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What’s changing
Many users follow threads within spaces in Google Chat to ensure they don’t miss any updates. To build upon this experience and help you keep track of important discussions occurring in threads, we’re introducing the ability to follow and review threads within the home shortcut. 

Threads you’ve chosen to follow will now appear directly within home, enabling you to quickly catch up. Rather than searching for the space and finding the thread, clicking on the thread via home takes you directly to the threaded conversation. You can also use the “Threads” button in home to filter your view to show threads only. This option is next to the “Unread” toggle, which filters your unread messages across DMs, spaces, and threads. You have the ability to filter for unread threads specifically when this is toggled on and the “Threads” button is selected. 
Catch up on followed threads from the home shortcut in Google Chat


Who’s impacted 
End users 


Why it matters 
Through this update, the home view has become even more useful with the ability to easily stay on top of followed threads. 


Additional details 
As a reminder, threads are followed in the scenarios below: 
  • You are the author of the main message that a thread was initiated from. 
  • You are explicitly following (via the “Follow” button). 
  • You have replied via thread or were mentioned. 
  • You have set the notification setting of the corresponding space to notify for “All”. 
If a thread is no longer relevant to you, you can “Unfollow” it via the button in Home. 


Getting started 
Rollout pace 
Web: 
  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 29, 2024, with expected completion by August 31, 2024 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 26, 2024, with expected completion by September 30, 2024 
Android: 
iOS: 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and Workspace Individual Subscribers 
Resources 
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What’s changing
We’re introducing numerous improvements across the Gmail and Google Chat apps on Android foldables and tablets in order to enhance your productivity when using these devices. 

In the Gmail app, you’ll notice a new formatting bar located on the email compose screen. This now includes additional formatting options like the ability to change the font type and make a bulleted list.
additional formatting options in bar



Next, you’ll be able to view a list of helpful keyboard shortcuts in the Gmail app and in the Chat app by pressing “?” when you plug an external keyboard into your Android device. 
list of helpful keyboard shortcuts in the Gmail app and in the Chat app

Lastly, we’re enabling Smart Compose on Android tablets and foldables, a feature originally introduced on Gmail web that intelligently autocompletes your emails. Similar to the mobile experience, Smart Compose suggests text as you type that can be accepted by swiping across the gray text or pressing tab on a physical keyboard. 
Smart Compose on Android tablets and foldables



Getting started 
Rollout pace 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 

Resources 
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What’s changing
We’re expanding the availability of AI Classification in Google Drive to Google Workspace for Education customers with the Gemini Education Premium add-on. 

Even though data security is paramount in today’s digital world, organizations struggle to label their data at scale, rendering label-based data protections less useful. This problem is solved by AI classification, automatically applying labels to both new and existing files in Google Drive. 

Powered by privacy-preserving AI models that can be uniquely trained on specific customer needs, AI classification automatically identifies, classifies, and labels files in Google Drive.. This helps organizations standardize data classification and achieve labeling consistency at scale. Labels can then be used to trigger rules on files that can and cannot be shared through data loss prevention (DLP) controls, lifecycle management policies, as well as audit and reporting use cases. 


AI Classification in the Admin console

AI Classification in Google Docs






Getting started


Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available for Google Workspace for Education customers with the Gemini Education Premium add-on.
This feature is already available to customers with the Gemini Enterprise add-on, and via the AI Security add-on for select Google workspace customers.

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What’s changing
We’re introducing several changes to make labels more discoverable and flexible for organizations:

1. Label Manager’s New Location: The Label Manager interface is moving from a standalone UI into the Workspace Admin console. Prior to this change, Label admins had to navigate to https://drive.google.com/labels to manage labels in their organization. Going forward, admins can access the Label Manager tool by going to Security > Access and data control in the Admin console. 

