Tag Archives: Google Workspace

Year in Review: 12 awesome ways for developers to learn, build, and grow with Google Workspace

Posted by Matthew Izatt, Product Lead, Google Workspace Platform

For millions of our customers, 2022 brought an abundance of change in the way they connect, collaborate, and get things done. Frontline workers at customers like Globe Telecom and general contractor BHI benefited from digital transformation on all fronts by quickly getting the apps they needed to do their jobs in the field. Office and remote workers, meanwhile, adjusted to hybrid work by leveraging ready-made tools from partners like DocuSign and Asana or they built custom desk booking applications.

2022 was also a year of growth. Google Workspace now has more than 3 billion users and over 8 million paying customers across the globe. And the Google Workspace Marketplace passed a lifetime milestone of driving more than 5 billion app installs. To wrap up a year marked by so much change, we’ve recapped some of the biggest updates that make Google Workspace the most open and extensible platform for users, customers, and developers alike.

1.    Build software with more agility with our DevOps integrations

    Google Workspace gives you real-time visibility into project progress and decisions to help you ship quality code fast and stay connected with your stakeholders, all without switching tools and tabs. By leveraging integrated applications from our partners, you can pull valuable information out of silos, making collaborating on requirements docs, code reviews, bug triage, deployment updates, and monitoring operations easy for the whole team. This year we partnered with popular DevOps tools to help you do your job better:

    • Asana: Plan and execute together, with Asana integrations you can coordinate and manage everything from daily tasks to cross-functional strategic initiatives.
    • GitHub: Teams can quickly push new commits, make pull requests, do code reviews, and provide real-time feedback that improves the quality of their code—all from Google Chat.
    • Jira: Accelerate the entire QA process in the development workflow. The Jira for Google Chat app acts as a team member in the conversation, sending new issues and contextual updates as they are reported to improve the quality of your code and keep everyone informed on your Jira projects.
    • PagerDuty: Enables developers, DevOps, IT operations, and business leaders to prevent and resolve business-impacting incidents for an exceptional customer experience—all from Google Chat.
     
    2.    Apply to our Developer Preview Program: get early access to upcoming platform features

    This year we launched the Google Workspace Developer Preview program to get you access to the new APIs and stay in touch with the latest updates on the Google Workspace platform. Features in developer preview have already completed early development phases, so they're ready for implementation. This program gives you the chance to shape the final stages of feature development with feedback, get pre-release support, and have your integration ready for public use on launch day. Apply to the Developer Preview Program today.

    For Google Chat this year we announced that you could programmatically create new spaces and add members on behalf of users via the Google Chat API. These latest additions to the Chat API unlock some sought-after scenarios for developers looking for new ways to extend Chat. For example, PagerDuty leveraged the API as part of their PagerDuty for Google Chat app. The app allows the incident team to isolate and focus on the problem at hand without being distracted by having to set up a new space, or further distract any folks in the current space who aren’t a part of the resolution team for a specific incident. All of this will be done seamlessly through PagerDuty for Chat as part of the natural flow of working with Google Chat.

    Screen grab of PagerDuty for Google Chat keeping a demo business up to date on service-impacting incidents.
    PagerDuty for Google Chat keeps the business up to date on service-impacting incidents.

    We are adding functionality to Chat apps so developers can soon add widgets like a date time picker, or design their layout with multiple columns to make better use of space. We believe these new layout options will open more ways for developers to build engaging apps for users. To help users find and learn more about apps we’ve added “About pages” for apps and making apps discoverable in the compose bar in Chat. Apply to our Developer Preview Program to get early access to the Google Chat APIs.

    We also announced new functionality for app developers to leverage the Google Meet video conferencing product through our new Meet Live Sharing API. Users can now come together and share experiences with each other inside an app, such as streaming a TV show, queuing up videos to watch on YouTube, collaborating on a music playlist, joining in a dance party, or working out together though Google Meet. If you want to try out the APIs, you can apply for access through the Developer Preview Program.

    Moving image showing how Miro for Google Meet uses the new Meet APIs for an integrated experience within Meet.
    Miro for Google Meet uses the new Meet APIs for an integrated experience within Meet.

    3.    Connect your customers with critical information with Smart Chips for Google Docs

      We expanded smart chips to our ecosystem of partners, allowing our users to add even more rich data, more context, and critical information right into the flow of their work. With these new third-party smart chips, you will be able to tag and see critical information from partner applications using @-mentions, and easily insert interactive information and previews from third-party apps directly into a Google Doc. Several of our partners, including AO Docs, Atlassian, Asana, Figma, Miro, Tableau, and ZenDesk, are now developing third-party smart chips to add more value to your Google Docs experience. Smart chips will be available to developers to build out their app integrations in 2023.

