Google Workspace Updates: August 2015

Deprecating web hosting support in Google Drive

Monday, August 31, 2015

Beginning August 31, 2015, web hosting in Google Drive for users and developers will be deprecated. Google Apps customers can continue to use this feature for a period of one year until August 31, 2016, when serving content via googledrive.com/host/doc id will be discontinued.

In the time since web hosting in Drive was launched, a wide variety of public web content hosting services have emerged, and we think better options are available to people today. As a result, we have decided to discontinue this feature and focus on the core Drive and Google Apps experience.

For those who have used Drive to host websites, Google Domains can refer you to third parties for website hosting functionality. For those who use this feature to serve non-user content to web and mobile applications, Google Cloud Platform offers a solution for this purpose.

To identify active use of Drive web hosting in their domain, Google Apps admins can use the Account activity reports in the Admin console. These reports can pinpoint users who own items that are publicly shared in order for Admins to contact and assist them with alternate solutions.

Launch Details
Release track:
N/A

Rollout pace:
N/A

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Admin action required

More Information
Help Center: Host webpages with Drive
Help Center: Account activity reports
Developer Documentation

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Save time planning business travel and more with events from Gmail on Google Calendar

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

At launch, people using Calendar will see an in-product screen, either on mobile or web (whichever is accessed first), explaining that events from Gmail will be automatically added for their account, and indicating that the feature can be disabled in settings.

Once the first event from Gmail is added, a one-time email notification will also be sent to the user from Google Calendar, explaining the settings and sharing details for events from Gmail.

Check out the Help Center for more information.

Notes:

This feature is not available for Google Apps for Government customers
This feature was launched to consumer Gmail accounts late last year

Launch Details
Release track:
Launch to Rapid release planned for next week, with Scheduled release following two weeks later (monitor the launch calendar for specific dates)

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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The Internet has made business travel―booking flights and hotels, reserving restaurant tables, buying event tickets, and more―infinitely easier. Adding that information to a calendar, on the other hand, has remained time-consuming and tedious, typically requiring people to copy and paste information from various confirmation emails. In the coming week, Gmail and Google Calendar will start working together to lighten that load for Google Apps customers, and make business travel planning even more seamless.

When an individual receives an email in Gmail with flight, hotel, restaurant, or ticketed event information, that event will be automatically added to their Google Calendar, complete with things like flight numbers and check-in times. Calendar will even update those events if plans change and a new email is received (for instance, when a flight is delayed or a reservation pushed back).

This feature will be enabled by default on desktop and mobile (both iOS and Android) for all Google Apps customers―with the exception of Google Apps for Government domains, for whom the feature is not available. Events from Gmail added to Calendar will be visible only to calendar owners by default (those with delegated access will not see these events). Calendar owners will be able to delete any individual unwanted events as well as adjust visibility settings, or disable the feature altogether, in their Calendar settings if so desired.

Head back to school with new features in Google Classroom

Monday, August 24, 2015

Reuse posts
Teachers can now reuse assignments, announcements or questions from any one of their classes — or any class they co-teach, whether it’s from last year or last week. Once they choose what to copy, they’ll also be able to make changes before posting or assigning it.

Calendar Integration
In the next month, Classroom will automatically create a calendar for each class in Google Calendar. All assignments with a due date will be automatically added to class calendars and kept up to date. Teachers will be able to view their calendar from within Classroom or on Google Calendar, where they can manually add class events like field trips or guest speakers.

And a few more improvements based on teacher feedback:

Bump a post: When teachers want to make sure an older item is easy for students to find, they can now move any post to the top of the stream.
Due dates optional: For long-term projects or student-driven assignments, teachers will have the option to create assignments that don’t have due dates.
Attach a Google Form to a post: Many teachers have been using Google Forms as an easy way to assign a test, quiz or survey to the class. Coming in the next few weeks, teachers and students will soon be able to attach Google Forms from Drive to posts and assignments, and get a link in Classroom to easily view the answers.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release this week, with the exception of Calendar integration and attaching a Google Form, which are planned for the coming weeks

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users (teachers/students)

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Post a question
Help Center: Reuse a post
Help Center: Move posts

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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As teachers gear up for the new school year, we’re adding a number of new features in Google Classroom to help them save time, engage with students, and keep everyone organized. Most of these features are rolling out this week, with others coming soon.

