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What’s changing 
In addition to replacing your Google Meet background with a static image on web and mobile, you can now replace your background with a video. At the moment, you can select from three Google made videos: a classroom, a party, and a forest — more options will be available soon. This feature is already available on Google Meet on web. 


When using Google Meet on iOS, you have the option to replace your background with a video.
Use a video background to make calls more fun.

Who’s impacted 
Admins and end users 

Why you’d use it 
Custom backgrounds can help you show more of your personality, as well to help hide your surroundings to maintain privacy. With the option of replacing your background with video, we hope this makes your video calls more fun. 

Getting started 

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

Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Available to users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 
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Quick launch summary 
When viewing your tasks in the "tasks" tab in a Google Chat room, you can quickly navigate back to the Google Chat message where the task was created or the task creation was indicated. 

Simply hover over the task on the web or select the task on mobile and then select the Chat. We hope this feature makes it easier to surface context for your tasks, and re-engage your stakeholders with updates, questions or further collaboration. 



Select a task in the "Tasks" portion of a Google Chat room — you can select the chat icon to navigate to relevant messages.
The new "View in Chat" icon within the Tasks section of a Google Chat room.

When viewing tasks on mobile, the chat icon will be in the top right hand corner.
When viewing tasks on mobile, the chat icon will be in the top right hand corner.


Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: This feature will be available by default. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 
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Quick launch summary
In 2017, we introduced Smart Reply in Gmail to save you time by suggesting quick responses to your messages. Now, Smart Reply in Google Docs saves you time replying to comments in Docs by suggesting relevant replies. 

Smart Reply suggestions appear below the reply box on comment threads in English. You can choose a suggested reply or write your own. Smart Reply joins Smart compose and spelling autocorrect announced in January 2021 to help you compose comments in Docs quickly and with confidence. 

Smart reply suggests replies to comments in Google Docs
Smart Reply can help saves you time replying to comments in Docs by suggesting relevant replies


Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: This feature will be ON by default To turn it off, go to Tools > Preferences > Show Smart Reply suggestions. If turned on, click on a comment thread in Google Docs, and Smart Reply will suggest responses if available. It may not present suggestions in all cases, and the comment thread must be in English. Simply click on a suggestion to use it, once you click, you can send it as-is or edit it before sending. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Smart Reply in Google Docs, and replying to comments in Google Docs. 
Rollout pace 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. Also available to users with personal Google Accounts 
Resources 

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What’s changing

In 2020, we launched security groups to beta. Beginning today, this feature is now generally available. Security groups help you easily regulate, audit, and monitor groups used for permission and access control purposes. They enable admins to: 

  • Apply a label to any existing Google Group to distinguish it from email-list groups. 
  • Provide strong guarantees that: 
    • External groups (owned outside your organization) and non-security groups cannot be added as a member of a security group. 
    • Security labels, once assigned to a group, cannot be removed. This ensures that once a group is used for security purposes, it will remain in that state. 


Why it’s important
Groups are used in a variety of ways. This can include groups that help teams communicate and collaborate, as well as groups that control access to important apps and resources. Security groups can help customers manage these categories of groups differently to increase their overall security posture. 

For example, if you have compliance or regulatory requirements for managing access control, you may have set up naming conventions to keep track of which groups were used for this purpose. With security groups, you can now assign a security label to these groups and more easily manage them without having to use workarounds like naming conventions. 

Getting started

Rollout pace
  • This feature is available now.

Availability
  • Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials and Frontline customers

Resources

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Quick launch summary 
We’re making it easier to identify and fix when an echo is happening in Google Meet video calls. ‘Echo’ can happen when your system feeds back audio into a call. Most of the time, Meet will intelligently control the audio to remove the echo. However, sometimes it still happens, and causes others to hear an echo from your device when they speak. Until now, it has been difficult for you to know when your device is causing an echo. Now, we will notify you when we detect a notable echo from your system which may be heard by other call participants with a red dot on the more options button, along with a text notification. Clicking on the notification will go to our Help Center, where you can find recommended steps which can help prevent echo. 


Users may see a notification alerting them when they’re causing an echo
Users may see a notification alerting them when they’re causing an echo 




If you click on the notification, there’s troubleshooting steps you can take which might help reduce the echo

If you click on the notification, there’s troubleshooting steps you can take which might help reduce the echo 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 
Resources
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New updates 

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are fully launched or in the process of rolling out (rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete), launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time (if not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete), and available to all Google Workspace and G Suite customers.


