Tag Archives: Google Workspace

App pricing, update details, and Editor’s choice now available on Google Workspace Marketplace.

Posted by Mike Rhemtulla, Product Manager

Banner image that shows the Google Workspace logo

Google Workspace Marketplace is proud to announce the availability for developers to display pricing for their applications published in the Google Workspace Marketplace, and the date their application listing was last updated.

Launched over 11 years ago, Google Workspace Marketplace has been helping developers connect with the more than 3 billion people who use Google Workspace—with a stunning 4.8 billion apps installed to date. That incredible demand is fueling innovation in the ecosystem, and we now have more than 5300 public apps available in the Google Workspace Marketplace, plus thousands more private apps that customers have built for themselves.

App Pricing

For developers, you can now specify the app pricing choosing from Free, Paid with a Free trial, Paid with free features or Paid. The app pricing can be updated in the Google Workspace Marketplace SDK - Store Listing tab. We encourage you to specify this in order to provide more information about your Marketplace application for Workspace administrators and end users to evaluate and install your app.

Screenshot of app pricing drop down menu shows different pricing models to choose from

Developers can select which app pricing model is available to users

Screenshot of additional information section now shows pricing

Pricing will now be shown in the application information in Google Workspace Marketplace

App listing update

When a developer updates the app listing or configuration in the Google Workspace Marketplace SDK, administrators and users are now able to see when the application listing was last updated by the developer.

Screenshot of app listing shows a date when the listing was last updated

When the application listing was last updated will now be shown in the application details in Google Workspace Marketplace

Editor’s choice

We have also added a new Editor’s choice section in the Google Workspace Marketplace. This new section has three curated categories; Work from everywhere, these apps help your organization be more productive, Business essentials, these apps help increase workflow productivity, and Apps to discover, these apps are new and innovative. You can find out more about the eligibility for these categories here.

Screenshot shows new Editor's Choice section in Google Workpace Marketplace

New “Editor’s choice” section contains three curated categories in Google Workspace Marketplace

If you’d like to stay informed about updates like these and others to the Google Workspace platform please subscribe to the developer newsletter. And find us at Next ‘21, where we have sessions, demos, and labs covering the latest updates to the Google Workspace platform.

Announcing the Google Forms API

Posted by Christian Schalk, Developer Advocate

Announcing the Google Forms API

Google is proud to announce the Google Forms API! The Forms API is currently available in Restricted Beta, with Open Beta expected to follow in Q4.


Launched in 2008, Google Forms enables easy creation and distribution of forms, surveys, and quizzes. Forms is used for a wide variety of use cases across business operations, customer management, event planning and logistics, education, and more.

Bringing Automation to Google Forms


Image shows two laptops with a phone in the middle

The new Google Forms API provides programmatic access for managing forms and acting on responses, empowering developers to build powerful integrations on top of Forms. The API supports two key use cases:


  • Automating form creation and editing:The API enables developers to automate form creation and editing. This is especially powerful when dealing with large volumes of forms that need to be auto-generated from question banks or other data.


  • Reacting to incoming responses: The API also allows developers to build automations for acting on incoming responses. Examples include developing real-time dashboards or visualizations and triggering business workflows based on response data.

Example Use Cases


Education Automation Integrations

  • Integrations with Learning Management Systems

  • Custom form/quiz generation from question banks

  • Student tracking with real-time dashboards


Customer Management and Support


  • Auto-generate surveys / forms based on customer data

  • Trigger notifications and processes based on responses from customers

Data Analysis and Visualization


  • Create custom visualizations with response data

  • Leverage push notifications to update in realtime


Google Forms API Functionality

The API provides the following specific functionality.

Form Schema and Metadata

Create and Update
  • Create new forms and quizzes
  • Edit existing forms
  • Add questions, point values, correct answers
Read Form Metadata

Read forms content and metadata, including:

  • Questions and answer options
  • Correct answers
  • Point values
  • Feedback

Form Responses

Read Responses
Read responses to forms, including:

  • Answers to each question
  • Response submission time
  • Grades and feedback

    • Push Notifications

    Notifications via Cloud PubSub

    Subscribe to real-time form updates via Cloud Pub/Sub:

    • Receive either push or pull notifications when forms change

    • Get notified when a form is edited or when a form response is submitted


    For the complete Forms API reference documentation visit:

    developers.google.com/forms/api/reference/rest



    Early Forms API Partner Highlights

    Zapier , a leading workflow automation platform, will leverage the new Google Forms API to deliver a better experience for Zapier and Google Workspace users. Today, thousands of businesses use Zapier to connect Google Forms to 4k+ applications to automate tasks and key workflows.


    To date, Zapier has used the Google Drive and Google Sheets API to deliver this integration. Now, a dedicated Forms API will provide a more stable and purpose-driven platform to build from.


    The most common use case for Zapier’s integration with Google Forms is to send Form submission data to an app of the user’s choice within Zapier’s ecosystem whenever one is submitted. For example, a user can automatically create a Google Calendar event for a meeting booked via a Google Form.