Keep students engaged with question-driven discussions
Since Classroom launched last year, teachers have been using their class stream to host student debates, Q&A, and discussions. Starting today, they’ll be able to do this in a more collaborative way. They can post questions to their class and allow students to have discussions by responding to each other’s answers (or not, depending on the setting chosen). For example, teachers could post a video and ask students to answer a question about it, or post an article and ask them to write a paragraph in response.

And a few more improvements based on teacher feedback:

Bump a post: When teachers want to make sure an older item is easy for students to find, they can now move any post to the top of the stream.
Due dates optional: For long-term projects or student-driven assignments, teachers will have the option to create assignments that don’t have due dates.
Attach a Google Form to a post: Many teachers have been using Google Forms as an easy way to assign a test, quiz or survey to the class. Coming in the next few weeks, teachers and students will soon be able to attach Google Forms from Drive to posts and assignments, and get a link in Classroom to easily view the answers.

Hover over Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides Share button to see warning if sharing settings are invalid

Monday, August 24, 2015

In July, we launched notifications in the Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides sharing dialogues that warn users when they attempt to share files with others but cannot do so due to their own or the recipient’s domain-wide sharing settings. Starting today, a similar warning will appear when a user hovers over the Share button in a Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file if that user is allowed to edit that file’s permissions.

As with the sharing dialogue, this warning will appear when:

a file is shared with a person outside of the sharing employee’s domain, but sharing outside of that employee’s domain is disabled,
a file is shared with a person outside of the sharing employee’s domain, but sharing into the receiving person’s domain is disabled, and/or
a file is shared using one of the “anyone” options, but sharing or publishing outside of the sharing employee’s domain is disabled.

This feature was specifically requested following the July launch and gives your employees increased visibility into how their files are being shared.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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New features in the Google Docs and Sheets mobile apps

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Autofill in Google Sheets for Android - Using the autofill feature, it’s easy to repeat information or complete a pattern in a Sheets spreadsheet on the web. This launch brings that same functionality to the Sheets app for Android. Simply select the data you want to repeat, as well as the cells where you want to repeat that data. Tap the selected data again to open a menu, and then select Autofill to automatically populate those cells.

More intuitive keyboard functionality in Google Sheets for Android - Previously, when a user clicked into a cell, the Sheets Android app would automatically open the alphabetic keyboard—regardless of whether that cell contained text or numeric values. Going forward, the app will launch the alphabetic keyboard when the cell contains text and the numeric keyboard when the cell contains numbers or symbols. It will also offer an easy way to shift between the two keyboard options.

Download the latest Google Docs and Sheets Android apps on Google Play and the latest Google Docs iOS app from the App Store.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Autofill

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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The latest releases of the Google Docs and Sheets mobile apps include the following new features:

Print Layout view in Google Docs for Android and iOS (Beta) - You can now select Print Layout from the overflow menu in the top right corner of the Docs app on Android and iOS to see a fully paginated, read-only version of your document. While you can’t make edits in that view, the document itself will be updated in real-time when collaborators make changes to it. This feature is currently in beta; additional functionality, including the ability to edit in Print Layout view, will roll out in the future.

Autofill in Google Sheets for Android - Using the autofill feature, it’s easy to repeat information or complete a pattern in a Sheets spreadsheet on the web. This launch brings that same functionality to the Sheets app for Android. Simply select the data you want to repeat, as well as the cells where you want to repeat that data. Tap the selected data again to open a menu, and then select Autofill to automatically populate those cells.