Block shares option added to Google Drive sharing emails
Last month, we announced that you could now block shares from another user in Google Drive. es from another user in Google Drive. Now, we're also adding the option to block a user from the sharing notification emails sent from Google Drive. With this addition, you'll be able to start the workflow directly from the email. | Learn more. 


Previous announcements 

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

View more insights and take quick action on the Users, Domain, and Billing home cards in the Admin console
You’ll notice important notifications and improved guidance within the cards to help you easily take action on user, billing, and domain management activities on the Admin console homepage. | Learn more. 


Upload customized audio prompts and greetings to Google Voice automated attendant
You can now upload your own pre-recorded prompts and greetings when setting up an automated attendant at Google Voice, in addition to the standard text-to-speech voice ability you currently have. | Available to all Google Workspace and G Suite customers with Google Voice standard and premier licenses. | Learn more.


Easily customize theme colors in Sheets and Slides
Now it’s easier to find and select theme colors in Sheets and Slides. | Learn more.


Share where you’re working from in Google Calendar
Starting August 30, 2021, you’ll be able to indicate where you’re working from directly on your calendar. You can add a weekly working location routine and update your location as plans change. Starting August 18, admins will be able to control how the feature is used in their organization. | Learn more.


Limit external messaging to trusted domains in Google Chat
Now, you may choose to limit external chat to people in trusted domains for your entire organization, or set different policies for different OUs. | Learn more.


Dark mode for Google Chat on web
You can now enable dark mode for Google Chat on the web (chat.google.com) and the Google Chat Progressive Web App (PWA). | Learn more.


For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

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Quick summary

You can now enable dark mode for Google Chat on the web (chat.google.com) and the Google Chat Progressive Web App (PWA). Dark mode creates a better viewing experience in low-light conditions by reducing brightness and potentially reducing eye strain.




Getting started
  • Admins: There is no admin setting for this feature.
  • End users: Within the chat.google.com or the Google Chat PWA, go to Settings > Theme settings and select “Dark mode”.  
Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers




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What’s changing
Trusted domains for Chat allows you to limit external chat to only users in domains that you trust. Previously, you could only choose to allow external Chat or not. Now, you may choose to limit external chat to people in trusted domains for your entire organization, or set different policies for different OUs.


Who’s impacted 
Admins 


Why it’s important
Trusted domains for Chat gives admins more fine grained control over external chat in their organization. This can help the right users communicate with the stakeholders they need to work with, while helping to prevent inappropriate or undesired external chats. 


Additional details
Trusted domains only allows communication with domain managed accounts in those domains. Email verified consumer accounts will not be trusted. 

Getting started 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. 




Rollout pace 

Availability 
  • Available to [Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 
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What’s changing
Starting August 30, 2021, you’ll be able to indicate where you’re working from directly on your calendar. You can add a weekly working location routine and update your location as plans change.
Set where you're working in your Calendar settings




Show your working location on your calendar


Starting August 18, admins will be able to control how the feature is used in their organization. Read more below.

Who’s impacted
Admins and end users

Why you’d use it
By showing others which days of the week you plan to be in the office, working from home, or working from another location, it’s easier to plan in-person collaboration or set expectations in a hybrid workplace.

Additional details
Anyone with free/busy access to your calendar can view your working locations. This can be turned off at any time in your calendar settings.

Getting started
  • Admins: This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled at the domain or OU level. If you’d like to disable this feature setting and prevent the onboarding promo from being shown automatically for your users, be sure to disable the setting in the Admin console before August 30, 2021. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning working location off for your organization.
  • End users: Unless disabled by your admin, this feature will be OFF by default. You’ll be shown an onboarding dialog with the option to enable the feature starting on August 30, 2021. The feature can be enabled with the initial onboarding dialog or in your Calendar settings.


Onboarding dialog to set up your working location
Rollout pace
Admin setting
End user feature
Availability
  • Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Business customers
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Frontline customers as well as G Suite Basic customers
Resources
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Quick launch summary
Now it’s easier to find and select theme colors in Sheets and Slides, the two Google Editors that support themes.


The theme colors section is now at the top color picker, and the “theme” placeholder has now been enhanced to show the name of the theme. Now you can easily identify your company brand and use the theme colors of the brand.


To select theme colors, go to any color picker dropdown and click the edit button for your theme color palette. In the theme color sidebar, select a color from the dropdown to begin editing. Note that color changes apply only to the current theme you selected and will not create a new theme.


Example of selecting customized theme colors. In this case the theme is named “Simple Light.”


We hope this new feature will help you customize your presentations in Sheets and Slides and enable you to incorporate your company’s brand colors.


Getting started
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: This feature will be ON by default. There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout pace
Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 17, 2021


Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources
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