Gmail currently restricts certain file attachments (e.g. .exe, .msc, and .bat) for security reasons, and starting on February 13, 2017, we will not allow .js file attachments as well. Similar to other restricted file attachments, you will not be able to attach a .js file and an in-product warning will appear, explaining the reason why.

For inbound mail, senders will get a bounce message explaining why the email was blocked.

If you still need to send .js files for legitimate reasons, you can use Google Drive, Google Cloud Storage, or other storage solutions to share or send your files.



Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release on February 13, 2017, with Scheduled release coming 2 weeks afterward

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

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

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Gmail: Some file types are blocked

Last October, we announced a new administrator notification which lets you know when one of your users is abusing the SMTP relay service to send out spam or malicious emails. If you are a super administrator at your domain, then you already receive a list of the users affected, steps to identify why it’s occurring, and how to fix it. After February 6, if we still detect abuse after 24 hours, your user being flagged for abuse will be automatically suspended from sending messages in order to prevent further domain reputation damage. You will be able to re-enable these accounts from the Admin console, but you should first determine the source of the spam.

Your domain’s super administrators will receive an email that looks like this.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release on February 6, 2017

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

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

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center


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

On April 3, 2017, we will shut down older versions of the following Android and iOS applications: 

• Google Drive for Android (prior to version 2.4.311)
• Google Docs for Android (prior to version 1.6.292)
• Google Sheets for Android (prior to version 1.6.292)
• Google Slides for Android (prior to version 1.6.292)

• Google Drive for iOS (prior to version 4.16)
• Google Docs for iOS (prior to version 1.2016.12204)
• Google Sheets for iOS (prior to version 1.2016.12208)
• Google Slides for iOS (prior to version 1.2016.12203)

This month, users of these legacy versions will begin seeing the below prompts to upgrade. Please note that after March 1, some users with very old versions will be forced to upgrade when they receive the prompt.


If you are using any of these unsupported versions, we encourage you to download and install the latest version of that mobile application. Note that corresponding web and desktop applications will not be affected by this change.

To check your app's version on an Android device:

1. Go to Settings > Apps.
2. Choose the app: Drive, Docs, Sheets, or Slides.

OR

1. Go to the app: Drive, Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
2. Go to Help and Feedback > Version info.

To check your app's version on an iOS device:

1. Open the app: Drive, Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
2. Go to Settings > About.

OR

1. Open the app: Drive, Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
2. Go to Navigation Drawer > Settings > About.
3. Scroll down.

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

Last year, we made scheduling meetings smarter in Google Calendar for Androidand iPhoneby enabling them to find time for meetings and book rooms. Today, we're happy to announce that room suggestions and showing guests' time zones are coming to Google Calendar on the web.

Room suggestions
When you create meetings, Calendar will suggest rooms based on your and your guests' previously used rooms. You can continue to browse or search for rooms as you do today.



Guest time zones
Finding time to collaborate across time zones is now easier with Google Calendar. The "Find a time" tab shows the time of the meeting in the time zone of each guest – if they are different. You can can learn more about sharing calendars and time zones here.



We have more scheduling improvements planned for 2017 including better ways to help you manage calendar resources. Stay tuned!

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming in 2 weeks
Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions
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: Add or remove a resource from an event
Help Center: About calendar resources (rooms, etc)

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

We know that data in spreadsheets isn’t always neatly distributed across entire rows and columns; oftentimes, for instance, sheets contain multiple tables and regions of data that can’t be separated. With this launch, we’re making it easier to insert cells into these sheets without disturbing that content. Going forward, you can add a rectangular block of cells to any spreadsheet on the web, and it will simply shift the surrounding cells down or to the right. You can delete chunks of cells in the same way.



You can insert cells from Insert menu and delete cells from the Edit menu. Both features are also accessible when you right-click on a cell. For more information, check out the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming on March 6th, 2017

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

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

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Edit rows and columns in a spreadsheet


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

Last year, we launched the ability to create and share short links to Hangouts group chats. This allows your team to opt-in to a chat, rather than having to invite people one by one. Today, we're streamlining how you create group chats to make it easier to create group chats for projects or teams. In the improved flow, you can now name your group chats more easily when you are creating a group chat. Once the group chat has a name, this allows you to create "placeholder" group chats which you can then share with a link.



These improvements will be in available all three Hangouts user interfaces on the web. In Hangouts in Gmail, a "+" button will be available next to your contacts list in Hangouts. In hangouts.google.com and in the Chrome extension, you'll see a "New conversation" option. By clicking "New group" or "New conversation" you can name the group, start adding members, or both.



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:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI


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

We are excited to announce a few upcoming changes to the Google Play Private Channel, a feature which allows G Suite admins to distribute private (custom) Android apps to their users via the Play Store app.

