Google Workspace Features Update: October 2021

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite)

Features Update Summary - October 2021

The summary of essential information about new features and improvements for Google Workspace customers in October 2021.

Product: Admin

Review smart home devices used for work in your Admin console

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

Who’s impacted: Admins only

Admins can now view and manage the smart displays and speakers that access work data in the Admin console, alongside other devices managed with Google endpoint management. Read more.

Product: Admin

Consolidate Google Workspace Essentials accounts for your domain

Edition: Applicable to Google Workspace Essentials and Enterprise Essentials customers only

Who’s impacted: Admins and end-users

You can now perform a “domain-takeover” to take control of all the existing Google Workspace Essentials instances on your domain. This new process can help admins consolidate multiple instances of Google Workspace Essentials. By consolidating accounts:

• Admins get additional management controls and centralized billing
• Users get access to additional services
• Users can access their Google Workspace apps and services without interruption
•  Read more.

Product: calendar

Create meeting notes in Google Calendar

Edition: All

Who’s impacted: All end-users

You can now quickly start and share a meeting notes document, right from your Calendar events. Creating a notes document through the meeting details will automatically populate the document with the calendar event information and attach the document to the event. The document can then be shared with event attendees in bulk, making it much easier for you and all the other guests to find and reference the notes. This feature is currently only available in Calendar and Docs on the web. Read more.

Product: Classroom

Making Google Classroom video meetings easier and more secure

Edition: Available as a core service to Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus. Available as an additional service to other editions.

Who’s impacted: Teachers and end-users

We’ve added several new features to Google Meet in Classroom, making it easier and more secure:

The Class Meet link is now accessible on the side of the class stream, so students can easily join and teachers can manage the link from the stream. Students will be directed to a waiting room until a teacher has officially joined the class Meet link. Guests not on the class roster will have to “ask to join” and be admitted by the teacher before they can participate, so no unintended participants join the meetings. All designated co-teachers for a class will automatically be co-hosts in the meeting. This moderation tool will enable co-hosts to start the meeting with the same Meet link without the class teacher needing to be present. Read more. 

Product: Classroom

Control whether students can unenroll themselves from classes

Edition: Available as a core service to Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus. Available as an additional service to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.

Who’s impacted: Admins and end-users

We’re adding an Admin console setting that will enable admins to control whether students can unenroll from classes. If turned on, it will prevent students from unenrolling themselves from classes. A teacher or admin would have to unenroll them from the class instead. Read more.

Product: Drive

Backup and Sync users should begin transitioning to Drive for desktop

Edition: Applicable to Backup & Sync users at all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. This is also applicable to users with personal Google Accounts, and these users can learn more in this Keyword blog post.

Who’s impacted: End-users

Earlier this year, we announced that we were working towards unifying our two existing Google Drive sync clients – Backup and Sync and Drive File Stream – into a single sync client called Drive for desktop. By doing this, we’re creating a powerful and unified sync client with the best and most used features from both Backup and Sync and Drive File Stream. Read more.

Product: Editors

Use the "Slideshow" button in Google Slides

New "Slideshow" button in Slides

Old "Present" button in Slides

Edition: All

Who’s impacted: All end-users

We’re replacing what was previously the “Present” button in Slides to now say “Slideshow.” We hope this makes it clearer when you are beginning a slide show, and when you are sharing your screen in Meet. Read more.

Product: Editors

Add image watermarks in Google Docs

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

Who’s impacted: All end-users

You can now add image watermarks directly into Google Docs. This watermark image will repeat behind the text on every page of your document. This is useful for adding company logos, branding, and custom designs. Read more

Product: Group

Configure membership restrictions for groups, available in open beta

Edition: Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, Education Plus, and Cloud Identity Premium customers

Who’s impacted: Admins only

• Internal or external members,
• Member type (service account, user, group)

This feature is available as an open beta, which means you can use it without enrolling in a specific beta program. Read more.

Product: Meet

Additional support for continuous framing to more Google Meet hardware devices, available by default for all eligible devices

Edition: Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Nonprofits, customers

Who’s impacted: Admins and end-users

Continuous framing is a feature for Google Meet hardware devices that ensures participants are automatically framed no matter where they are in the room. We're making two updates to the feature:

• Available on more devices
• Available for eligible devices by default. 
• Read more.

Product: Meet Hardware

Hand raising available in Chromebase for Google Meet

Edition:​​ Available to [Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Who’s impacted: All end-users

Last year, we announced the ability to virtually raise your hand in Google Meet to enhance interaction without disrupting the flow of the conversation. We are now bringing this feature to Acer Chromebase for Google Meet, and all Google Meet Series One Room Kits to help bring a more unified experience to hybrid working. Read more.

Product: Security

Updated flow for managing backup codes for 2-step verification purposes

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

Who’s impacted: All end-users

We’ve made a slight adjustment to how you create and manage backup codes for 2-step verification. Rather than generating or accessing backup codes from the 2-step verification homepage,

Now, you’ll select the backup codes option from the 2-step verification home page — from here, you’ll be taken to a dedicated backup codes page. Here, you’ll have the ability to generate new backup codes or re-fresh for additional backup codes, and print or download your codes as before. A new option you’ll notice is the ability to delete your backup codes. Read more.

Source: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com