The Google Workspace team has been hard at work making your users’ account more secure, versatile, and intuitive. Read on to learn about the latest developments to Google Calendar, the Admin console, and more.
View pending tasks in Google Calendar
Previously, it was somewhat easy to forget about overdue tasks in Google Calendar because there was no simple tracking method. Now, your overdue tasks are automatically tracked by Google Calendar! When tasks are overdue, an all-day event entry will appear on the present date. Simply click on the entry to view details about the overdue tasks (as shown above). Rollout of this feature has completed for all users.
Easily filter search results in Drive with Search Chips
Previously in beta, a new feature for Google Drive is now available to all G Suite and Google Workspace customers. Called “search chips,” these allow users to more easily find relevant Drive files by filtering for the following properties:
- File location
- File type (Doc, PDF, image, etc.)
- People
- Date last modified
- Shared labels
- Tasks
Classic Hangouts deprecation timeline
As you may know, Google is deprecating Classic Hangouts. You can expect the following automatic updates to occur within the coming weeks.
- Beginning March 22nd, 2022: “Chat preferred” will be turned on, making Google Chat the default messaging application.
- Beginning April 4th, 2022: Classic Hangouts integrations will be disabled and only accessible from hangouts.google.com.
We encourage all users to use Chat (rather than Hangouts) for the best instant messaging experience.
40+ new content detectors for DLP
A new data loss prevention (DLP) system has been released that will expand the range of content that the system can scan and detect. Key content type additions include:
- Resumes
- Tax documents
- Legal briefs and court orders
- Source codes
- System logs
- … and many more.
This feature is now available for numerous product editions including Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Cloud Identity Premium, and all Education customers. Admins can access DLP system at Admin console > Security > Data Protection. For help with getting started, see How to create DLP for Drive rules and custom content detectors and How to use predefined content detectors.
Managers for Chat Spaces
All Gmail users (both personal and commercial) can now utilize a helpful new setting for Chat Spaces (formerly called Chat Rooms).
Managers can be designated who will have greater control over management of the Space. The Space’s creator will automatically be a Manager, as shown by the diamond next to their name in messages and the member list. The Manager can assign other Managers by doing the following: Open the Space > Click the space name > Click the menu next to the appropriate person’s name > Click the green diamond > Click Make Space Manager.
Meet quality tool
An additional feature has been added to the Meet quality tool which allows admins to monitor inbound and outbound bandwidth information. This helps Admins understand what factors might be influencing Meet call quality for specific users. If users have quality issues when using Meet, this tool helps to identify bandwidth bottleneck(s) so that they can be resolved. This feature is now available to all Google Workspace and G Suite Admins.
Embed Google Forms charts into Docs and Slides
All users can now embed linked response charts from Google Forms into Google Docs, Google Slides presentations, and Google Drawings! This feature will help readers/listeners better visualize the results of your poll or survey. See this article for instructions on how to embed your next Form results in a document.
That concludes the highlights of the most recent updates to Google Workspace! Be sure to check back for more updates soon, and reach out to us any time using the contact form below.
