Last year, we started the gradual rollout of the new Google Drive UI as the default user experience for Rapid release Google Apps customers, while retaining the ability to return to the old Drive UI via the Settings drop down. After pausing the rollout to work on some performance improvements, the rollout was resumed and completed earlier this month.
For Scheduled release customers, the rollout of the new Google Drive UI as the default user experience will occur in early-April (currently planned for April 7, as per the release calendar).
In the first half of May at the earliest, we’ll remove the option to return to the old Drive UI via the Settings drop down. At least two weeks before the removal of the option to return to the old Drive UI, we will show a notification in the Drive UI about the upcoming change.
Please note that the new Drive UI does not work with older unsupported browsers prior to and including Chrome 23, Firefox 23, IE9 and Safari 6, so it’s important to upgrade to a supported browser to ensure continued access to Drive.
Release track:Opt-out experience coming to Scheduled release in early-April (planned for April 7); Removal of the ability to return to the old Drive UI planned for no sooner than early-May for Rapid release domains, with Scheduled domains to follow two weeks later.
See the release calendar for specific dates for the removal of the option to return to the old Drive UI, as they may shift out further. Additional comms to follow.
For more information:
Help Center
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When it comes to sharing Google Drive content outside of your domain, whether giving marketing materials to your design agency or inventory lists to your caterer, you want to make sure they can see it―whether they use Drive or not.
With today’s launch, Google Apps admins now have the option in the Admin console to allow Drive content to be viewed by recipients outside of their domain, without them having to sign-in with a Google account.
This feature will be defaulted off at launch. It can be enabled in the Admin console at: Apps > Google Apps > Drive > Sharing settings.
Check out the Help Center for more details on enabling this feature.
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release
For more information:Help Center
Google for Work blog post
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Different departments have different needs when it comes to sharing content outside of your domain. You might, for example, have a research department that needs to keep information confidential and a sales team that needs to share presentations with their clients.
With today’s launch, Google Apps admins now have the flexibility to choose Drive sharing permissions based on organizational unit (OU), as you currently can with other apps like Gmail and Calendar.
To enable Drive sharing at the OU-level in the Admin console, click on: Apps > Google Apps > Drive > Sharing settings.
Note: this feature is available for Google Drive for Work and Google Apps for Education customers only
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release
For more information:Help Center
Google for Work blog post
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People using Google Sheets will now have more powerful conditional formatting options. This launch will add the following features:- Ability to add gradient conditional formatting rules (e.g. green -> orange, where the lowest numbers are shaded green and the highest are shaded orange, with gradient shades in between)
- More style choices like bolding, striking through, and italicizing text based on conditional formatting rules
- A new look for the conditional formatting editing pane
- Import/export of color scale conditional formatting
Conditional formatting can be added by highlighting the relevant cells and selecting Format > Conditional formatting from the menus.Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release
For more information:
Help Center
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Google Drive allows you to store and access your files anywhere—on the web, on your hard drive, or on the go. We’re now making it easier to store and organize your photos and videos in Google Drive as well.
Moving forward, people using Google+ Photos will see their photos and videos automatically in Google Drive. They will appear in a new menu item called Google Photos, and can be shared, moved, and renamed like any other Drive file:This feature will start rolling out for consumers today in Drive for Android, iOS and the web, and will roll out gradually to Apps customers in the coming weeks. A notification in Drive will give people the option to add a Google Photos folder to My Drive, allowing them to manage their photos and videos alongside other types of files if they so choose. Existing Google+ Photos users will notice their photos and videos available in Drive in the coming weeks.
Note: photos and videos that do count against quota that are backed up to Drive via Auto Backup will only count once against a storage limit, but Apps users may want to review their Google+ Photos Auto Backup settings to avoid inadvertent syncing to their corporate Drive account.
See the Help Center for more information on organizing, syncing and deletion options.
Release track:Rapid release (gradual rollout) starting in the coming weeks, with Scheduled release to follow two weeks after rollout to Rapid. See the release calendar for specific dates as they are available.
For more information:Help CenterGet the latest Google Drive apps from Google Play and the App StoreDrive blog post
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A new version of the Gmail app for Android is now available on Google Play. New features include:- All your inboxes in one place―view all your mail at once, regardless of whether it’s from your work or personal accounts, using the new “All Inboxes” option. This way you can read and respond to all your messages without having to hop between accounts.
- Conversation View―if you’ve set up separate inboxes in Gmail for your Yahoo, Outlook.com and other IMAP/POP accounts, messages in these accounts will appear neatly stacked as one conversation, just like your Gmail messages.
- Smarter Search―searching in the Gmail app for Android now comes with better auto-complete, so you can find what you need even faster.
- Other helpful features―larger attachment previews to help you see what’s inside, the ability to save to Drive with a single tap, and new animations that make opening and closing conversations more smooth.
