Tag Archives: Google Workspace

12 Google Workspace updates for better collaboration

Since we launched Google Docs and Sheets 15 years ago, we’ve been pushing work documents away from being just digital pieces of paper and toward collaborative, linked content inspired by the web. Our mission is to build the future of work, and smart canvas is our next big step. 

Specifically, we're enhancing the apps that hundreds of millions of people use every day — like Docs, Sheets, and Slides — to transform collaboration and make Google Workspace even more flexible, interactive and intelligent. Between now and the end of the year, we’re rolling out new features that’ll make it easier for you to do your work and collaborate with your teammates, wherever you are. 

Here are 12 new features to help make collaboration even more seamless.


@-mention people, files and meetings

Already available, when you @-mention a person in a document, a smart chip shows you additional information like the person’s location, job title and contact information. And starting now, we’re introducing new smart chips in Docs for recommended files and meetings. To insert smart chips into your work, simply type "@" to see a list of recommended people, files and meetings. From web or mobile, your collaborators can then quickly skim associated meetings and people or preview linked documents, all without changing tabs or contexts. Smart chips will come to Sheets in the coming months.


A GIF demonstrating a file chip being inserted into a Doc, and then showing a preview of the linked file.

Use smart chips to recommend files and meetings in Docs.

Pageless Docs

With our new pageless format in Docs, you’ll be able to remove the boundaries of a page to create a surface that expands to whatever device or screen you’re using, making it easier to work with wide tables, large images or detailed feedback in comments. And if you want to print or convert to PDF, you’ll be able to easily switch back to a paginated view.


GIF of a browser window with pageless formatting for Docs, where the user is shrinking the browser and the doc is automatically adjusting to the width.

The new pageless formatting in Docs removes page boundaries and fits the document to your screen.

Emoji reactions in Docs

To gauge the team’s reactions as you work together, we're introducing emoji reactions in Docs in the next few months. ?


Inclusive language recommendations and other new assisted writing features

The assisted writing feature will also offer more inclusive language recommendations when it makes sense — like that you use the word “chairperson” instead of “chairman,” or “mail carrier” instead of “mailman,” for example. It will also make other stylistic suggestions, like to avoid passive voice or offensive language. All of this will help speed up your editing, and make your writing stronger.


Smarter meeting notes template in Docs

This new Docs template will automatically import any relevant information from a Calendar meeting invite, including smart chips for attendees and attached files.


Connected checklists in Docs

Starting this week in Docs, checklists are available on web and mobile. And you’ll soon be able to assign checklist items to other people and see these action items in Google Tasks, making it easier for everyone to manage a project’s To Do list. 


Table templates in Docs

Coming soon, we’ll also introduce table templates in Docs. Topic-voting tables will allow you to easily gather team feedback while project-tracker tables will help you capture milestones and statuses on the fly. 


Work in Meet directly from your Doc, Sheet or Slide

You can now present your content to a Google Meet call on the web directly from the Doc, Sheet, or Slide where you’re already working with your team. Jumping between collaborating in a document and a live conversation without skipping a beat helps the project — and the team — stay focused. And in the fall, we’re bringing Meet directly to Docs, Sheets, and Slides on the web, so people can actually see and hear each other while they’re collaborating.


A GIF of a browser window demonstrating the user launching a Meet directly from a Doc.

Launch a Meet directly from your Doc for easier collaboration.

Live captions and translations in Google Meet 

We currently offer live captions in five languages, with more on the way. And we’re introducing live translations of captions later this year, starting with English-language live captions translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, or German, with many more languages to follow.


Timeline view in Sheets

You’ll be able to toggle between new views in Sheets to better manage and interact with your data. Our first launch will be a timeline view that makes tracking tasks easier and faster. This flexible view allows you to organize your data by owner, category, campaign, or whichever attribute fits best. Using a dynamic, interactive timeline strengthens your ability to manage things like marketing campaigns, project milestones, schedules, and cross-team collaborations. 


A GIF showing Sheets transitioning to a timeline view of the data

Use the new timeline view in Sheets to better manage and interact with your data.

More assisted analysis functionality in Sheets

We’re also adding more assisted analysis functionality in our Sheets web experience, with formula suggestions that make it easier for everyone to derive insights from data. Sheets intelligence helps you build and troubleshoot formulas, making data analysis faster and reducing errors.


A GIF of Sheets demonstrating assisted analysis functionality with a column of data

Use the assisted analysis functionality to help you build and troubleshoot formulas.

Create and edit Sheets, Docs and Slides from Google Chat rooms

Teams can now jump from a discussion in Google Chat directly to building content together. Creating and editing Sheets and Docs from Google Chat rooms is already live in our web experience, and we’ll enable it for Slides in the coming weeks. 


A still image of a Sheet open side-by-side in Rooms

Edit Sheets directly from a Google Chat room. 

As smart canvas drives the next era of collaboration in Google Workspace, we remain committed to providing a solution that’s flexible, helpful and that fuels innovation for organizations in every industry. On the frontlines, in corporate offices and across the countless workspaces in between, Google Workspace will continue to transform how work gets done.