More intuitive keyboard functionality in Google Sheets for Android - Previously, when a user clicked into a cell, the Sheets Android app would automatically open the alphabetic keyboard—regardless of whether that cell contained text or numeric values. Going forward, the app will launch the alphabetic keyboard when the cell contains text and the numeric keyboard when the cell contains numbers or symbols. It will also offer an easy way to shift between the two keyboard options.

Better preservation in Google Apps Vault

Friday, August 14, 2015

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

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Creating a hold in Google Apps Vault allows you to preserve your employees’ Gmail messages indefinitely, in order to meet legal or preservation obligations. Today, we’re introducing several improvements to the existing holds system that will help you better meet those obligations. The key enhancements include:

Create and manage holds for organizational units (OUs) - Previously, you could create holds for specific users or entire domains. With this launch, you can create holds for specific OUs. In addition, delegated admins can create and manage holds for those OUs (or the individual employees within those OUs) that they have delegated administration over.

More intuitive hold functionality - Prior to this launch, when no users were specified for a hold, Vault would default to holding all users in that domain. That meant that if all users in a user-specific hold were removed, that hold would suddenly apply to all users in the associated domain. With this launch, that hold will apply to no users, as is likely the intention.

Enhanced user interface - The language and interface for applying holds has been improved and is now more similar to the recently updated retention flow.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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Launch desktop applications from Google Drive Preview in Chrome

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

In November 2014, Google Drive added the ability to open files from Google Drive directly into the compatible application installed on your computer. Today, this capability will be extended to the Drive viewer as well, which means you can now launch apps from preview mode and more easily access your files. This includes apps like advanced image and video editing software, accounting and tax programs, or 3D animation and design tools. So, no matter what you keep in Drive, using the web to access and manage files doesn’t mean you’re limited to applications that only work in your browser.
Switchblade - Adobe - Preview 2.gif

To get started, install the latest version of the Drive app for Mac or PC (version 1.23+) and sync your files. Then, visit Google Drive in your Chrome browser. Open a file in Google Drive preview mode and click on the “Open with” menu on top to see a list of compatible applications on your computer that can open it, or simply select “Open” for the default application. For example, you can choose to open a PDF file with Adobe Reader, or a .psd with Photoshop, make your edits and save back changes to Drive which will sync across all your devices and other collaborators.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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New owners receive all notifications in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Monday, August 10, 2015

Currently, the owner of a document, spreadsheet, or presentation in the Google Docs editors receives an email notification when anyone adds a comment to the file, even if the owner’s name isn’t explicitly added to the comment. When the file’s ownership is transferred to someone else, this "all notifications" setting remains with the original owner, not with the new owner.

With today’s launch, we will change this behavior so that when files are transferred to new owners, the new document, spreadsheet, and presentation owners will receive all notifications for any comments added to their files, and previous owners, like any other collaborators, will only receive notifications if their names are explicitly added to a comment.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

**Update to original post (August 31, 2015): This launch was paused due to an unforeseen technical issue. Additional comms to follow once the rollout is complete.**

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

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Custom status messages and more with the latest version of the Hangouts Android app

Monday, August 10, 2015

This brings support for custom status messages and the ability to accept/reject external participants to all platforms for Hangouts (i.e. Android, web, iOS).

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Video calls shared with a link
Help Center: Custom status messages
Get the Hangouts Android app on Google Play

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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A new version of the Hangouts Android app is coming to Google Play this week. New features include:

Host Google Slides presentations via Google Hangouts

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

As previously announced, you can use the Google Slides app on your mobile phone or tablet to present to any screen with Chromecast or AirPlay. The latest version of the Slides app for Android allows you to share your work even more widely, by presenting to Google Hangouts. To get started, simply open your presentation and tap the Present icon. Join a meeting already scheduled on your calendar or choose to initiate a brand new video call. Either way, you’ll be able to see who’s on the call before you present and to advance your slides, view your speaker notes, and stay on time (with a built-in timer) right from your mobile device. Check out the Help Center for more information.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Present Slides
Google for Work Blog Post

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General availability for the Classroom API

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

We announced a developer preview of the Classroom API in June, and more than a thousand developers and schools have opted in to use it. Today, we’re ending the developer preview, so all developers can develop with the API. The end of the preview also means that all Google Apps for Education users can authorize third-party applications to access their Classroom data, unless their admin decides to restrict that access in the Admin console. Admins can also restrict API access at the organization-unit level.

