Tag Archives: Developer

Google Classroom add-ons now generally available to Google Workspace developers

What’s changing

In 2022, we made it easy to seamlessly access popular Education Technology tools directly in Google Classroom. We partnered with 20+ EdTech companies, including Kahoot!, Pear Deck, IXL, ReadWorks, and Nearpod, to build Google Classroom add-ons. These new integrations let educators and students easily find, use, and grade great content in their favorite EdTech tools without having to navigate to external websites and apps. 


Today, we’re excited to make Classroom add-ons generally available to all developers. Now, developers can build an add-on to allow teachers to do the following within Classroom: 

  • Discover and attach content to coursework 
  • Preview content from student perspective 
  • Review student responses to activities 
  • Save time with automatic grading of student responses 

    • Google Classroom add-ons now generally available to Google Workspace developers

    Who’s impacted 

    Admins, end users, and developers 


    Why it’s important 

    Add-ons complement other Classroom API features and let educators and students experience content without having to leave Google Classroom. In addition, Classroom add-ons show up directly in Google Classroom as well on the Google Workspace Marketplace, which is the hub for administrators to manage tools across all of their Google products. 


    Getting started 

    Rollout pace 

    • This feature is now available 

    Availability 

    Available for Google Workspace: 
    • Education Plus and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade 

    Resources 

    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

    Manage spaces at scale with new Chat API functionality

    What’s changing

    We are pleased to announce the  launch for additional features of Chat API via the Developer Preview Program, enabling space management at scale on behalf of admin users. These new features, which you can read more about down below, are available to all users currently enrolled in the Developer Preview Program. See here for more information on how to enroll in the Developer Preview program.

    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, admins expressed a desire for more robust tools to perform these tasks faster and at scale, for example, with the help of APIs. Admins can now use the Chat API to find information and manage their spaces in bulk— specifically they’ll be able to:

    • Audit spaces: Admins can pull a list of all spaces in their organization, which includes detailed information about space settings and metadata like member counts, history setting status, the ability to invite external guests, and more. The list will be exported to a CSV file for further analysis and audit.

    • Delete inactive spaces in bulk: It’s common to create spaces for projects and initiatives that are only relevant for a specific period of time. As these projects move toward completion, activity in these spaces become inactive or abandoned altogether without deletion. This can result in a huge amount of clutter, making it for end users to navigate and search for relevant spaces, and for admins, making it difficult to audit and take action when managing your spaces. You can now easily detect and delete  all inactive or unused spaces, or create an automated cleanup task with the help of Chat API. 

    However, there are some cases where less active spaces should not be deleted, such as spaces dedicated to quarterly or annual events. In these situations, admins can use the new API functionality to identify space managers so they can reach out and confirm whether a space should be deleted.

    • User onboarding and offboarding: When a new user joins an organization, it’s important that they’re connected to all relevant spaces, including organization wide spaces or spaces based on specific departments or job roles. Admins can use this functionality to automatically add users to relevant spaces based on specific attributes like their department, role, location, and more.
    Conversely, it’s also important to ensure users are removed from spaces when they leave an organization or change roles. Admins can quickly identify all spaces where an outgoing user is a member of and remove them from spaces that are no longer relevant to them. 
    • Audit external members: To monitor and control access to organizations' data, admins can conduct an audit of membership for a specific user or group of users. Admins can use the Google Chat API to generate a list of all space members — this information, combined with a query to the People API, can assist in identifying a space’s external members. As a result, admins may choose to remove specific users from organization's conversations. This can be done on a space-by-space basis using the API directly or with the help of  your own scripts, adjusted to the unique process in your organization.

    We plan to introduce more functionality for managing spaces in the future — stay tuned to the Workspace Updates blog for more information.


    Getting started

    • End users: There is no end user impact or action required.


    Rollout pace


    Build a Dialogflow CX Google Chat app that understands and responds with natural language

    This announcement was part of Google Cloud Next ‘24. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about the next wave of innovations in Workspace, including enhancements to Gemini for Google Workspace.


    What’s changing

    Earlier this year, we introduced the integration between Google Chat and Dialogflow CX through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. 


    Dialogflow helps developers build and host Chat bots that understand natural language with minimal coding effort. The enhanced Dialogflow CX version, now generally available, provides a new way of designing virtual agents by taking a state machine approach to agent design. Now, developers have clear and explicit control over a conversation, enjoy a better end-user experience, and gain access to an improved development workflow. 


    The Dialogflow CX integration with Google Chat allows developers to easily create Google Chat apps that are useful in all kinds of interactions, especially those that require natural human speech. For example, consider a Chat app that helps people rent cars. A user might write, "I'd like to rent a car". The Chat app might respond with a question like "Where would you like to pick up the vehicle?" which starts a human-like conversation with the user in which the Chat app both understands and responds with human speech while booking the car rental. 
    Build a Dialogflow CX Google Chat app that understands and responds with natural language

    Who’s impacted 

    Developers 


    Why it’s important 

    Dialogflow CX enables developers to create Chat apps with virtual agents that are more conversational and capable of performing specific tasks. 


