier to add citations. By automating part of the source creation process, and ensuring correct formatting, we hope to save you time and reduce manual errors while managing citations. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: This feature will be available automatically. In every document, users can find the feature using the Tools > Citations menu item. Visit the Help Center to learn more about adding citations to your document. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Available to users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

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