    Doing this today requires setting up “watches” via the Google Drive API on the spreadsheet that is tied to the Google Form a user wishes to integrate with Zapier. While this implementation is functional, it puts significant pressure on the Drive endpoint, which carries strict rate limits.


    When a change to the Google Sheet is registered by the Drive API, Zapier then uses the Sheets API to identify the new rows on the spreadsheet that are tied to the Google Form and reads the required data.


    With the new Forms API, Zapier will be able to achieve the same functionality through the Pub/Sub notification system to track new responses and the Forms API to find, read, and send the necessary data to third-party apps via Zapier.


    This new implementation will result in faster and more reliable automations between Google Forms and the 4000+ apps in Zapier’s app directory.



    Zzish, an innovator in the education industry, is leveraging the new Google Forms API in their Quizalize product to empower educators to personalize their teaching for every student.

    Zzish will use the Forms API to help teachers easily convert between Google Forms quizzes and quizzes in Quizalize. This will enable teachers to search Quizalize's database of 500,000 standards-aligned quizzes and use them as Google Forms. Teachers will also be able to easily deploy their Google Forms as a fun classroom game in Quizalize.


    Google Forms API Launch Roadmap

    We anticipate promoting the API to Open Beta in Q4 2021, with GA following in 2022.


    Become a Forms API Early Adopter!

    The Forms API is currently in Restricted Beta. We encourage you to apply here to be an early adopter to get started with the API today! We’ll also send you important updates about Open Beta and improvements to the API. To keep up to date with all the APIs of your favorite Google Apps, please subscribe to the Google Workspace Developer Newsletter.


    Announcing the Google Forms API

    Posted by Christian Schalk, Developer Advocate

    Announcing the Google Forms API

    Google is proud to announce the Google Forms API! The Forms API is currently available in Restricted Beta, with Open Beta expected to follow in Q4.


    Launched in 2008, Google Forms enables easy creation and distribution of forms, surveys, and quizzes. Forms is used for a wide variety of use cases across business operations, customer management, event planning and logistics, education, and more.

    Bringing Automation to Google Forms


    Image shows two laptops with a phone in the middle

    The new Google Forms API provides programmatic access for managing forms and acting on responses, empowering developers to build powerful integrations on top of Forms. The API supports two key use cases:


    • Automating form creation and editing:The API enables developers to automate form creation and editing. This is especially powerful when dealing with large volumes of forms that need to be auto-generated from question banks or other data.


    • Reacting to incoming responses: The API also allows developers to build automations for acting on incoming responses. Examples include developing real-time dashboards or visualizations and triggering business workflows based on response data.

    Example Use Cases


    Education Automation Integrations

    • Integrations with Learning Management Systems

    • Custom form/quiz generation from question banks

    • Student tracking with real-time dashboards


    Customer Management and Support


    • Auto-generate surveys / forms based on customer data

    • Trigger notifications and processes based on responses from customers

    Data Analysis and Visualization


    • Create custom visualizations with response data

    • Leverage push notifications to update in realtime


    Google Forms API Functionality

    The API provides the following specific functionality.

    Form Schema and Metadata

    Create and Update
    • Create new forms and quizzes
    • Edit existing forms
    • Add questions, point values, correct answers
    Read Form Metadata

    Read forms content and metadata, including:

    • Questions and answer options
    • Correct answers
    • Point values
    • Feedback

    Form Responses

    Read Responses
    Read responses to forms, including:

  • Answers to each question
  • Response submission time
  • Grades and feedback

    • Push Notifications

    Notifications via Cloud PubSub

    Subscribe to real-time form updates via Cloud Pub/Sub:

    • Receive either push or pull notifications when forms change

    • Get notified when a form is edited or when a form response is submitted


    For the complete Forms API reference documentation visit:

    developers.google.com/forms/api/reference/rest



    Early Forms API Partner Highlights

    Zapier , a leading workflow automation platform, will leverage the new Google Forms API to deliver a better experience for Zapier and Google Workspace users. Today, thousands of businesses use Zapier to connect Google Forms to 4k+ applications to automate tasks and key workflows.


    To date, Zapier has used the Google Drive and Google Sheets API to deliver this integration. Now, a dedicated Forms API will provide a more stable and purpose-driven platform to build from.


    The most common use case for Zapier’s integration with Google Forms is to send Form submission data to an app of the user’s choice within Zapier’s ecosystem whenever one is submitted. For example, a user can automatically create a Google Calendar event for a meeting booked via a Google Form.


    Doing this today requires setting up “watches” via the Google Drive API on the spreadsheet that is tied to the Google Form a user wishes to integrate with Zapier. While this implementation is functional, it puts significant pressure on the Drive endpoint, which carries strict rate limits.


    When a change to the Google Sheet is registered by the Drive API, Zapier then uses the Sheets API to identify the new rows on the spreadsheet that are tied to the Google Form and reads the required data.


