To see a filterable, searchable list of all the G Suite launches from the last six months, check out the What’s new in G Suite page in the Help Center.

We’d really appreciate your thoughts on how we can make this resource work best for you.

- The G Suite Team, May 6, 2019

Google Voice for G Suite: Cloud telephony with the intelligence and security of Google Cloud

What’s changing

Google Voice is now generally available as an add-on to G Suite. Voice for G Suite is a cloud-based phone system that’s optimized for businesses of all sizes. G Suite customers can use it to deploy and manage phone numbers at scale with the intelligence and security of Google Cloud. Google Voice offers:

• Smart cloud telephony for end users
• Simple provisioning and management for admins
• Easy adoption and migration at scale

Google Voice is available to all G Suite customers through an additional licence. Find more information about Google Voice availability and pricing here.

Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you’d use it

Google Voice integrates with Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet to provide a complete solution for communication with colleagues, customers, and partners from anywhere at any time. Specifically, Google Voice adds:

Smart cloud telephony for end users

• Get a phone number that works from anywhere, on any device, so you can place and receive calls wherever you’re doing work.
• Use intelligent capabilities to transcribe voicemails and block spam calls to help minimize unwanted distractions.
• Increase efficiency through integrations with other G Suite products, like Calendar, Contacts, Hangouts Chat, and Hangouts Meet.

Simple management for admins

• Use one place - the Admin console - to manage Voice global users, numbers, porting, and billing.
• Set up new phone numbers as easily as adding a user to G Suite.
• Easily provision and deploy via simple administration tools

Scalable adoption and migration

• Migrate smoothly with integrated number porting to help prevent interruption of key business processes.
• Leverage Google’s text-to-speech technology to automatically create call menus in nine languages to manage and route callers without worrying about recordings or translations.
• Give users permission to choose a number and set up their service independently without admin involvement.

How to get started

• Admins: Find more information about Google Voice here.
• End users: No action needed.

Work together

Introducing Currents, the newest G Suite app

What’s changing

Launching first to beta, Currents is a G Suite app that enables people to have meaningful discussions and interactions across your organization, helping keep everyone in the know and giving leaders the opportunity to connect with their employees.

Currents is replacing Google+ for G Suite, and has a new look, feel, and set of features. All of your organization’s existing Google+ content will automatically transfer to Currents once you are enrolled in the beta.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

Exchange ideas at scale:

Currents makes it easy to have meaningful discussions by enabling leaders and employees to exchange ideas across the organization and gather valuable feedback and input from others — without flooding inboxes.

• Currents features a streamlined experience for composing content — users can easily tag their posts and attach relevant attachments or images.

• Once a user posts, others can comment, give feedback, and ask questions all in the same place.
• Individual users can also track analytics for their posts.

Currents also gives leaders a way to engage with their employees more directly, allowing them to take the pulse of their organization and understand what’s important.

• Posts from leadership can be given priority in the home stream, improving visibility across the organization to drive alignment.

Connect people to content:

Currents connects employees to useful and timely content that is personalized to their role and interests. Giving employees access to relevant content keeps them connected to the organization and creates more learning opportunities:

• Content remains on Currents over time, so users can revisit and engage at a later date.
• Tags and streams make it easy to find and discover content of interest.
• Content in the home stream is ordered by relevance so it’s prioritized for what is most important to that individual, or users can choose to sort it chronologically.

Manage and curate with ease:

Admins can shape the discussion in the organization by creating custom streams to promote specific content to a targeted set of employees or the entire company. Additionally, admins can measure engagement across the platform with metrics to track usage and understand what content is resonating across the organization.

• Admins can delegate content management responsibilities to a new role called Content Administrator.
• These Content Admins can easily create custom streams, manage tags, define leaders, moderate content, and track usage and engagement with metrics.

How to get started

• Admins: To request access to the beta program for your organization, please email CurrentsBeta@google.com.
• End users: No action required.

Write now, send later with Schedule send in Gmail

What’s changing

You can now schedule your emails in Gmail to be sent at a later date and time. We’re launching this feature on Android, iOS and Gmail on the web.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

Just write your email as you normally would, then schedule it to be sent at a more appropriate date or time. This gives you greater control, allowing you to shift your work time to wherever and whenever is most convenient to you and your recipients. Additionally, it’s even easier to collaborate globally, allowing you to work across time-zones while still respecting everyone’s digital well-being.

How to get started

• Admins: No action required.
• End users: When drafting an original email or reply in Gmail, you’ll now see an arrow next to the “Send” button.

• Clicking this arrow now gives you the option “Schedule send” option.
• After clicking “Schedule send”, you can pick the specific date & time you’d like the message to be delivered.

Additional details

With this launch, we’ll also be adding a “Scheduled” folder in Gmail. Scheduled messages will appear in the “Scheduled” folder while queued to be sent.

See info about your contacts easily in Gmail on iOS

Quick launch summary

To help you find more information about someone you are interacting with on your mobile phone, you can now simply tap on their profile picture in Conversation View on Gmail on iOS to see their contact information in more detail. You’ll be able to see information such as:

• Their email address
• Their phone number
• Interactions such as emails and Calendar invitations

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

Gmail iOS recently launched a brand new mobile redesign, which provided Gmail users with a new look and feel to help you get things done faster. This new redesign also highlights the importance of avatars, and how many users use these to find more information about people they are interacting with.

How to get started

• Admins: No action required.
• End users: In Conversation View on Gmail on iOS, simply tap on someone’s profile picture to see their contact information in more detail.

Additional details

If your organization enters information such as office location and reporting chain in users’ profiles, you’ll also be able to see this information when you click on their profile picture.

Pro Tip: if you are trying to find an upcoming meeting with someone in your organization, the Interactions tab will show you upcoming Calendar events too.

Live captions in Hangouts Meet

What’s changing

We’re making meetings more accessible for deaf and hard-of-hearing users by launching live captions in Hangouts Meet.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

Live captions help make your meetings more accessible by reducing barriers to holding meetings between users of different hearing abilities, regardless of whether they are participating remotely or in person.

How to get started

• Admins: No action required.
• End users:

• On the web and on Chromebase for meetings touchscreen devices, navigate to the triple-dot menu at the bottom right corner of your screen and select the option to turn on captions.
• On devices with a Mimo touchscreen and Chromebox for meetings with the remote, you can find the toggle to turn on captions in the Settings menu.

Additional details

Live captions is available across different Hangouts Meet-compatible platforms, such as on the web, devices with a Mimo touchscreen, Chromebox for meetings with the remote, and on Chromebase for meetings touchscreen devices.

When you turn on captions, they will be visible on that particular device. In order for other participants in the meeting to see captions, they’ll have to turn it on for their devices as well.

Currently, live captions is only available in English. Additionally, captions will not appear in a recording of a meeting.