A video introducing smart canvas, a new product experience for Google Workspace
10:25

See how a team collaborates with smart canvas to bring their best work to life — together.

12 Google Workspace updates for better collaboration

Since we launched Google Docs and Sheets 15 years ago, we’ve been pushing work documents away from being just digital pieces of paper and toward collaborative, linked content inspired by the web. Our mission is to build the future of work, and smart canvas is our next big step. 

Specifically, we're enhancing the apps that hundreds of millions of people use every day — like Docs, Sheets, and Slides — to transform collaboration and make Google Workspace even more flexible, interactive and intelligent. Between now and the end of the year, we’re rolling out new features that’ll make it easier for you to do your work and collaborate with your teammates, wherever you are. 

Here are 12 new features to help make collaboration even more seamless.


@-mention people, files and meetings

Already available, when you @-mention a person in a document, a smart chip shows you additional information like the person’s location, job title and contact information. And starting now, we’re introducing new smart chips in Docs for recommended files and meetings. To insert smart chips into your work, simply type "@" to see a list of recommended people, files and meetings. From web or mobile, your collaborators can then quickly skim associated meetings and people or preview linked documents, all without changing tabs or contexts. Smart chips will come to Sheets in the coming months.


A GIF demonstrating a file chip being inserted into a Doc, and then showing a preview of the linked file.

Use smart chips to recommend files and meetings in Docs.

Pageless Docs

With our new pageless format in Docs, you’ll be able to remove the boundaries of a page to create a surface that expands to whatever device or screen you’re using, making it easier to work with wide tables, large images or detailed feedback in comments. And if you want to print or convert to PDF, you’ll be able to easily switch back to a paginated view.


GIF of a browser window with pageless formatting for Docs, where the user is shrinking the browser and the doc is automatically adjusting to the width.

The new pageless formatting in Docs removes page boundaries and fits the document to your screen.

Emoji reactions in Docs

To gauge the team’s reactions as you work together, we're introducing emoji reactions in Docs in the next few months. ?


Inclusive language recommendations and other new assisted writing features

The assisted writing feature will also offer more inclusive language recommendations when it makes sense — like that you use the word “chairperson” instead of “chairman,” or “mail carrier” instead of “mailman,” for example. It will also make other stylistic suggestions, like to avoid passive voice or offensive language. All of this will help speed up your editing, and make your writing stronger.


Smarter meeting notes template in Docs

This new Docs template will automatically import any relevant information from a Calendar meeting invite, including smart chips for attendees and attached files.


Connected checklists in Docs

Starting this week in Docs, checklists are available on web and mobile. And you’ll soon be able to assign checklist items to other people and see these action items in Google Tasks, making it easier for everyone to manage a project’s To Do list. 


Table templates in Docs

Coming soon, we’ll also introduce table templates in Docs. Topic-voting tables will allow you to easily gather team feedback while project-tracker tables will help you capture milestones and statuses on the fly. 


Work in Meet directly from your Doc, Sheet or Slide

You can now present your content to a Google Meet call on the web directly from the Doc, Sheet, or Slide where you’re already working with your team. Jumping between collaborating in a document and a live conversation without skipping a beat helps the project — and the team — stay focused. And in the fall, we’re bringing Meet directly to Docs, Sheets, and Slides on the web, so people can actually see and hear each other while they’re collaborating.


A GIF of a browser window demonstrating the user launching a Meet directly from a Doc.

Launch a Meet directly from your Doc for easier collaboration.

Live captions and translations in Google Meet 

We currently offer live captions in five languages, with more on the way. And we’re introducing live translations of captions later this year, starting with English-language live captions translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, or German, with many more languages to follow.


Timeline view in Sheets

You’ll be able to toggle between new views in Sheets to better manage and interact with your data. Our first launch will be a timeline view that makes tracking tasks easier and faster. This flexible view allows you to organize your data by owner, category, campaign, or whichever attribute fits best. Using a dynamic, interactive timeline strengthens your ability to manage things like marketing campaigns, project milestones, schedules, and cross-team collaborations. 


A GIF showing Sheets transitioning to a timeline view of the data

Use the new timeline view in Sheets to better manage and interact with your data.

More assisted analysis functionality in Sheets

We’re also adding more assisted analysis functionality in our Sheets web experience, with formula suggestions that make it easier for everyone to derive insights from data. Sheets intelligence helps you build and troubleshoot formulas, making data analysis faster and reducing errors.


A GIF of Sheets demonstrating assisted analysis functionality with a column of data

Use the assisted analysis functionality to help you build and troubleshoot formulas.

Create and edit Sheets, Docs and Slides from Google Chat rooms

Teams can now jump from a discussion in Google Chat directly to building content together. Creating and editing Sheets and Docs from Google Chat rooms is already live in our web experience, and we’ll enable it for Slides in the coming weeks. 


A still image of a Sheet open side-by-side in Rooms

Edit Sheets directly from a Google Chat room. 

As smart canvas drives the next era of collaboration in Google Workspace, we remain committed to providing a solution that’s flexible, helpful and that fuels innovation for organizations in every industry. On the frontlines, in corporate offices and across the countless workspaces in between, Google Workspace will continue to transform how work gets done.


