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What’s changing
When working across locations and time zones, calendar functionality is vital for you to connect effectively and meaningfully with others. Calendar Interoperability is the critical component to help ensure events created in one calendar system are accurately propagated for guests using different calendar systems. This allows you to productively schedule time and manage your schedule collaboratively, regardless of your calendaring platform. 

Today, we’re excited to announce recent improvements to Calendar Interoperability: 
  • Microsoft Outlook users who also have a Google Calendar with the same email address can receive Google Calendar invitations and RSVPs in Outlook. 
  • A default meeting reminder will be generated in Microsoft Outlook if the invitation was created in Google Calendar to help make sure guests using Outlook do not miss events. 
  • Non-Google Calendar recurring events will be more systematically and accurately updated in Google Calendar. 

Getting started 
  • Admins and end users: No action required. You’ll automatically see these updates. If you want to view availability of users in Microsoft Outlook and book rooms, visit the Help Center to learn more about Calendar Interop. 

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

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

Resources
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New updates 

There are no new updates to share this week. Please see below for a recap of published announcements. 


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.


Enhancing spam protection in Google Drive
There will now be a dedicated spam folder within Google Drive to host unwanted files that are shared with you containing spam or abusive content. | Learn more about the spam folder in Google Drive.

Bringing pooled storage and shared drives to Business Starter
We're updating the storage model in Business Starter from per-user storage to pooled storage. Pooled storage provides a more simple and flexible way to manage storage, as all storage is shared across the organization, removing the need to manage it on a per-user basis. | This update impacts Google Workspace Business Starter customers only. | Learn more about pooled storage and shared drives for Business Starter. 


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog post for additional details.


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What’s changing 
We're updating the storage model in Business Starter from per-user storage to pooled storage. Pooled storage provides a more simple and flexible way to manage storage, as all storage is shared across the organization, removing the need to manage it on a per-user basis. With pooled storage, admins also have more tools to monitor how storage is used across their organization. In the coming days, new customers signing up for Business Starter will have pooled storage; existing Business Starter customers will transition to pooled storage over the coming months. 


As an added benefit of pooled storage, organizations with Business Starter will soon gain access to shared drives. Users will be able to create shared drives and add members, files, and folders. Please note that certain admin-level and security controls—like the ability to control access to the items in a shared drive—will not be included in shared drives for Business Starter. 


Who’s impacted 
Admins and end users 


Why it’s important 
Pooled storage 
Pooled storage is a simple and flexible model for sharing storage across an organization, and it enables admins to more easily manage storage across their organization. 


Shared drives 
Part of empowering our customers to do their best work means reducing the friction around file sharing and collaboration. Shared drives are a key tool for collaboration—users can store, search, and access their team's files instantly. Additionally, they offer benefits such as:
  • Easy discoverability: Less time spent requesting access to files and searching for relevant documents with all of your team’s files in one place.
  • Files are forever: All content stays put — even when collaborators or team members leave, your content won’t.
  • Easy collaboration: Every member of a shared drive can explore and collaborate in the same files. You can also add users outside your team or organization.
  • Accessible anywhere: Regardless of location or device, you can always access the files you need most.
Visit our Help Center to learn more about pooled storage and shared drives for Business Starter.


Getting started
  • Admins: 
  • End users: There is no end user impact or action required at this time.
Rollout pace
  • Beginning May 15, 2023, new Business Starter customers will have pooled storage by default.

  • Pooled storage will start rolling out to existing Business Starter customers on May 22, 2023 and continue over the coming months. 

  • Shared drives will become available after pooled storage rolls out to all existing Business Starter customers.

Availability
  • This update impacts Google Workspace Business Starter customers.

Resources

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This announcement was made at Google I/O ‘23. Visit the Keyword Blog to learn more about new features and updates to improve online safety.

What’s changing

There will now be a dedicated spam folder within Google Drive to host unwanted files that are shared with you containing spam or abusive content. When an unsolicited file is moved to the spam folder, you will be unsubscribed, preventing all comment, sharing, and mobile push notifications for the file. Once unsubscribed, you will not be able to find the file anywhere in Drive outside of your spam folder. 

