The Google Workspace team has been hard at work creating features that make users’ experiences more easy, enjoyable, and secure. From Meet to the Admin console and beyond, read on to learn about the latest and greatest updates you can expect to see in Google Workspace.
New Meet admin settings
In an effort to give Google Workspace (G Suite) admins more control over their organization’s Meet security, all Admins can now control what meetings the members of their domain can join. The settings options are as follows:
- Only allow users to join meetings created by a member of the same organization
- Only allow users to join meetings created by a Google Workspace customer (a paid account)
- Allow users to join all meetings, including those created using a personal Google account
By default, users can join all meetings (option three). You can find instructions for changing this setting as well as many other Meet security settings here.
Enable audit logs for Google Cloud Search
Audit logging for Google Cloud Search APIs can now be enabled by admins. This allows for improved tracking of usage data, paving the way for deeper insights that can help you improve your users’ search experience. By enabling this, data points are securely logged, including method and API details, relevant content of the request and response received, IP address and identity of the caller, response status, and more.
This feature has been made available to all Google Workspace Enterprise Plus and Google Cloud Search customers. There is currently no plan for this feature to be released to other Google Workspace or G Suite editions.
New limit for Google Calendar API queries
Developers should note that queries for Calendar APIs are now monitored and limited on a per-minute basis. To find out your limits and explore best practices, view this article by Google.
Download and edit backups in bulk with the Classic Sites Manager
You may recall Google’s announcement of the retirement of Classic Sites. To help admins and end users successfully transition their active Classic Sites to the new Sites interface, Google has updated the Classic Sites Manager. You can now use the Classic Sites Manager to bulk download an archive of sites via Takeout and bulk disable/enable users to edit sites. These features have been made available for all Google Workspace and G Suite plans as an addition to the existing functions supported by Classic Sites Manager, which include bulk deletion, restoration, and ownership updates for Sites.
Google Drive file link updates (Admin decision needed)
Google is releasing a security update which will update the links of some Google Drive files. While this will have a positive impact on the security of the affected files, the team also understands that the subsequent URL and file access changes could cause an inconvenience for organizations. For this reason, admins will be provided with the option to see how many users, folders, Shared Drives, and files would be affected by this change. Admins can then make a decision regarding whether they would like to opt out before July 23rd, 2021.
To evaluate and submit your decision for this update, look for an alert with the subject “Security update for Drive” within the Alert Center. Please note that this change will take effect by default and an admin of your domain will need to manually opt out if you wish to avoid this security measure.
New community for Google Workspace Admins
Google has released a new community for all Google Workspace/G Suite admins! The new Google Cloud Community will replace the old Cloud Connect Community, and boasts all the same features as the latter in addition to:
- Workspace Discussion Forums
- Ideation and UX Research
- Community Events
- Community Blogs
To create your new Google Cloud Community account, go to googlecloudcommunity.com and click on the Workspace for Admins Community link. You can then use Single Sign-On (SSO) with your Google Workspace credentials.
Create custom Sites templates
Google has begun rollout for Sites templates! This will function the same way as Docs and Slides templates, allowing you to submit and use your own custom templates in addition to the 10 provided. Rollout for this feature has just begun, and will be made available to all customers except Google Workspace Business Starter users by early August 2021.
Hopefully you are as excited about these updates as we are! If you have any questions about any of these new features, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team using our contact form. We hope to hear from you soon!