A video introducing smart canvas, a new product experience for Google Workspace
10:25

See how a team collaborates with smart canvas to bring their best work to life — together.

New ways we’re making Meet calls easier (and more fun)

Almost exactly one year ago, in an effort to help everyone stay connected safely as the pandemic was taking hold, we announced that we were making Google Meet free for everyone. Since then, Meet has helped millions of people connect around the world. While it’s been hard for all of us to remain apart this past year, I’ve been proud to work on a product that’s let so many of us come together.

Helping everyone safely connect and collaborate is what drives us to continue improving Meet — from introducing features that make video calls more inclusive, such as automated live captions in five languages, to controls that create a safer and more dynamic learning environment for educators and students, to new mobile capabilities that promote a more inclusive meeting experience. Today, we’re announcing even more ways that Meet will continue providing you with secure, reliable and engaging meetings, starting with a refreshed look on the web and helpful features built with the latest in artificial intelligence.

A new design that makes it easier to present and engage with others

A presentation being unpinned to view all participants in a 12-person video meeting.

Unpin to make the presentation tile smaller and view all participants.

Starting next month, when viewing and sharing content with any group of people, you’ll have more space to see the content and others’ video feeds through our refreshed new look and improved ability to pin and unpin content. In the coming months, you will be able to pin multiple tiles to customize what you focus on. For example, you can highlight a presentation and the speaker, or multiple speakers at the same time. Participants’ names will always be visible, so you can quickly see who’s who, and better engage with everyone on the call. 

Two speakers pinned during a 16-tile video meeting.

Highlight different speakers and tiles for a better experience.

People have told us they concentrate better and often feel less tired when they don’t see themselves while talking. So we’re making it possible to resize, reposition or hide your own video feed. When doing so, you can use the freed-up space to see even more people on the call.

A participant minimizing their video feed in a 13-person group call.

Minimize your own video feed from view.

High-quality and reliable meetings on any device

We’re continuously investing in new ways to improve your audio and video experience in Meet. To support video calls when you’re on the go, we’re launching Data Saver this month. This feature limits data usage on mobile networks to allow you and the person you’re calling to save on data costs, which is especially important in countries where data costs can be high, like India, Indonesia and Brazil. 


Last year, we introduced low-light mode for Meet on mobile, using artificial intelligence to automatically adjust your video to make you more visible if you’re in a dark environment. Having too much light behind you — such as a window on a sunny day — can also be challenging for many cameras. Now, Google Meet on the web automatically detects when a user appears underexposed and enhances the brightness to improve their visibility. Light adjustment will be rolling out to Meet users everywhere in the coming weeks.
A person in the Green room of Google Meet where their video is brightened by the new Light adjustment feature.

Automatically enhance brightness and improve visibility. 

In addition, we’re introducing another feature powered by AI called Autozoom, which helps others see you more clearly by zooming in and positioning you squarely in front of your camera. Autozoom will be available to Google Workspace (paid) subscribers in the coming months. 

Fun new backgrounds on mobile and web 

Last month, we started rolling out background replace, Q&A and Polls for Meet to Android and iOS devices. In the coming weeks, we’re adding the ability to replace your background with a video. Video background replacement can help you maintain privacy for what’s behind you while also making your video calls more fun. There will initially be three options to choose from: a classroom, a party and a forest, with more on the way soon.

A person video calling using Google Meet with an animated background featuring cartoon characters dancing under a disco ball.

Use a video background to make calls more fun.

When we introduced a free version of Google Meet to the world a year ago, none of us knew just how much we’d come to rely on virtual meetings and gatherings to keep us connected to friends, family, colleagues and classmates. We’re grateful for all the stories and feedback our users and customers have shared along the way, helping us make Google Meet more engaging for everyone. Looking ahead, we’re excited to continue improving the Meet experience to further help in all the ways people connect, collaborate and celebrate.

More options for nonprofits with Google Workspace

Over 150,000 nonprofits use Google productivity tools every day to get more done for their communities. PlanetRead is an organization based in India that’s bringing literacy to millions by making reading a part of entertainment through Same Language Subtitling. They rely on Google Workspace — especially Gmail, Calendar, and Docs — to maximize their impact. Other mission-focused organizations use Google Workspace to better serve their communities, like Norway-based nonprofit ISFO Innherred Seniorforum. With the help of Google tools, they developed the SeniorSmart app to help seniors fight loneliness. To meet needs of organizations like these, we’re providing nonprofits with greater choice and flexibility.


Say hello to Google Workspace for Nonprofits 

G Suite for Nonprofits is now Google Workspace for Nonprofits. Like its predecessor, Google Workspace for Nonprofits helps teams collaborate more effectively. As was the case with G Suite, Google Workspace for Nonprofits is available at no cost and includes the productivity apps you know and love — Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet and many more. 


Get continued access to Google Classroom at no additional cost

With Google Workspace for Nonprofits, organizations focused on education will still have access to Google Classroom to create and manage classes, assignments and grades online. Virginia-based MySecureKid is an organization that equips disadvantaged children for life and job readiness. They rely on Classroom — and will continue to do so —  for their online courses that covering topics ranging from entrepreneurship and financial literacy to internet safety and self-esteem. 