    Getting started 


    Rollout pace 


    Availability 

    • Available to all Google Workspace customers 

    Resources 

    Import data from other messaging platforms using the Google Chat API is now generally available

    What’s changing 

    Google Workspace developers registered in our Workspace Developer Preview program have been able to import user data from other messaging platforms into Google Chat using the Google Chat APIs. This functionality is now generally available to all Workspace developers and admins. 


    Who’s impacted

    Admins and developers 


    Why it’s important

    In order to import data, you can create a Chat app and “import mode” Chat space. Within an import mode space, Chat apps can import the following data as equivalent REST resources:
    • Messages
    • Attachments
    • Reactions
    • Memberships with the following considerations:
      • Historical memberships must be imported when a space is in import mode. You can't import historical memberships after the space completes import mode.
      • Other existing memberships from the source messaging platform must be created after a space completes import mode.
      • Members must be users within the same domain.
    • Spaces: only SpaceType.SPACE is supported.
    This is a helpful workflow for those who are transitioning from other messaging platforms to Google Chat. Rather than copying source data into regular spaces, import mode has the following advantages:
    • Preservation of resource creation timestamps: You can set a historical time for the creation times of space and message resources, letting Chat apps retain historical context during user adoption of Google Chat.

    • End users can't view or access spaces in import mode: To prevent user interference with a space undergoing data import, or to avoid possible user confusion as a result of viewing an in-progress data import, spaces in import mode are hidden from end users. After a space has completed import mode, you can add users to the space.

    • Chat turns off notifications during import mode: This helps users to avoid unnecessary alerts about the migration.

    Getting started


    Rollout pace

    • Available now.

    Availability

    • Available to all Google Workspace customers

    The Google Meet API is now generally available

    What’s changing 

    In November 2023, we announced the availability of the Google Meet API through our Developer Preview Program. Beginning today, the Google Meet API is generally available. You can use the Meet API to: 
    • Programmatically create and configure Meet calls 
    • Retrieve information about past meetings, such as the meeting times and attendees. 
    • Access meeting artifacts, such as transcripts and video recordings 
    • Subscribe to real time updates on meetings, such as when a participant joins or leaves 

    For more information, please reference our original announcement.


    Who's impacted

    Admins and developers


    Why you’d use it

    Integrating the Meet API in your product with the Google Meet API streamlines workflows and provides your product with Meet information that easily enhances your product offering. For example, partners such as Hubspot, Outreach, Salesforce, and Salesloft currently integrate the Meet API into their solutions to pull meeting recordings and artifacts into their conversational intelligence tools for analysis and sales coaching.



    Getting started


    Extending Trusted Types to Gmail

    What’s changing

    Last year, we improved the client-side security of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, Drawings, Drive, and Calendar with Trusted Types. This browser-based runtime feature limits the uses of Document Object Model (DOM) APIs that are used by the apps listed above or third-party extensions. Trusted Types also reduce the possibility of Document Object Model Cross Site Scripting (DOM XSS), which continues to be one of the most critical threats to web security. 

    DOM XSS occurs when a cyber attacker injects malicious code into a web page, which can then be executed by the victim's browser. This can allow the cyber attacker to steal cookies, hijack sessions, and even take control of the victim's computer. 

    To defend against this, we’re excited to announce the expansion of Trusted Types to Gmail. This will provide a defense against DOM XSS and further enhances our advanced data protection controls to keep users and data safe across more of the apps they use everyday. 


    Who’s impacted 

    Developers (relying on any Chrome extensions that modify DOM APIs.) 


    Additional details 

    This new enforcement mode will require third-party extensions to use typed objects instead of strings when assigning values to DOM APIs. Once Trusted Types are fully enforced, the Trusted Types directive will be present in the Content Security Policy (CSP) header: 

    Content-Security-Policy: require-trusted-types-for 'script';report-uri https://mail.google.com/mail/cspreport 


    Getting started 

    • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
    • Developers: 
      • To make code Trusted Types compliant, signal to the browser that data being used within the context of these DOM APIs is trustworthy by creating a Trusted Type special object. 
      • There are several ways to be Trusted Types compliant, such as removing the offending code, using a library (such as safevalues or DOMPurify), or creating a Trusted Types policy. To ensure a seamless experience for users, we recommend employing these techniques before Trusted Types enforcement is rolled out. Failure to make code Trusted Types compliant may cause feature breakages for third-party extensions as their DOM manipulations will be blocked by the browser. 
    • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. 

    Rollout pace 


    Availability 

    • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

    Resources 

    Meet Add-ons SDK available in Developer Preview

    What’s changing 

    Today, the Google Meet Web Add-ons SDK is available through our Developer Preview Program. Developers can use the SDK to bring their app experience right into Meet. End users can install, open, and collaborate in apps right inside a meeting, either as the meeting focal point, or in the sidebar — all without ever leaving Meet. 


