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What’s changing
In November 2023, we announced a series of improvements for managing Google Meet hardware devices, which included surfacing additional information about device issues, such as a description of the issue, when the issue was detected, and more. Today, we’re adding an additional data point: admins can now see when the Google Meet app fails to load for a device.


“Application load failures” will now be displayed in the “Device status” column.


When you click on the alert, you’ll see more detailed information on the error.






Getting started
  • Admins: 
    • To filter for devices that are in the “Application load failure” state specifically, navigate to Admin Console > Google Meet hardware > Devices > Filter by ‘Device Status’ and select ‘Application load failure’.
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about understanding device usage in your organization.
  • End 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

What’s changing 
In late 2023, we introduced user enrollment in beta, an additional option for iOS mobile management. User enrollment separates work and personal data on iOS devices, giving admins control over Workspace data on the device while users retain privacy over their personal data. Beginning today, user enrollment is now generally available. For more information, use our Help Center or reference our original announcement.


Getting started


Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Frontline Standard, Frontline Starter, Business Plus, Cloud Identity Premium, Education Standard, Education Plus and Nonprofits customers.


What’s changing
Client-side encrypted meetings are now getting support for using the co-hosts feature. This means that an organizer can plan and book client-side encrypted video meetings on behalf of other users and assign those as co-hosts to allow them to join and open the meetings independently from the organizer. Client-side encrypted meetings differ from point-to-point encrypted meetings in the way they always require a host to join first. This task can now be delegated and shared between multiple users without the organizer ever joining the call.



Getting started

Rollout pace
Note: This feature is only available on the web as planning meetings with co-hosts can only be done on a computer.

Availability
  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Education Standard customers

Resources

What’s changing 
We’re introducing several updates for the Space Management Tool in the Admin console, including an improved user interface and additional management capabilities. We’ve introduced several more ways to manage a single space, including: 
  • Adding multiple members and groups to a space at once 
  • Review detailed space settings 
  • Review invited members

Space Management Tool for Admins provide visibility into all spaces in an organization




Groups are now included in the list of Space members


Admins can now see detailed information regarding space settings, including those defined by space managers, who can access the space, post new messages, and more.



Admins can now see detailed setting information


Who’s impacted
Admins


Why it’s important
Spaces in Google Chat are an essential part of collaboration and community building across organizations of all sizes. As such, it’s important for admins to easily view and manage their spaces to keep them productive and safe. This update makes it easier for admins to execute space management tasks and view more information about spaces.


Finally, you’ll notice that we’ve aligned the look-and-feel of the interface and workflows for individual space management across Google Chat on the web and the Admin console for a more consistent experience.


Getting started
Important note: Both Super admins and Delegated admins must have Google Chat turned on for their account in the Google Chat service settings. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning on Google Chat.







What’s changing
We’re excited to announce a highly-requested feature that improves control over your scrolling experience in Google Sheets. With smooth scrolling, you can scroll to a specific part of a row or column and stop wherever you’d like within the spreadsheet. 

This update works with all Sheets features, such as frozen rows, hidden columns, charts, buttons, comments, on right-to-left layouts, and when you use scrollbars (instead of a mouse/trackpad). 
smooth scrolling in Sheets


Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: Use a trackpad, mouse or the scrollbar to access this update in new and existing spreadsheets. 
Rollout pace 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts

What’s changing 
Admins can now set client-side encryption (CSE) to be on by default on Android and iOS for: 
  • Newly drafted Gmail messages and replies 
  • Newly created Google Calendar events 
  • Newly uploaded Google Drive files

Client-side encryption in Gmail


Admins can now set client-side encryption as the default mode for users on both web and mobile that regularly handle sensitive data. This allows organizations the flexibility to meet their compliance and regulatory requirements and reduce the burden on change management programs. Each new email, event and uploaded file on mobile is automatically client-side encrypted with customer managed keys meaning the user is compliant with their org’s policy from the outset. For organizations with strict regulatory or sovereignty requirements, this can help them close compliance gaps by defaulting users to the preferred mode for handling sensitive data while on the go. 

For more information, check out our original announcement.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Google Workspace Assured Controls is available as an add-on to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers only. For more information, contact your Google account representative.

Resources

What’s changing

Earlier this year, we introduced cloud-encrypted 1:1 video calls between users in the same domain using the Meet mobile app. In the coming weeks, users from outside of your domain will be able to initiate 1:1 video calls with your users and vice versa. Admins will be able to pre-configure this functionality as on or off for their users with a new admin control. The timeline for this update is as follows:

  • Admin control for restricting external calls placed directly to a user via their email: Admins will begin seeing the new control beginning today. 
  • End user availability: The external calling feature will begin rolling out to end users beginning in April.

Who’s impacted
Admins and end users



Why it matters
1:1 cloud-encrypted video calling in the Meet mobile app makes it easier to connect with others by significantly reducing the need to create meeting links ahead of time. We’re expanding these 1:1 cloud-encrypted calls to allow users outside of your domain to initiate 1:1 calls, making it easier to connect with your external partners and stakeholders. However, to ensure external contact is appropriate, admins can turn this functionality on or off for their users.


