Classic Hangouts was originally set to be deprecated in October 2019 for G Suite users. In August, Google delayed the transition for enterprise to June 2020 as the slow migration process continues. For admins today, Google is combining classic Hangouts and Chat policy management.
Getting an overview of your daily routine from a Google Home smart speaker is super convenient, but for those of us using G Suite calendars, it simply hasn’t been an option. Now, it appears Google is making it possible for Google Home to read events from shared G Suite calendars.
Business and enterprise users often work with outside partners that occasionally do not use Google Accounts. In the past, this prohibited them from working on shared Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Google is now allowing non-G Suite users to collaborate as visitors with Drive Pincode Sharing.
Amid this weekend’s flurry of developments related to Google’s messaging future around ‘classic’ Hangouts, as well as Hangouts Chat and Meet, Google Voice was left out. The latter launched for G Suite enterprise in beta this July, and should be entering “General Availability” this coming March.
Google’s Hangouts Meet platform is slowly growing into an excellent platform for businesses to host video conferences. Today, the company has announced that Hangouts Meet can now support up to 100 participants at once, doubling the previous limit.
Security and passwords are paramount in this day and age, especially in corporate environments. New G Suite password options allow admins to enforce policies like stronger logins that have to be changed every so often and cannot be reused.
This week, Twitter has been hit with a massive influx of Bitcoin scamming. Bad actors are attempting to make their scams more appealing through the social platform via impersonation and outright hacking of celebrity and company accounts. Now, it seems, the G Suite Twitter account has been hacked, making Google the latest to have an account fall victim to the ridiculous scheme.
Google is constantly looking for ways to improve the developer experience and keep programmers happily plugging away on their platform. The latest comes in the form of the G Suite Developer Hub, a rebrand of the Apps Script dashboard with new features to help start new projects and better manage existing ones.
Google has been previewing a new design for Google Contacts on the web since 2015, but always retained the previous online version until feature parity. With that milestone now achieved, Google will deprecate the old Google Contacts in February of 2019.
Announced at I/O 2018, Smart Compose in Gmail takes Smart Reply a step further and leverages Google’s AI to write entire messages for users. It’s already rolled out to regular accounts and is now coming to G Suite and enterprise users.
At Cloud Next 2018, Google emphasized machine learning to help improve work productivity. In Google Drive, “Priority” works to suggest relevant documents, while “Workspaces” help arrange files that you might need quick access to. Google is now opening this new page up for beta testing.
Add-ons in are essentially mini applications that brings useful third-party functionality into Gmail, Google Docs, and other G Suite services. The first add-ons for Google Calendar are conferencing tools from Cisco, Citrix, and other enterprise services.
Announced last year, Hangouts Meet is Google’s video conferencing solution for enterprises and larger organizations. Today, the service is adding support for live streams like company-wide meetings and other events where users need to tune in, but not necessarily participate.
Earlier this year, Google launched a $300 million company-wide effort to support journalism by adding features throughout various products. Today, the Tech News Initiative is offering 200,000 free G Suite licenses for local to medium-sized news organizations.
Security is more important than ever in this day and age with G Suite pushing Security Key adoption and adding a new security center in recent months. Enterprise admins can now beta test a new alert center, while Google is also improving the registration process for work Android devices.
Besides the Google Material Theme, Gmail added a number of productivity features with its revamped web version in April. Today, the “quick-access side panel” that provides convenient access to Keep, Tasks, and more is making its way to other G Suite web apps like Docs and Calendar.
Earlier this week, a revamped Google Voice featuring a new icon, G Suite integration, and Contacts tab rolled out to iOS. The majority of these changes are now coming to Android with a server-side update.
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At Cloud Next 2018, Google announced that Google Voice was now a part of G Suite and showed off a redesigned app. That mobile revamp is now beginning to roll out on iOS with new features for enterprise users, and it’s likely coming soon to Android.
With the new school year almost underway, Google is launching a number of education features across its products. Many were announced earlier this year and are coming out of beta, including a big revamp to Google Classroom, formating updates for Google Docs, and a suite of new AR/VR features.
This week has seen a flurry of developments about Google planning to return to the Chinese market with an AI-powered news app, followed by a self-censoring Search service. The company’s ambitions also reportedly extend to bringing G Suite to China via partnerships with local cloud companies.
Since 2012, Google has warned users being targeted by what the company suspects are government-based attackers. Coinciding with today’s climate, Google is now adding a feature to alert G Suite administrators when there has been such an attempt on an account they manage.
One of the few hardware announcements at the software-heavy Cloud Next is the Titan Security Key. This method of two-factor authentication is particularly resistant to phishing, with Google deciding to offer its own solution for high-value users. Fortunately, anybody is able to purchase one and use with a free Google Account.
Google yesterday unveiled Grammar Suggestions for Docs and Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat. At the second day of Cloud Next 2018, G Suite is adding Google Voice support, third-party integrations in Cloud Search, and a new Drive Enterprise app.
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On the consumer front, G Suite is comprised of Gmail, Docs, Hangouts Chat, and more, while administrators have access to a set of security features. The Security Center is gaining a new investigation tool to find threats. Meanwhile, Google highlights that with Security Keys there have bene “zero reported or detected hijackings” of G Suite accounts.