    Recently, we announced the availability of the Google Meet API through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. The Google Meet Add-ons SDK expands on these platform capabilities and allows developers to integrate apps and workflows directly into the Meet UI. There are two ways in which add-ons show up in Meet: the main stage of a meeting or the meeting side panel. The main stage allows apps to be the focal point of a meeting experience, unlocking the opportunity for add-on users to collaborate while in a meeting. The side panel allows users to to share data, take surveys, or update records while staying focused on the discussion in the meeting.




    Partners such as Atlassian, Figma, Lucid, Miro, Read.ai, and Polly.ai have already built and launched Meet Add-ons, and we’re excited to see what other apps and workflows developers will build into Meet’s highly-interactive surfaces.






    During Developer Public Preview, add-ons can only be deployed within your domain and are only accessible when using Google Meet on the web. In the coming months, we will also launch Meet Add-ons SDKs for Android and iOS to expand these capabilities to mobile form factors. 


    To access the preview SDK, please join the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program.


    Who’s impacted

    Admins and developers



    Why you’d use it 

    Using the Google Meet Add-Ons SDK, developers can integrate their apps directly in Google Meet. In turn, meeting participants can leverage these apps to collaborate on a whiteboard, brainstorm with the latest design files, and more all without leaving the Meet user interface.


    Getting started

    Rollout pace


    Availability

    • Available to all Google Workspace customers

    Resources


    Read and write out of office and focus time events using the Calendar API

    What’s changing 

    In addition to reading and writing working location data, we’re expanding the Calendar API functionality to encompass out of office and focus time data. Developers can use the API to read and write this information and synchronize users’ availability with external systems. For example, you can use the API in conjunction with HR systems to automatically add OOO entries to a user’s calendar when they submit vacation time. Or the API can be used to automatically block focus time on a user’s calendar to complete training courses. 

    • Reading and writing out of office and focus time is helpful in a variety of situations such as: 
    • Creating and updating OOO and Focus Time events (Events.Insert, Events.Update, Events.Patch). 
    • Specifying OOO and Focus Time specific features, such as auto-declining meetings, and setting do-not-disturb statuses. 
    • Selecting any combination of event types to read from a calendar (Events.List). 

    Further, reading and writing this information eliminates the need for users to enter the same information into multiple systems, helping to cut down on manual churn.


    Who’s impacted

    Developers


    Why you’d use it

    Out of office and focus time event support joins support for working location, which was announced earlier this year, to round out API functionality for calendar events. Each specific event type can be synced throughout your organization's IT ecosystem, creating seamless user journeys and helping to connect users with resources and each other. This includes things such as:


    • Mapping working location data to better adapt on-site resources and update other third-party surfaces, such as hot desk booking tools. 
    • Automatically blocking OOO based on vacation or PTO requests.
    • Blocking off focus time events to give users time to go through onboarding or other company training programs.


    Additional details

    Prior to this update, if you requested to read a user’s calendar via API v3, out of office and focus time events were returned with [email protected] in the organizer field, and without their specific features. With this update, these events will return with all their properties and the specific user as organizer. Please check your code to ensure it does not make implicit assumptions about the previous API return values, and use the eventType parameter to perform different operations with regular, OOO, Focus Time, or Working Location events 


    Getting started


    Rollout pace

    Availability

    • The Calendar API is available to all. 

    • Out of Office events are available to Google Workspace Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Frontline, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Nonprofits, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, and Education Plus customers.

    • Focus Time events are available to Google Workspace Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Nonprofits, Business Standard, Business Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, and Education Plus customers.

    Resources


    Google Meet API now available in Developer Preview

    What’s changing 

    Launching through our Google Workspace Developer Preview Program, developers can now use the Google Meet API. Using this API, developers can:

    • Programmatically create and configure Meet calls. 
    • Retrieve information about past meetings, such as the meeting times and attendees. 
    • Access meeting artifacts, such as transcripts and video recordings. 
    • Subscribe to real time updates on meetings, such as when a participant joins or leaves. 

    The API will give partners and customers the ability to create and configure Meet video conferences, allow their end users to join a conference, and post real-time updates from within their own applications.


    Using the Meet API, Outreach is ingesting meeting recordings and transcripts into their AI-powered conversation intelligence tool, Kaia, to deliver rich insights to their teams.


    Who’s impacted

    Developers


    Why you’d use it

    Incorporating your product with the Google Meet API streamlines workflows and provides your product with Meet information that easily enhances your product offering. For example, partners such as Hubspot, Outreach, Salesloft and Salesforce currently integrate the Meet API to pull meeting recordings and artifacts into their conversational intelligence tools for analysis and sales coaching.


    Additionally, integrating with the Google Meet API enables you to link your app with Meet’s video conferencing capabilities, allowing users to access a secure video conferencing product from their own UI by the click of a button. Brandlive, a leading webinar and event platform, uses the Google Meet API as a way to create and configure video sessions for larger sessions and smaller breakout conversations.


    Additional details

    View the Google Meet API documentation for additional details.


    Getting started



    Rollout pace


    Availability

    • Available to all Google Workspace customers