Getting started
    • By default, users can receive calls only from contacts and other users in the organization. You can use the new admin switch to enable calls from outside your domain at the OU level. Visit the Help Center to learn more about restricting who can call users in your organization with Google Meet.
      • Note: This setting affects only Google Meet calling, not legacy services (formerly known as Duo) or calling in Google Chat. This also does not affect the ability to join meetings. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Meet legacy calling on or off for your users. Note that If you have legacy calling enabled for your users, they will have access to features previously found in Duo (group calls, messages, moments, family mode, etc.) if they have not upgraded to the new Meet app. 

  • End users: 


Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers

What’s changing

The Groups Admin role can now be assigned for security groups or non-security groups. Previously, those with the Groups Admin role had access to all groups within an organization. This change gives administrators more granular delegation of group admin responsibilities, helping limit access to the most sensitive groups to only those who absolutely need it. 

This feature is available in open beta, which means no additional sign-up is required to use the feature.

Getting started

What’s changing 
Last year, we announced that all newly created spaces in Google Chat will be in-line threaded. This streamlined user experience enables you to reply to any message and create a separate discussion isolated from the main conversation. We also introduced several updates, such as home, mentions and starred messages to help you find what you need much faster in Chat.

Today, we’re continuing our enhancements across Chat by improving the in-line threaded experience in spaces. With multiple threads across numerous spaces, we know it can be difficult to identify which unread threads are most relevant to you. In order to provide you with more context upfront, you will now see participant avatars for unread threads in the conversation view. Without having to click to open the thread side panel, it will now be much easier to decide which threads to read and reply to. 
Web experience


Who’s impacted 
End users 


Why you’d use it 
Being able to see the participant avatars for unread threads makes it easier to identify whether a thread is relevant to you. 
mobile experience



Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: This will be ON by default. Visit the Help Center to learn how to use Google Chat

Rollout pace 
Web: 
Android:
iOS:
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 

Resources 

What’s changing

You can now import and convert sensitive Excel files into Google Sheets with client-side encryption. When collaborating with external and internal stakeholders, you may find yourself working across both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. This update keeps your work moving by layering interoperability on top of the privacy benefits of client-side encryption: users are in direct control of their encryption keys and the identity service that they choose to authenticate for those keys.


This feature was previously announced in August 2023 as part of an open beta.

Additional details 
With this release: 
  • You can only import .xslx Excel file types. 
  • Additional Excel and tabular file types are not supported. 
  • During import, unsupported Excel features in Sheets will be ignored. 
  • The maximum file size is 100MB. 
  • The maximum number of cells that can be imported is 10 million. 
Getting started

What’s changing 
In November 2023, we announced the availability of the Google Meet API through our Developer Preview Program. Beginning today, the Google Meet API is generally available. You can use the Meet API to: 
  • Programmatically create and configure Meet calls 
  • Retrieve information about past meetings, such as the meeting times and attendees. 
  • Access meeting artifacts, such as transcripts and video recordings 
  • Subscribe to real time updates on meetings, such as when a participant joins or leaves 

For more information, please reference our original announcement.


Who's impacted

Admins and developers


Why you’d use it
Integrating the Meet API in your product with the Google Meet API streamlines workflows and provides your product with Meet information that easily enhances your product offering. For example, partners such as Hubspot, Outreach, Salesforce, and Salesloft currently integrate the Meet API into their solutions to pull meeting recordings and artifacts into their conversational intelligence tools for analysis and sales coaching.



Getting started

What’s changing 
We’re updating the look and feel of our sign-up and sign-in pages with a more modern look, which is in-line with the Material Design across our other products. You'll see the updated interface across web and mobile devices. Note that this is strictly a change in visual appearance, there are no functionality impacts or changes.

The new Google sign-in page on web



Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature — users see these improvements automatically. Visit the Help Center to learn more about the new Google sign-in page.

Rollout pace 

Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers
  • Available to users with personal Google Accounts

What’s changing

We’re giving admins more granular control over how mobile device management privileges are delegated. Specifically, admins can be assigned privileges for specific organizational units (OUs). This adds yet another layer of security by ensuring that access is scoped to the necessary OUs only. This feature is available as an open beta, which means you can use it without enrolling in a specific beta program.

Creating a custom role, which is assignable at the OU level.

Assigning permissions at the OU level



Example experience for an admin with OU level permissions





Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers

Resources

What’s changing 
If you’re a meeting host or co-host, you can now pin up to three specific tiles for all meeting participants. By doing so, you can help ensure the meeting is focused on key presentations and speakers. This is especially helpful for large meeting scenarios like webinars where hosts need to focus everyone on particular content. Note that meeting participants can unpin these tiles on their screen if they wish.



This feature will be available for Google Meet on the web and mobile devices.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers

Resources

What’s changing 
You can now pin messages to the top of the meeting chat. Pinned messages will appear for all users, even if they join the meeting after the message was initially sent. This makes it easy to ensure that important messages - like links to presentations - are displayed prominently and easily accessible by meeting participants.