Label Manager’s New Location
2. Combined Label Types: Currently, there are two label types: Badged and Standard. Badged labels are single-field option lists with prominent visual display and coloring. Standard labels support complex metadata structures with up to ten fields of various formats. To make labels more adaptable, we’re combining these label types together, and going forward, every label will support up to 10 fields, one of which can be set as a “Badged list”. 

Combined Label Types

3. Label Ordinality: With the combination of label types, organizations will now be able to create many labels with badge fields. As a result, there will be scenarios in which multiple badges are applied to a single file. Some UI surfaces only support the display of a single badge, so to address this, admins will now be able to configure label ordinality in the Label Manager list view. The ranking of label ordinality will govern which label is prominently displayed when there are multiple badged labels on the same file. 

Label Ordinality
Getting started 
  • Admins: To access the Label Manager in the Admin console, go to https://admin.google.com/ac/dc/labels or Security > Access and data control > Label manager). 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. 

Rollout pace 

Availability
Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Standard, Plus
  • Enterprise Standard, Plus 
  • Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus 
  • Education Standard, Plus 
  • Frontline Starter, Standard
  • Nonprofits

Resources 
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What’s changing 
Today, we’re excited to announce that when you upload a video to Google Drive, captions for the video can be automatically generated. These captions are automatically generated using speech recognition technology to transcribe the audio. Automatically generated captions will be supported in English, with plans to expand to other languages in the future. 


Who’s impacted 
Admins and end users 


Why it matters 
Automatic caption generation can improve the accessibility of media stored in Drive and can save you the effort of manually creating captions. It also allows you to easily search for videos based on their content, making it much simpler to find the exact file you need. 


Additional details 
You can manually request automatic captions for any video that was uploaded prior to this new update. See end user instructions below for more information. 


Getting started 
  • Admins: 
    • This feature will be ON by default and as a result captions will generate automatically when a user uploads a video to Drive. Or, admins can choose between two options: 
      • Option 1: Disable this feature 
      •  Option 2: Set it so captions only generate when a user requests them for a specific video by going to the Admin console > Drive and Docs > Features and Applications > Automatically-Generated captions. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning on automatically-generated captions for videos in Drive. 
  • End users: 
    • If your admin selects option 1, you can add generated captions by right-clicking the video in your Drive > Manage caption tracks > generate automatic captions. You can also generate captions when the video is playing by going to the three dot menu on top right > manage captions tracks > generate automatic captions. 
    • If your admin selections option 2, no action is required on your end and captions will automatically be generated upon video upload. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about automatically generated captions. 
Rollout pace Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 
    • Note: Users with personal Google accounts must request automatic captions after uploading a video to Drive. 
Resources 
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What’s changing
We recently announced that our Learning Interoperability Tools, including Assignments LTI™, Google Drive LTI™, and Meet LTI™ will be consolidated under a new brand: Google Workspace LTI™.


In order to bring the collaborative power of Google Workspace for Education to even more partners, we’re excited to announce updated Google Workspace LTI™ integrations in Schoology, a K-12 learning management system that makes it easy to implement hybrid learning and integrate your favorite teaching and learning tools. 


To simplify this experience and enable users to operate on a newer, more secure and feature-rich version, Google Workspace LTI™ in PowerSchool Schoology Learning will now use the LTI 1.3. As a result, teachers and students have access to enhanced assignment capabilities and a secure classroom-centric Google Meet experience, directly in PowerSchool Schoology Learning: 
  • With Assignments LTI™, you can: 
    • Distribute, analyze, and grade student work with Google Workspace for Education. 
    • Analyze student work submissions originality reports to save time and ensure authenticity. 
  • With Google Drive LTI™, you can securely embed and upload Google Drive files directly in PowerSchool Schoology Learning.
  • With Google Meet LTI™, you can seamlessly schedule and host secure Google Meet sessions directly within PowerSchool Schoology Learning. 
Google Workspace LTI™ integrations in PowerSchool Schoology Learning


Getting started 


Rollout pace Availability 
Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade 
Resources 
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What’s changing
To help improve remote and hybrid learning, we’re introducing Google Meet LTI™ for Canvas by Instructure and PowerSchool Schoology Learning. This builds on the existing Google Workspace Learning Interoperability Tools including Assignments LTI™ and Google Drive LTI™.