Note: The search auto-complete feature is not available for Google Apps for Government customers
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release
For more information:
Get the latest Gmail app for Android on Google Play
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Complex businesses can require multiple Google Apps domain instances to meet their needs. Previously, certain domain management functionality was restricted to primary domains only, making managing multiple domains a bit cumbersome. With today’s launch, we’re extending several key features to secondary domains to make managing multiple domain instances more seamless:- Custom app URLs―make it easy for people in any of your domains to find your core Google Apps services by creating custom web addresses to each service. For example, mail.primarydomain.com or mail.secondarydomain.com.
- Web address mapping―have your Google Sites appear under custom URLs for all of your domains, such as hr.yourdomain.com, hr.yourdomain.in or hr.yourdomain.fr.
- Group renaming―create a Google Group in a primary domain and move it to a secondary domain. For example, rename the group users@yourdomain.in to users@yourdomain.fr.
Check out the Help Center links below for more information.
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release
For more information:Custom app urlsWeb address mappingGroup renaming
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Over the past few years, we’ve been updating our APIs with new versions across Drive and Calendar, as well as those used for managing Google Apps for Work domains. These new APIs offered developers several improvements over older versions of the API. With each of these introductions, we also announced the deprecation of a set of corresponding APIs.
As per previous reminders, the deprecation period for these APIs is coming to an end. As of April 20, 2015, we will discontinue these deprecated APIs. Calls to these APIs and any features in your application that depend on them will not work after April 20th.
| Discontinued API | Replacement API |
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| | No replacement available |
In the coming weeks, we’ll be contacting domain administrators whose applications are still using these deprecated APIs with a final reminder email and guidance on specific migration paths.
*Note that since our last reminder, where we recommended the Email Migration API v2 as the replacement for the Email Migration API v1, the Gmail API has been announced as the replacement for both Email Migration APIs (v1 and v2).
Email Migration API v2 will be turned down on November 1, 2015, and we recommend starting the process of switching to the Gmail API. To aid you with this effort, we've put together this migration guide. For those who may have recently migrated from Email Migration API v1 (set to be turned down on April 20, 2015) to Email Migration API v2, note that the migration to Gmail API should require relatively minimal effort.
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release
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Today we’re announcing a new feature that will allow Google Apps admins to automatically notify their users of any newly installed app from Google Apps Marketplace. After installing a Marketplace app from the Admin console, admins will have an opportunity to choose whether to send a notification to their users to inform them about the newly available app:
The notification will only appear to the people in the OU or domain for which the app has been installed. The notification will appear in each person’s Notification Center and will describe how to access and launch the app:
Note that for domains not currently using Google+ and potentially unfamiliar with this kind of notification, the Notification Center icon will appear in the Google One Bar whether admins opt to utilize the post-install notification feature or not. This area will be used for notifications from other Google Apps moving forward, so admins may want to inform their users of this UI change in advance of this launch.
This new feature will be gradually rolled out to all domains starting the week of March 30th.
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release (gradual rollout), starting the week of March 30th
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Last year we launched add-ons, tools created by developer partners that provide even more helpful features in your documents, spreadsheets and forms. Previously, the ability to install add-ons was controlled centrally by Google Apps admins in the Admin console, but users retained ultimate control of choosing which individual add-ons to install or remove.
Today we’re releasing a couple of updates to help developers share their add-ons with an even wider audience and give Google Apps admins more consistent control over which add-ons are used in their organizations.
Developers can now choose to make their add-ons for Docs, Sheets and Forms available for installation across entire domains, which automatically creates a Google Apps Marketplace listing that is easy for customers to find. Admins can then install these handy add-ons for their whole organization using just a couple of clicks.
Admins will continue to have a “disable add-ons” option for their users, but they can also whitelist add-ons via the Google Apps Marketplace for their entire domain or a specific team. Check out the Help Center for details on the available options.
Keep in mind that it will take some time for add-on developers to publish their apps for domain-wide installation, so you might not find all your favorite add-ons in the Apps Marketplace yet.
Note: this launch will not impact existing add-on installation settings.
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release
For more information:Help Center
Google for Work blog post
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Last June, we redesigned the Reports section in the Admin console to make it easier for admins to manage Google Apps and gain insights that help their entire organization run more efficiently. The improved Reports section provides domain highlights, user-level reporting, custom filtering/sorting on data, aggregated domain level reports and new audit streams (Login and Calendar Audit).
Since the launch of the new Reports section, the old UI has been accessible via the Settings icon. On March 31, 2015, we’ll be removing access to the old Reports UI and shutting it down. All functionality available in the old UI is currently available in the new Reports section.
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release on March 31, 2015
For more information:
Help Center
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Previously, the deployment of 2-Step Verification (2SV) within a domain could be a tedious process, as it required Apps admins to carefully monitor the 2SV enrollments of their users before the actual enforcement, potentially leading to lock out situations requiring admin intervention.