New adaptive meeting layouts in Hangouts Meet

What’s Changing

Hangouts Meet is launching adaptive layouts that automatically adjust to give you the best view of the people and presentations in your meeting:

Spotlight  

The spotlight layout keeps the focus on the presentation or a single speaker. It’s used when you’re in a meeting with just one other participant, when you pin someone, and when there’s a presentation but no active speakers with video on.

Tiled

The tiled layout shows up to four participants on the screen to make your meetings feel more inclusive. This will be the default for smaller meetings when there is no presentation.

Side by side

The side by side layout shows up to three speakers in a larger format next to the presentation. This allows you to continue to see the presenter as they speak. This is the default when there’s a presentation and there are active speakers with video on.

Sidebar 

The sidebar layout improves on the existing Meet layout by showing several additional participants in the same vertical space and using rectangular feeds to avoid participants on the edge being cropped out. This will be the default for larger meetings when there is no presentation.

In addition to seeing these layouts automatically used depending on the meeting needs, users can select a preferred layout from the Change layout dialog.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

These new layouts provide the user with a more inclusive and collaborative view of the meeting, allowing for easier interaction with remote participants while still maintaining focus on the content being presented.

How to get started

• Admins: No action required.
• End users: You’ll see the new layouts in your next Hangouts Meet meeting once the feature has rolled out to you.

Additional details

The new layouts are available on Hangouts Meet web clients and Hangouts Meet hardware.

Stay organized and on top of conversations with Hangouts Chat improvements

Quick launch summary

We’re improving the side panel on Hangouts Chat, making it easier to keep track of your chats and stay organized.

In addition to Starred, you’ll now see the following sections in the left-hand side panel: People, Rooms, and Bots, with corresponding chats grouped accordingly. These sections will better organize your chats, making it easy to find specific chats and see where there are items that need attention. This feature will be available across web, desktop, iOS, and Android.

Enhance presentations in Slides with audio

What’s changing

We’re adding the ability for users to embed MP3 and WAV audio files from Drive into Slides.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

We have listened to your requests and are adding audio files as additional media types in Slides. We know that adding audio clips can bring your presentations to the next level. Short audio clips can grab attention, while longer ones can set the tone for the entire presentation.

How to get started

• Admins: No action required.
• End users: To insert an audio file into Slides:

• Insert > Audio and select from your audio files in Drive
• Hover over the icon to see playback controls

Once the audio file is inserted, you can find more audio settings by clicking “Format options” in the toolbar. From there, you can set playback options, volume, and looping. You can also hide the audio icon, or replace it with an image of your choice.

Additional details

The ability to add an audio file into Slides is currently only available on desktop, though audio will play on all platforms.

More collaboration insights in the Activity dashboard

Quick launch summary

We’re introducing two new features to the Activity dashboard in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides:

Sharing history

Sharing history provides users with granular visibility into how your document is being shared with others across your organization and elsewhere. You’ll now see who shared access with who and what level editing access they’ve been granted.

Comment trend

Comment trend will help users visualize the conversations in a particular document, showing the number of comments, suggestions, and replies created per day. A graph will display the number of new comment threads, replies, and unresolved comments over the lifetime of a document.

These updates add more context to the Activity dashboard, a feature we launched last year to help users see who’s viewed a particular document and viewer trends. These additions will further flesh out the Activity dashboard, making it a centralized hub where document owners and editors can see how other collaborators are engaging with their content.

Improvements to organizing and finding Team Drives

What’s changing

As a result of your feedback, we are introducing improvements to how you organize and find files in Team Drives. These improvements include the ability to:

• Hide Team Drives on web and mobile
• Search by Team Drive file creator

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

These improvements allow you to quickly access the Team Drives or files within Team Drives that are most important to you by:

• Slimming down your list of Team Drives by hiding and unhiding as needed.
• Searching for items that have been created by a user in a Team Drive, similar to the search by owner in My Drive.

How to get started

• Admins: No action needed.
• End users:

•  Hiding Team Drives

• See our Help Center for details on how to hide and unhide Team Drives
• You can select more than one Team Drive to hide on web

•  Search by Team Drive file creator

• On the web: to search for files originally created in a Team Drive by a specific user, use “creator: email address.”

Additional details

Streamline your list of Team Drives by hiding inactive or irrelevant Team Drives

You may have a long list of Team Drives in your Drive left hand panel. Now, you can hide a Team Drive for a completed project or that isn’t relevant to you. Hide individual Team Drives as needed, or select multiple Team Drives and hide all at once. Hiding Team Drives is available on web and mobile.

Search for files located in a Team Drive

People can search for My Drive files by owner, but Team Drive files are owned by the team. This makes them harder to search for. Now, you can search by “creator” for files located in a Team Drive.

Often you remember the name of the person that created the content, instead of where it might be located. Search by “creator” will fulfill this need. To learn more about finding files in Google Drive, see here.

Team Drives is being renamed to shared drives

Quick launch summary

The “Team Drives” feature of Google Drive will be renamed to “shared drives.” This will impact:

• Drive on web and mobile: Timing may vary depending on the specific platform. See below for more info.
• Drive File Stream: Beginning on May 31, 2019, with the Drive File Stream version 31 release, “Team Drives” will be renamed to “shared drives” in the Drive File Stream navigation. This may require you to update settings on your devices (see below for more info).

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s changing

This change will not impact Team Drives functionality; it is simply a name change. Our users have told us that they use Team Drives for a lot more than sharing within teams, so “shared drives” makes it easier to understand how you could use them.

How to get started

• Admins: If your organization currently relies on file paths of content linked from Drive File Stream—like shortcuts, scripts, etc.—you will need to update your file paths to “shared drives” as soon as possible after May 31, 2019 to avoid broken paths.
• End users: In Google Drive, in the left hand side panel, “Team Drives” will be renamed to “Shared drives.” Any desktop shortcuts that link to content inside of shared drives will need to be updated.

Additional details

On mobile, Android users will see this change beginning on May 28, 2019. iOS users will see this change beginning on May 21, 2019. See below for rollout details for Drive for web.

Simple to use

Gmail Smart Compose subject suggestions

What’s changing

Smart Compose can now make suggestions for the subject of your email.

Who’s impacted

End users.

Why you’d use it

Since we announced Gmail Smart Compose in G Suite last year, we’ve seen how Smart Compose suggestions can cut down on the effort it takes for you to write emails and replies. With subject suggestions, Smart Compose can now help you compose your subject line as well.

How to get started

• Admins: No action required
• End users: No action is required to begin seeing Smart Compose subject suggestions. When you write the body of your email and then place your cursor in the subject line, you may see Smart Compose suggesting a subject for your email.

Gmail Smart Compose personalization

What’s changing

Smart Compose suggestions are becoming more tailored to your writing style.

In addition, we’re adding the ability for admins to control whether Gmail Smart Compose is personalized for users within their domain. When personalization is enabled, end-users will also have the ability to individually opt out if they wish.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

Since we announced Gmail Smart Compose in G Suite last year, we’ve seen how Smart Compose suggestions can cut down on the effort it takes for you to write emails and replies. With personalization, these suggestions now better resemble how you tend to write.