Similar to how the spam folder works in Gmail, automatic classifiers will redirect files that Drive strongly suspects to be unwanted to the spam folder. You will also be able to manually move Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites, and Forms files in and out of the spam folder. After a file has resided within the spam folder for over 30 days, it will be permanently removed from Drive. 
Google Drive Spam View
Who’s impacted 
End users 


Why it’s important 
This feature improves the security of Google Drive by giving users a new way to suppress potentially malicious content to stay safe and distraction free. We’ve offered best-in-class Gmail and Drive spam, phishing, and malware prevention for years, but Drive has lacked a spam folder, similar to the Gmail spam folder, to place unwanted content. By introducing a spam view, we’re simultaneously giving users more control over their content while blocking harmful files without risking impact to our users. 


Additional details 
You will see the new spam folder on the Drive homepage on Web, Android, iOS and Drive for Desktop. 


Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • To move a folder to Spam, you can select “report spam” from the context menu or drag the file into the spam folder in the left hand navigation menu. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about marking or unmarking spam in Drive. 
Rollout pace 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Available to users with personal Google Accounts 
Resources 
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New updates 

There are no new updates to share this week. Please see below for a recap of published announcements. 



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.


Providing greater visibility with additional Google Calendar statuses in Google Chat
Chat statuses now include even more information, such as: how much longer someone is in a meeting or focus time, if someone has an upcoming commitment within the next 10 minutes, and if someone has an upcoming out of office event within the next business day. Learn more about additional Google Calendar statuses in Google Chat.


Expanding upon Gmail security with BIMI
Users will now see a checkmark icon for senders who adopted Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) in Gmail. This will help users identify messages from legitimate senders versus impersonators. | Learn more about Gmail security with BIMI.


Manage all spaces in your organization through the Admin console
We've introduced a new section in the Admin console dedicated to managing spaces in Google Chat. Here, admins can see a list of all spaces in their domain, the members of those spaces, and take actions, such as adding members or changing a member role. | Learn more about managing all spaces in your organization through the Admin console.


Quote a previous message in Google Chat
We've introduced a new feature that allows you to quote a previous message when sending a reply in a direct message, group message, or space (if configured with in-line threading). | Learn more about quoting a previous message in Google Chat.

Turn access to Bard on or off for your users
Earlier this year, we announced Bard, an early experiment by Google that lets you collaborate with generative AI. In the coming days, Google Workspace admins will be able to turn access to Bard on for their users, in the Admin console under Apps > Additional Google services > Early Access Apps. | Learn more about turning access to Bard on or off for your users.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog post for additional details.


Rapid Release Domains:

Scheduled Release Domains:

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[Update - February 21, 2024]: Bard is now Gemini — for more information, see the latest article on the Workspace Updates blog and our Help Center for more information on turning Gemini on or off for your users.


What’s changing 
Earlier this year, we announced Bard, an early experiment by Google that lets you collaborate with generative AI. As a creative and helpful collaborator, Bard can supercharge your imagination, boost your productivity, and help you bring your ideas to life. 


In the coming days, Google Workspace admins will be able to turn access to Bard on for their users, in the Admin console under Apps > Additional Google services > Early Access Apps.


Note: At first, Bard will be the only service managed by the Early Access Apps control. Over time, we may be adding other services under this control.

Turning Early Access Apps on or off in the Admin Console




Who’s impacted 
Admins and end users 


Why it’s important 
At introduction, Bard was available to users with personal Google Accounts. Beginning today, Workspace admins will have the option to open up access to Bard for their end users through the newly introduced Early Access Apps control. Note that Bard is separate from the AI powered innovations we’re working on for Google Workspace — stay tuned to the Workspace Updates blog for more information about Workspace specific features.


Additional details 
Regional Availability 
The admin control to enable or disable access to Bard will be available for all Google Workspace customers, even if Bard isn’t available in your country yet. That means that even if Early Access Apps are turned on for your organization, users located in countries in which Bard is not available will not be able to access the service.


Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled at domain, OU, or group level. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Early Access Apps on or off for users.
    • Access to core services in Google Workspace by Early Access Apps is off by default. 
    • Note: Services and features managed by the Early Access Apps control are Additional Services and are not covered under your Google Workspace agreement, Data Processing Agreement, or HIPAA Business Associate Addendum. When you turn on the Early Access Apps control, your organization’s end users will gain access to new and experimental features and services — visit our Help Center for more details.

  • End users: If enabled by your admin, visit the Help Center to learn more about using Bard.