    With the new Forms API, Zapier will be able to achieve the same functionality through the Pub/Sub notification system to track new responses and the Forms API to find, read, and send the necessary data to third-party apps via Zapier.


    This new implementation will result in faster and more reliable automations between Google Forms and the 4000+ apps in Zapier’s app directory.



    Zzish, an innovator in the education industry, is leveraging the new Google Forms API in their Quizalize product to empower educators to personalize their teaching for every student.

    Zzish will use the Forms API to help teachers easily convert between Google Forms quizzes and quizzes in Quizalize. This will enable teachers to search Quizalize's database of 500,000 standards-aligned quizzes and use them as Google Forms. Teachers will also be able to easily deploy their Google Forms as a fun classroom game in Quizalize.


    Google Forms API Launch Roadmap

    We anticipate promoting the API to Open Beta in Q4 2021, with GA following in 2022.


    Become a Forms API Early Adopter!

    The Forms API is currently in Restricted Beta. We encourage you to apply here to be an early adopter to get started with the API today! We’ll also send you important updates about Open Beta and improvements to the API. To keep up to date with all the APIs of your favorite Google Apps, please subscribe to the Google Workspace Developer Newsletter.


    How Google Workspace is helping the RSPCA

    For nearly 200 years, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has worked to ensure that animals of all kinds, from household pets to livestock and animals in sport, have a good life. It is an extraordinary mission that involves 1,400 people, including around 270 inspectors and 100 animal rescue officers across England and Wales. Together they rescue animals in distress, investigate suspected incidents of cruelty, place animals in new homes, train volunteers, and educate the public about suitable animal care.

    Last year, the RSPCA’s dedicated frontline team handled over 1.2 million phone calls, investigated more than 140,000 suspected incidents of cruelty, found homes for over 29,000 animals and secured over 1,400 convictions for abuse. They also coordinated a network of 150 branches in England and Wales, along with 56 regional and branch animal centres, plus animal hospitals, clinics and wildlife centres. It's a mammoth task.

    We're proud that for over nine years the RSPCA has relied on Google Workspace to help coordinate this work. Clear communication and collaboration, wherever it's needed, takes many forms. Workspace helps with everything from email and video calls, to collaborative documents and spreadsheets, slides and other visual tools for education. This is available from wherever it’s needed, whether via desktop, laptop, or mobile device. The RSPCA has even trialled new digital rehoming initiatives, which use video conferencing via Google Meet to virtually visit the new homes of animals that have been rescued. It does what technology does at its best: focus on the human need, and the human connection.

    During the COVID lockdown, Workspace became an even more critical tool for the RSPCA, enabling virtual experiences in place of face-to-face staff interactions, volunteer and staff onboarding and check-ins with people who were caring for rescued animals. That's how tens of thousands of animals could be looked after despite the lockdowns, and how more than 500 RSPCA meetings could take place every day in 2020.

    “Our strategic mantra is ‘Together for animal welfare’. Everyone in every department is all working towards that same goal,” says Alan Moynihan, Head of IT Customer Solutions at the RSPCA. Workspace, he says, is "a system that gives us effective collaboration and communication tools without geographical boundaries.”

    Some of those tools, like Chromeboxes and Chromebooks, complement Workspace while reducing hardware costs, improving team coordination and enabling Alan Moynihan and his IT staff to better control software creation and management. Android and iOS mobile devices give field workers like inspectors and animal rescue officers instant access to files they need in the field.

    We stand in admiration of the dedication of the thousands of people involved with the RSPCA and are proud that solutions like Google Workspace help them continue to do this critical work.

    15 milestones, moments and more for Google Docs’ 15th birthday

    In 2005, an easy-to-use, online word processor called Writely launched. A year later, the collaborative writing tool became part of Google, and over time it evolved into Google Docs. Officially launched to the world in 2006, Google Docs is a core part of Google Workspace. It’s also, as of today, 15 years old. But it wasn’t always so obvious how useful — and loved — Docs would become.

    Jen Mazzon was part of the original Docs team, or the Google Writely Team as it was then called. “Everyone told us it was crazy to try and give people a way to access their documents from anywhere — not to mention share documents instantly, or collaborate online within their browser,” she wrote in a March 2006 blog post. “But that's exactly what we did.”

    As a much-deserved gift to Docs, here are 15 things about Google Docs that we’re celebrating — from important moments to tips and tricks, there’s a lot to love.