You can use Google Meet LTI™ to easily enable secure remote and hybrid learning - via video conferencing -  directly within Canvas by Instructure and PowerSchool Schoology Learning. Educators can schedule video meetings with pre-configured host controls, including recordings, transcripts, and breakout rooms*. Students can view meeting recordings and artifacts from past class sessions directly within Meet. Google Meet LTI™ is also deeply integrated with your learning management system so that only educators can start the meeting and only students in the course can join.



*Support for pre-configured breakout rooms is coming soon — we’ll provide more details on the Workspace Updates blog once that becomes available.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability
Available for Google Workspace:
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, the Teaching & Learning Upgrade

Resources

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What’s changing 
In September 2023, we introduced ultra-low latency livestreaming and since then we’ve introduced several improvements for the overall experience. Today, we’re excited to introduce the latest enhancement for ultra-low latency live streaming: Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN) support for Google Meet.


When configured by admins, eCDN has the potential to reduce bandwidth consumption to a fraction of the traffic volume. This applies to all live streams, including those originating from outside of your own domain. This is achieved through peer-assisted media delivery — whereby live streamed content is automatically shared between nearby peers, reducing the need to retrieve content from Google servers and minimizing bottleneck. There is no additional software, hardware, or end user action required to use eCDN — it works automatically in the background.

With eCDN turned on, live streamed content is shared between peers (as seen on the right), reducing the need to retrieve content from Google servers (as seen on the left).



Who’s impacted
Admins and end users

Why it’s important
Live streaming is a key tool for presenting information to large audiences such as town-hall meetings, weekly broadcasts or other kinds of events with large audiences. As such, video quality of live streamed content is critical. Using eCDN can significantly reduce the strain on internet gateways while delivering a high-quality viewing experience with consistently low latency. Without eCDN, each viewer is sent their own individual feed. With eCDN turned on for a private network, the backend will send media to a significantly lower number of clients in that network. Those clients will then use the eCDN technology to take over and redistribute media to ensure that all viewers in that network receive the media they need, with high quality and preserved ultra-low latency. 

Getting started

  • End users: There is no end user action required — make sure you’re using Chrome 121 or later on a laptop or desktop computer to ensure the highest quality ultra-low latency live streaming experience.

Rollout pace
Note: eCDN is available for those customers who have received the ultra-low latency live streaming experience. For some customers, that update is rolling out at a slower rate and they may not receive these updates for several months.


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What’s changing 
Currently, a teacher or school administrator can invite a guardian, typically a parent, to receive email summaries about their student’s work in class. These email summaries include a rundown of missing work, upcoming work and class activities, such as recently posted announcements or assignments in Google Classroom. 

Going forward, guardian email summaries will now include links that let guardians preview their student's Classwork pages, including assigned work and attachments provided by the teacher. With this update, guardians can stay up-to-date with what their students are learning. Guardians will not be able to see their student’s grades or submissions, class communication, or other students’ work. Guardians can easily access this page directly from the Classroom email summaries or from the link shared by teachers. 

Enable guardians to preview assigned classwork within Google Classroom


Who’s impacted 
Admins and end users 


Why it matters 
This feature keeps guardians informed about their student’s assignments in class. 


Additional details 
Teachers with the Google Workspace Education Plus edition who already send guardian email summaries will notice those emails automatically start including guardian previewing links. No action is needed to get started. 