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
  • Not available for any Google Workspace for Education accounts designated as under 18. Use this article in our Help Center for more information.

Resources

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What’s changing
Oftentimes Google Chat conversations cover a wide variety of topics in a short period of time, causing you to potentially lose the context of a Chat sent earlier in the message stream. 


To improve your web and mobile Chat experience in scenarios such as this, we’re introducing a feature that allows you to quote a previous message when sending a reply in a direct message, group message, or space (if configured with in-line threading). 
Quote a previous message in Google Chat

Who’s impacted 
End users 

Why you’d use it 
This feature helps provide context to a message response by allowing you to directly reference a previous message. People may use message quoting when they want their response to show up in the main message stream, compared to in-line threading, where message responses are shown in a separate thread. 

Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: When you quote a message, the quote itself is a link that returns to the original message that was quoted. Visit the Help Center to learn more about quoting a message in your reply. 
Rollout pace 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Available to users with personal Google Accounts 
Resources 
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What’s changing 
We’re introducing a new section in the admin console dedicated to managing spaces in Google Chat. Here, admins can see a list of all spaces in their domain, the members of those spaces, and take actions such as adding members or changing a members role. 


View all of the spaces in your organization

See all members, including space managers, for a particular space

Adding members to a space via the Space Management tool


Assigning roles to a member via the Space Management tool



Add new members to a space and specify their role.









Who’s impacted
Admins 


Why it’s important 
Spaces in Google Chat are an essential part of collaboration and community building across organizations of all sizes. As such, it’s important for admins to easily view and manage their spaces to keep them productive and safe. You can look up specific spaces based on it’s ID or name and take actions such as reviewing members of each individual space, adding members or assigning new space managers. 

Further, the space management tool gives admins the information that will allow them to better understand how spaces are used in their organization: 
  • The number of members in the space 
  • Whether conversation history is on or off for the space 
  • Sharing permissions for a space 
  • Active spaces and spaces with no recent activity 

Additional details 
This feature is available for all super admins by default. Delegated admins need to have the “Manage chat and space conversations” role to access space management — visit the Help Center to learn more about administrator roles. 

Getting started 
  • Admins: In the Admin console, navigate to Apps > Google Workspace > Settings for Google Chat > Manage spaces. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing spaces in the Admin console. 



  • End users: There is no end user action required. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers 

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What’s changing 
In 2021, we introduced Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) in Gmail, a feature that requires senders to use strong authentication and verify their brand logo in order to display a brand logo as an avatar in emails. 

Building upon that feature, users will now see a checkmark icon for senders that have adopted BIMI. This will help users identify messages from legitimate senders versus impersonators. 
Expanding upon Gmail security with BIMI
Who’s impacted 
Admins and end users 


Why it matters 
Strong email authentication helps users and email security systems identify and stop spam, and also enables senders to leverage their brand trust. This increases confidence in email sources and gives readers an immersive experience, creating a better email ecosystem for everyone. 


Getting started 
  • Admins: 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up BIMI. 
    • To learn more about BIMI and see the latest news, visit the working group’s website. 
    • To take advantage of BIMI for your outgoing emails to Gmail and other platforms, ensure that your organization has adopted DMARC, and that you have validated your logo with a VMC, issued by a Certification Authority such as Entrust or DigiCert. 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. 

Rollout pace 

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

Resources 
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What’s changing
Last year, we introduced the ability to see additional Google Calendar statuses like “In a meeting” or “In focus time” in Google Chat. Starting today, Chat statuses will include even more information, such as: 
  • How much longer someone is in a meeting or focus time 
  • If someone has an upcoming commitment within the next 10 minutes 
  • If someone has an upcoming out of office event within the next business day 
The Chat status will automatically disappear once you send a message to someone or you can manually dismiss it. However, if their status changes, an updated status will reappear. 


Additionally, you can see the current working location and local time zone set by your colleagues when sending a new message to them in Chat. 
Providing greater visibility with additional Google Calendar statuses in Google Chat
Who’s impacted 
Admins and end users 


Why you’d use it 
This feature gives you a better understanding of others’ availability, helping you plan when to reach out and collaborate. If someone is currently unavailable, you now have a more accurate picture of their response time. 


Additional details 
This feature will be rolling out to mobile devices in the coming months. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers 
  • Not available to users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 
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