    1. In 2010, Docs got its first big update, adding things like the ability to see others editing and writing in shared documents and better importing features.
    2. Internally, the Docs team has breakfast-themed names for the widgets you see when you edit in Docs. For instance, the yellow messages up at the top are called "butter," and the dialogs that pop out from the bottom right corner are called "toasts" because they pop out of a corner just like toast popping out from an upright toaster. The red error message at the top? That's “ketchup.”
    3. When COVID-19 sent students and educators home, we shared ways they could make use of features like offline Docs and real-time commenting to keep learning and collaboration going remotely.
    4. Lizzo and Sad13 used Google Docs to write music together, and they let us in on their creative process.
    5. There was that time when none other than the Reading Rainbow team designed a book report template for Docs, which you can still use today.
    6. Laura Mae Martin, Google’s Chief Productivity Advisor, always knows the best ways to get the most out of Docs. She shares her tips and tricks regularly on her YouTube channel.
    7. In 2018, the Docs team came up with an Easter egg: Typing #blackhistorymonth into a Doc would trigger Explore in your doc, with information about Black history and the Black community.
    Animated GIF of a Google Doc with the words "#blackhistorymonth" on the page. The Explore panel then pops out to surface more information about Black history.

    8. Here’s a tip: If you click the “+” icon on the right-hand side panel of the page, you’ll find add-ons — from there, select the hamburger menu (the three lines) and check out Editor’s Choice or Top charts for helpful recommendations.

    Screenshot of the right side panel of a Google Doc showing the plus sign icon.

    9. Over the years, Docs has became a crucial creative asset for writers of all kinds. Author Viviana Rivero even uses Google Docs to tell stories that people read in real time, as she writes.

    10. The Google Workspace team has thought a lot about how to make the most of its tools for hybrid work, including Docs. Learn more in the Google Workspace Guide to Productivity and Wellbeing, which includes tips about how you can make the best use of your time working from home — while also making time for yourself.

    11. This past May, the Google Workspace team launched smart canvas — which, among other things, lets you @ mention people in Docs, add checklists and use templates. Soon you’ll also start to see Docs suggesting more inclusive language as you write and edit.

    Image showing a screenshot of a Google Doc with an open Doc that says "document review" at the top. A dialog pop up hovers over part of the page with inclusive language suggestions.

    12. Thanks to new features like Smart compose and Smart reply — made possible by machine learning and artificial intelligence — Docs has become a stronger collaboration tool for the more than three billion users who rely on Google Workspace.

    13. Anyone who’s ever worked on a group Doc knows the upper right-hand corner can sometimes populate with Anonymous Animals — so in 2019, we partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness about animals we hope don’t become anonymous.

    14. We saw the New York Times share how its staff turned to Google Docs during the pandemic to keep journalists and readers connected. They’ve used Docs to celebrate everyday victories, discover music and recommend movies. As a result of COVID-19 and quarantine, we also saw people use Docs to create virtual escape rooms and organize mutual aid efforts.

    15. Over here on the Keyword team, we’re big Docs users: Everything you read on this very blog starts in a Doc — including our weekly newsletter, which we launched last year. And fittingly, this very post.

    Happy birthday, Google Docs; we literally couldn’t do it without you.

    Next ‘21: Must-see Google Workspace sessions for developers and creators

    Posted by Charles Maxson, Developer Advocate

    Banner image that shows the Google Workspace logo

    Google Workspace offers a broad set of tools and capabilities that empowers creators and developers of all experience levels to build a wide range of custom productivity solutions. For professional developers looking to integrate their own app experiences into Workspace, the platform enables deep integrations with frameworks like Google Workspace Add-ons and Chat apps, as well as deep access to the full suite of Google Workspace apps via numerous REST APIs. And for citizen developers on the business side or developers looking to build solutions quickly and easily, tools like Apps Script and AppSheet make it simple to customize, extend, and automate workflows directly within Google Workspace.

    At Next ‘21 we have 7 sessions you won’t want to miss that cover the breadth of the platform. From no-code and low-code solutions to content for developers looking to publish in the Google Workspace Marketplace and reach the more than 3 billion users in Workspace, Next ‘21 has something for everyone.

    1. See what’s new in Google Workspace

    Matthew Izatt, Product Manager, Google Cloud

    Erika Trautman, Director Product Management, Google Cloud

    Join us for an interactive demo and see the latest Google Workspace innovations in action. As the needs of our users shifted over the past year, we’ve delivered entirely new experiences to help people connect, create, and collaborate—across Gmail, Drive, Meet, Docs, and the rest of the apps. You’ll see how Google Workspace meets the needs of different types of users with thoughtfully designed experiences that are easy to use and easy to love, Then, we’ll go under the hood to show you the range of ways to build powerful integrations and apps for Google Workspace using tools that span from no-code to professional grade.

    2. Developer Platform State of the Union: Google Workspace

    Charles Maxson, Developer Advocate, Google Cloud

    Steven Bazyl, Developer Relations Engineer, Google Cloud

    Google Workspace offers a comprehensive developer platform to support every developer who’s on a journey to customize and enhance Google Workspace. In this session, take a deeper dive into the new tools, technologies, and advances across the Google Workspace developer platform that can help you create even better integrations, extensions, and workflows. We’ll focus on updates for Google Apps Script, Google Workspace Add-ons, Chat apps, APIs, AppSheet, and Google Workspace Marketplace.

