In November 2016, we introduced custom templates in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms, allowing teams to spend less time formatting and more time brainstorming, collaborating, and sharing their ideas. We also gave G Suite Business, Education, and Enterprise customers the following optional controls in the Admin console:

• Moderated - require that user-submitted templates be approved by admins with the Drive and Docs admin privilege
• Restricted - restrict template submission to admins with the Drive and Docs admin privilege

With this launch, it’s no longer necessary to provision the full Drive and Docs privilege to admins who want the ability to moderate and manage templates. Instead, you can grant those admins a new Docs Templates privilege, which gives them the ability to approve templates and modify template settings in the Admin console, but not the authority to change other Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms settings. Admins who retain the full Drive and Docs privilege will continue to be able to manage templates.



This change will allow your organization to manage custom templates in a scalable way, without relinquishing control over sensitive admin settings. For more details on the Docs Templates privilege and for instructions on managing templates, check out the Help Center articles below.

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

Editions:
Available to G Suite Business, Education, and Enterprise editions only

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

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Administrator privilege definitions - Docs Templates
Help Center: Enable custom templates for Docs, Sheets, and Slides


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

If your organization recently made the jump to G Suite, you may have employees who previously set up personal Google Accounts using your company’s domain name. With this launch, we’re making it easier to identify and transfer those accounts before they become conflicting accounts.

Using the new Transfer tool for unmanaged users, you can view all personal Google Accounts with email addresses that match the G Suite email addresses for your organization. You can then send emails to those individuals, requesting that they convert their personal accounts to G Suite accounts. Later, you can view the statuses of those requests and cancel them as necessary.


If an employee accepts your request to transfer their account, you’ll be granted access to their data and given the ability to manage that account. If they decline or ignore your request, they’ll be asked to rename their personal account with a different email address when you create a new G Suite account for them. They’ll retain sole access to and control over all of the data in their personal account.


Note that these actions must be performed manually. While you can send requests, cancel requests, and download request statuses for multiple users at once, you can’t yet do so in bulk via an API.

We hope this launch will make the transition to G Suite easier for you and your end users alike. For more information about the Transfer tool, please visit the Help Center.

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

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility)
Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: About conflicting accounts
Help Center: Use the transfer tool to manage your users
Help Center: Find and manage existing Google accounts
Help Center: For users: moving to a domain-managed account


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

Because it can be difficult to navigate large and complex spreadsheets, we’re introducing the ability to link to specific cell ranges in Google Sheets on the web.

With this new functionality, you can create a “table of contents” for your spreadsheet, direct others to specific content within your spreadsheet, and retain links to cells when you import spreadsheets from other applications.

To link to cells in your spreadsheet, simply go to "Insert link" > "Select a range of cells to link" and type or highlight the desired range. For more details, visit the Help Center.


Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming on February 21st, 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: Add, edit, or remove a link, bookmark, or page break


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

Starting today, you can insert and play your Google Drive videos in Google Slides, in addition to videos from YouTube.


Once you’ve added a Drive video to your presentation, you can choose when to start and end it, whether it should autoplay when presenting, and whether it should be muted or play with audio. Simply right-click on the video and select Video options.


If a person viewing your presentation doesn’t have permission to view a video embedded within it, they’ll be prompted to request access.

Note that while you can play Drive videos in Slides on the web and mobile, you can only insert them from the web application. For more details, visit the Help Center.

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

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: Insert or delete images or videos


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

(Cross-posted from The Keyword)

Posted by: Brent VerWeyst, Product Manager, Google Cloud

Every day, people around the globe rely on the power of Google Search to access the world’s information. In fact, we see more than one trillion searches each year. As we continue to invest in new cloud-based technologies like machine learning to power our web search engine, we want to help businesses harness the same technology to search for internal information. Today, we’re announcing Google Cloud Search (formerly known as Springboard), a new product that uses machine intelligence to provide a unified search experience across G Suite.

Sorting through internal information has become increasingly complex as more and more companies move their data and workloads to the cloud. As a result, teams are working on hybrid environments and storing immense amounts of data all over and in various formats. From emails and docs to spreadsheets, slides, forms, internal sites, and many more. In fact, according to McKinsey, the average knowledge worker spends 20% of the workweek searching for and consolidating information. Simply put, employees are wasting a lot of time in the process of finding information they need to do their job.

A smarter search experience, tailored for you

Cloud Search brings the best of Google Search and machine intelligence to G Suite. It provides both comprehensive search and proactive recommendations to help you throughout your day.

