Google Workspace Features Update: May 2022

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite)

Features Update Summary - May 2022

The summary of essential information about new features and improvements for Google Workspace customers in May 2022.

Product: Admin

Changes to Google Workspace storage policies timeline

Edition: These changes will apply to all customers with Google Workspace and legacy G Suite licenses

Who’s impacted: Admins and end-users

We’re extending the previously announced timeframe for upcoming changes to the Google Workspace storage policy. The updated timeline is:

• June 1, 2021: High-quality photos will count towards Drive quota beginning June 1, 2021. There is no change to this timeline.
• May 2, 2022: Any newly created Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files will count toward storage. Existing files within these products will not count toward storage, unless they’re modified on or after May 2, 2022. Read more in our Help Center. 
• Read more

Product: Admin

Set up SSO profiles for multiple third-party identity providers with the Multi-IdP SSO beta launch

Edition: 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 legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers

Who’s impacted: Admins only

In 2021, we gave admins the ability to configure authentication through a third-party identity provider for all users in their domain and then specify groups or organizational units (OUs) to require authentication using Google for a subset of users. Now, you can completely customize authentication by setting up single sign-on (SSO) profiles for multiple identity providers and then configuring authentication for each group or OU. This feature is available beginning today as an open beta, which means you can use it without enrolling in a specific beta program. Read more.

Product: Calendar

Set recurring task end options directly in Google Tasks

Edition: Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers. Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Who’s impacted: End users

Currently, you can set the end option for a recurring task (never, on a certain date, or after X occurrences) by opening the task in Google Calendar. With this launch, you can also set this option directly in Google Tasks. This gives you more control over how and until when your tasks repeat. Read more.

Product: Calendar

Improved user interface for sharing your working location in Google Calendar

Edition: Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Business customers.

Who’s impacted: Admins and end users

In August 2021, we gave users the ability to share where they’re working from directly on their calendar. This update improves the working location feature by offering the same functionality for easily entering and updating location information in a more compact format that uses screen space more efficiently. Read more.

Product: Calendar

Require email verification to book appointments in Google Calendar

Edition: Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits customers

Who’s impacted: All end users

When using appointment scheduling in Google Calendar, you can now opt to have users verify their email before booking an appointment. When enabled, the user must be signed into a Google account or validate their email address using a PIN code to complete the booking. Read more.

Product: Chat

Space managers can delete messages in Google Chat

Edition: Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade.

Who’s impacted: Admins and end-users

will allow Space managers to easily moderate their spaces and remove any content that is irrelevant or inappropriate in the space.

Getting started

• Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about optimizing Chat spaces for your organization 
• End users: Hover over a message and select the “Delete the message” option.
• Read more

Product: Chat

Create Spaces and Add Members with the Google Chat API, available in Developer Preview

Edition: Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers

Who’s impacted: Developers

Using the Google Chat API, you can now programmatically create new Spaces and add members to those Spaces. This functionality is available in preview – developers can apply for access through our Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. Read more.

Product: Chat

New and updated third-party DevOps integrations for Google Chat, including PagerDuty

Edition: Available to Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers

Who’s impacted: End users

We’re introducing and updating a variety of additional DevOps integrations, which will allow you to take action on common workflows directly in Google Chat:

Developers can use the following updated  apps: Google Cloud Build, Asana, GitHub, Jenkins and more. New functionality in these apps include the following:

• Using Slash commands for quick actions such as creating a new Asana task or triggering a build in Jenkins or Google Cloud Build
• Ability to use Dialogs for important flows such as setting up the app, or entering detailed info such as creating a GitHub issue
• Operations and incident response professionals can use the new PagerDuty integration to take action on PagerDuty incidents from Chat. Some of the capabilities of the new app include:
• Receive notifications of PagerDuty incidents right from Google Chat
• Be able to take action, including acknowledging, reassigning and resolving incidents without leaving the conversation
• Create dedicated Google Chat Spaces to collaborate with teammates on important incidents and resolve them quickly.
• Read more

Product: Drive

Easily search for Google Meet content in Google Drive

Edition: Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers

Who’s impacted: End users

In Google Drive, you can now use “app: Google Meet” at the beginning of queries to easily surface Meet artifacts such as:

• Meeting recordings
• Chat transcripts
• Attendance reports
• Polls or question and answer reports
• Meeting transcripts
• Meeting notes created in Google Calendar
• Read more

Product: Editors

Use new table templates and dropdown chips in Google Docs to create highly collaborative documents

Edition: Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers. Available to users with personal Google Accounts.

Who’s impacted: All end users

We’re introducing two new enhancements for our flexible, smart canvas for collaboration: dropdown chips and table templates. 

You can use  dropdown chips in Google Doc to easily indicate the status of your document or various project milestones outlined in your document. There are two default dropdown options:

• Project Status, which includes selections for “Not Started”, “Blocked”, “In Progress” and “Complete”
• Review Status, which includes selections for “Not Started”, “In Progress”, “Under Review” and “Approved”.
• Read more

Product: Editors

Export log data in near-real time to BigQuery

Edition: Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, and Education Plus

Who’s impacted: Admins

Currently, you can export Google Workspace logs to Google BigQuery for customized and scalable reporting. Exports take place as a daily sync, returning log data that can be up to three days old. With this launch, exported log data streams will be near-real time (under 10 minutes), ensuring fresh data for your export. This helps you stay on top of security threats and analysis with the most up-to-date activity log data. Read more.

Product: Meet

Join a Google Meet call from Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Edition: Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Who’s impacted: Admins and end-users

You can now join a Google Meet call from Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. In addition to present to Meet option, you can select “Join the call” to quickly start and present a document, spreadsheet, or presentation to all meeting attendees. Read more.

Product: Meet

Share your video feed when using Companion mode in Google Meet

Edition: Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers

Who’s impacted: All end-users

When using Companion mode in Google Meet, you can now turn your camera on and share your video feed with all other participants. For in-room participants attending a hybrid meeting, this feature helps improve collaboration and representation equity by giving everyone the ability to share their own video with other on-call participants. Read more.

Product: Meet

Set recurring task end options directly in Google Tasks

Edition: Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers. Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Who’s impacted: All end-users

Currently, you can set the end option for a recurring task (never, on a certain date, or after X occurrences) by opening the task in Google Calendar. With this launch, you can also set this option directly in Google Tasks. This gives you more control over how and until when your tasks repeat. Read more.

Source: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com