    3. How Miro, Docusign, Adobe and Atlassian are helping organizations centralize their work

    Matt Izatt, Group Product Manager, Google Cloud

    David Grabner, Product Lead, Apps & Integrations, Miro

    Integrations make Google Workspace the hub for your work and give users more value by bringing all their tools into one space. Our ecosystem allows users to connect industry-leading software and custom-built applications with Google Workspace to centralize important information from the tools you use every day. And integrations are not limited to Gmail, Docs, or your favorite Google apps – they’re also available for Chat. With Chat apps, users can seamlessly blend conversations with automation and timely information to accelerate teamwork directly from within a core communication tool.

    In this session, we’ll briefly review the Google Workspace platform and how Miro and Atlassian are helping organizations centralize their work and keep important information a mouse click or a tap away.

    4. Learn how customers are empowering their workforce to customize Google Workspace

    Charles Maxson, Developer Advocate, Google Cloud

    Aspi Havewala, Global Head of Digital Workplace, Verizon

    Organizations small and large are seeing their needs grow increasingly diverse as they pursue digital transformation projects. Many of our customers are empowering their workforces by allowing them to build advanced workflows and customizations using Google Apps Script. It’s a powerful low-code development platform included with Google Workspace that makes it fast and easy to build custom business solutions for your favorite Google Workspace applications – from macro automations to custom functions and menus. In this session, we’ll do a quick overview of the Apps Script platform and hear from customers who are using it to enable their organizations.

    5. Transform your business operations with no-code apps

    Arthur Rallu, Product Manager, Google Cloud

    Paula Bell, Business Process Analyst, Kentucky Power Company, American Electric Power

    Building business apps has become something anyone can do. Don’t believe us? Join this session to learn how Paula Bell, who self describes as a person with “zero coding experience” built a series of mission-critical apps on AppSheet that revolutionized how Kentucky Power, a branch of American Electric Power, runs their field operations.

    6. How AppSheet helps you work smarter with Google Workspace

    Mike Procopio, Senior Staff Software Engineer, Google Cloud

    Millions of Google Workspace users are looking for new ways to reclaim time and work smarter within Google Workspace. AppSheet, Google Workspace’s first-party extensibility platform, will be announcing several new features that will allow people to automate and customize their work within their Google Workspace environment – all without having to write a line of code.

    Join this session to learn how you can use these new features to work smarter in Google Workspace.

    7. How to govern an innovative workforce and reduce Shadow IT

    Kamila Klimek, Product Manager, Google Cloud

    Jacinto Pelayo, Chief Executive Officer, Evenbytes

    For organizations focused on growth, finding new ways that employees can use technology to work smarter and innovate is key to their success. But enabling employees to create their own solutions comes at a cost that IT is keenly aware of. The threats of external hacks, data leaks, and shadow IT make it difficult for IT to find a solution that gives them the control and visibility they need, while still empowering their workforce. AppSheet was built with these challenges in mind.

    Join our session to learn how you can use AppSheet to effectively govern your workforce and reduce security threats, all while giving employees the tools to make robust, enterprise-grade applications.

    To learn more about these sessions and to register, visit the Next ‘21 website and also check out my playlist of Next ‘21 content.

    5 things I learned from Google’s productivity expert

    I’ve primarily worked remotely for the better part of the last decade, but when the pandemic sent everyone else home from the office, I struggled. Even though I was extremely familiar with working from home, I wasn’t used to spending all my free time at home, too. Like people everywhere, staying productive when the home became the office, and the gym, and the dog daycare, and the everything else was challenging. 

    Headshot of Laura Mae Martin looking into the camera and smiling.

    Google’s Executive Productivity Advisor Laura Mae Martin

    Fortunately, I knew there was someone who could help me. Laura Mae Martin is Google’s Executive Productivity Advisor, and over the years, she’s been offering Googlers advice on how to stay productive, even when our surroundings make it difficult. Her guidance has been an incredible resource — and now it’s available for everyone. “The Google Workspace guide to productivity and wellbeing” is a downloadable, free ebook that shares tons of Laura’s best tips and ideas for making the most of your time. As a bit of a preview, here are five things I learned from the guide that I’ve found most helpful: 

    1. Pinpointing my peak times:One tip from Laura is to figure out when you work best. “Make a list of the times throughout the day and week when you feel most energized and focused,” she writes. These are “peak times,” and likely when you’re going to be the most productive. 

    2. Don’t fight that Friday feeling:There’s a reason Friday afternoons can feel like they’re dragging on. In her guide, Laura advises that you don’t try to overplan the end of the week. “Fridays can be a great window for returning emails or planning the next week,” she says.

    3. Check in even if you can’t respond: Getting through email is one of the most daunting tasks of any job, and everyone’s experienced the pile-up problem. One tip from Laura  is to respond to emails that require your input within 24 hours — even if it’s just to say “I can’t get to this right now, but I will by the end of the week.”

