One of the most compelling reasons to adopt Google+ is its power to connect and engage your workforce. Having a more engaged workforce increases retention and innovation within an organization and leads to more productivity. Since announcing that Google+ is now a core G Suite service last September, we’ve heard that you’d like better reporting on Google+ adoption and engagement throughout your organization. In response, we’re taking the first step by adding new enterprise-focused Google+ usage reporting in the Admin console and the Reporting APIs. With this change, you’ll now be able to look up:

• Daily active Google+ users
• Weekly active Google+ users
• Monthly active Google+ users
• Number of new users
• Number of new posts
• Number of new comments
• Number of new +1s
• Number of posts viewed
• Number of posts reshared

We’re excited for this first launch of enterprise reporting metrics for G+, and look forward to adding even more improvements, like user-level reports, later this year. Please let us know how you’re using them and what else you’d like to see through the Feedback options in the Admin console.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Aggregate reports


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Starting today, Google+ is now a core Google Apps for Work service when used within a domain, and will be included in existing Google Apps agreements for most customers. This means that Google+ will have the same technical support and service level commitments as any other core service, like Gmail or Google Drive.

Going forward, domains using Google+ will receive the following benefits:

• Domain-restricted content and activity will be handled as specified in your Google Apps agreement
• Google+ will be compliant with the terms, conditions and service levels defined in the Google Apps Technical Support Services Guidelines and the Google Apps Service Level Agreement
• Google+ will be added as a monitored service to the Apps Status Dashboard (ASD)
• In the coming days, Google+ will be removed from the list of Additional Google Services and added to the list of Google Apps services in the Admin console

To provide a service that is consistent with the protections of our Google Apps agreement, the following changes will affect your domain’s current use of Google+:

• All web users on a computer will be automatically upgraded to the latest version of Google+, and will no longer have the option to switch back to the "classic" version
• Native mobile app versions of Google+ released prior to today’s launch will no longer be fully supported, so users should ensure they have upgraded to the latest versions.

Engaging people is key to innovation, and many Google Apps for Work domains have found Google+ to be an invaluable tool that helps drive active engagement and cultivate innovative ideas from all levels of the organization. By making Google+ the newest core service for Google Apps, Google+ will now provide the support and guaranteed SLAs that businesses need.

Notes:

• We will be updating several default settings for new domains going forward to help make content less publicly visible. These settings will not be changed for existing domains, but we recommend that you review them:
• Help Center: Set the default for profile discoverability
• Recommended setting: disabled/unchecked
• Help Center: Set a default sharing restriction for Google+ content
• Recommended setting: domain-restricted
• Help Center: Enable or disable Google+ profile name changes
• Recommended setting: disabled/unchecked
• While Google Apps for Education domains will also receive the Google+ product changes outlined above, Google+ will remain a non-core service for these domains.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end-users for domains with Google+ enabled

Action:
Change management suggested

More Information
Recommended for admins:

• Help Center: Manage Google+ for your Google Apps team
• Help Center: Set the default for profile discoverability
• Help Center: Set a default sharing restriction for Google+ content
• Help Center: Enable or disable Google+ profile name changes

Recommended for users:

• Learning Center
• Transformation Gallery

From keeping remote workers in the loop to sharing information across teams, businesses are using Google+ to collaborate and communicate more effectively. As announced last week, today the new version of Google+ will become the default option on web for Google Apps users of Google+. The new experience makes it easier to focus on the features our Apps customers tell us they find the most useful, including a new home page to quickly browse through content, Communities that make it easy to collaborate around ideas and Collections that enable organizations to follow and discuss topics of interest.

If desired, users will still be able to use the classic Google+ interface by clicking on the "Back to classic Google+" link in the bottom left-hand corner. In the coming weeks, with the launch of Google+ as a core Google Apps service, Google Apps customers will no longer have the ability to revert back to the classic Google+ interface.

Launch Details 
Release track:
New version of Google+ launching as the default experience to both Rapid release and Scheduled release today. In the coming weeks, the ability to revert back to the classic Google+ interface will no longer be available with the launch of Google+ as a core Google Apps service. Monitor the Google Apps release calendar for a specific launch date to be added soon. 

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end-users for domains with Google+ enabled

Action: 
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Learning Center


Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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On August 30, 2016 the new version of Google+ will become the default option for Google Apps users of Google+. This follows our release of the new Google+ on an opt-in basis last November. If desired, users will still be able to use the classic Google+ interface by clicking on the "Back to classic Google+" link in the bottom left-hand corner.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release on August 30, 2016. Monitor the Google Apps release calendar for release date changes.