      Moving image showing how Smart Chips work in Google docs
      Smart Chips will be available to third-party developers in 2023.

      4.    Grow your business with the Recommended for Google Workspace program

      Each year, we evaluate the apps on Google Workspace Marketplace and recommend a select number that are enhancing the Google Workspace experience and helping people work in powerful new ways. Each undergoes reviews by both Google and an independent third-party security firm to ensure they meet our highest standards of integration and security requirements. For 2022 here’s the selection of Recommended for Google Workspace: AODocs, Copper, Dialpad, DocuSign, LumApps, Mailmeteor, Miro, RingCentral, Sheetgo, Signeasy, Supermetrics, and Yet Another Mail Merge. Our application for Recommended for Google Workspace is now open, apply today.

      Recommended for Google Workspace 2023 application is open!
      Become an app Recommended for Google Workspace for 2023, apply today.

      5.    Manage Google Workspace APIs with ease

        We recently added a unified way to access Google Workspace APIs through the Google Cloud Console—APIs for Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Chat, Slides, Calendar, and many more. From there, you now have a central location to manage all your Google Workspace APIs and view all of the aggregated metrics for the API in use. Watch this how-to video to get started.

        Google worksspace APIs in Cloud Console
        Developers can now manage their Google Workspace APIs from within the Google Cloud Console.

        6.    Create surveys, questionnaires, and quizzes and evaluate the results programmatically

          The new Google Forms API joins the large family of APIs available to developers under Google Workspace. The Forms API provides programmatic access for managing forms, acting on responses, and empowering developers to build powerful integrations on top of Forms. Watch this introduction to the Google Forms API to get started.

          Customer satisfaction Surveys created in Google Forms shown on desktop and mobile
          The new Google Forms API allows you to programmatically create and manage Forms.

          7.    Build intelligent business apps with No-Code and Low-Code

            Google Apps Script is a low-code, cloud based JavaScript development environment for Google Workspace that makes it easy for anyone to build custom business solutions across several Google products. This year we completed the updates for our new IDE v2, offering a more modern and simplified development experience which makes it quicker and easier to build solutions that make Google Workspace apps more useful for your organization.

            If you are new to Apps Script, figuring out where to begin can be a hurdle, this year we released 10 new sample solutions to help you get started to bring our number to more than 30! From data analysis to automated emails, you’ll find sample solutions to get you started quickly.

            AppSheet is Google’s platform for building no-code custom apps and workflows to automate business processes. It lets app creators build and deploy end-to-end apps and automations without writing code.

            The new Apps Script connector for AppSheet, launched this year, ties everything together: AppSheet, Apps Script, Google Workspace, and Google Workspace’s many developer APIs. This integration lets no-code app developers using AppSheet greatly extend the capabilities of their no-code apps by allowing them to call and pass data to Apps Script functions. One way to think about this integration is that it bridges no-code (AppSheet) with low-code (Apps Script).

            AppSheet databases, announced in preview this year, is a built-in database for professional and citizen developers to easily and securely manage their data. AppSheet databases will give users access to an easy to use, first party database for creating and managing data. Get started and try AppSheet for free.

            AppSheet database
            AppSheet databases are now available in preview.

            8.    Learn to build amazing solutions on our YouTube channel

              This year, we introduced our dedicated YouTube channel for Google Workspace Developers. The channel serves as an ever-growing collection of our most helpful videos, allowing developers of all skill levels and interests to learn about building solutions with Google Workspace.

              An example of a video you will find on the Google Workspace Developers channel: Anatomy of Google Chat apps - Basic interaction
              Our new YouTube channel for Google Workspace developers has dozens of how-to videos for you.

              9.    Connect with Cloud experts and community as a Google Cloud Innovator

                Community building is one of the most effective ways to support developers, which is why we created Google Cloud Innovators.This new community program was designed for developers and technical practitioners using Google Cloud and everyone is welcome. In 2022, we kicked off the inaugural Innovators Hive, a live, interactive, and virtual event for our global Innovators community. Hive offered rich technical content presented by Champion Innovators and Google engineering leaders. Become a Google Cloud Innovator today.

