The latest version of the Google Admin app for Android brings many of the mobile device management (MDM) capabilities you love on your computer to your mobile phone or tablet. With this launch, you don’t need to be at your desk to view a list of your domain’s managed devices and to activate, block, delete, or wipe them. Because many of these actions may impact the security of your organization’s data, it’s important to be able to perform them anywhere, anytime. Now you can.


In addition to these MDM features, the latest Admin app for Android automatically stores your preferences in the Cloud. Should you get a new device or uninstall (and then reinstall) the Admin app, your preferences will be restored.

Check out the Help Center for more information, and download the latest version of the Admin app for Android on Google Play.

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:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Manage your users' devices from an Android device

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

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We know that it often takes too long to find the item you’re looking for in the Admin console. To simplify your searches, we’re launching natural-language-based, “free form” queries in the Admin console. Starting today, you can pose questions in everyday language or enter commonly used words into the Admin console search box, then choose from a list of suggested results to navigate directly to your intended destination. There’s no need to jump from page to page! In addition to the tasks, users, and groups that would previously show up as search results, you’ll now see specific settings and prominent Help Center articles listed as well.



Check out the Help Center article below for more information on how you can save time searching the Admin console.

Please note that this feature is currently available for English-language searches only. Support for additional languages is coming soon; stay tuned!

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:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Use natural language search

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

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New versions of the Google Sheets and Slides apps for iOS are available in the App Store. With these updates, you can now:

• View and modify existing filters in the Google Sheets iOS app.

• Change the theme or layout of a presentation in the Google Slides iOS app.

Check out the Help Center articles below for more information.
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

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Sort and filter data on iPhone and iPad
Help Center: Customize a slide with layouts and themes

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

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Updated versions of the Google Sheets and Slides apps for Android are now available on Google Play. Check out what’s new below:

In the Sheets Android app, you can now:

• Send a copy of or save a spreadsheet as an HTML web page file (provided in a .ZIP folder) from the Share & export menu.

• Save the sheet you’re currently viewing as a .CSV or .TSV file from the Share & export menu.

• View Google Drawings in spreadsheets (note that Drawings will not be visible in frozen rows and columns).

In the Slides Android app, you can now:

• Send a copy of or download the slide you’re currently viewing as a .JPEG, .PNG, or .SVG file from the Share & export menu.

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

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: View and create spreadsheets on Android
Help Center: Use the Google Slides app for Android

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

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A new version of the Google Drive for Android app is available in Google Play. New features include:

• Swipe to preview: You can now swipe through your Drive folders faster while in preview. This lets you quickly scan through all your favorite Google Drive files.

• Reverse Sort: We’ve heard feedback that you want more flexibility in how files are sorted. We’re adding the popular request to allow reverse sorting. Simply tap the sort column at the top of Drive to swap the sort order.
  
• Instantly edit with your favorite apps: If you have an editor app installed on your device, you can now jump into the editor directly from the file preview in Google Drive. This is great if you want to make changes on the fly and have those changes saved back to Google Drive. Some common editor apps include Google Photos, Google Docs, and more.

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
Get the latest Google Drive Android app on Google Play

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

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Google Hangouts video calls make it easy to connect and interact to get things done. With today’s update, to make it easier to connect with more people, we’re raising the participant limit for Hangouts video calls from 15 to 25 for Google Apps customers.

To help ensure a high quality experience on a variety of computers, only the 10 most active video call participants will have their video feeds visible at the bottom of the screen at any given time.

No action is required to make use of this new participant limit. Check out the Help Center for more information on Hangouts video calls.

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

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information 
Help Center


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

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We know that businesses today don’t operate in isolation; employees work not only with one another, but with third-party vendors, clients, customers, and other businesses as well—and often on a temporary basis. To keep your organization’s information safe in these situations, we’re introducing the ability to set an “expiration date” for specific user access to files in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

For instance, imagine your business hires an outside contractor for a project lasting three months. To complete the job, that contractor needs to view a spreadsheet containing the contact information of your employees. Following this launch, you’ll be able to share your employee list in Sheets with the contractor, give them view access only, and set that access to expire when their contract does (in three months). If the contractor attempts to open the spreadsheet after the expiration date has passed, they’ll be denied access.


This functionality, coupled with the Information Rights Management (IRM) features we launched last July, should significantly increase the security of your organization’s documents and information.

Please note that you’ll only be able to set expiration dates for users with comment or view access; you will not be able to set expiration dates for file owners or users with edit access.

IMPORTANT: This feature will roll out gradually over the course of two to three months; please note that you may not see the feature in your domains until mid- to late Q2 2016.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming in two weeks

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (2–3 months for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Change your sharing settings in Google Drive
Help Center: Share Google Drive files and folders

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

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Millions of Google Apps for Work customers rely on Google to protect their employees’ login information for Google Apps services like Google Drive and Gmail. With this and previous launches, we’re extending that ease and security to additional applications that businesses rely on.

SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) 2.0 allows individuals to use their Google login credentials to sign in to various enterprise cloud applications. In October 2015, we launched support for SAML 2.0 for more than 15 popular SaaS providers, including Salesforce, Workday, and Dropbox. Today, we’re excited to announce that several additional apps are now pre-integrated with our systems, including Microsoft Office 365, Facebook at Work, Concur, Box, and Slack. This adds to the hundreds of apps we already support through the Google Apps Marketplace and OpenID Connect.

This launch not only makes the sign-in process easier for employees, it simplifies the management of end user IDs and passwords for Apps admins as well. For SAML set-up details and a full list of pre-integrated apps, please visit the Help Center.

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

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

Impact:
Admins and end users

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information 
Help Center: Using SAML to set up federated SSO
Google for Work Blog

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

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New versions of the Google Slides and Docs apps for Android are now available on Google Play.

In the Slides Android app, you can now create and edit presentations that read from right to left, a necessity when presenting in languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.


In the Docs Android app, you can now select, copy, and comment on content in Print Layout view.



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

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Edit and view text from right to left
Help Center: Print a document, spreadsheet, or presentation

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

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An update to the Google Drive for iOS app is coming to the App Store. New features will include:

• Trash View: You’ll now have the ability to view, restore and delete items in your trash from within the iOS app.

• Folder Colors: You can now view and modify your Google Drive folder colors on the fly.

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
Organize your files in Google Drive
Delete and restore files in Google Drive
Get the latest Google Drive iOS app in the App Store

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

Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates