Author Archives: G Suite Updates

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.


Helpful links 

Availability 

Rollout details 
G Suite editions
  • Available to all G Suite editions. 

On/off by default? 
  • This feature will be ON by default.


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Automatically provision users with three additional apps

What’s changing 

We’re adding auto-provisioning support for three new applications:
  • DialPad Sandbox
  • Emburse 
  • Fuze

Who’s impacted 

Admins only

Why you’d use it 

When auto-provisioning is enabled for a supported third-party application, any users created, modified, or deleted in G Suite are automatically added, edited, or deleted in the third-party application as well. This feature is highly popular with admins, as it removes the overhead of managing users across multiple third-party SaaS applications.

How to get started 

  • Admins: For more information on how to set up auto-provisioning, check out the Help Center.
  • End users: No action needed.

Helpful links 

Help Center: Automated user provisioning 
Help Center: Using SAML to set up federated SSO 

Availability 

Rollout details 

G Suite editions 
  • G Suite Education, Business, and Enterprise customers can enable auto-provisioning for all supported applications 
  • G Suite Basic, Government, and Nonprofit customers can enable auto-provisioning for up to three applications 

On/off by default? 
This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the OU level.

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What’s New in G Suite – March 2019


Check out the latest "What's New in G Suite" launch recap (pdf) for a roundup of all G Suite launches from March 2019. Archive and translated versions (coming soon for March issue.)

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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.


Helpful links



Availability

Rollout details

  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 1, 2019
  • Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 15, 2019

Please note, users may see the “Scheduled” folder before they are able to schedule their emails. This is expected behavior.

G Suite editions

  • Available to all G Suite editions

On/off by default?

  • This feature will be ON by default.

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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.

Helpful links



Availability

Rollout details


G Suite editions

  • Available to all G Suite editions.

On/off by default?
Smart Compose personalization will be ON by default and can be controlled at the domain level by admins, or individually by users. If an admin has disabled this ability for a given domain, a user within that domain will not be able to enable Smart Compose personalization.

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Threading changes in Gmail conversation view

What’s changing

We are launching some changes to how Gmail threads messages when you have conversation view turned on. Previously, Gmail would thread together messages when either of the two conditions below are true:

  1. A message is sent in reply to another
  2. A message has:
    1. The same sender or recipients,
    2. The same subject,
    3. And is sent within one week of an earlier message in the thread.

With this change, we’re adding the requirement that an incoming message’s Reference header, if present, must reference IDs of previous messages in order to thread (see image below for example). This means that if you receive two emails with the same subject from the same sender, these emails will not be threaded together unless one explicitly references the other.


Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

This change helps to make sure that messages are only threaded when there is a definite relationship between them.

How to get started


  • Admins: No action required.
  • End users: No action required. You’ll see these changes roll out on Gmail on the web and on mobile apps.

Additional details

If you are managing a system that sends email notifications to users and want your emails to be threaded in Gmail conversation view, then you have to ensure that your notifications:

  • Have the same subject
  • Have reference headers that reference IDs seen earlier in the thread, or have references headers that consistently refer to the same message ID


Additionally, if you don’t want your messages to be threaded in Gmail, you can either have different subjects or send each message with a unique References header value that will never match another message.

Helpful links



Availability

Rollout details


G Suite editions
Available to all G Suite editions
On/off by default?
This feature will be ON by default.

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Take action faster with customizable swipe actions in Gmail on iOS

Quick launch summary

You can now set up swipe actions in Gmail on iOS to do any of the following actions: Archive, Trash, Mark as read/unread, Snooze, and Move to.

We recently announced a brand new mobile redesign for Gmail with many new productivity improvements.To help you get things done even more quickly, you can now customize the actions you can take when swiping on an email in Gmail on your iOS device.

You can access the swipe configuration settings by going into the Gmail iOS app and navigating to Settings > Swipe actions, and choosing the swipe options that work best for you.



In addition to using swipe actions to quickly triage your email, you can also use the same actions to triage your notifications as well. For example, if you like to snooze emails, you can press firmly (3D Touch) or long press on a Gmail iOS notification, and click on "Snooze" directly to pick the date and time when to snooze the email until.

Availability

Rollout details

  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 28, 2019
  • Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 28, 2019

G Suite editions

  • Available to all G Suite editions

On/off by default?

  • This feature will be ON by default

Stay up to date with G Suite launches

Launching new Google Drive / Microsoft Outlook integration, shutting down legacy plugin

What’s changing 

We’re updating Drive File Stream to replace the functionality of the “Google Drive plug-in for Microsoft Office.” As a result, the outdated plugin will be shut down on June 26, 2019. This only impacts users of the Google Drive plug-in for Microsoft Office. Those users will notice two key changes:

  1. New Drive / Outlook integration: The update to Drive File Stream will include a plugin to manage Google Drive files from Microsoft Outlook. This will make it easier for users to use Google Drive without leaving the Outlook interface. 
  2. New process to save to, or open from Drive: Drive File Stream users can save and open Drive files through the regular menu, rather than using the Google Drive plug-in for Microsoft Office interface. 
    • To save to Drive, use File > Save, then choose a destination in Drive File Stream. 
    • To open from Drive, Open through the File > Open menu and find the file you want. 

If your organization uses the Google Drive plug-in for Microsoft Office, you should make sure your users are using the latest version of Drive File Stream before June 26, 2019 to ensure continued access to this functionality.
The new plugin will bring Drive to the Outlook interface 

Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it 

Drive File Stream offers an easy way to integrate Microsoft Office and Google Drive. The latest versions (30.1 and up) will include the new Outlook plugin that will make it easier for users to:

  • Save attachments from Outlook to Drive 
  • Attach Drive files to Outlook messages 
  • Ensure recipients always have access to Drive links sent in Outlook emails 

Drive File Stream already makes it easy to save to the local Drive File Stream folder through the regular “Save” menu.

By ensuring your users are using the new plugin before June 26, 2019, there will be little to no disruption to their workflows.

How to get started 




Additional details 

Users of the Drive for Office plugin will see an in-product notification, pictured below, starting on March 27, 2019. This will encourage them to update to the new plugin to continue using Drive from Outlook.


Helpful links 




Availability 

Rollout details 

  • Rapid Release domains: Available in Drive File Stream version 30.1 and up, which will become available on March 27, 2019. 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Available in Drive File Stream version 30.1 and up, which will become available on March 27, 2019. 


G Suite editions 
Available to all G Suite editions.

On/off by default? 
This feature will be ON by default.

Stay up to date with G Suite launches