Tag Archives: API

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – September 20, 2024

3 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.



Ability to create announcement spaces using the Google Chat API is now generally available 
In June, we introduced the option to create announcement spaces using the Google Chat API through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. We’re excited to announce Google Workspace developers can now use the Chat API to create announcement spaces, plus read and update the permission settings of a space. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers. | Visit these Developer Docs for more information: PredefinedPermissionSettings and PermissionSettings fields.


Additional improvements to tables in Google Sheets 
Following our announcement of improvements to tables in Google Sheets, we’re adding even more enhancements to the experience. More specifically, you can now: 

1. Insert a blank table from the pre-built table sidebar 
Insert a blank table from the pre-built table sidebar

2. Reference tables successfully via IMPORTRANGE. For example, if you had a table named Table1 with column header values of of Column 1, Column 2, Column 3, etc.: 
    • To import the table range, including header cells, you would input: =IMPORTRANGE(spreadsheet_url, “Table1[#ALL]”) 
    • To import only the footers of the table range, you would input: =IMPORTRANGE(spreadsheet_url, “Table1[“#TOTALS]”) 
    • To import the table range, excluding header cells, you would input: =IMPORTRANGE(spreadsheet_url, “Table1[“#DATA]”) 
    • To import the first two columns of the table range, including header cells, you would input: =IMPORTRANGE(spreadsheet_url, “Table1[[Column 1]:[Column 2],[#ALL]]”) 
3. Use the following keyboard shortcuts to easily convert ranges to tables: 
  • Cmd+Opt+T for Mac 
  • Ctrl+Alt+T for Linux and Windows 
    Rollout to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains for #1 is complete. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now for #2 and #3; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for September 26, 2024 for #3 and October 3, 2024 for #2. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about using tables in Google Sheets.


    Introducing Dual Screen on Meet
    Following the recent announcement of an improved user experience for Google Meet on Android devices, we’re excited to introduce an additional feature, available on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold device, that provides you with a more immersive video call experience. Through the use of the front and inner cameras, you can now show both yourself and what you're looking at at the same time. Additionally, the person you're video chatting with can be seen on both the inner and outer screens to include everyone around you in the call. | Rollout to Rapid Release domains is complete; rolling out now to Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Visit the Help Center to learn how Dual Screen on Google Meet works.

    Use both screens during a Meet call - rear screen view of foldable

    Use both screens during a Meet call - rear screen view of foldable


    Use both screens during a Meet call - front screen view of foldable



    Previous announcements

    The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.


    Adding multi-monitor support to Google Slides
    We’re making it easier to view your Google Slides presentation controls on your computer while presenting to an audience using a connected external monitor or projector. | Learn more about multi-monitor support in Slides. 

    New beta available that restricts access to folders in Google Drive 
    We’ve introduced a beta that allows shared drive managers to restrict folders to specific users within a shared drive. This provides shared drive managers with greater flexibility to keep relevant content within a single shared drive, while restricting access to shared folders with sensitive information. | Learn more about restricting folder access.

    New design and accessibility improvements for embedded Google Calendars 
    Starting this week, you’ll notice a refreshed look and feel for embedded calendars that is in line with Google Material Design 3 and now includes enhanced accessibility features, such as the ability to use an embedded calendar with a screen reader and keyboard shortcuts to navigate more easily, and more. | Learn more about embedded Google Calendars.

    NotebookLM now available as an Additional Service 
    Last year, we introduced an Early Access App called NotebookLM, an experimental product using some of Google's most advanced models, like Gemini 1.5 Pro, that helps you gain critical insights grounded in the content of source documents you trust. We’re excited to announce that NotebookLM is officially available as an Additional Service. | Learn more about NotebookLM. 

    Admin features for space management via the Chat API are now generally available 
    Earlier this year, we introduced a series of space management capabilities for Workspace admins in the Google Chat API via the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. These API features are now generally available for all Google Workspace customers and developers. | Learn more about space management via the Chat API. 

    Create birthdays in Google Calendar 
    To ensure a birthday is never missed, we’re introducing the ability to create and modify birthday events in Google Calendar on Android devices. | Learn more about birthdays in Calendar. 