In addition, the Classroom API is now supported in Apps Script, which lets anyone write custom scripts or publish add-ons for Google Docs, Sheets, and Forms. Check out the Quick Start to learn more.

For more information on the Classroom API, check out our Help Center and developer documentation, or watch this video for a high-level overview of the API and share button.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users (Admins only for data access settings)

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Google for Education Blog Post
Classroom API Developer Documentation
Help Center: Classroom API overview
Help Center: Set Classroom data access

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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New settings in Admin console for restricting YouTube content on managed networks

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Today we’re introducing YouTube settings, available to Google Apps admins as an Additional Service, that will allow admins to restrict YouTube content on managed networks.

This feature is integrated directly into the Google Apps Admin console under YouTube settings [Apps > Additional Google services > YouTube]. In addition to restricting video content, admins will be able to delegate “approvers” to whitelist additional content for signed-in users on the domain.

Check out the Help Center for more information on these new settings.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

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Easily change the relative font size of text in Google Docs and Slides

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

More Information
Keyboard shortcuts for Google Docs
Keyboard shortcuts for Google Slides

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This launch will allow users to more easily increase or decrease the relative font size of text in Google Docs and Slides. Starting today, if a user highlights a range of text or any number of textboxes in Google Docs or Slides, he or she can increase or decrease that selection’s font size in 1-pt increments by choosing Format > Font size > Increase font size or decrease font size from the menu bar. If the selected text contains multiple font sizes, each will be increased or decreased accordingly. Check out the Help Center articles below for the associated keyboard shortcuts.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

Include hidden and filtered data in charts in Google Sheets

Monday, August 3, 2015

Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:

All end users

Action:

Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

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We’re making charts in Google Sheets easier to use and analyze. This launch introduces the option to include hidden and/or filtered data in Sheets charts. Going forward, if you create a chart in Sheets on the web and then filter or hide any of the source data, a small message will appear indicating that the data has been removed from your chart and giving you the option to include it. While this option will only appear on the web, any settings will be respected on mobile as well.

If you opt to include that hidden or filtered data and then later want to exclude it from the same sheet, you can simply expand the chart menu in the upper right corner of the chart and select Advanced edit. That will open the Chart Editor, where you can choose Chart types and uncheck the box next to Include hidden / filtered data. The next time you hide or filter source data in that same sheet, you’ll see the message again.

Not only will this give you greater control over the spreadsheets you create within Google Sheets, it will prevent Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that contain hidden data and that are imported into Sheets from being inaccurately displayed.

Launch Details
Release track:

Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release**

**Update to original post (August 12, 2015): We originally communicated that this feature was launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release domains on Monday, August 3rd. While it launched successfully to Rapid release domains on that date, it did not go live for Scheduled. The feature will now launch to Scheduled release domains on Monday, August 17th.

Rollout pace:

Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:

All end users

Action:

Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

What's New in Google Apps newsletter - July 2015

Monday, August 3, 2015

Check out the latest "What's New in Google Apps" newsletter [pdf] for a roundup of all Apps launches from July 2015.

Newsletter Archive & Translated Versions (coming soon for July issue)

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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Useful Links

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Learn about more Google Workspace launches

On the “What’s new in Google Workspace?” Help Center page, learn about new products and features launching in Google Workspace, including smaller changes that haven’t been announced on the Google Workspace Updates blog.