How to get started

No action is required to enable personalization. Both of the following settings are enabled by default.

• Admins: To control Smart Compose personalization for your domain, in the Admin console, go to Apps > G Suite > Settings for Gmail > User Settings and select/unselect “Enable Gmail Smart Compose personalized suggestions.”
• End users: If Smart Compose personalization is enabled for your domain, you can follow these instructions to turn Smart Compose personalization on or off.

Note that if your admin has disabled Smart Compose personalization for your domain, the end user controls are disabled.

Additional details

When you have Smart Compose personalization on, Smart Compose suggestions are tailored to the way you normally write. Only you will see your own private, personalized suggestions for your account. No other users can see your personalized suggestions. When personalization is turned off, you will see generic suggestions.

Work anywhere with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides in new offline mode

What’s changing

It’s now possible for users to work on Docs, Sheets, and Slides files when your device is offline or have a bad internet connection within Google Drive. You can also preview which files are available offline with a new offline preview mode.

Right click on Docs, Sheets, and Slides files from within Google Drive to make those files available offline.

You can preview which files are available offline using the Offline preview mode

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users.

Why you’d use it

We know it’s important for users to access and work on their files while traveling or when there’s low connectivity. With offline mode, it’s now possible to create, edit, and comment on Docs, Sheets, or Slides files. Any changes made to files while offline will then sync in Drive once the user is connected again.

How to get started

• Admins: Admins can enable this feature for all or some users:

• To let users enable offline access (recommended), go to Apps > G Suite > Drive and Docs.
• To enable offline access for specific devices, see this article in our Help Center.
• Note: The default for this feature is that all users can enable offline access on any device they sign into, but it is not enabled automatically except on Chromebooks

• End users: To work with your files while offline, you’ll need to enable offline access in your Drive settings:

• From Google Drive, click the gear icon at the top right corner, select Settings > General and select Sync Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings files to this computer so that you can edit offline.
• Once offline access is enabled, a checkmark icon will appear in the top right next to Settings (gear icon) and Support (question mark). When you click this icon, you can find the offline preview toggle.

Additional details

To make files available offline in Google Drive, right click on any file and toggle Available offline from the menu while connected.

When offline access is enabled, Google Drive also automatically and intelligently makes a certain number of Google Docs/Sheets/Slides files available offline based on how recently you accessed them. You can preview which files are already available offline automatically using the offline preview mode. You can also mark a file available offline, so that it always remains available offline, while in offline preview mode, as long as you are connected.

The Google Docs Offline extension, which is made available by default to all Chrome users, is still required.

Quickly find support resources in Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar and more

What’s changing

We’re making support and learning resources easier to find in several G Suite apps. We’re doing this by adding a new quick-access button to some products, and changing the Help menu options in others. Specifically, you’ll see:

A new button in Gmail, Calendar, and Drive: A new ‘?’ support button next to the search bar at the top of Gmail, Calendar, and Drive on the web will provide quick access to a range of help and support content.

New menu options in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides: The Help menu in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides will have "Training" and "Updates" options added.

After this launch, users in all of these products will now have quick access to:

• Help: Which links to the relevant product Help Center.
• Training: Which links to the relevant product Learning Center.
• Updates: Info about recent product updates.
• Send feedback: Lets users provide direct product feedback.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

We create and maintain a lot of resources, which can help users be more productive in G Suite. By making these resources easier to find, we hope users will be able to find answers to questions, discover new ways to work more efficiently, and see new features and product enhancements that will expand how they can use the products.

How to get started

• Admins: No action needed.
• End users:

• In Gmail, Calendar, and Drive, access the ‘?’ support button next to the search bar (see image below.)
• In any Docs, Sheets, or Slides file, access the Help menu for the new Training and Updates option (see image below).

A new support icon in Gmail, Calendar, and Drive.

New options in the Help menu of Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Get more done in less time with G Suite Add-ons beta

What’s changing

We’re announcing G Suite Add-ons, a new cross-suite platform that connects G Suite to your favorite workplace apps, in a beta program.

Last year we announced a new feature that gives users quick access to Calendar, Hangouts, and Keep from an embedded side panel in G Suite. Today we’re announcing that the side panel is now open for third-party developers.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

Add-ons help you complete tasks directly from the G Suite app you're using, rather than needing to toggle from one app to another.

G Suite Add-ons also surface relevant information and suggest actions based on what you’re working on. For example, a salesperson can find customer info from their CRM tool while drafting a strategy in Docs, an engineer can add tasks to their project management app directly from Gmail, and a recruiter can consult their hiring pipeline while scheduling interviews in Calendar. Once enrolled in the beta, users in the domain will have access to new add-ons from Copper, Box, Workfront, Asana, Evernote, and Cisco, among others.

How to get started

• Admins: Express interest in the G Suite Add-ons beta. Once your organization joins the beta program, you can also install chosen G Suite Add-ons for your entire domain via the G Suite Marketplace.
• End users: Once your organization is in the beta program, you’ll be able to install G Suite Add-ons from the “+” button in the G Suite quick access side panel.The G Suite Add-ons you install will appear in the side panel across G Suite apps and help you complete entire workflows without the need to switch back and forth between multiple apps.

RSVP to Calendar events from forwarded invitations

What’s changing

We're improving how invitation forwarding works in Google Calendar. Now, if guests of a Calendar event have been granted permission to invite others, recipients of forwarded invitation emails can RSVP to the event. This will also then add them to the event as a guest.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

With this feature, guests of an event can now simply forward their invitation to allow others to RSVP and be added to the Calendar event. This eliminates the step of having to go into the event in Calendar to invite additional guests.

How to get started

• Admins: No action required.
• End users: Simply forward your Calendar invitation to the guest you’d like to add.

Additional details

Please note, for this feature to work, the organizer must have granted permission for guests to add other guests to the event.

Avoid double-booking rooms in Calendar

What’s changing

Rooms will no longer accept two Calendar events that overlap in time.

Previously, if an event was created directly on a room’s calendar by someone with manage permissions for the resource, the room would accept this meeting even if another event had already added this room for that same time period.

Now, if the room has already accepted another meeting, creating a new event at the same time directly on the room’s calendar will result in a room decline of this conflicting meeting.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why this matters

This means that you’ll no longer have to scramble to find an alternative room if your meeting room was double-booked.

How to get started

• Admins: No action required.
• End users: No action required, this behavior will happen automatically.

Additional details

This change in behavior only impacts future room bookings. Existing events will not be impacted.

Workarounds

Option 1: Long room hold

For situations where you’d like a long room hold (such as an all day event) where you’d like to schedule individual sessions in the same room, we recommend the following work around:

• Create a long hold booking of the desired room.
• Create the individual sessions, where you write in the location field or description the room location; for example. “Room A [Separate room hold].”

Manually overwrite the Hangout information for the individual sessions with the Hangout ID of the long hold.