Image of three women in front of a sign that says, "Connecting to the future".

MySecureKid provides positive role models and hosts training, workshops and activities to help people feel confident in themselves to achieve their dreams. 

Find a plan that meets your needs 

For nonprofits that need access to more advanced tools to drive their mission forward, we have new discounts with you in mind. These discounts are designed specifically for nonprofit organizations that want to access the Business Standard, Business Plus and Enterprise editions of Google Workspace. Compare features and discounts of each edition here, so you can pick what works for your organization. 

With over 375,000 organizations across more than 60 countries in the program, Google for Nonprofits is on a mission to equip nonprofits with the best of Google tools. For organizations looking to get started with Google Workspace, check out our video tutorial and help center. You can also learn more about new Google Workspace features on the Cloud Blog.

Evolving Google Workspace Add-ons with Alternate Runtimes

Posted by Charles Maxson, Developer Advocate

Google Workspace Add-ons offer developers a simplified, structured, and safe way of integrating your solutions right within the Google Workspace user experience, allowing you to bring the logic and data of your application right within the reach of billions of Google Workspace users. So whether your goal is to help users avoid switching context from their inbox to your application, or to easily bring in data from your solution to Google Sheets, developing your own Google Workspace Add-ons makes a lot of sense to keep users productive, engaged and focused.

While the concept of Add-ons for Google Workspace isn’t new per se, building add-ons for Google Workspace has come a long way since they were first introduced some years back. Originally designed to allow solution developers to extend our collaboration apps: Google Docs, Sheets, Forms and Slides, it’s now possible to create a single add-on project for Google Workspace that spans the entire suite, including Gmail, Drive and Calendar.

The original design created for our collaboration apps also required you to use HTML, CSS and Google Apps Script to ‘hand roll’ elements like the user interface and events, requiring a bit more do-it-yourself effort (aka code) for developers, resulting in more inconsistency across the add-on market. That has evolved as Google Workspace Add-ons adopted Card-based interfaces more recently, allowing developers to simplify and standardize add-on building by leveraging just their knowledge of Google Apps Script.

Introducing Alternate Runtimes for Google Workspace Add-ons

Today we are pleased to announce that building Google Workspace Add-ons has evolved once again, this time to offer developers an alternative to using Apps Script for building add-ons with the general availability of Alternate Runtimes for Google Workspace Add-ons. Announced via an early access program mid last year, the release of Alternate Runtimes is a major breakthrough for Google Workspace developers who want to use their own development stack: hosting, tools, languages, packages, processes, etc.

While Alternate Runtimes enables the same functionality that Apps Script does for building add-ons, the flexibility and the freedom to choose your dev environment plus the opportunity to decouple from Apps Script will likely yield greater developer productivity and performance gains for future projects. This commonly requested feature by Google Workspace solution developers has finally become a reality.

Technically, there’s a little more effort in using the Alternate Runtimes method, as Apps Script does mask much of the complexity from the developer, but it's essentially swapping in JSON for Apps Script in rendering the Cards service-based interfaces needed to drive Google Workspace Add-ons. Learn more about getting started with Alternate Runtimes here or try the five minute Quickstart for Alternate Runtimes to see it in action.

Also note, whether you are just getting started or you are an experienced add-on builder, we have recently released the GWAO Card Builder tool that allows you to visually design the user interfaces for your Google Workspace Add-ons projects. It is a must-have for add-on developers using either Apps Script or Alternate Runtimes, enabling you to prototype and design Card UIs super fast without hassle and errors of hand coding JSON or Apps Script on your own.

Google Workspace Card Builder Design Tool

Further Introducing the Google Workspace Add-ons Cloud API

Included with this launch of Alternate Runtimes for general availability is also the debut of the Google Workspace Add-ons Cloud API, which allows you to completely forgo using Apps Script for managing Google Workspace Add-on deployments using Alternate Runtimes. Unlike using Alternate Runtimes during the beta program where you still needed to create an Apps Script project to stub out your project endpoints via the manifest file, the Google Workspace Add-ons Cloud API allows you to create and manage your add-on deployment lifecycle with a series of command line instructions.

With the Google Workspace Add-ons Cloud API you can create a deployment, install or delete a deployment, get a list of deployments, manage permissions and more. These are straightforward to use from a CLI like gcloud, which will help simplify developing and deploying Google Workspace Add-ons built via Alternate Runtimes. For documentation on how to use the new Add-ons Cloud API, refer back to the Quickstart: Create an add-on in a different coding language example.

Showcase: Alternate Runtimes in Action

While Alternate Runtimes for Google Workspace Add-ons is officially generally available as of today, a number of Google Cloud partner teams have already been working with the technology via our early adopter program. One of those Google Cloud partners, Zzapps based out of the Netherlands, has already been creating solutions using Alternate Runtimes in their work building Add-ons for customers.

