Google Meet hosts and co-hosts can now lock all participants’ audio and video from iOS devices, which locks all participants’ audio so they’re muted or prevents participants’ from using their camera respectively. These settings can help prevent disruptions, keeping your meetings on track and productive.

Previously  it was only possible to use these locks when using Google Meet on a computer. We anticipate this feature to be available for Android in early 2022 — we will provide an update on the Workspace Updates Blog once available.

You can now start or join meetings and audio calls from 1:1 chats in Google Chat in Gmail on Android and iOS. At the moment, this feature will be available for 1:1 chats only.

To ring someone directly, select the phone or video icon in the top right corner of a 1:1 chat.

Earlier this year, we announced a beta for assigning SSO profiles to organizational units or groups. This feature is now generally available and allows admins to specify groups or organizational units (OUs) to authenticate a subset of your users using Google.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why it’s important

Currently, when you configure SSO with a third-party identity provider, the setting applies to your entire domain. However, there are some instances where you may want a subset of your users, such as vendors or contractors, to authenticate with Google instead. The Partial SSO feature gives you the flexibility to specify the authentication method for various users in your organization as needed.

Getting started

• Admins: In the Admin console, navigate to Security > Settings > Set up single sign-on (SSO) with a third party IdP > Manage SSO Profile assignments. Visit the Help Center to learn more about assigning SSO profiles to organizational units or groups.

• End users: No action required.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on November 19, 2021

Availability

• Available to Google Workspace 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
• Available to all Cloud Identity customers
• Not available to Google Workspace Essentials customers

Resources

• Google Workspace Admin Help: Set up single sign-on for managed Google Accounts using third-party Identity providers
• Google Help: Assign SSO profile to organizational units or groups

You can now add people chips directly into a Google Sheet. These chips allow you to quickly view more information about colleagues or contacts, including their location, job title, and contact information. You can also take actions such as booking a meeting, starting a Chat, sending an email, and more, directly from a smart chip. This feature is already available for Google Docs.

To insert a people chip, type  “@” in any cell to search your directory or by selecting Insert > People chip.

We’re bringing the ability to delete a named space in Google Chat to the Google Workspace Business Standard and Business Starter editions. We plan to extend this capability to more Google Workspace editions next year. 

With this capability, creators of a space can fully delete it from Chat, which includes all owned contents of the space, room tasks, and files and attachments not saved elsewhere. In addition, members will no longer be able to access the space, its files, or the member list after it has been deleted. 

In 2017, we announced that we would replace classic Google Sites with new Google Sites. We’re extending the previously announced timeline to make the migration process easier for Google Workspace customers. The new timeline is: 

• Starting June 1, 2022 (previously December 1, 2021): You will no longer be able to edit any remaining classic Sites in your domain.  
• Starting July 1, 2022 (previously January 1, 2022): Classic Sites will no longer be viewable unless they are converted to new Google Sites.

Additionally, the bulk conversion tool in the Classic Sites Manager will be temporarily unavailable as we make improvements to conversion fidelity for sites settings. We will update the Google Workspace Known Issues page when the feature is re-enabled. 

In the meantime, end-users and admins can still convert individual classic Sites to new Google Sites and use other tools in the Classic Sites Manager to make progress on migration. 

Note: This timeline change does not impact the transition for users with personal Google accounts.