Option 2: Manually accept all room bookings and double bookings

Should you require double bookings for a particular use case, you can turn-off the room’s auto-responder completely. This will mean all invitations are added on a room’s calendar awaiting response. Room admins with manage permissions can manually accept or decline all invitations including accepting of double-bookings.

• In Calendar, hover over the room’s calendar in your calendar list
• Open the Calendar Settings by clicking on  the three-dot menu and selecting Settings
• Go to the section “Auto-accept invitations”
• Select Automatically add all invitations to this calendar

Save time with new scheduling features in Calendar

What’s changing

We’re updating the creation flow for meetings in Calendar to help you save time with an easier way to schedule.

You’ll see several changes when creating a meeting such as:

• Peek at calendars and automatically add guests: Now, when you add a calendar in the “Search for people” box, you can temporarily view coworkers’ calendars. Creating a new event then automatically adds those people as guests to your meeting and might suggest a title for the meeting.
• More fields in the creation pop-up dialog: The Guests, Rooms, Location, Conferencing, and Description fields are now editable directly in the meeting creation pop-up dialog. Once you add your coworkers’ calendars, they’ll load right in the background, making it even easier and faster to find an available time for everyone.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

People-first scheduling makes it quick and easy to find time with others. You can add rooms, a location, a video conference and add a meeting description without having to click into “More options.”

How to get started

• Admins: No action required.
• End users: No action required. This new creation flow will automatically appear in Calendar on the web.

Easily customize theme colors in Slides

Quick launch summary

You can now edit the theme colors for your presentations in Slides, making it easier to set up a new theme, or apply bulk color changes to existing presentations. Previously, we only supported custom colors that were not linked to the presentation theme.

Now, users can easily customize the color palette associated with a theme. To do this, go to any color picker dropdown and click the edit button for your Theme color palette. In the Theme color sidebar, select a color from the dropdown to begin editing.

Note: These changes will only apply to the current theme and will not create a new theme.

We hope this new feature will help you customize your presentations in Slides, especially when it comes to incorporating your company’s brand colors.

Work smarter in Sheets with several new features for objects

What’s changing

We’re launching several new features and tools that will help you create more compelling and stylized reports in Sheets:

• Guides
• Multi-Selecting Objects
• Enhanced Pivot Table Insertion
• Copy and paste images into Sheets
• Formula backed charts inserted from Answers

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

We hope these tools will help you make more engaging and informative reports by making it easier and faster to format charts, pivot tables, images, and more.

How to get started

• Admins: No action required.
• End users: See below for how to use each new feature in Sheets.

Additional details

Guides

• You can use guides to help you align, size, and position various objects within your sheets. Guides are also helpful in making sure multiple objects within the same sheet are in proportion to one another.

Multi-selecting objects

• To select multiple charts, drawings, and images to move, resize, or delete in bulk, hold down the Control or Shift key and select.

Enhanced pivot table insertion

• When adding a new pivot table, you’ll now have the option to either place it in a new sheet or in a custom location on an existing sheet.

• To create a new pivot table, go to Data > Pivot Table and select a data range.
• In the dialogue box, under Insert to, select New sheet or Existing sheet, and click Create. Note that if you select existing sheet, you’ll have to select a specific cell location for the pivot table.

Copy and paste images into Sheets

• Recently, we made it easier to add images to your spreadsheet by inserting images into cells. Now, you can copy images from other websites and paste them directly into your sheet.

• Simply right click on an image and hit copy, then in Sheets right click and hit Paste to insert the image over the grid.

Formula backed charts inserted from Answers

• Now, when you use Sheets Explore to create charts, the charts you insert from the Q&A feature (Answers) will be backed by formulas. This means that charts will automatically update if the underlying data changes, ensuring you always have a fresh chart with the latest information.

Duplicate larger sites in new Google Sites

Quick launch summary

Previously, we made it possible to copy a site in new Google Sites. Based on user feedback, we’re improving site copy by making it easy to copy much larger sites — see here for supported sizes. We hope this feature helps site editors with large sites efficiently copy their existing sites, allowing them to back up their work, iterate on previous sites, or create ‘templates’ to start new sites.

To make a copy with the improved site copy, open a site in the new Google Sites, click the More menu > Duplicate site. See our Help Center to learn more about copying a site.

Business ready

Increase trust in cloud data security with Access Transparency

What's changing

We’re making Access Transparency for G Suite generally available. Access Transparency enables you to get more visibility into actions taken by Google staff related to your data. You can view the reason for each access, including references to specific support tickets where relevant, which may help you support your audit requirements.

Access Transparency is available to G Suite Enterprise and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers only.

Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you’d use it 

At G Suite, we work hard to earn and maintain trust with our customers. Access Transparency supports this commitment to customer trust by giving you fine grained logs of actions taken by Google staff and the reason for each access, including references to specific support tickets where relevant.

Access Transparency may help you:

• Verify why Google is accessing your data, such as fixing a fault or attending to your requests.
• Bring your audit controls closer to what you can expect on premise.

How to get started

• Admins: Admins with the Reports privilege can go to Admin Console > Reports > Access Transparency. Use our Help Center to learn more about Access Transparency.
• End users: No action required

A Sample view of the new report for G Suite Access Transparency

Additional details

Access Transparency will allow admins to:

• View the reason for data access, including references to specific support tickets where relevant.
• Verify why Google staff is accessing your data, such as fixing a fault or attending to your requests.
• View and download logs to help you support your regulatory audits or data archival needs, showing extensive information such as accessor location, access justification, and the action taken on a specific resource.

Enhancing data regions by supporting more data types and products

What's changing

G Suite’s globally distributed cloud infrastructure reduces latency and protects data with geo redundancy. Therefore, most organizations choose not to geo-restrict their data. However, some organizations have preferences around where their data is stored at rest. To serve this need, last July, we introduced data regions allowing you to choose the regions where covered G Suite data at rest is stored - globally distributed, US or Europe. We’re now launching enhancements to data regions with two key updates:

• Coverage for Backups: Backup data for covered Apps is now included.
• Coverage for additional products: Forms’ and new Sites’ covered data is now included.

Who’s impacted

Admins only

The expanded product and data coverage will not alter any previous settings you may have configured. Your existing settings will be applied to the additional apps and data types covered with this release. As with the prior release, there is no impact to your end users.

Why you’d use it

Data regions has been built keeping in mind the requirements of a geographically dispersed organization. With data regions, you can create as many organizational unit-specific regions as you want with no minimum seat requirements. Your end users don’t have to deal with downtime and continue to enjoy full edit capabilities of all files, even during a data move. Additionally, when file ownership changes happen, or users switch OUs, covered data is moved dynamically according to your settings.

How to get started

• Admins: See our Help Center to learn how to choose a geographic location for your data.
• End users: No action needed.

Additional details

To ensure visibility into your data move progress, there will be a new ‘Backups’ tab in the data regions dashboard (Admin console > Dashboards). The tab shows a breakdown of the Backup data move progress for each of the covered products. See image below for an example of the new dashboard view.