We asked Riël Notermans, owner of Zzapps (and Google Developer Expert), whose teams have been developing on Google Workspace for over a decade, to share his team’s key takeaways on Alternate Runtimes. He offered not only his insights, but added a few screenshots of one of their recent projects to illustrate as well. In Riël’s own words: “Now that we can use Alternate Runtimes for Add-ons, it changes how we approach projects from start to finish. Prototyping with GSAO makes it possible for us to quickly draft an add-on’s functionality, creating trust and clearness about what we will deliver. Alternate Runtimes makes it possible to tap into our existing applications with almost no effort. We only need to create a JSON response to push a card to interact with add-ons. Our developers are able to work in their own environment, keeping our own tools and development flow. Here’s an example below using a Node.js Express server project that we used to set email signatures, adding a few routes for the card but using our existing logic. The add-on is used to control the functionality.”

Routing Add-on requests to existing logic

“Being able to update your deployment for local development for live testing, without having to create new versions constantly, drastically improves the development experience.”

Introduces advantage of instant testing of add-ons

“Because the Add-on runtimes has built-in authorization and tokens, it is really easy to safely interact with the users data without building complex backend authentication.”


Maximizing use of existing UI with Add-ons

“In the end, we still offer our users solutions for a great experience with a Google Workspace Add-on, while our developers get to use the tools and processes that make them more productive, capable and accomplished”

Creating Add-ons with Alternate Runtimes allows flexible, fast UI design

For More Information

If you want to learn more about using Alternate Runtimes for building Google Workspace Add-ons, here are some essential links for Google Workspace Add-on resources to get you started:

Google People API now supports batch mutates and searches of Contacts

Posted by Ting Huang, Software Engineer

Some time ago, we announced that the Google Contacts API was being deprecated in favor of the People API, and it is scheduled for sunset on June 15, 2021. To aid in the process of migrating from Contacts API, we are pleased to announce that we have added two sets of new endpoints for working with contacts via the People API.

First, we now have new write endpoints that allow developers to create, delete, and update multiple contacts at once. In addition, we also have new read endpoints that allow developers to search a user’s contacts using a prefix query. Both will greatly improve working with the People API, so let’s take a quick look at how you can leverage these new endpoints today.

Getting Started with the People API

Applications need to be authorized to access the API, so to get started you will need to create a project on the Google Developers Console with the People API enabled to get access to the service. If you are new to the Google APIs, you can follow the steps here to begin accessing People API.

Google profile image

Working with Batch Mutate Endpoints

Once you’re authorized, you can simply create new contacts like this (using the Google APIs Client Library for Java): 

Person person = new Person();
person.setNames(ImmutableList.of(new
  Name().setGivenName("John").setFamilyName("Doe")));
ContactToCreate contactToCreate = new ContactToCreate();
contactToCreate.setContactPerson(person);

BatchCreateContactsRequest request = new BatchCreateContactsRequest();
request.setContacts(ImmutableList.of(contactToCreate)).setReadMask("names");

BatchCreateContactsResponse response =   
  peopleService.people().batchCreateContacts(request).execute();

The scope your app needs to authorize with is https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts. Full documentation on the people.batchCreateContacts method is available here.

Similarly, you can update existing contacts like this: 

String resourceName = "people/c12345"; // existing contact resource name
Person contactToUpdate =
        peopleService
            .people()
            .get(resourceName)
            .setPersonFields("names,emailAddresses")
            .execute();
contactToUpdate.setNames(
        ImmutableList.of(new Name().setGivenName("John").setFamilyName("Doe")));

BatchUpdateContactsRequest request = new BatchUpdateContactsRequest();
ImmutableMap<String, Person> map = 
  ImmutableMap.of(contactToUpdate.getResourceName(), contactToUpdate);
request.setContacts(map).setUpdateMask("names")
  .setReadMask("names,emailAddresses");

BatchUpdateContactsResponse response = 
  peopleService.people().batchUpdateContacts(request).execute();

Full documentation on the people.batchUpdateContacts method is available here.

Working with Search Endpoints

You can search through the authenticated user’s contacts like this: 

SearchResponse response = peopleService.people().searchContacts()
    .setQuery("query")
    .setReadMask("names,emailAddresses")
    .execute();

The scope your app needs to authorize with is https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts or https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts.readonly. Full documentation on the people.searchContacts method is available here.

You can also search through the authenticated user’s “other contacts” like this: 

SearchResponse response = peopleService.otherContacts().search()
    .setQuery("query")
    .setReadMask("names,emailAddresses")
    .execute();

The scope your app needs to authorize with is https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts.other.readonly. Full documentation on the otherContacts.search method is available here.

Next Steps

We hope that these newly added features inspire you to create the next generation of cool web and mobile apps that delight your users and those in their circles of influence. To learn more about the People API, check out the official documentation here.

Google People API now supports batch mutates and searches of Contacts

Posted by Ting Huang, Software Engineer

Some time ago, we announced that the Google Contacts API was being deprecated in favor of the People API, and it is scheduled for sunset on June 15, 2021. To aid in the process of migrating from Contacts API, we are pleased to announce that we have added two sets of new endpoints for working with contacts via the People API.

First, we now have new write endpoints that allow developers to create, delete, and update multiple contacts at once. In addition, we also have new read endpoints that allow developers to search a user’s contacts using a prefix query. Both will greatly improve working with the People API, so let’s take a quick look at how you can leverage these new endpoints today.