With this launch, private apps will be more discoverable and easier for your users to access. Customers using private apps will also be able to whitelist these apps for work profiles and company-owned devices in a more streamlined manner by using an Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) provider.

Making private apps more discoverable and easier for your users to access
Previously, private apps were located in your company’s Private Channel: in the Play Store Android app under the tab [your organization’s name], which is the last category within the Play app.
In order to make these apps easier for users to access, private apps will be relocated to the “Work Apps” tab within the Play app, the third category, which will also contain any managed applications if your organization is using an EMM provider, such as Google Mobile Management.
Making “Work Apps” richer with private apps and managed Google Play (formerly Play for Work) for new customers
Our vision for “Work Apps” within Google Play is for it to become the single destination for corporate users to find all of the applications they need. G Suite admins will be able to offer a curated set of both public and private applications specific to your enterprise for your employees.

You will also no longer need to manage different access controls for your employees; controls for both private and public applications within managed Play will be consolidated, simplifying the whitelisting process for mobile applications.

As part of this simplified whitelisting process, customers who currently are not using Google Play Private Channel, and want to deploy private apps for the first time, must enroll with an EMM, such as Google Mobile Management, and must enroll with managed Google Play. This will allow you to make private applications available in work profiles and on company-owned devices, as you currently can do with managed public applications. Customers currently using Google Play Private Channel are not required to use an EMM and can continue to use private applications as they do today.

We are expecting to launch these changes to Google Play Private Channel on January 31, 2017.

Launch Details 
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release on January 31, 2017

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

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Impact:
Admins and end users

Action:
Admin action suggested

More Information
Google Play Private Channel applications


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

New versions of the Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps for Android are now available on Google Play, including the following new features to help you get more done on the move:

Page setup in Google Docs and image support improvements in Sheets
You can now change the orientation, paper size, and page color Docs on Android. In Sheets, you can use the IMAGE function to view images inside of cells.





EPUB and ODF support on Android
Docs now supports exporting your files in the EPUB (.epub) and OpenDocument Text (.odt) file formats. Additionally, you can now import OpenDocument Text (.odt) files from the Android app. Similarly, you will now be able to import and export OpenDocument Spreadsheets (.ods) in Sheets and OpenDocument Presentations (.odp) in Slides.

Please note: these features are only available when the device is online. When the device is offline, an error dialog will show saying "Data connection needed to open this file type".


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:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI


More Information
Help Center: Page setup
How to use Google Slides
How to use Google Docs
How to use Google Sheets

Update:

• The option to convert existing Sending routing, Receiving routing, Catch-all address and Domain-level routing settings will return no earlier than April 17. The visibility of the convert option will take a number of weeks to roll out to all customers. In the meantime customers can manually convert to the unified Routing setting.
• The automatic conversion process will not occur earlier than June 5. We will follow up closer to the date and have updated the G Suite release calendar.

G Suite customers use Gmail because it's simple to use and reliable, and because it allows them to customize their enterprise-specific routing settings in the Admin console. However, as we expanded these features to cover more use-cases, it became clear that a consolidated view of all routing settings would make it easier to manage at a glance. That's why today, we're beginning to unify Gmail's routing settings in the Gmail Routing section of the Admin console that was launchedone year ago.





Beginning week of January 23, 2017, your existing Sending routing, Receiving routing, Catch-all address and Domain-level routingsettings will become read only. These settings are still active, but in order to make changes, you must click the CONVERT button, next to the existing rule. We've taken steps to make this process as simple as possible by converting the previous setting and mapping it to the new fields automatically. The converted setting is then placed in the unified Routing section, where all of your rules can be managed from one place. The old setting will no longer be visible in the old user interface, so you don't need to clean up old rules afterward.


Action Suggested

1. To make changes to an existing routing setting, click the CONVERT button next to the rule. Since the user interface has changed slightly, we suggest re-familiarizing yourself with the new look and feel.
   
   
   
2. To add new routing settings, use the Routing section from Gmail's advanced settings section. The previous way to create routing settings will soon be removed.
3. To migrate your existing rules to the new section ahead of time, you can use the CONVERT button for all of your rules. If you decide not to make any changes to your routing rules, then your rules will be automatically converted to the new Routing format and section on June 5, 2017.

Launch Details
Release track:
Settings converted to read only on both Rapid release and Scheduled release week of January 23, 2017.
Automatic routing settings conversion occurring after June 5, 2017.

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

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI


More Information
Set up routing for your domain or organization

Check out the latest "What's New in G Suite" newsletter [pdf] for a roundup of all G Suite launches from December 2016.

Newsletter Archive & Translated Versions (coming soon for December issue)

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