Apply to be a part of the Hangouts Chat Accelerated Transition Program

What's changing

We’re announcing an Accelerated Transition Program to give a first wave of organizations a head start on migrating to Hangouts Chat and get early access to new features.

Additionally, we've heard your feedback, and we want to give you early access and more time before the general availability of these features. Therefore, we’re extending the previously announced timelines to give you more time to manage change in your organization. See below for more information.

Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you should apply to the Accelerated Transition Program

Simplify communications by disabling classic Hangouts apps and migrating all users to the newest enterprise-grade Chat product on a faster timeline. As a part of this program, you’ll receive early access to new Chat features such as Chat integration with Gmail and the ability to chat with external users.

For more information about the additional benefits of this program, check out the Accelerated Transition Program Help Center.

How to get started

• Admins: G Suite admins can express interest in this program.
• End users: No action required.

Upcoming changes to the Chat and Vault transition schedule

Some changes originally scheduled to happen starting on April 16, 2019, such as Chat retention rules and holds applying to your messages in Hangouts Classic, and enabling Chat for all users that are using classic Hangouts, will now take place over the next few months. We'll also be giving you more time before we transition all domains from classic Hangouts to Chat. More notices and details will be shared on the G Suite Updates blog as they approach.

Note: If you are a Google Vault customer, you still must set Chat retention rules and holds before April 16, 2019. You must continue to create new holds in both Mail and Hangouts Chat if you need to preserve chat messages during this migration period.

Use an Android phone as a security key for 2-Step Verification

What's changing

We’re adding an option to use your Android phone’s built-in security key for multi-factor authentication in G Suite. All phones running Android 7.0+ (Nougat) have a built-in key which can be activated. This means your users can use existing phones as a primary 2-Step Verification method to protect against phishing. Using a phone as a security key is currently offered in beta.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

2-Step Verification greatly improves the security of your account by adding another layer to your account security and making it more resistant to phishing attacks. By adding the additional option of using your Android phone’s built-in security key, we’re expanding access to phishing-resistant 2-Step Verification method in a convenient form - your phone. This can make it faster for you to implement 2-Step Verification in your organization while keeping user training and overall costs to a minimum.

Previously, in order to protect your users against password phishing, the only option was to use a security key fob. With this beta, their mobile phone can be that security key.

How to get started

• Admins: See how to enforce the use of security keys in your organization.
• End users: See how to activate the security key on your phone.

Additional details

• Available to G Suite, Cloud Identity, GCP customers, and personal Google Accounts.
• Available on phones running Android 7.0+ (Nougat) with Google Play Services.
• Compatible with Bluetooth-enabled Chrome OS, macOS X, or Windows 10 devices with a Chrome browser.

New email alerts and location for easier alert center management

What's changing

We’re making some improvements to the alert center for G Suite. Specifically we’re:

• Moving the location of alert management for predefined admin alerts in the Admin console to the system defined rules section.
• Adding optional email notifications for more alerts.

Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you’d use it

We hope that this will help you identify and take action to resolve potential issues affecting your domain. To get the most out of the alert center, you could also sign up for our recently announced beta, which will help you collaborate and track the status of alerts within your domain, as well as triage faster with insights from related alerts.

How to get started

• Admins:

• To see predefined admin alerts, go to Admin console > Security > Alert center > Settings (gear icon), or directly access the new System defined rules section.
• Use our Help Center to find out how to set up and configure administrator email alerts.

• End users: No action needed.

Additional details

Moving alert management location

• The alert management controls for predefined alerts could previously be found at Admin console > Reporting > Alerts. They will now be at Admin console > Security > Alert center > Settings (gear icon).
• These predefined admin alerts include:

• User granted Admin privilege
• New user added
• Email settings changed
• And other administrator email alerts

• There will be no change to any settings (whether email alerts are on or off, or the email subscriber list for any alerts) or the content of the alerts. We’re just moving where you should go to manage them. There will also be no change to the location of custom alerts. For the moment, they will still be at Admin console > Reporting > Alerts.

Email notification options for more alerts

• We’re adding an option to get email notifications for several existing alerts that previously didn’t have the option to receive emails.
• These alerts include:

• Domain data export initiated
• Phishing message detected post-delivery
• Spike in user-reported spam, and others

• For each alert, you can choose whether to turn them on or off, and to specify which email address the alerts should go to.
• The email alerts will be on by default. To change or turn off email alerts, they can be adjusted at Admin console > Security > Alert center (gear icon), or directly access the new System defined rules section.

Get extra visibility and control over Drive File Stream in your organization

What's changing

We’re giving admins more control over their corporate data by integrating controls for Drive File Stream into Google’s device management interface. Drive File Stream streams data between devices and the cloud to ensure users can access the files they need safely and efficiently whether they’re online or offline. Device management helps you easily manage and protect corporate data on devices.

This integration will allow admins to:

• Control which devices can use Drive File Stream by restricting use to company-owned devices only.
• See the status of Drive File Stream on a device (size of the offline content cache, software version, time of last sync etc.).
• Remotely block the device and wipe the account specific offline content cache from a machine should it become lost or they no longer want Drive File Stream to be used on the device.

Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you’d use it

Drive File Stream is a simple and efficient way for users to access Drive data on Windows and Mac devices. This integration provides tools for administrators to gain extra visibility into how it’s used in their organization, and ensure corporate data is protected by controlling which devices can be used to access Drive File Stream. With the ability to block or wipe drive cache with a few clicks, admins have more control on over remediation activities.

How to get started

• Admins:

• To see the Drive File Stream information for specific devices in the Admin console at Admin console > Device Management > Devices.
• To restrict Drive File Stream to company owned devices, go to Admin console > Apps > G Suite > Drive and Docs > Features and Applications > Drive File Stream > Only allow Drive File Stream on authorized devices.
• To manually approve new Drive File Stream installations, go to Admin console > Device management > Setup > Device Approvals > Requires Admin approval

• End users: No action needed. Notifications are sent to the user when a device is blocked, account is wiped, or if a device is pending approval.

Additional details

Control which devices can use Drive File Stream

If you do not choose to manually approve devices before they can use Drive File Stream (see above), there will be no change to how your users set up Drive File Stream today unless the device also has a pending admin approval for Endpoint Verification. However, you will still be able to block and wipe Drive File Stream data from the devices. If you activate the “Requires Admin approval” setting, devices with Drive File Stream already installed will be grandfathered to continue working, unless the device also has a pending admin approval for endpoint verification.

See the status of Drive File Stream on devices

With the new integration, you can see and manage the Drive File Stream information for specific devices in the Admin console at Admin console > Device Management > Devices. You’ll be able to see information such as the Drive File Stream offline content cache size, when Drive File Stream last synced, the device model, OS and more.

Remotely block the device and wipe the Drive File Stream data

If a device is lost or you don’t want Drive File Stream to be used on a device, you can block the device. If you do this, all Drive File Stream data will be wiped, and the device will not be able to re-login and access Drive File Stream again.