Getting Started with the People API

Applications need to be authorized to access the API, so to get started you will need to create a project on the Google Developers Console with the People API enabled to get access to the service. If you are new to the Google APIs, you can follow the steps here to begin accessing People API.

Google profile image

Working with Batch Mutate Endpoints

Once you’re authorized, you can simply create new contacts like this (using the Google APIs Client Library for Java): 

Person person = new Person();
person.setNames(ImmutableList.of(new
  Name().setGivenName("John").setFamilyName("Doe")));
ContactToCreate contactToCreate = new ContactToCreate();
contactToCreate.setContactPerson(person);

BatchCreateContactsRequest request = new BatchCreateContactsRequest();
request.setContacts(ImmutableList.of(contactToCreate)).setReadMask("names");

BatchCreateContactsResponse response =   
  peopleService.people().batchCreateContacts(request).execute();

The scope your app needs to authorize with is https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts. Full documentation on the people.batchCreateContacts method is available here.

Similarly, you can update existing contacts like this: 

String resourceName = "people/c12345"; // existing contact resource name
Person contactToUpdate =
        peopleService
            .people()
            .get(resourceName)
            .setPersonFields("names,emailAddresses")
            .execute();
contactToUpdate.setNames(
        ImmutableList.of(new Name().setGivenName("John").setFamilyName("Doe")));

BatchUpdateContactsRequest request = new BatchUpdateContactsRequest();
ImmutableMap<String, Person> map = 
  ImmutableMap.of(contactToUpdate.getResourceName(), contactToUpdate);
request.setContacts(map).setUpdateMask("names")
  .setReadMask("names,emailAddresses");

BatchUpdateContactsResponse response = 
  peopleService.people().batchUpdateContacts(request).execute();

Full documentation on the people.batchUpdateContacts method is available here.

Working with Search Endpoints

You can search through the authenticated user’s contacts like this: 

SearchResponse response = peopleService.people().searchContacts()
    .setQuery("query")
    .setReadMask("names,emailAddresses")
    .execute();

The scope your app needs to authorize with is https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts or https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts.readonly. Full documentation on the people.searchContacts method is available here.

You can also search through the authenticated user’s “other contacts” like this: 

SearchResponse response = peopleService.otherContacts().search()
    .setQuery("query")
    .setReadMask("names,emailAddresses")
    .execute();

The scope your app needs to authorize with is https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts.other.readonly. Full documentation on the otherContacts.search method is available here.

Next Steps

We hope that these newly added features inspire you to create the next generation of cool web and mobile apps that delight your users and those in their circles of influence. To learn more about the People API, check out the official documentation here.

A guide to Google Meet for parents and guardians

When the COVID-19 pandemic required students worldwide to transition to distance learning, many parents and guardians suddenly found themselves in the role of part-time teachers — and even IT technicians — on top of their existing responsibilities at work and home. If this describes your family’s situation these days, you’re definitely not alone. Many students and schools use Google Workspace for Education for teaching and learning – which includes tools for organizing classwork, like Google Classroom, and for video conferencing, like Google Meet. If you’re new to using Google Meet, we created the below guide to help make things easier while you juggle your many roles at home. 

What is Google Meet?

Google Meet is Google’s secure and easy-to-use video conferencing solution that is available to schools for free through Google Workspace for Education. Educators use Meet to connect with your child one-on-one, to facilitate remote instruction and to hold virtual meetings and conferences with parents and guardians.


Meet works with all modern web browsers (like Chrome, Safari, etc.), meaning you don’t have to install or download software to your desktop computer in order to use it. For those looking to join from a mobile device like a tablet or smartphone, Meet has a dedicated mobile app that optimizes the video conferencing experience for mobile conditions. If you are using Meet on a Chromebook, we recently made significant performance improvements like audio and video optimizations and the ability to handle multitasking better.

How do I join a Google Meet?

There are a variety of ways to join a call or meeting, including joining from Google Classroom, or via a meeting link or invitation that your teacher has shared via email or Calendar.

How does Meet protect my child’s safety and privacy? 

Google is committed to building products that help protect student and teacher privacy and security. 

We designed Meet with industry-leading built-in protections that help keep calls safe by default. Here are a few examples: 

  • Encryption by default:In Meet, all data is encrypted in transit by default between your device and Google.

  • Unique meeting IDs:Each Meeting ID is 10 characters long, with 25 characters in the set, so it’s difficult to make an unauthorized attempt to join the meeting by guessing the ID. 

  • Protection against reusing finished meetings:Students can’t rejoin meetings once the final participant has left, unless they have meeting creation privileges to start a new meeting. This means if the instructor is the last person to leave a meeting, students can’t join again until an instructor restarts the meeting.

  • No plug-ins required:To limit the attack surface and eliminate the need to push out frequent security patches, Meet works entirely in your web browser, eliminating the need to download and update plug-ins.

Meet also gives educators powerful controls to help keep virtual classes safe and secure. 

  • Safety locks: Educators can decide which methods of joining (via calendar invite or phone, for example) require users to obtain explicit approval to join. 