    4. Sometimes, less time is more: According to Parkinson’s Law, “work expands to the allotted time,” meaning if you put 30 minutes on the calendar for a meeting, you and your colleagues will feel like you have to use all of that time even if you’re done within 20 minutes. Laura’s advice: Put shorter amounts of time on the calendar. 

    5. Welcome the “whitespace”:We spend a lot of our time at work getting things done, or “closing loops” as Laura puts it. But it’s important to make time to just think and brainstorm, to come up with new ideas. One way you can make that happen is by putting blocks on your calendar for dedicated time to do exactly that. 

    That’s just a tiny sample of everything I learned from Laura. The guide has so many ways you can maximize your time at work (so you can maximize your time not at work) plus how you can use Google Workspace to put these ideas into practice.  You can download it now.  

    Related Article

    Make “work from home” work for you

    Productivity expert Laura Mae Martin shares her tips for working from home.

    Read Article

    In person, virtual or hybrid: helpful tools for back to school

    As a former director at the largest school district in the United States, I’ve witnessed the challenges of preparing for the back-to-school season. It can be daunting to equip your districts, educators, students and families with the educational resources they need to go back to school with confidence. 

    We recently sat down with a group of school administrators from around the world to get a sense of what they’re thinking about when using digital tools to overcome challenges for back to school in 2021. Although the term “going back to school” looks different across different schools, states and countries, here are a few of the top things administrators are thinking about to help guide you when going back to the classroom, regardless of whether you’ll be in-person, virtual or a hybrid of the two. To find more tips for how to use Google tools this upcoming school year, check out our Back to School Guide for school leaders.

    Tools to enhance teaching and learning

    Ruth Yeh, a teacher and technology advisor at Taipei First Girls High School, said she’s thinking a lot about how different it continues to be “to conduct classes the way we used to, and making sure all students are given the attention they need to learn and grow.” Ruth said that using Google tools, educators have been able to connect with students in real time using Google Meet, or do daily check-ins on mood with Google Forms or Google Classroom. Nothing can replace being in person – but tech tools can help bridge the gap in the meantime.

    We’ve seen educators using Jamboard to have class brainstorms and discussions (all within a Google Meet!), where students can share ideas by writing and adding images in real time on a digital whiteboard. And for checking for understanding, Google Forms make conducting and grading quizzes easier – and can also be used for student check-ins. Educators are using Forms now to reach out to students with an emotional-health questionnaire and ask simple questions about how they are feeling… and then can set up time to talk to them afterwards.

    Supporting students and families beyond the classroom 

    “Parents and guardians are trying to help their kids with their schoolwork, but sometimes don’t understand the tools and devices,” says Femi Aina, Executive Director of IT at Atlanta Public Schools. The biggest issue: They had trouble finding Meet links for their children’s virtual classes. Atlanta Public School teachers and principals resolved this problem by providing the support and resources guardians needed to understand how to use Google Classroom and other Google for Education tools, including the Tech Toolkit for Families and Guardians video series.

    Providing students and families with supplemental resources beyond the classroom curriculum can help them understand how they can use Google for Education tools to support their education. Guardians can learn how to support their children’s education through Google resources like Google Families, Guardian’s Guides to Google for Education Tools and this information on setting up Classroom email summaries for guardians. For more support resources, check out our Help Center.

    Google’s commitment to data privacy and security

    Chin Song, Director of Technology at Milpitas Unified, told us that he’s planning on updating policies in Google Admin Console to ensure a safe learning environment, like the new age-based access setting, and making sure all of the district’s Chromebooks are updated to the latest operating system. And Ron Caroll, Manager of Instructional Technology at Chicago Public Schools, said in addition to customizing policies to protect students’ online learning experiences, it’s equally important to bring parents and guardians along during the process. 

    To inform guardians about their children’s use of Google Workspace for Education tools and how these tools protect their security online, Chicago Public Schools is planning on sharing information to help them learn more about Google’s privacy and security policies, like these frequently asked questions.

    By customizing settings and updating policies, schools can support safer learning experiences for students through Google Admin console. Leverage resources to help inform families about security and privacy like the Safer Learning with Google for Education Guide, Google’s security commitments, our Be Internet Awesome Family Guide and our Guardian’s Guide to Privacy and Security. 


    Stay up-to-date with your Google for Education products 

    Mark Garrison, Chief Academic & Innovation Officer at Breck School, said his previous team typically spent summers focused on Chromebook deployment, helping schools set up and manage their devices. And Chin Song said his district has a secretary that logs every single Chromebook in a consolidated spreadsheet when deploying devices, to keep inventory management efficient. This year, they’re focusing on not only getting devices ready for in school learning, but also preparing them to go home, too.

    Setting up and deploying Chromebooks ahead of the back-to-school season can help the return to the classroom be more seamless. For tips on how to set up new user accounts or pre-installing apps and extensions, check out the Chrome Device deployment guide for step-by-step instructions and this guide for sending Chromebooks home. 