Today, we are improving the enrollment and enforcement process for 2SV for Google Apps. Admins can now set a 2SV enforcement date in the future, giving users a monitored amount of time to enroll. Users will be prompted to enroll when they sign-in, and also will receive email reminders if they have not enrolled before the enforcement date.
We highly encourage all Apps customers to take advantage of the simplified set-up process and add an extra level of security protection by implementing 2SV for their domains.
See the Help Center for details on how to implement this feature.
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release
For more information:
Help Center
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Chrome application settings in the Admin console allow admins to control which Chrome applications and extensions their users can access, and whether users can create and publish their own apps.
With today’s launch, the Admin console has been updated with a new App management view, providing admins with greater visibility and control in managing specific apps and extensions in their domain. Key improvements include:
The existing app and extension manager view under User Settings will remain available as an option moving forward.
The new interface will roll out gradually over the coming weeks. See the Help Center for more information on the new and existing views for managing Chrome Apps.
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release (gradual rollout)
For more information:
Help Center
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Starting today, from a single interface, Google Apps admins can define and push networks to Mobile, Chromebook, and Chromebox for Meetings devices. Previously, admins had to configure the same network in multiple places to make it available to different device types. With today’s launch, we have removed the redundant network configuration points in the Admin console:
To access the new settings interface, select Device Management > Network in the Admin console. Learn more about the full capabilities in the Help Center for mobile and Chrome devices.
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release
For more information:Google Apps Help CenterChrome Help Center
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Sending and receiving emails is something we all do many times a day, and it nearly always works flawlessly. When something does go wrong, however, it’s not always clear that there is even a problem and, once identified, it can be very difficult to determine the problem’s root cause.
With today’s launch, we’re adding greater transparency for Google Apps admins into any mail flow issues that arise with Email alerts. These alerts can be managed by admins in the Admin console and will trigger email notifications to super admins (or other designated recipients) around the following potential mail failures (see Help Center for more details):- Exchange journaling failure
- Smarthost failure
- TLS failure
Mail flow notifications can be managed in the Admin console under the Reports > Manage Alerts > Email section.
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release
For more information:
Help Center
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Last year, we announced a new feature for Hangouts on the web allowing Google Apps customers to share links to Hangouts video calls so that external meeting guests may request to join if not explicitly invited. We recently announced this functionality for iOS as well.
Today, we’re announcing that this functionality has been added to the Hangouts Android app and to Chromebox for Meetings devices.
AndroidThe latest release of the Hangouts Android app now allows external guests using the app to join Hangouts video calls from their mobile device with a meeting link provided by the organizer. Video calls that are shared with the link require someone in the Apps domain of the Hangout video call to accept those requesting access on the web.
Chromebox for Meetings devicesPeople can now use their Chromebox for Meetings devices to both request to join Hangouts video calls as a guest using a link, and accept requests from guests wishing to join using a link.
To join a Hangouts video call from your Chromebox for Meetings device, enter the domain in which the meeting is hosted followed by a ‘/’ and the meeting name (e.g. altostrat.com/meeting-name). As before, if the meeting is hosted in your organization, the domain name is not necessary. To see and accept or reject a request from outside your organization, the meeting must be in ‘shared with the link’ mode.
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release (gradual rollout)
For more information:
Help Center
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A new version of the Gmail iOS app is now available in the App Store. New features include:- Email files from other apps - Attach photos, links, and documents directly to a Gmail message from iPhoto, Chrome, and other apps.
- Easily open attachments - With the new attachment viewer you can now open files of any kind directly into the app of your choosing.
- Take quick actions on notifications - Decide whether you want to reply to or archive new messages straight from your lock or notifications screen without having to open the app:
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Last week we announced the Android for Work program, which helps businesses bring more devices to work by securing, managing and innovating on the Android platform. Today, Google Apps Mobile Management is ready for you to take full advantage of Android for Work.
The Android for Work platform offers three main benefits: more granular control of Android devices, a framework for mobile application management via Google Play for Work, and a new layer of separation for work-related applications known as the Work Profile.
The Work Profile is an addition to our existing Android Sync for Google Apps offering. As domain admin, you now have the ability to choose a level of data separation that balances end user productivity with your organization's security requirements. There are two secure Work Profile operating modes, governed by a setting in the Admin console:- third-party mobile app distribution - Employees may continue to safely operate Gmail and other Google mobile apps using the built-in account switcher, while admins curate third-party apps, available for download from Google Play for Work, in the Work Profile.
- separate container - Admins approve and whitelist all work-related apps (both Google and third-party) for the Work Profile, and employees download the apps appropriate to their job function from Google Play for Work.
Whichever mode is chosen, employees have a seamless experience on their mobile device and all work information is encrypted and can be remotely wiped, thereby keeping corp data secure from other activity on the phone. On one’s phone, work apps are identified by an orange briefcase badge:
Check out the Help Center for more details on how optimize these new features for your organization.
Release track:Rapid release and Scheduled release
For more information:Help Center
Google for Work blog post
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