Getting started
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: 
    • Meeting participants can pin and unpin their own messages. Meeting hosts can unpin anyone’s message.
    • You can pin a message by hovering over it in the chat window and selecting the pin icon. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending chat messages.
 
Use the pin icon to pin or or unpin a message.



Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts

Resources

What’s changing
Last year, we announced a Google Classroom beta that simplifies lesson planning with shareable class templates and classwork. We’re excited to announce that this is now globally available for Google Workspace for Education Plus customers in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. 

Curriculum leads and verified teachers can now share links to high-quality classes and class templates so other educators in their organization can preview and import classwork to an existing class or to a new class. This will provide educators with ideas for instructional design and enable them stay up-to-date with the best materials. 
Shareable class templates and classwork

Who’s impacted 
End users 

Why you’d use it 
This feature enables curriculum leads and teachers to easily distribute standardized curricula or classroom content to others in their organization. As a result, fellow educators can easily preview, select, and import high-quality classwork into their classes. 
easily preview, select, and import high-quality classwork into their classes.
Additional details 
  • Student information, such as assignment submissions, comments, and grades, will not be visible when previewing a shared class. 
  • Imported class materials will be saved in draft mode for the selected class. 

Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature, however, Admins should make sure the following is set up for end users: 
    • In order to share classes, educators must have a Google Workspace for Education Plus license assigned to them. 
    • To preview and import classwork from shared classes, educators must be verified teachers
  • End users: 
    • To share a class, click the “Share classwork” button on the Classwork page. 
    • After receiving a class link, open it in your browser. When previewing the shared class, select the classwork items you want to export to a class. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about sharing class templates and classwork. 

Rollout 

Availability 
  • Available to Education Plus 

Resources 

What’s changing

We’re making changes to the terminology that refers to  when a Meet hardware device is no longer supported:

  • ‘End of Meet support date’ replaces Auto-Update Expiration (AUE) in the Meet hardware Help Center.
  • The Admin console will show ‘end of Meet support’ instead of ‘EOL (end of life)’ in both device information and fleet overview pages.
  • The field name for “end of life” in Admin console’s CSV downloads will change from “eolDate” to “endOfMeetSupportDate”
End of Meet support as indicated in the device information page


End of Meet support as indicated in the Google Meet hardware fleet overview


Additional details

The end of Meet support date for Intel 10th generation devices have been extended from June 2028 to June 2029 to reflect their continued availability.


Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability

  • This update impacts all Google Workspace customers with Meet hardware devices. 


Resources


What’s changing
We are making two improvements to the space creation flow in Google Chat: preventing duplicate space names and providing a method to configure spaces for specific use cases. 

In order to prevent duplicate space names in Google Chat, you will no longer be able to create a space within your company’s domain if the space name already exists. Similar to the experience in Gmail and Google Groups, if a space name already exists, an error message will appear. The same will happen if a user tries to edit the name of a space to another name that already exists. 

This feature will not immediately apply to space names created via Chat API. Starting June 3, 2024, spaces created via Chat API will also be subject to this error. 
prevent duplicate space names
Starting this week, you will also notice an updated user interface when creating a new space in Chat. In addition to easily determining access settings, you can now designate the space for Collaboration (useful for discussing a topic or team project) or for Announcements (helpful for facilitating one-way controlled communication such as company-wide updates). 
new space creation flow

After creating the space, an updated welcome page will appear with contextual options that provide users with next steps depending on the space type selected. For a Collaboration space, users get the options to add members, share files, assign tasks and create a welcome message that appears when a new member joins the space. You will also have the ability to toggle “History on” and will see contextual suggestions for eligible apps (based on popular apps in your domain) to explore in Marketplace and add into the space. For an Announcement space, users will get the option to add groups, manage space permissions and add guidelines on how to use the space. 
space welcome page

Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • You will receive an error message when editing or creating a space in Google Chat that has the name of a space that already exists. Existing spaces with the same name will not be impacted. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about the new space creation flow
  • Developers: Update apps created via Chat API to ensure they do not conflict with this new error code for duplicate space names by June 3, 2024. 

Rollout pace 
Duplicate space name

New space creation flow

Web: 

Mobile: 
  • This feature will be available on mobile by the end of Q1 2024 

Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and Google Workspace Individual subscribers 

Resources 

What’s changing

We’ve expanded support for closed captioning to include the following additional languages:

-Afrikaans

-Albanian 

-Amharic 

-Armenian

-Australian English

-Basque

-Burmese

-Catalan

-English (India)

-English (Philippines)

-Estonian

-Farsi

-Filipino

-Galician 

-Georgian

-Hungarian

-Japanese

-Latvian

-Macedonian

-Mongolian

-Nepali

-Norwegian

-Sinhala

-Slovak

-Slovenian

-Sundanese 

-Tamil (India)

-Telugu (India)

-Urdu

-Uzbek

- Zulu



You’ll notice that the newly supported languages are denoted with a “beta” tag as we continue to optimize performance.

Getting started

Rollout pace
  • This update is available now for all users.

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

Resources