    Regardless of how your school setup will look this year, our team is working to make digital tools easier and more helpful for everyone. For more best practices on heading back to school with Google for Education tools, check out Teaching Resources and our Google for Education Back-to-School Guide.

    Deliver asynchronous notifications in Google Chat using webhooks

    Posted by Charles Maxson, Developer Advocate & Justin Wexler, Strategic Cloud Engineer

    As Google Workspace is redefining the future of team collaboration and Google Chat Rooms evolve into Spaces, webhooks are a useful feature that already exists in the current Chat rooms of today that allow you to deliver asynchronous messages directly into Chat rooms where users work. Webhooks in Chat are powerful and simple to use. Unlike the more well known Chatbots, which are applications built specifically for interacting synchronously with users using the Google Chat API, webhooks enable asynchronous messaging into Google Chat from applications that aren't bots themselves. In this post, we’ll explore using webhooks in Chat and demonstrate a real world use case from our work internally at Google.

    The Case for Webhooks in Google Chat

    Teams create and use Rooms (now Spaces) in Google Chat for many purposes. Some rooms may work along themes, such as Sales Support or Customer Service topics, while others may be more generic for specific departments or company-wide conversations. But all these use cases are centered on human activity, and as we rely on them more and more, they have become a critical way we communicate with each other.

    Webhooks allow you to add another dimension to rooms by introducing information and updates from other systems and applications that fit in with the theme of these rooms and conversations. For example, in a Sales Support room, a webhook could provide alerts from a CRM system notifying users when a deal closes or when a RFP deadline is approaching. In a Customer Service room, a webhook can post urgent alerts for requests to immediately get the attention of the whole team. For more generic scenarios, webhooks can be used to remind folks in a department about upcoming deadlines or broadly share a company’s stock price with all employees at the close of the market. Whatever the situation, webhooks can help efficiently deliver data and information in real time.

    A Google Real World Use Case

    We have a Chat room at Google named G Workspace Community that is used to connect Googlers who want to ask questions and stay up to date with news across our product and customer teams focused on Google Workspace. As you can imagine, this room is widely used, resulting in a constant flow of posts and responses every day. One of the most commonly discussed topics is around new features, which includes keeping track of their launch timing and status on our roadmap.

    At Google, we also produce the Google Workspace Updates blog, a public feed that lets everyone know when new Workspace features ship. It would be logical to assume every member of the G Workspace Community also subscribes to the Updates blog and is up to date on every feature release. But the truth is the G Workspace Community Chat room has become the main resource where Googlers get the latest information about Google Workspace. Instead of referring room members to check the blog first before posting in the Chat room asking about releases, we decided to bring the Google Workspace Updates feed into the Google Workspace Community room. Webhooks in Google Chat made it easy, and now everybody can easily stay up to date on all the updates from Google Workspace.

    Meet the Google Workspace Updates “bot”

    As posts about new Workspace features are released on the Updates blog, the Google Workspace Updates “bot” (aka the Google Wexbot as its known internally after its creator, Justin Wexler) adds a new thread to the Chat room that calls out the post’s title and the first 250 characters of it’s main content. This offers room members a quick glimpse of what just launched, as well as a place to quickly have a discussion around the blog content. Users can ask questions or add comments about the feature release, making it a much more enhanced and collaborative experience, and they can get the full story on the Updates blog by simply clicking READ MORE.

    Image of Google Workspace Updates bot

    Webhooks + Apps Script = Magic

    For community members receiving these timely updates, this “bot” may seem magical. In reality, it’s neither magic nor a traditional Chat bot, so the reference in the Chat UI calling it a “bot” is a bit of a misnomer. The Google Updates “bot” is in fact a simple Google Apps Script application that parses the RSS feed about new posts, and sends them asynchronously to the room via webhooks.

    Apps Script is well suited to help deliver on this use case, as it offers triggers (ie. cron jobs) that can run on time-based intervals to check the Updates blog for new posts, parse the feed XML from those posts, and return those results using the Chat Card format to the waiting webhook via a UrlFetchApp call.

    In our internal implementation of the Google Workspace Updates “bot”, an Apps Script trigger runs hourly to check for new posts to the Update blog. Beyond that, the project itself is a single Apps Script project file that doesn't require a significant amount of coding, is super easy to configure with Chat rooms, and has been essentially maintenance free. Justin’s effort to create the original version only took a couple of days -- and the value for the users is clearly worth it -- hence why they insisted on naming it after him ;)

    Add Google Workspace Updates “bot” (aka Wexbot) to your own Chat rooms

    If you are interested in adding your own Google Workspace Updates “bot”, or you’d like to see how you can leverage Apps Script to fulfill other use cases for sending asynchronous messages to Google Chat via webhooks, the project is available up on GitHub for you to explore and implement:

    Google Chat Updates Bot Project - GitHub

    README | Apps Script Code.js

    More Resources

    To start learn more about working with Google Workspace Chatbots and using webhooks, please explore the following resources:

    And remember to sign up for the Google Workspace Developer Newsletter!