You can see and manage Drive File Stream information in the Devices section of the Admin console.

New admin policies to control the use of Drive File Stream

See OS version for devices with basic mobile management

What's changing

Admins will be able to see the operating system (OS) version for devices with basic mobile management. Previously, this information was only available for devices with advanced mobile management.

Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you’d use it

OS version is an important piece of information for assessing device security. This is because devices with older OS versions may not receive all security patches and can be more prone to threats. With visibility into the OS versions used by more devices in your organization, you can better understand potential security vulnerabilities and take actions to make sure devices with access to corporate data are using OS versions you see as appropriate.

How to get started

• Admins: To see OS version for basic devices, go to Admin console > Device Management > Devices.
• End users: No action needed.

Additional details 

Admins will be able to see OS information in several places:

1. On the devices list page (Admin console > Device Management > Devices) in the OS column. Previously this would have been blank for basic devices. On this page, admins will be able to filter devices with a specific OS to find devices with specific vulnerabilities or see what impact an OS update policy may have.
2. In the device detail page for each device.
3. In the audit logs at Admin console > Reports > Devices. Note that this is only available to G Suite Business, G Suite Enterprise, and G Suite Enterprise for Education domains.

See and filter by OS version in the devices list view

Transition your organization to use only Hangouts Meet for video calls

What's changing

As part of the migration from classic Hangouts to Hangouts Meet that we announced last year, G Suite admins can now turn off classic Hangouts video calling for your organization. This means that all video calls in your organization will use Meet and any classic Hangouts video calls saved in Google Calendar will be removed.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

Enabling this setting expedites the transition of your organization to Hangouts Meet. If you take no action, Calendar migration can continue to run and we'll automatically transition your organization to be Meet-only on our recommended schedule.

How to get started

• Admins: Admins can turn off classic Hangouts video calling in the Admin console by:

• Navigating to Apps > G Suite > Google Hangouts
• Click Global settings
• Next to Hangouts Meet, check All Meetings use Meet
• Click Save

• End users: No action required. If your admin decides to enable this setting, classic Hangout video calls will no longer be joinable. Please note, if you’d like to add Hangouts Meet video calls to replace removed classic Hangouts video calls, you must manually add one back into the Calendar event.

Additional details

When this option is turned on:

• All video calls scheduled in Calendar will use Meet. This does not impact events scheduled by someone outside of your organization.
• Any classic Hangouts video call URLs scheduled in Calendar will be hidden.
• Classic Hangouts video calls scheduled within your organization will no longer be joinable and users will see an error message. Classic Hangouts video calls scheduled by someone outside of your organization will still be joinable.
• You can use a custom meeting name to start an ad-hoc Meet call. Simply agree on a meeting name with all of the meeting participants and type it into the “Enter meeting code” field in Meet. Note that all participants must be in the same domain to use the name.

Please note, this change does not impact video calling from Hangouts Chat or classic Hangouts chat. This will continue to behave the same. Additionally, this change will not impact domains who do not have Meet turned on.

Admins should only enable this option if your organization is primarily on Meet with limited to no classic Hangout video calls scheduled in Calendar. You can check the usage stats for scheduled Calendar events using classic Hangouts video calling by using the Hangouts Meet audit log. To do so, query the number of calls containing a “Calendar Event Id” with “Product type” equal to classic Hangouts.

Finally, this setting is reversible. Unselecting this in the Admin console means that classic Hangouts video calls will again be shown in Calendar.

Six new 3rd-party apps added to G Suite pre-integrated SAML apps catalog

What's changing

We’re adding SAML integration for six additional applications:

• Comeet
• CyberArk
• Drift
• Qmarkets
• Qualtrics
• Swrve

Use our Help Center to see the full list of SAML apps and find out how to configure SAML applications.

Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you’d use it

With Single-Sign-On (SSO), users can access all of their enterprise cloud applications—including the Admin console for admins—after signing in just one time. Google supports the two most popular enterprise SSO standards, OpenID Connect and SAML, and there are already many applications with pre-integrated SSO support in our third-party apps catalog.

How to get started

• Admins: You can find our full list of pre-integrated applications, as well as instructions for installing them, in the Help Center.
• End users: No action needed.

Additional details

Note that apart from the pre-integrated SAML applications, G Suite also supports installing “Custom SAML Applications,” which means that admins can install any third-party application that supports SAML. The advantage of a pre-integrated app is that the installation is much easier. Use out Help Center to learn more about installing Custom SAML Applications.

Gmail making email more secure with MTA-STS standard

What's changing

SMTP MTA Strict Transport Security (MTA-STS) is a new internet standard that improves email security by requiring authentication checks and good encryption for email in transit.

Gmail will start enforcing this standard in beta, which you can read more about on the Google Security blog. For G Suite admins:

1. Security health within the security center for G Suite will start including recommendations about MTA-STS policies for your domain.
2. G Suite admins can choose to set up MTA-STS policies and reporting for incoming mail in their DNS server. While admins could do this previously, it will become more impactful now that Gmail is enforcing the MTA-STS policies.

Use our Help Center to learn more about how to use the MTA-STS standard.

Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you’d use it

MTA-STS is a new internet standard that will increase email security by acting as a deterrent against pervasive monitoring of email traffic and protecting against man-in-the-middle attacks. You can make your email communications more secure by setting MTA-STS policies and ask the organizations with which you communicate to also set MTA-STS policies for their mail servers.

How to get started

• Admins: Use our Help Center to define MTA-STS policies for your domain.
• End users: No action required.

Additional details

Option to set up a MTA-STS policy

G Suite admins can choose to set up a policy for incoming mail with their DNS server. See the Help Center for details and instructions on how to set up an MTA-STS policy for your domain.

Possible email bouncebacks

While we don’t anticipate significant increase in bouncebacks, there are two aspects of the new standard which could result in bouncebacks:

• TLS enforcement with certificate validation will prevent bad actors from intercepting emails in transit just like HTTPS does it for web traffic.If a bad actor tries to intercept the email, as Gmail enforces MTA-STS, it will now bounceback, preventing the intercept.
• As Gmail will honor policies set by servers you are sending mail to, there’s a possibility that they have misconfigured policies or their servers, and that we will not deliver emails as a result. In this case, users will get an email bounceback with details.

New security center MTA-STS recommendations for your domain

If you go to the security health section of the security center for G Suite (Admin Console > Security > Security Health, available to G Suite Enterprise and Enterprise for Education domains only) you’ll see a new “MTA-STA” suggestion. It will tell you whether you have a policy set up, and highlight misconfigurations in policies.

New security assessment program for apps on G Suite Marketplace

What's changing

We’re starting the G Suite Marketplace (GSM) security assessment program, which will enable developers to optionally submit their GSM apps for review by a third-party security firm. The assessment includes penetration tests, a deployment review, and a policy and procedure review. Apps that pass the security assessment will display a security badge on their Marketplace listing.