For example, when you open the Cloud Search app on your phone or laptop, you’ll see relevant information organized into simple cards (assist cards) that help you stay on top of your work. Assist cards are a new way to help you find the right information at the right time. Using Google’s machine intelligence technology, these cards can help you prepare for an upcoming meeting or even suggest files that need your attention. Assist cards are designed to be timely and relevant so that you can navigate your workday more efficiently. As we continue to learn how information is most useful to you, we’ll be adding more assist cards to Cloud Search over time.


In addition to searching for information, you can also search for people listed in your company’s directory. You’ll see colleagues’ contact details, plus events and files you have in common. You can even choose to send an email, make a call, or start a Hangout with just a tap.


For businesses, privacy is a top priority. Cloud Search respects G Suite’s file sharing permissions, so people can only search for and find files that they have access to. This means that company resources like vacation policies can be found by everyone in your organization, but your team projects will only surface to people on your team, and your to-do lists will only be available to you.

Breaking down information silos at work

Since launching in the Early Adopter Program last summer, companies have been using Cloud Search to break down internal silos and access information more quickly. QAD, an ERP solutions provider for global manufacturing companies, helps businesses manage their finances, supply chain, business intelligence and more. Very little time can be spared sifting through documents to find what’s needed to make strategic business decisions, so QAD uses Cloud Search to help.

“At QAD, we operate at a high-level of speed and require technology that provides us agility, flexibility and seamless access to information. Cloud Search provides that. It’s given us the ability to break down silos that exist across different content systems and unlock information with very little effort from IT, “ says Scott Lawrence Lawson, Director of IT Architecture.

Coming to G Suite

Cloud Search will begin rolling out globally for customers using the G Suite Business and Enterprise editions. And this is just the beginning. In the future, we’ll be adding more capabilities to Cloud Search including integration with third-party applications. That way, you and your team can find, access and make the most of your information in G Suite and beyond.

Once turned on for your organization, Cloud Search will be accessible at cloudsearch.google.com.


Launch Details
Release track:

• For customers on both the Rapid release and Scheduled release tracks who have opted into automatically receiving new services, Cloud Search will launch on Tuesday, February 14, 2017.
• Customers who have chosen to manually enable new services will need to turn on Cloud Search if they want their organizations to have access to the service. They can do so in the Admin console (Apps > G Suite > Cloud Search) starting on Tuesday, February 14, 2017.*

Editions:
Available to G Suite Business and G Suite Enterprise editions only

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

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI


More Information
Cloud Search Admin Help Center
Cloud Search User Help Center
Cloud Search Learning Center
Cloud Search Product Page


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

Check out the latest "What's New in G Suite" launch recap [pdf] for a roundup of all G Suite launches from January 2017.

Archive & Translated Versions (coming soon for January issue)


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

Starting February 8, 2017, we will show a banner at the top of the Gmail interface for users who are still on Google Chrome Browser v53 and below to encourage upgrading to the latest version of Chrome, currently on version 55. Chrome Browser v55 contains several important security updates.

Gmail users that are still on Windows XP and Windows Vista are the most likely to be affected, because v49 was the last released version which supported those operating systems. As previously announced in April 2015 and November 2015, these systems are no longer maintained by Microsoft, and we strongly encourage you to migrate to more secure and supported systems.

What happens if users continue to use Chrome Browser v53 and below?

• Gmail will continue to function on Chrome Browser v53 and below through the end of the 2017. 
• If you continue to use older versions of Chrome Browser now that support has ended, Gmail will be more vulnerable to security risks and users will not have access to new features and bugfixes.
• Users who remain on Chrome v53 and below could be redirected to the basic HTML version of Gmail as early as Dec 2017.

Recommendation

• If you manage Chrome Browser for your users, we strongly encourage you to update users to the latest version of Chrome. Depending on what operating system your users are on, you may need to migrate them to a supported system to get the latest version and features.

Please note: Google does not typically announce when we discontinue support for older versions of Chrome browser because of our current supported browser policy, which states that only the most recent version of Chrome is supported. This announcement was made given the expected impact on Windows XP and Windows Vista users and known security risks.
Launch Details

Release track:

(Cross-posted from The Keyword)

Posted by: Reena Nadkarni, Product Manager, G Suite

Scale. Speed. Lower total cost of ownership. The cloud offers enterprises significant benefits and gives their teams a freedom that’s as big as their ambitions. G Suite supports such businesses around the world with our unified suite of intelligent apps. Today, more than 3 million paying businesses rely on G Suite to make working together easier, including Whirlpool, PWC, and Woolworths.