    Additional iOS data exfiltration enhancement: account level data sharing between Google Workspace apps and non-Google Workspace apps on or off 
    Admins can now enable content sharing on personal Workspace accounts while preventing data sharing from corporate Workspace accounts on iOS devices. | Learn more about iOS data exfiltration enhancements.


    For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).  

    Admin features for space management via the Chat API are now generally available

    What’s changing

    Earlier this year, we introduced a series of space management capabilities for Workspace admins in the Google Chat API via the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. These API features are now generally available for all Google Workspace customers and developers.

    Using these features, admins can easily perform a variety of space management related tasks at scale. This includes membership management, like adding and removing members, onboarding and offboarding users from spaces, cleaning up inactive spaces, and more. 

    These features are also available when using the Google Apps Manager (GAM), an open source command-line tool that helps administrators to perform bulk operations associated with various aspects of their Google Workspace. The tool can be used to automate space management tasks with command-line scripts, helping to reduce admin overhead and potential errors when using APIs. See this article in our Help Center for more information on using a third-party tool for mass provisioning.

    Who’s impacted

    Admins and developers

    Why you’d use it

    In 2023, we launched the Space Management tool, which allowed admins to view all the spaces within their organization, understand the activity within those spaces, and perform essential actions like deleting a space or assigning space managers. While finding the tool helpful to perform one-off tasks, admins expressed a desire for tools to perform these tasks at scale, for example, with the help of APIs. Admins can now use the Chat API to find information and manage spaces in their organization in bulk or programmatically. Specifically they can:

    • Find and delete inactive spaces: Using spaces.search, you can find spaces that haven’t been used since a specified date and time and then delete them.
    • Onboard and offboard users: Automatically add new users to relevant spaces and remove them from spaces when they leave or change roles.
    • Audit external members: Monitor and control access to your organization's data by identifying and removing external members from sensitive conversations.
    • Lookup and update space details: Easily manage space information like names, descriptions, and guidelines.
    • Verify user membership and upgrade roles: Manage user access and roles within spaces.
    • And more — please refer to our developer guidance for even more information.

    Getting started

    Available in open beta: configure third-party apps by select API scopes

    What’s changing 

    When your users sign in to third-party apps using the "Sign in with Google" option (single sign-on) or use OAuth to share their data with those apps, you can control what access those apps have to your organization’s Google data using app access controls. 


    Admins currently can configure the third-party apps as “Trusted”, giving them access to all OAuth scopes or as “Limited”, giving them access to scopes only from Google services which are not restricted. Beginning today, we’re giving admins another layer of granular control for third-party apps. Specifically, you can now configure apps to be limited by selected OAuth 2.0 Scopes for Google APIs, such as Drive or Gmail scopes. This helps ensure that these apps do not gain additional access without admin consent based on new API scopes that they might request in the future, keeping data access limited to only what is deemed absolutely necessary by admins.




    Getting started

    Rollout pace


    Availability

    • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as Cloud Identity Free and Premium customers


    Resources


    Access Google Meet artifacts with a new Google Drive API scope

    What’s changing 

    We’re introducing a new OAuth scope for the Drive API: drive.meet.readonly. The new scope grants app access to read and download files from a user’s drive that were created or edited by Google Meet — this includes meeting transcripts, notes, recordings, and more. This granular level of authorization helps ensure Drive access is not provisioned too broadly and only the necessary files can be accessed.


    Getting started

    Rollout pace


    Availability


    Additional admin space management capabilities in Google Chat API are now available

    What’s changing 

    We recently announced several new features for the Google Chat API that enable admins to manage spaces at scale. These features include the ability to audit spaces, delete inactive spaces in bulk, and more. 

    Today, we’re pleased to announce more space management capabilities, which include the ability to: 
    • Look up details about specific space.
    • Update space details, including the name of a space, space description, and space guidelines. 
    • Verify user’s membership status in a specific space. 
    • Upgrade a role from space member to space manager. 



    These features are available now through our Developer Preview Program — see here for more information on how to enroll in the Developer Preview program. 


    Getting started 

    • Admins and developers: 
      • If you are part of the Google Workspace Developer Preview, you will get these features by default. Otherwise, you must apply for access using this form. 
      • Use our Developer Documentation to learn how to authenticate and authorize using administrator privilege. 
    • End users: There is no end user impact or action required. 