You may notice:

• A “Security Assessment’ badge on marketplace listings.
• A “Security Assessment” badge on app detail pages.
• A “Security Assessment” section on the app detail page.

We’re opening the program for developer submissions now. Monitor the G Suite Updates blog for ongoing updates on the program. Find out more about the security assessment program here.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

By highlighting apps that have been assessed to meet certain security standards, we hope it will be easier for you to find apps that may meet your specific organizational policies. This means you can more quickly identify and assess apps that you can whitelist for your users to help them be productive.

How to get started

• Admins: Find out more about the program and what to look for here.  
• End users: No action needed

Better manage threats and collaborate in new security center beta

What's changing

We’re launching a beta program to make it easier to assess your organization’s exposure to security issues and collaborate with colleagues to remediate them. The beta will add features to the G Suite security center which help you:

• Save and share investigations in the security investigation tool
• Create rules within the security center to perform automated actions

Find out more and sign up for the new security center beta here.

This beta will also allow you to send notifications to the alert center, where teams of admins and analysts can work together to take ownership of alerts and update status as they work through security investigations. For more information on the latest updates to the alert center, see this announcement.

Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you’d use it

The G Suite security center already helps you protect your organization with security analytics and best practice recommendations from Google. It provides a unified security dashboard, a tool to investigate and remediate threats, and more. These features in the beta will make it easier to assess and manage threats by adding automated actions, improved tracking, and more to help your whole team understand and improve your security posture.

How to get started

• Admins: Find out more and sign up for the new security center beta.  
• End users: No action needed.

Additional details

Save and share investigations

We want to make sure admins are able to work together and collaborate to assess their organization’s exposure to security issues. With this beta launch, admins can now save their investigations in the security investigation tool and share them with other admins to improve collaboration.

Create rules and set up automated actions and alerts

Admins can also create automated rules to perform remediative actions or send notifications to the alert center, where teams of admins and analysts can work together to take ownership of alerts and update status as they work through security investigations.

Increase email security with the security sandbox for Gmail beta

What's changing

Security sandbox for Gmail (beta) detects the presence of previously unknown malware in attachments by virtually "executing" them in a private, secure sandbox environment, and analyzing the side effects on the operating system to determine malicious behavior.

Email attachments are detonated within a sandbox in the exact same way as they would if an actual user had clicked on it. This is done in a matter of minutes prior to the delivery of the email, and provides users with an extra layer of security. Security sandbox has been developed with a focus to provide coverage against malware propagated through malicious embedded scripts and zero day threats. The security sandbox for Gmail beta will provide:

• Granular admin controls for rules to trigger pre-delivery deep scanning and quarantine behavior for potentially malicious emails
• Reporting through the G Suite security center

Who’s impacted 

Settings impact admins only. If turned on, users may notice a delay of a few minutes in the delivery of affected mail due to scanning time.

Why you’d use it

Security sandbox provides an additional level of anti-malware protection over and above conventional detection. By virtually opening an attachment in a secure environment that can analyze the effects on the target operating system, it’s better able to detect ransomware, sophisticated malware propagated through embedded scripts (like files containing macros or .js files), and zero-day threats.

How to get started

• Admins: Find and turn on the beta security sandbox feature at Admin console > Menu > Apps > G Suite > Gmail > Advanced settings. Use our Help Center to find more information on how to detect harmful attachments.
• End users: No action needed

Additional details

Granular admin controls

If desired, admins will be able to set up custom rules to control which messages are tested in the security sandbox. If custom rules are not applied, all messages with attachments sent to the OU will be checked in the sandbox. Rules can be customized for each organizational unit (OU). Admins can also decide what to do with messages that have malware. Malware detected by Security Sandbox is put in the spam folder by default. You can quarantine malware attachments detected by Security Sandbox instead. Create a content compliance rule using the spam metadata attribute.

Advanced phishing and malware protection for Gmail beta

What's changing

We’re launching a beta program to provide admins with even more controls for advanced anti-phishing and malware protections via the advanced safety settings in Gmail. These build on the advanced protections we announced in 2018. Admins who are part of the beta will have new controls to:

• Place emails into a quarantine - Route emails that match phishing and malware controls to a new or existing quarantine. This will be available for new and existing controls.
• Protect against anomalous attachment types in emails - Identify emails with unusual attachment types and choose to automatically display a warning banner, send them to spam, or quarantine the messages.
• Protect your Google Groups from inbound emails spoofing your domain - Identify unauthenticated emails potentially spoofing your domain and choose to automatically display a warning banner, send them to spam, or quarantine the messages.

In addition to the new controls, we’ll also update the interface to make it easier to see what settings you have applied and understand what actions you’re taking as a result of each control.

Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you’d use it

By adding more specific controls, including the ability to quarantine potentially risky messages, we hope to enable admins to optimize protections for their organization. This will help reduce threats and increase the security of your data while making the experience as simple as possible for your users.

How to get started 

• Admins: Find and turn on the beta features at Admin console > Menu > Apps > G Suite > Gmail > Safety. You’ll find new options to turn on anomalous attachment and groups spoofing protections, and see the quarantine option available for all controls. Use our Help Center to learn more about how to enhance phishing and malware protection.
• End users: No action needed

Additional details

Place emails into a quarantine

All the advanced safety settings for Gmail now let you quarantine emails more easily. Choose to move any email that meets certain criteria to a pre-existing quarantine, or create a new quarantine for such messages. Use our Help Center to find out more about email quarantines.

Protect against anomalous attachment types in emails

Less common file types as email attachments are often used to spread malware. However, different domains might have legitimate uses for uncommon file types. Therefore we’re giving admins more control over how to handle emails with these files attached.

What is identified as an anomalous attachment will be automatically customized for each domain. An intelligent algorithm determines which file types your domain commonly receives and will model the detection based on that. For example, a specific file type may be commonly used on Domain A, but not on Domain B. If both domains had the "Anomalous Attachment" setting enabled, an email with this file type attached would be flagged for Domain B, but not Domain A.

You can see which file types are filtered for your domain by going to the security center’s suspicious attachments chart, filtering by "Anomalous Attachments" and then looking at "Attachment Extensions" (available to G Suite Enterprise and Enterprise for Education domains only). Admins will be able to:

• Turn the uncommon attachment type detection on or off.
• If turned on, choose whether to keep relevant emails in the user’s inbox with a warning banner displayed, send emails to spam automatically, or move emails to quarantine.
• While we expect the anomalous attachment customization described above to work well, if needed admins can whitelist specific uncommon file types they don’t want identified.

Admin controls for unusual attachment types

Protect your Groups from inbound emails spoofing your domain

External senders can spoof emails to appear as if they come from your domain, using the same protocols that enable many legitimate systems to send email. This setting extends your options to control potential spoofing emails by preventing spoofed messages from posting to Google Groups on your domain. Use our Help Center to find out more about spoofing. Admins in the beta will be able to:

• Turn the Groups spoofing protection on or off.
• If turned on, choose whether to keep relevant emails in the user’s inbox with a warning banner displayed, send emails to spam automatically, or move emails to quarantine (if available).
• Choose whether to apply the settings only to Private Groups (groups with specifically limited membership or intended for organization members only) or All Groups (Private Groups + ones without restricted membership)

Admin controls for inbound email spoofing protections

Work with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides in Dropbox with a new beta

What's changing

This Dropbox beta will allow Dropbox users to work with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides directly in Dropbox.