  • Block anonymous users by default:Engaging safety locks will block all attempts to join a meeting from anonymous users (users not logged in through a Google Account), and enforce the requirement that the host joins first.

  • Host moderation controls:Educators can control the level of participant interactivity in the meeting. The chat lock and present lock will let hosts control which attendees can chat and present content within the meeting. Educators can also access these controls on mobile devices. 

  • End a meeting for all participants:Prevents students from staying on after the teacher has left — including in breakout rooms.

How does Meet help keep my child engaged during class?

Over the past year, we’ve launched a number of features to help engage students by bringing some of in-classroom magic to the virtual classroom: 

  • Hand raise, to help students indicate if they have a question or want to speak without disrupting the class.

  • Breakout rooms, used by educators to host small group discussions or working time. Teachers can easily jump between the different breakout rooms before bringing everyone back to the main discussion. 

  • Q&A, allowing students to submit and upvote questions from the teacher for better group engagement.

  • Polls, used by educators to quickly gather feedback from their students, oftentimes using it to identify topics that need more discussion or to test comprehension of a certain topic. 

  • Captions, allowing participants to follow along with live closed captions in Meet. Captions are now available in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.

  • Tile view in mobile, allowing you to see up to 48 people on a screen when using a mobile device or a tablet. 

  • Customizable backgrounds, to let students and teachers express themselves creatively while in class, and background blur to help reduce background distractions and keep the focus on the participant.

  • Advanced safety locks, to block anonymous users from joining and let teachers control who can chat and present in a meeting. We will launch more controls in the upcoming weeks, like muting all, and ending meetings for everyone.

An animation showing how Breakout Rooms work in Meet.

What’s new in Google Meet?

There are a number of new features we’ve launched in the last couple of months to enhance the learning experience:

  • More controls for educators:Educators can now mute everyone on the call at once so they can keep class on track. And coming soon, we’ll be launching new settings for school leaders to set policies for who can join their school’s video calls, and whether people from their school can join video calls from other schools.  

  • Coming soon, we’ll have Emoji reactions, allowing students to more easily engage and express themselves in Meet.

  • Later this year, Meet will support multiple hosts, making it easier for educators to partner with others helping facilitate the class.

  • Later this year,  meeting transcripts can help students who weren’t able to attend class stay up to date.

An animation showing different colored Meet chat bubbles populating in a transcript.

What additional Meet resources are available to me?

If you have questions or need help, check out our Tech Toolkit video, read our Guardian’s Guide to Google Meet or visit our Help Center page for troubleshooting information. For more tips and resources to help families navigate technology visit families.google. We hope we can continue helping improve the digital education experience and bring parents and guardians along, to support all families through these times.

More options for learning with Google Workspace for Education

During the 15 years we’ve been building tools for educators, we’ve seen the needs of instructors, education leaders and students evolve. We’ve learned that a one-size-fits all approach isn't what educators need from tools like G Suite for Education. Whether you're in a rural elementary school, urban university or homeschool setting, our technology and tools should adapt so you can focus on what matters most: teaching and learning. That's why we're making a few changes to provide you greater choice and flexibility in selecting the best tools to empower your institution.

Introducing Google Workspace for Education

Today we’re introducing the next era of G Suite for Education: Google Workspace for Education. Google Workspace for Education includes all the products you already use, like Classroom, Meet, Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and many more. More than 170 million students and educators worldwide rely on our suite of tools. Everything you need to teach, learn, connect and share will remain all in one place, accessible from anywhere on any device. To meet the diverse needs of institutions around the globe, from Pre-K to PhD,  it will now be available in four distinct editions instead of just two.

Our free edition G Suite for Education will be renamed to Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals. If you’re currently using this edition, you won't see any changes besides a new name and new features. We'll keep building new solutions for this free version by listening closely to educators and their needs.

Institutions that need more powerful security tools or that want to expand the teaching and learning tools available to their instructors can extend the capabilities of Education Fundamentals to meet their specific needs with one of our paid editions: 

  • Google Workspace for Education Standard builds on Education Fundamentals to provide institutions with enhanced security through Security Center, greater visibility with tools such as advanced audit logs and more controls like advanced mobile management to make online learning even more secure.

  • The Teaching and Learning Upgrade builds on Education Fundamentals or Education Standard to enhance educators’ instructional impact by providing advanced video communication capabilities in Google Meet, features to enrich class experiences in Classroom and tools that guide critical thinking and academic integrity with originality reports.

  • Google Workspace for Education Plus (formerly G Suite Enterprise for Education) builds on Education Fundamentals, Education Standard and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade. This is the ultimate edition for a comprehensive solution with advanced security and analytics, teaching and learning capabilities and more.

Education Fundamentals and Education Plus are already available today and institutions will be able to purchase Education Standard and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade starting  April 14, 2021. Institutions that already purchased G Suite for Enterprise for Education will start to see the new edition name, Education Plus, in their admin console and will automatically get all the features of Education Plus.

For a complete comparison of our Google Workspace for Education editions, visit our website. We’re always expanding the capabilities of all our offerings. In the last year alone, we’ve added dozens of free features such as hand-raising in Google Meet, rubrics in Classroom and grammar suggestions in Docs. And we’ve continued to heavily invest in our premium offerings by launching over 25 new features in 2020 to expand our advanced security controls and enhanced collaboration tools.

