Posted by Clay Bavor, Vice President Product Management, Google Apps

No matter how things change, a face-to-face conversation is still the fastest and simplest way to communicate. Using Hangouts lets teams collaborate over video meetings across smartphones, tablets and computers. And dedicated Chromebox for meetings devices extend these video meetings to any room. Today, we’re announcing the latest features, updates and partnerships that make video meetings even easier and better for Google Apps for Business customers.

Enhanced reliability and support for Hangouts
Hangouts is now covered under the same Terms of Service that support our other Google Apps for Business products, like Gmail and Drive. That means we’ve got your back with 24x7 phone support and a 99.9% guaranteed uptime, as well as ISO27001 and SOC 2 certification. Additional enterprise integration with Google Apps Vault is coming by the end of the year.

Simpler to get everyone on video meetings
Starting today, Hangouts video meetings support any Google Apps customer account, including those without a Google+ profile. Any Google Apps customer can start or join a high-definition video meeting that connects 15 participants—from a computer or Chromebox for meetings device and coming soon to mobile phone and tablet.

And to make video meetings with Hangouts and Chromebox for meetings even more accessible, we’re partnering with additional providers to let you meet with teams using other systems. Blue Jeans will allow people on traditional H.323 or SIP-based videoconferencing systems to join video meetings. InterCall will let people join video meetings on their phones through an InterCall audio-conference bridge. And with new phone dialing support, you’ll be able to dial out from your Chromebox for meetings device to telephones.

Bringing Chromebox for meetings to more places
In the coming months, we’ll be making Chromebox for meetings work better in rooms of all shapes and sizes. In larger conference rooms, you can connect two displays to one Chromebox for meetings device to see your audience and project a presentation at the same time. And if you’ve ever wanted a dedicated setup for video meetings for your home, new personal calendar integration means you will be able to easily set up Chromebox for meetings outside the office.

Lastly, IT administrators can better manage meetings right from the Google Apps Admin Console with options like remotely starting, muting and ending a meeting.


Spontaneous one-on-one brainstorms, monthly company-wide meetings, or connecting two offices via a continuous video stream are just some ways customers like Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Kaplan and Eventbrite have used Hangouts and Chromebox for meetings. And soon, even more teams across the world will be able to get simple and affordable video meetings. In the coming weeks, we’ll be expanding Chromebox for meetings to the UK and Japan in addition to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. And in September, you’ll be able to purchase Chromebox for meetings made by Dell.

To learn more about these updates, join our product team for a live Hangout on Air on August 19. And to help your team see eye-to-eye, check out how you can get Hangouts and purchase Chromebox for meetings devices.

Posted by Deborah Hsieh, Product Manager, Google Apps Vault

Google Apps Vault helps businesses, schools, and governments of all sizes archive, retain and manage business business-critical information. Vault also helps with continuity, compliance, and regulatory purposes. Last January, the introduction of targeted legal holds gave our customers even more control over the emails they retain by restricting holds to searchable criteria.

Now, Vault customers can assign Vault privileges based organization units (OU). This allows customers to limit specific administrators to search and export only specific OUs, addressing privacy and security concerns over allowing administrators to access all licensed Vault users in a domain. Last month, we launched OU-based search, which lets Vault administrators search for data within a specific OU. Vault’s OU-based search and OU-restricted search reduce the number of irrelevant search results that a domain-wide search can produce, and eliminates the need to specify individual accounts. For example, if your OUs are structured by geography, you can restrict your administrator based in London to only search your users in Europe.

To learn more about Vault, please visit our Vault Help Center.

Posted by Deborah Hsieh, Product Manager, Google Apps Vault

Google Apps Vault helps protect organizations of all sizes by enabling them to quickly find and preserve email messages that may be relevant to litigation, thereby reducing investigation costs. Vault also helps manage and preserve business-critical information for continuity, compliance, and regulatory purposes. Last year, the introduction of partial domain licensing allowed Vault customers to save money by buying Vault only for specific users or organizational units.

Today, we're going a step further by offering targeted legal holds, which give customers even more control over the emails they retain. While it's still possible to hold a user's entire mailbox, customers can also target the specific information they need to preserve for a legal hold based on any searchable criteria, including sent date, labels, content or search terms. Targeted legal holds allow Vault customers to preserve fewer emails and focus on the more relevant messages, helping reduce the costs and risks associated with managing and reviewing data.

Google Apps Vault helps thousands of businesses, schools, and governments archive, retain, and manage business-critical information. You can add Vault to an existing Apps account, or purchase it in conjunction with Apps, for $5 per user per month. If you purchased Google Apps online directly from Google, you can purchase Vault from your Apps Admin Console. If you purchased Vault from a reseller partner, please contact them to purchase additional Vault users. And, finally, please contact us if you are a Google Apps for Education or Government customer interested in Vault.

Posted by Jack Halprin, Head of eDiscovery, Enterprise

Since we launched Google Apps Vault, thousand of businesses, schools, and governments have adopted it to archive, retain, and manage business-critical information. Until now, customers have only been able to buy Vault for their entire domain. Now, with partial domain licensing, you can buy Vault for specific users or by organizational units, enabling you to save money and focus your efforts.

Google Apps Vault helps protect organizations of all sizes from lawsuits by enabling them to quickly find and preserve email messages that may be relevant to litigation, reducing investigation costs. Vault also helps manage and preserve business-critical information for continuity, compliance, and regulatory purposes.

You can add Vault to an existing Apps account, or purchase it in conjunction with Apps, for $5 per user per month. If you purchased Google Apps online directly from Google, you can purchase Vault from your Apps Admin Console. If you purchased Vault from a reseller partner, please contact them to purchase additional Vault users. And, finally, please contact us if you are a Google Apps for Education or Government customer interested in Vault.