    Deliver asynchronous notifications in Google Chat using webhooks

    Posted by Charles Maxson, Developer Advocate & Justin Wexler, Strategic Cloud Engineer

    As Google Workspace is redefining the future of team collaboration and Google Chat Rooms evolve into Spaces, webhooks are a useful feature that already exists in the current Chat rooms of today that allow you to deliver asynchronous messages directly into Chat rooms where users work. Webhooks in Chat are powerful and simple to use. Unlike the more well known Chatbots, which are applications built specifically for interacting synchronously with users using the Google Chat API, webhooks enable asynchronous messaging into Google Chat from applications that aren't bots themselves. In this post, we’ll explore using webhooks in Chat and demonstrate a real world use case from our work internally at Google.

    The Case for Webhooks in Google Chat

    Teams create and use Rooms (now Spaces) in Google Chat for many purposes. Some rooms may work along themes, such as Sales Support or Customer Service topics, while others may be more generic for specific departments or company-wide conversations. But all these use cases are centered on human activity, and as we rely on them more and more, they have become a critical way we communicate with each other.

    Webhooks allow you to add another dimension to rooms by introducing information and updates from other systems and applications that fit in with the theme of these rooms and conversations. For example, in a Sales Support room, a webhook could provide alerts from a CRM system notifying users when a deal closes or when a RFP deadline is approaching. In a Customer Service room, a webhook can post urgent alerts for requests to immediately get the attention of the whole team. For more generic scenarios, webhooks can be used to remind folks in a department about upcoming deadlines or broadly share a company’s stock price with all employees at the close of the market. Whatever the situation, webhooks can help efficiently deliver data and information in real time.

    A Google Real World Use Case

    We have a Chat room at Google named G Workspace Community that is used to connect Googlers who want to ask questions and stay up to date with news across our product and customer teams focused on Google Workspace. As you can imagine, this room is widely used, resulting in a constant flow of posts and responses every day. One of the most commonly discussed topics is around new features, which includes keeping track of their launch timing and status on our roadmap.

    At Google, we also produce the Google Workspace Updates blog, a public feed that lets everyone know when new Workspace features ship. It would be logical to assume every member of the G Workspace Community also subscribes to the Updates blog and is up to date on every feature release. But the truth is the G Workspace Community Chat room has become the main resource where Googlers get the latest information about Google Workspace. Instead of referring room members to check the blog first before posting in the Chat room asking about releases, we decided to bring the Google Workspace Updates feed into the Google Workspace Community room. Webhooks in Google Chat made it easy, and now everybody can easily stay up to date on all the updates from Google Workspace.

    Meet the Google Workspace Updates “bot”

    As posts about new Workspace features are released on the Updates blog, the Google Workspace Updates “bot” (aka the Google Wexbot as its known internally after its creator, Justin Wexler) adds a new thread to the Chat room that calls out the post’s title and the first 250 characters of it’s main content. This offers room members a quick glimpse of what just launched, as well as a place to quickly have a discussion around the blog content. Users can ask questions or add comments about the feature release, making it a much more enhanced and collaborative experience, and they can get the full story on the Updates blog by simply clicking READ MORE.

    Image of Google Workspace Updates bot

    Webhooks + Apps Script = Magic

    For community members receiving these timely updates, this “bot” may seem magical. In reality, it’s neither magic nor a traditional Chat bot, so the reference in the Chat UI calling it a “bot” is a bit of a misnomer. The Google Updates “bot” is in fact a simple Google Apps Script application that parses the RSS feed about new posts, and sends them asynchronously to the room via webhooks.

    Apps Script is well suited to help deliver on this use case, as it offers triggers (ie. cron jobs) that can run on time-based intervals to check the Updates blog for new posts, parse the feed XML from those posts, and return those results using the Chat Card format to the waiting webhook via a UrlFetchApp call.

    In our internal implementation of the Google Workspace Updates “bot”, an Apps Script trigger runs hourly to check for new posts to the Update blog. Beyond that, the project itself is a single Apps Script project file that doesn't require a significant amount of coding, is super easy to configure with Chat rooms, and has been essentially maintenance free. Justin’s effort to create the original version only took a couple of days -- and the value for the users is clearly worth it -- hence why they insisted on naming it after him ;)

    Add Google Workspace Updates “bot” (aka Wexbot) to your own Chat rooms

    If you are interested in adding your own Google Workspace Updates “bot”, or you’d like to see how you can leverage Apps Script to fulfill other use cases for sending asynchronous messages to Google Chat via webhooks, the project is available up on GitHub for you to explore and implement:

    Google Chat Updates Bot Project - GitHub

    README | Apps Script Code.js

    More Resources

    To start learn more about working with Google Workspace Chatbots and using webhooks, please explore the following resources:

    And remember to sign up for the Google Workspace Developer Newsletter!