Introducing a new storage policy

Google has traditionally offered unlimited storage to qualifying schools and universities for free. However, as we’ve grown to serve more schools and universities each year, storage consumption has also rapidly accelerated. Storage is not being consumed equitably across —  nor within — institutions, and school leaders often don't have the tools they need to manage this. To support schools into the future and ensure fair distribution of this valuable resource, we will be implementing a new pooled storage model and helping admins and school leaders manage their storage. Nothing is changing today and we expect that more than 99% of institutions will be within the pooled storage provided by the new policy.


We remain committed to providing all institutions around the world with a best-in-class experience, including ample free storage to support quality educational experiences. The new storage model will provide schools and universities with a baseline of 100TB of pooled cloud storage shared across all of your users — more than enough storage for over 100 million docs, 8 million presentations or 400,000 hours of video. This policy will go into effect across all Google Workspace for Education editions for existing customers in July 2022 and will be effective for new customers signing up in 2022. To empower admins to adapt to this model and optimize their storage, we will provide tools to identify and manage how storage is used and allocated far in advance of the policy going into effect.

We will contact impacted institutions directly in the coming weeks to discuss a range of options for getting the storage they need. Large institutions will be provided supplemental storage later this year and all schools can gain additional storage through Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade. For details on how to prepare for this upcoming change or to learn more about how you’ll be able to increase the storage pool for your institution, please visit our Help Center. 

What’s next for Google Workspace for Education

We’re investing even further in Google Workspace for Education with dozens of new features on the way to support the needs of institutions. For example, saved drafts in Google Forms are coming to Education Fundamentals and Google Meet meeting transcripts are coming to the Teaching and Learning Upgrade. Education Plus will get both these features, as well as Classroom roster syncing. Stay tuned for more news throughout 2021.

Choice, flexibility and simplicity will continue to be guiding pillars for Google Workspace for Education, now and in the future. Whichever edition is right for you, we hope our tools keep empowering your school community to better collaborate and manage classes efficiently and securely.

Google Meet and Duo help you share moments that matter

Without a doubt, 2020 was the year of video calling. And for us, that meant making sure every student, team, and family could jump on a call from any device and have a reliable, safe experience. Google Duo and Google Meet hosted over one trillion minutes of video calls globally. For perspective, that’s equal to more than 18 billion hour-long virtual workouts in a single year! 

Here’s a recap of what we’ve done so far.

Productive and engaging meetings at home, work, and school 

A Google Meet meeting with a slide presentation about broccoli and baby carrots.

In 2020, Meet was put to the test. Our team had to really think through how virtual meetings could bring the key part of what in-person meetings provide: human connection. We launched new features like 49-tile layout, noise cancellation, background blur, and low-light mode plus live captions in five languages to help everyone follow along on the call. 

Earlier this year, we made Meet free for everyone. We also announced that with your Gmail account, Meet calls are unlimited through March 31, 2021 so that families can enjoy their holiday traditions without interruptions. Speaking of Gmail, we added a Meet tab in Gmail, so that with one tap, people can jump from an email to a video call. We also brought Meet to Nest Hub Max and Chromecast to help people get up, move around, and have hands-free calls at home. 

In large group settings like team all-hands or a classroom, it gets harder for people to speak up and to engage everyone on the call. With Meet, participants can use Q&A and hand raising tools, polls and breakout rooms. Organizations and moderators have more control too, keeping their meetings and participants safe, including advanced anti-abuse features, that allow for an enjoyable, safe experience for all. And in 2021, as many companies evaluate a flexible working model, we’ve designed Meet to work with our Series One hardware kits, created to deliver inclusive audio and video clarity that makes you feel like you're all together. So whether you're a Google Workspace subscriber relying on Meet's enterprise-grade functionality, or using Meet’s free version to safely connect with others near and far, Meet has you covered.

Fun experiences in your video calls

A Google Duo video call using holiday reindeer effects.

Being helpful means being there for the moments big and small. Though the pandemic kept me physically apart from many family members, I felt like they were with me and my family through virtual dinners, holidays like Thanksgiving, and even school band practices with Google Duo. At the end of the day, Google Duo makes it simple to go from texting each other to getting right on a video call.  In a year of virtual get-togethers, Google Duo was there to help make video calls more fun: doodle on video calls, magically transform into an astronaut or a cat, and spread laughs and cheer this holiday season with our wide portfolio of AR effects that change based on your facial expressions and move with you around the screen. And with Moments, you can capture the fun (and the embarrassing moments!) to relive the memory afterwards. 

With so many families having to work on the frontlines, our team was focused on ensuring calls could be connected with the highest quality even in low bandwidth connections. Google Duo is available on Android, iOS, tablets, computers, Android TV, smart speakers and smart displays.

Google Meet and Google Duo were built with an emphasis on privacy and security, to keep your calls and meetings safe and your information private. 

We hope that our work so far continues to help people stay in touch during this holiday season, and we’re looking forward to connecting more families, friends, students, teachers and teams in 2021 and beyond.