                Google Cloud Innovators logo in a solid black frame with text that reads 'Welcome, Innovators'
                The Google Cloud Innovators program is open to all levels of creators and developers.

                10.    Integrate and extend Google Workspace: top sessions from Google I/O

                  Learn about the latest innovations and discover how developers can integrate and extend Google Workspace. Here are a few of my favorite sessions from I/O:

                  Google I/O Logo

                  11.    Build the future of work: top sessions from Google Cloud Next

                  Watch on-demand videos from our biggest Cloud event of the year and learn from product experts and partners to level up your skills.


                  12.    Engage with the Google Workspace team and ecosystem at our Developer Summits

                  We also had our inaugural Google Workspace Developer Summit series take place in Paris and London. It was an amazing time meeting developers and IT teams from customers and partners that attended from throughout the EMEA region. Watch out for a summit near you in 2023 to learn more about the latest development features for Google Workspace from our Developer Advocates and build connections with the developer community, subscribe to our newsletter to get notified.

                  Photo of Developers listening to a presentation at Google Paris during Google Workplace Developer Summit
                  Developers gather at Google Paris for the Google Workspace Developer Summit.

                  2022 Wrap-up

                  We are thankful to you in helping make 2022 a great year for the Google Workspace developer community. We look forward to announcing more innovations and having more conversations with you in 2023. To keep track of all the latest announcements and developer updates for Google Workspace please subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Happy holidays and a peaceful New Year!

                  How Education Plus keeps schools safe online

                  From virtual classes to in-person lessons, the best learning environments may look different. But they have a few things in common: inspiring teachers, engaged students and a safe space to learn.

                  Over the last few years, spurred by COVID-19, millions of new users have come online to collaborate, create and learn. Because we support millions of education users every day, we think a lot about creating safe, digital-learning environments. It's only when users are safe online that learning can begin. It’s why our products are safe and secure by design, and why we continue to invest in this area.

                  We commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact study around Google Workspace for Education Plus, our most comprehensive edition of Google Workspace for Education. The study took a look at the security, administrative benefits and cost savings associated with it, and this is what it found: Education Plus helps reduce cyber threats, and the time to remediate them, for educational institutions worldwide.

                  Additionally, Forrester found organizations using Education Plus were more efficient in administration, and eliminated the need to invest in other education technology providers. You can download The Total Economic Impact Study to read the entire report, and we’ve included some highlights below:

                  • 95% reduction in phishing incidents: Security and email filtering in Education Plus reduces phishing attempts by 95%, allowing IT staff to focus less on mitigating threats and more on optimizing security.
                  • 98% less time addressing phishing attacks: Quickly prevent, detect and remediate security incidents with our investigation tool. Email filtering in Education Plus helps IT staff focus on optimization instead of obstacles.
                  • 300 hours saved annually on administrative tasks: Education Plus helps administrators produce administrative, educational and security reports up to 80% faster with the investigation tool and Vault.
                  • $73,000 in time saved from improved security: The time usually spent searching for and deleting phishing emails and resolving incidents saved 35 weeks of IT time.

                  Get hands-on with Education Plus, and
                  understand the impact

                  Want to see how Education Plus could benefit your organization? Check out our new Education Plus Impact Calculator to calculate potential benefits and cost savings. Simply answer a set of 10 questions and you’ll receive a downloadable, custom impact report for your institution.

                  Gif of Google Workspace for Education Plus impact calculator. The user answers four administrative efficiency questions and sees a monetary amount on the next screen of how much they could save in collaboration costs.

                  And whether you’re just learning about Education Plus or an existing customer, we’re announcing a new product demo experience for the premium features of Google Workspace for Education. Available to anyone, experience the real product interface and how your institution could use premium features including the investigation tool, security dashboard, advanced admin controls, Google Meet and originality reports.

                  Gif of Google Workspace for Education Plus product demo focused on Google Meet. The user sees a Google Meet interface, and is prompted to use the “Q&A” feature to ask a question to the rest of the Meet attendees.

                  Ready to create a safer digital learning experience for your school? Learn more and calculate the potential benefits and cost savings with our Education Plus Impact Calculator and product demo experience.

                  Introducing AppSheet databases: Build data driven apps for Google Workspace

                  Posted by Shirley Ng, Product Manager, Google Cloud

                  AppSheet is Google’s platform for building no-code custom apps and workflows to automate business processes. It lets app creators build and deploy end-to-end apps and automations without writing code.