    Rollout pace 

    Availability

    • New features for the Google Chat API scoped to admin users are available to participants of Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. 

    Resources 

    Grading periods API for Google Classroom is now available in Developer Preview

    What’s changing

    Last year, we introduced grading periods, an option that allows administrators and teachers to define and apply grading periods segmented from the entire school year to their Google Classroom assignments. 

    Today, we’re excited to announce grading period endpoints and capabilities in the Classroom API, available through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. Specifically, developers can now: 

    • Create, modify, and delete grading periods on courses 
    • Read grading periods on courses 
    • Reference and set/read grading periods on CourseWork resources
    • Apply grading period settings to existing coursework items

    Who’s impacted 

    Developers 


    Why you’d use it 

    The new grading periods endpoints allows developers to create, modify, and read grading periods in Classroom on behalf of administrators and teachers. 


    Getting started 

    • Admins: The Classroom API provides a RESTful interface for you to manage courses and rosters in Google Classroom. Learn more about the Classroom API overview. 
    • Developers: 
      • To use the grading periods API, developers can apply for access through our Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. 
      • Application developers can use the Classroom API to integrate their apps with Classroom. These apps need to use OAuth 2.0 to request permission to view classes and rosters from teachers. Admins can restrict whether teachers and students in their domain can authorize apps to access their Google Classroom data. 
      • All API and Classroom share button integrations should follow the Classroom brand guidelines. 

    Rollout pace 

    Availability 

    Available for Google Workspace: 
    • Education Plus 

    Resources 

    Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – June 21, 2024

    3 New updates

    Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.


    Now generally available: Build AppSheet automations using Google Forms 
    AppSheet helps users automate manual workflows by integrating with data sources like Google Drive, Chat and Sheets, and earlier this year we announced its integration with Google Forms in beta. This week, we’re excited to announce this is now generally available. | Roll out to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Available to Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade, Frontline Starter, Frontline Standard, AppSheet Starter, AppSheet Core, AppSheet Enterprise Standard, and AppSheet Enterprise Plus customers only. | Learn more about AppSheet's integration with Google Forms and building your first app and automation using Google Forms. 


    The ability to add and remove Google Groups as space members using the Google Chat API is now generally available 
    Last year, we announced the ability to create spaces, memberships, group chats, and more using the Google Chat API. This week, we’re excited to introduce the option for developers to add and remove Google Groups as space members using the Google Chat API. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about accessing Chat APIs through the Google Chat API. 


    Comments and action items in client-side encrypted Google Docs is now generally available 
    You can now collaborate with others on client-side encrypted Google Docs to add, edit, reply, filter, or delete comments. You can also assign action items to yourself or others. This functionality was previously available in open beta — see our original announcement for complete details. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for July 2, 2024. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers. | Learn more about working with encrypted files in Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides.


    Previous announcements

    The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.


    Insert images into practice sets in Google Classroom 
    Teachers can now import images, like graphs, charts or photos, into practice sets using files from Google Drive or directly from their computer. | Learn more about inserting images into practice sets. 

    Help your students learn to read with Read Along in Classroom 
    We’re introducing Read Along in Google Classroom, a new feature that helps students build their independent reading skills by enabling teachers to assign differentiated reading activities, based on Lexile® measure, grade level, or phonics skills. | Learn more about Read Along in Google Classroom. 

    External users can now securely collaborate on client-side encrypted files 
    We’re expanding visitor sharing, a feature that provides secure, pincode-based collaboration over sensitive data with people, to include client-side encrypted files. This allows users to securely collaborate with external partners on sensitive Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides files, while maintaining the confidentiality of the information with the granular control of encryption keys, identity verification and user permissions. | Learn more about visitor sharing. 

    Create interactive YouTube assignments in Google Classroom more quickly and efficiently, with the help of AI 
    We’re introducing AI-suggested questions that educators can easily attach to a video based on its content when creating interactive YouTube assignments in Google Classroom. | Learn more about YouTube assignments in Classroom.

    Google Meet adds 52 new languages to translated captions and 11 more languages for closed captions 
    For all Google Workspace customers and users with personal accounts, we’ve expanded support for closed captioning. In addition, for Gemini for Google Workspace customers, we are adding 52 languages to translated captions with full language support. | Learn more about translated captions and closed captions. 