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Google Apps Learning Center: Google+

We are pleased to announce that we are adding new Hangouts metrics to the Reports API (part of the Admin SDK). These new metrics can be used to track video calls by platform. The new metrics that are being added are listed below:

• gplus.num_video_calls_android
• gplus.num_video_calls_cfm
• gplus.num_video_calls_ios
• gplus.num_video_calls_web
• gplus.total_video_call_minutes_android
• gplus.total_video_call_minutes_cfm
• gplus.total_video_call_minutes_ios
• gplus.total_video_call_minutes_web
• gplus.num_video_conferences_android
• gplus.num_video_conferences_cfm
• gplus.num_video_conferences_ios
• gplus.num_video_conferences_mobile
• gplus.num_video_conferences_web

In addition, Apps admins may notice a change in numbers for Google+ active users. A number of Google+ components and integrations (Hangouts, YouTube Comments, and Photos, for example) have been unbundled from the core Google+ product. The new metrics reflect users of Google+ only. Google+ activity metrics that are impacted with this change are below:

• gplus.num_1day_active_users
• gplus.num_7day_active_users
• gplus.num_30day_active_users

The above changes will be rolled out starting today to all Google Apps domains. To find out more on these new metrics, check our updated developer documentation.


Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Google Apps Admin SDK
Updated Developer Documentation

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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In the Admin console today, you can create Google+ profiles for employees in your domain—either one by one or across an entire organizational unit (OU). Until now, however, if you needed to create profiles for multiple individuals or only a portion of an OU, that process was tedious and lengthy. And if you needed to delete profiles, no tool existed. To save you valuable time and to give you greater control over your employees’ information, we’re now launching the ability to create and delete Google+ profiles for several employees at once.

Simply visit Apps > Additional Google services > Google+ > Profiles in the Admin console, and select all of the users for whom you want to create profiles (or whose profiles you want to delete).


In any profile you create, all information—except the individual’s name, picture, and tagline—will remain private until that user takes action to make it public. It’s important to note that you will not be able create a profile for any user who already has a public Gmail picture or who has uploaded photos to Picasa. Just as is the case today, those users will need to create their own Google+ profiles manually.

If you delete profiles for certain users, some of their content will also be deleted, while some of their content will remain. For more specific details, carefully review the summary of terms that appears in the Admin console before you complete this process.

*Please note that the bulk creation feature is not available to K–12 Google for Education customers.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Manage Google+ profiles

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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Google Apps admins now have the ability to set the default state for profile discoverability in their domain through a control in the admin console. The setting is available for customers who have enabled Premium Features. It is checked by default (i.e., profiles are discoverable in public web searches).

At launch:

• All users with discoverability on will get the admin default
• All users with discoverability off will be unaffected by the default (since they explicitly set it off)

Example 1: User has set profile to be discoverable prior to launch, admin changes default setting to not be discoverable, user’s setting changes to not be discoverable
Example 2: User has set profile to not be discoverable prior to launch, admin changes default setting to not be discoverable, user’s setting does not change

Going forward:

• Changing the admin default will change the users setting if the user has not yet set discoverability
• Once a user manually sets their profile discoverability setting (off or on), that setting persists even if the admin default is modified

Example: User has set profile to be discoverable after launch, admin changes default setting to not be discoverable, user’s setting does not change

Note: In domains where an admin sets profile discoverability to be off by default (i.e., unchecks the setting), users may still want to be able to discover their co-workers in the same domain. To enable this functionality, we extended Google+ to leverage contact sharing. If the admin has enabled contact sharing for services such as Gmail then co-workers will be suggested in autocomplete results irrespective of their discoverability setting.

Editions included: 
Google Apps for Business, Education and Government

For more information:
http://support.google.com/a/answer/4524919
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Over the next few days we’ll be rolling out a new feature that will suggest users’ Google+ connections as recipients, along with their traditional Gmail contacts, when composing a new email. Your email address isn't visible to a Google+ connection unless you send that person an email, and likewise, that person’s email address isn’t visible to you unless they send you an email.  Importantly, if someone outside a your Google+ circles sends you an email this way, you can decide whether you want to receive more emails from that person.

This feature if off by default. Domain administrators will have the option to control the availability of this feature through a new setting in the Admin console under Google Apps > Gmail Settings > End User Settings. If this feature is enabled in the Admin console, users can control whether people outside their circles can reach them with a new setting in Gmail. They will be able to choose from Anyone on G+, Extended Circles, Your Circles and No one.  The default setting will be ‘Anyone on Google+’.

Editions included: 
Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government

For more information:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/reach-people-you-know-more-easily.html
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If Google+ is enabled on your domain and you activated your profile, the following features will now be available in your Gmail account:

- Circles and Google+ posts in the People Widget: If you open an email from someone that has a Google+ account, you can add them to a circle. The People Widget will also show recent Google+ posts from the sender.

- Direct content sharing: If you receive an email with an image attached, in addition to viewing or downloading, you can now share it to Google+, directly from your inbox. The photos will be uploaded to your Google+ account and will only be viewable by circles you choose to share with.

- Filtering mail by circles: Your circles will be displayed as labels in the navigation pane. By selecting a circle, you can choose to display messages received from individuals in that particular circle. Additionally, you can configure circle names to display on emails in your inbox.

Release track:
Rapid

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail

How to access what's new:
-To hide your circles from the list of labels, select the downward arrow next to Circles, and then choose ‘hide’.
-You can enable or disable circles displaying on emails by selecting the gear icon, Settings, Labels, and then choosing either ‘show’ or hide’ under the ‘Show in message list’ pane.

For more information:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/gmail-and-contacts-get-better-with.html

New look available for Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Sites! Find out more at whatsnew.googleapps.com/new-look

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