                  Over the past year, we’ve added more functionality to AppSheet, extending how it can maximize the power of Google Workspace through integrations with products such as Gmail, Google Drive and Apps Script. To improve the experience for app creators and users, we’re excited to introduce in public preview AppSheet databases, a built-in database for citizen developers to easily and securely manage their data.

                  Introducing AppSheet databases

                  AppSheet databases will give users access to an easy to use, first party database for creating and managing data.

                  During public preview, access to AppSheet databases will be enabled by default for everyone but it will not affect existing apps. Use of this feature in public preview will be included at no additional cost in your AppSheet subscription plan, but limited to 10K rows per table, 20 tables per database and 20 databases per user. Please note that these limits may change when the feature is generally available.

                  Using AppSheet databases

                  To get started, you can create a blank database from the My Apps page.

                  Screen capture of creating a blank database from the My Apps page.

                  The database editor provides a complete toolset for relational data design and management directly in AppSheet.

                  Screen capture of the database editor's toolset for relational data design and management in AppSheet.

                  Once a database has been created, you can generate an app directly from the database.

                  Screen capture of how to generate an app directly from the database.

                  Since this feature is in public preview, we’re still making improvements and appreciate your patience. Your direct feedback will help us improve it before it becomes generally available next year.

                  Getting started

                  Check out the following resources to help get you started with AppSheet databases today!

                  • For more information on AppSheet databases please see our support page.
                  • Sign up for our office hours session to see AppSheet databases in action, and to ask questions and receive answers live.
                  • Explore the AppSheet platform and test your apps with up to 10 users at no cost, get started for free.
                  • Get inspiration with our how-to video series on Building with AppSheet.

                  Expanding accessible learning with Google for Education

                  The need for accessible tools and equitable learning environments has become more critical than ever, as the number of students with disabilities is on the rise, including those with specific learning disabilities.

                  Google for Education uses built-in accessibility features to help support the needs of all students, to help foster inclusive environments so that students can learn individually and as a group. Our accessibility features provide individualized support while giving students the resources they need to learn in a collaborative way.

                  Captions as a tool across Google products

                  We aim to build helpful features across all our products. One of those features is captions, which are useful not only for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, but also if a room is loud, or a student just needs additional support focusing, or if someone needs support in a different language. Captions are available in Google Meet in six languages, and you can change the font size and placement on the screen. You can also access and add captions to videos in YouTube, Google Drive and Chrome. For Android users, captions are also available through Live Transcribe.

                  Gif of multiple types of captions across Google products

                  Building accessibility tools into Chromebooks

                  Our accessibility features are easy to use and built directly into Chromebooks, like Select-to-Speak, the ChromeVox screen reader and magnification, that enable every individual to do their best work. Now we’ve added more dictation improvements, like the ability to speak into any text field on the Chromebook simply by clicking on the mic icon in the status area. You can also press Search + d to dictate, and you can now edit using just your voice.

                  More customization options in Google Workspace for Education

                  We recently announced more customization for accessibility settings in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings, so users can set accessibility settings for each product individually. And soon, we’ll build upon that by consolidating the Docs settings for screen reader and braille support into a single setting, with a single checkbox. We’ll also soon be adding improvements to voice typing in Google Docs, voice typing for speaker notes in Google Slides, and captions in Google Slides, including adding automatic punctuation and the ability to access from all browsers.

                  For people who are blind or low vision and use screen readers, you can nowtype a keyboard shortcut (ALT + number, 1-7) that verbalizes the content of a Calendar event. This way, Calendar details can be heard on demand, instead of through time-consuming navigation.

                  Working with partners to expand accessible tools

                  We’re supporting teachers through our own tools and partnerships with organizations that share our mission. Many of these apps and extensions integrate with Google tools like Classroom, Google Workspace for Education, and Chromebooks.

                  This includes Texthelp, a company which makes extensions and tools that help people learn, understand and communicate through the use of digital learning and accessibility tools. Students can use tools like Read&Write to help with reading support, and Equatio to help with creating math equations digitally. Created by an occupational therapist, SnapType breaks down the barriers to education by helping students feel more confident and independent. Students challenged by handwriting or visual impairments can keep up in class with their peers by using SnapType to easily take a picture of their assignment and then type or dictate their schoolwork.

                  We’re also continually working to update our Help Center articles for screen reader users, including how to use a screen reader with Google Calendar, how to use a screen reader with Google Drive, and how to make your document or presentation more accessible. Stay up to date on the latest accessibility features from Google for Education.