Having greater control and visibility when protecting sensitive assets, however, should also be a top concern in today’s world. That’s why starting today, we’re giving customers the critical control and visibility they expect (and their CTOs and regulators often require) in G Suite with:

• More powerful access control for administrators with Security Key enforcement 
• More data control with Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for Google Drive, DLP for Gmail, and S/MIME for Gmail 
• More analytics and insights by connecting BigQuery with Gmail 

Manage who can access your company’s devices and systems 

Security Key enforcement: In 2011, we introduced 2-step verification for added protection when users log into their Google accounts. With 2-step verification, admins can opt for their company to use Security Keys, which are both easier for users and more secure against common (phishing) attacks than other methods. Security Keys plug directly into a laptop or pair with a mobile device using Bluetooth or NFC, instead of receiving a code via text. Today, we’re adding the ability for admins to enforce this measure by restricting login solely to users with a Security Key. Admins will also be able to manage the deployment of Security Keys and view usage reports.


Control how data is shared beyond your company 

• Data loss prevention (DLP) for Google Drive: In 2015, we launched DLP for Gmail with easy-to-set-up rules, OCR image scan recognition and advanced customization. Today, we’re extending DLP to Google Drive, making it even easier for admins to secure sensitive data, control what content can be stored and protect users from accidentally sharing confidential information externally. G Suite’s DLP protection goes beyond standard DLP with easy-to-configure rules and OCR recognition of content stored in images so admins can easily enforce policies and control how data is shared.  

• S/MIME for Gmail: When it comes to Gmail security, there are dozens of security measures running behind the scenes to keep your emails safe, and we support industry-standard authentication to help combat email spoofing. Unfortunately, other email services that you exchange emails with might not take similar measures to protect your data. That’s why we’re offering additional protection by giving you the option to bring your own certificates for S/MIME encryption. Administrators will be able to enforce S/MIME usage and can set DLP rules based on specific organizational unit needs. 

Understand employee behavior and activity

• Gmail logs + BigQuery integration: Gmail logs contain valuable information that can help administrators diagnose issues or unlock insights. Today, we are making it easier to analyze Gmail logs with a preconfigured BigQuery integration so administrators can run sophisticated, high-performing custom queries, analyze their data and build custom dashboards. 

• Third-party email archiving: Google Vault helps you easily archive Gmail content while also complying with retention for legal holds and audit reporting. That said, some organizations use other third-party SMTP archiving solutions like HP Autonomy or Veritas. Today, we’re making it simple for you to integrate third-party archiving solutions of your choice with Gmail.

All of these features are part of our new G Suite Enterprise edition. While the features are designed to meet the demands of G Suite's large customers, organizations of any size can take advantage of these critical controls, seamless integrations, and intelligent apps. See if G Suite Enterprise edition is right for you.

Launch Details
Release track:
All features available to G Suite customers on both Rapid and Scheduled release who upgrade to G Suite Enterprise edition. Note that G Suite for Education customers are not eligible to upgrade to G Suite Enterprise. G Suite for Education customers interested in these new features should complete this form.

Editions:
All features available to G Suite Enterprise edition customers only

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Data loss prevention (DLP) for Drive: 
Scan and protect Drive files using data loss prevention rules

Data loss prevention (DLP) for Gmail: 
Scan your email traffic using data loss prevention

Security Key enforcement: 
2-step verification enforcement

Hosted S/MIME for Gmail: 
Enable hosted S/MIME for enhanced message security

Gmail logs + BigQuery integration: 
Enable email logs in BigQuery

Third-party archiving tools for Gmail: 
Integrate Gmail with a third-party archiving solution


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

Since 2015, we’ve been making it easier to focus on your content—not your formatting—with templates in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. We’ve introduced templates for invoices, pitch decks, and cases studies, as well as templates designed by experts and developed specifically for your organization.

Today, we’re making it easier for users to create files from templates by granting access to templates directly from Drive. Instead of navigating to the Docs, Sheets, Slides, or Forms home pages, you can simply go to Drive > New > Google Docs/Sheets/Slides/Forms > From a template. From there, you’ll be directed to the applicable template gallery, where you can select the template of your choice.


For more details on templates, visit the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming in three 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: Create a file from a template


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

Today’s updates to the Google Docs and Sheets mobile apps bring several new and useful features to your Android and iOS devices. Read on for more information.

On your Android phone or tablet, you can now:

• Insert and edit headers and footers in Docs
• Drag and drop text in Docs
• Resize, move, and rotate images in Docs, as well as change their text wrapping and border styles

On your iPhone or iPad, you can now:

• Insert headers and footers in Docs
• Insert page numbers in headers and footers in Docs
• Change a page’s size, orientation, and color in Docs
• Insert and edit solid, dashed, and dotted borders in Sheets

Download the latest versions of these apps from Google Play or the App Store.

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

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 headers, footers & page numbers
Help Center: Crop and adjust images
Help Center: Print or change the page setup
Help Center: Edit and format a spreadsheet


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