G Suite admins with a Dropbox Business subscription for their organization can find more details and apply for the beta here.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users.

Why you’d use it

When users are signed in to both their Google and Dropbox accounts, they can create and store Docs, Sheets, and Slides files in any Dropbox folder, alongside traditional files. You’ll be able to:

• Create and edit web-based files:

• You can start a shared Docs, Sheets, or Slides file right from dropbox.com or from apps on Windows and Mac, and have it stored in Dropbox. When you open files, you’ll be taken straight to familiar Google editors within Dropbox.
• You can also open .docx, .xlsx, or .pptx files from Dropbox in Docs, Sheets, or Slides, and save them back to Dropbox in their original format.

Create Docs, Sheets, and Slides from within Dropbox Web UI

• Share Files and manage access:

• Adding a Docs, Sheets, or Slides file to a shared Dropbox folder will automatically grant members access. You can also share files on a one-off basis without adding it to a shared folder by inviting people from Dropbox or creating a shareable link.
• Whether sharing files directly from Dropbox or with a link, you can set edit or view-only access. You’ll also have the option to set permissions to team only when sharing within your organization or anyone when sharing files outside your organization.

Dropbox sharing modal overlaid on Slides presentation

• Search your files: Docs, Sheets, and Slides files will show up when searching in Dropbox, including results from the content within your Docs, Sheets, and Slides in addition to file names.
• Collaborate: You’ll be notified of any comments or edits made on your Docs, Sheets, and Slides files in your Dropbox notifications, so you can easily stay on top of what’s happening with your files.

We hope this feature will streamline workflows by reducing the time spent switching between multiple tools helping you use data more effectively.

How to get started

• Admins: To learn more about and sign up for the beta, click here.
• End users: Once you have access to the Beta, you’ll be able to work with G Suite content much like you would in Google Drive, including creating files, searching for files, and collaborating on files.

Additional details

Dropbox users on desktop, web, and mobile can view, comment, search, move, copy, and delete files. Note that mobile users will not be able to edit files.

Dynamically control G Suite access with context-aware access beta

What's changing

We’re launching a beta program that enables G Suite admins to dynamically control access to G Suite apps based on a user’s identity and the context of their request (device security status, IP address, etc.). Members of the beta will be able to:

• Set up different access levels based on a user’s identity and context of the request.,
• Use granular controls for different organizational units (OU)
• Control access to several G Suite apps by setting different policies for the different access level profiles that have been set up

Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you’d use it

Currently G Suite admins can turn access to apps and services on or off for specific OUs or groups of users. This beta will provide more dynamic controls, so you can take into account contextual signals, such as device security status or IP address, to control access to those apps and services. Examples of access controls that can be set up through the context-aware access beta include:

• Only users from corporate-owned device and a corporate IP address can access Google Drive.
• Only a “High Trust” group can access Google Drive when not on a corporate IP address.
• Only users from an encrypted device with a screen lock enabled can access Gmail.

How to get started

• Admins: This is an opt-in beta. Admins can opt-in by changing their security settings Admin console > Security > Context-Aware Access
• End users: No action needed

Additional details

In the beta, context-aware access will only be configurable for Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, and Keep. You’ll be able to use the following contextual signals to control access:

• IP Subnet (specific IPv4 or IPv6 address)
• Device policies as reported through the Endpoint Verification extension, including whether a device password is active, device encryption status, minimum OS versions, and company-owned devices.

You can apply policies by OU or to the whole domain, and all admin activity is logged in audit logs in the Admin console > Reports > Admin view.

Work with billions of rows of BigQuery data with connected sheets, in beta

What's changing

We’re introducing connected sheets in beta (coming soon). This new type of spreadsheet activates when using the Sheets data connector and will allow users to access, analyze, visualize, and collaborate on up to 10 billion rows of BigQuery data without the need for SQL scripts.

With connected sheets, it’s easier for users to surface insights in Sheets and make sense of that data using tools and features already familiar to them — like formulas, Explore, pivot tables, and charts.

Admins can learn more about the beta here.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why you’d use it

Connected sheets makes it easier to do the following:

• Access and refresh large volumes of connected data without CSVs or SQL scripts
• Streamline reporting workflows and easily build data driven reports
• Simplify collaboration with other analysts and stakeholders.

How to get started

• Admins: To learn more and apply to the connected sheets beta, see here.
• End users: No action required.

Additional details

Users can refresh their data which in turn will refresh any associated data within a chart, pivot table, function or table. Data can also be set to refresh automatically, making it even easier to stay up to date on the latest and greatest data.

New alert management and collaboration features in the alert center beta

What's changing

We’re launching a beta for the alert center for G Suite which will enhance the existing alert center and make it easier for admins to manage and collaborate on alerts. Specifically, the beta will mean you’ll be able to:

• Set status, assignee, and severity of alerts: Add key information to help your team take ownership of, assess, and collaborate as you work through security investigations.
• Use a more powerful search: Find alerts more easily by searching for alerts that contain a specific email address.
• See related alerts: The alert detail view will show other alerts related to the same actor or user to help discover possible related security incidents. \
• See alert change history: See the history of metadata or content updates to that alert. This includes when status, assignee, or severities have changed.

Find out more and sign up for the alert center beta here.

Who’s impacted

Admins only

Why you’d use it 

The alert center already provides a single place to see notifications about potential issues within your domain, and take action to resolve the issues. We hope the enhancements in this beta will improve collaboration between admins and related teams with status, severity, and assignee information now available. We also hope it will make it easier to find patterns within alerts by adding more specific search capabilities and surfacing related alerts proactively.

How to get started

• Admins: Find out more and sign up for the alert center beta here.
• End users: No action needed.

Set, structure, and search metadata in Drive launching in beta

Quick launch summary

We’re launching the beta of metadata in Drive. This beta will allow users to add structured metadata to all their files in Drive, making it easier to search and organize based on that information. Admins and end users can use metadata to ensure their content stays organized and accessible, helping them streamline their work.

Admins for Drive Enterprise, G Suite Business, Enterprise, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits can learn more and apply for the beta here.

Here are some ways you can use metadata in Drive:

• Create common file categories for your domain

• Admins can create metadata categories like “contract” or “engineering design” that consist of the properties that are relevant to these categories. End-users can apply them to all files that they can edit.

• Organize team content

• Team Drive managers can create categories for their Team Drives or select which existing categories to enable for their Team Drives.

• Curate and find files faster

• End-users can select the suitable categories for their files and folders. The new advanced search methods allow for searching over categories and properties to enable queries like “all contracts that need to be signed by next week.”

Learn more about G Suite

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