    Improved syncing experience between Google Calendar and third-party calendars 
    We’re pleased to introduce an improved email notification experience for those who are using third-party calendar services—like Outlook—to collaborate with Google Calendar users. | Learn more about the improved syncing experience on Calendar.

    Completed rollouts

    The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.


    Rapid Release Domains: 
    Scheduled Release Domains: 
    Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

    For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).   

    Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – June 14, 2024

    1 New update

    Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.


    Make a space discoverable to a target audience using the Google Chat API 
    Earlier this year, we introduced the option to create discoverable spaces using the Google Chat API through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. We’re excited to announce this is now generally available for Google Workspace developers. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains | Available to all Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about discoverable spaces.

    Previous announcements

    The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.


    Stay on top of shared Drive files with automatic digest emails 
    If you haven’t been active on Drive for 7 days and have multiple shared files that are unviewed, we’ll send you a reminder email that summarizes the files. | Learn more about automatic digest emails for Drive files. 

    Adding audit logs for Gemini for Google Workspace activity 
    We’re introducing the ability for admins to see new audit logs in Google Drive for activity triggered by Gemini for Google Workspace. | Learn more about audit logs for Gemini. 

    Google Meet add-ons are now available on Android devices 
    We’re expanding access to Google Meet add-ons, now to Android devices, so you can find, install, and use third and first-party applications right from within the Meet app. | Learn more about Meet add-ons. 

    Updated design for meeting controls in Google Meet 
    Google Meet is gradually improving and modernizing the in-call experience with the Material 3 Design System. This week, we are announced the first update, which is specific to the lower bar of in-call controls in Meet. | Learn more about updated designs for meeting controls in Google Meet.

    Google Classroom now supports grade category and co-teacher imports from SIS partners
    Starting this week, teachers can now import their grade categories and co-teachers from their linked SIS. | Learn more about import grading categories or co-teachers. 

    Google Meet now supports high definition video for meeting recording and devices 
    Full HD video content is now available for recorded meetings and sending full HD video is now available on all computers with 1080p cameras. Learn more about new video support in Meet.


    Completed rollouts

    The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.


    Rapid Release Domains: 
    Scheduled Release Domains: 
    Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

    For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).   


    The Calendar API now distinguishes events created from Gmail

    What’s changing

    Starting May 30, 2024, the Calendar API will distinguish events created from Gmail. New and existing events from Gmail that are scheduled for a future date will:

    In Google Calendar clients events from email may be rendered slightly differently to regular events and show a link back to the original email:



    Google Calendar limits edits for events from email:



    Additional details

    If you’re using the Calendar API, we recommend the following to help avoid any disruptions in your applications:
    • Ensure that your code does not apply restricted updates to events with the type “fromGmail”.
      • Temporarily, updates on events with the type “fromGmail” are restricted to the properties reminders, colorId, visibility, status, and extendedProperties. Stay tuned to the Workspace updates blog for more information.
      • Review your code if it filters by eventType for Events.list or Events.watch. Filtering by eventType “default” will no longer return events extracted from emails.

    Getting started


    Rollout pace

    Personal information cards and Contacts sidebar will now display the organization name

    What’s changing

    Starting May 28, 2024, the organization name and department will be displayed on personal information cards and in the Contacts sidebar. This information provides helpful context about the people you’re interacting with and displaying this additional information will help you learn more about who you’re collaborating with, and more.



    Getting started

    • Admins: 
      • Admins can populate user data via the Admin console or via the Admin SDK API with the list and update commands. You can also visit the Help Center to learn more about adding information to a user’s Directory profile. 
      • Important note: Some customers may have set both organization name and organization department for their users, where department includes the organization name. We have notified impacted customers via email, but we recommend that you check your settings and update your users’ organization department to prevent duplicate organization names from showing. You can do this via the Admin console or via the Admin SDK API with the list and update commands.

    • End users: End users: You can view this information within Google Contacts (contacts.google.com), while hovering over a user, or from the Contacts sidebar.

    Rollout pace


    Availability

    • Available for all Google Workspace customers

    Resources