Getting started 
  • Admins: Admins can turn Guardian Access ON or OFF for their domain and determine whether only admins, or admins and verified teachers, can control guardians accounts and per-class access. If admins choose the latter, verified teachers are able to add or remove guardian accounts for students in their class and determine whether each class will be available for guardian access. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing guardians in your domain. 
  • End users: In classes where you have guardian summaries turned ON, guardians can now preview your classwork page and any classwork assigned to their student(s). You can turn this setting OFF at any time in your Class Settings page.
  • Guardians: You have guardian preview capabilities to your student’s Classwork page through direct links in the email summary. Visit the Help Cenet to learn more about guardian email summaries. 
Rollout pace 
Availability 
Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Plus 
Resources 
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What’s changing
We're updating the way Google Meet hardware devices are re-enrolled to provide a more intuitive experience for administrators.


Previously, if a device was re-enrolled without first being deprovisioned, the Admin console would reuse its existing record and device ID — this is changing: 


Starting July 17, 2024, if you re-enroll a device without first deprovisioning it, the Admin console will create a completely new record with a new device ID. The old record will still be there, and you'll need to deprovision it to free up its license. Settings from the old record won't automatically carry over to the new one.

Getting started
Rollout pace
Availability
  • This update impacts all Google Workspace customers with Meet Hardware devices.

Resources

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What’s changing 
We’re pleased to announce Google Workspace extensions for Gmail, Google Drive and Google Docs are available for Gemini (gemini.google.com). When enabled, Gemini will be able to cross reference these apps as data sources to better inform its responses.

View of Google Workspace extensions from the Gemini Extensions page




This feature is available in open beta for Google Workspace customers with the Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, and Education Premium add-ons — no additional sign-up is required.


Who’s impacted

Admins and end users


Why you’d use it

Google Workspace extensions enhance Gemini's capabilities by allowing it to access information from your Gmail, Docs, and Drive. This enables Gemini to locate, reference and incorporate this additional data, leading to even more informed and relevant responses. This deeper integration helps bring Gemini’s capabilities more seamlessly into your daily workflows, helping enhance productivity. For example, referencing a Doc that outlines your target audiences while performing customer research in Gemini (gemini.google.com).


Additional details
  • During the open beta period, Context-Aware Access (CAA) for Gmail, Drive and Docs isn’t supported with Google Workspace extensions. Context-Aware Access gives you control over which apps a user can access based on their context, such as whether their device complies with your IT policy. Learn more about Context-Aware Access.
  • Google Workspace extensions honors access control settings for files within Drive, meaning users can only access files that they own or have been shared with them (excluding files shared via Shared Drive).
  • Google Workspace extensions is not available to Google Workspace users accessing Gemini as an additional Google service.
  • Note that Google Workspace personal content that Gemini Apps get from extensions is not reviewed by anyone to improve AI models, not used to train AI models, and not shared with other users or institutions. Visit the Help Center for more information.
Getting started
  • Admins: 
    • This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the OU or Group level. During the open beta period, Drive, Gmail and Docs must be enabled to use Google Workspace extensions.



Rollout pace

Availability
Available for Google Workspace customers with the:
  • Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, or Education Premium add-on

Resources


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What’s changing 
We’re introducing a new OAuth scope for the Drive API: drive.meet.readonly. The new scope grants app access to read and download files from a user’s drive that were created or edited by Google Meet — this includes meeting transcripts, notes, recordings, and more. This granular level of authorization helps ensure Drive access is not provisioned too broadly and only the necessary files can be accessed.


Getting started
Rollout pace

Availability

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What’s changing 
We recently announced several updates related to framing options on Google Hardware devices. This included the ability for admins to configure the default camera framing option for their hardware devices. After pausing rollout to optimize performance, we are pleased to announce that this feature is now fully available.


Getting started

Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices

Resources

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What’s changing 
We’re expanding the interoperability between Google Meet and Zoom to include the ability to present content via a wired HDMI connection. This functionality will allow you: 
  • Present HDMI content into your Zoom Meetings from Google Meet hardware devices
  • Present HDMI content into Google Meet meetings from supported Zoom Rooms



This is designed to make it even easier for our customers and their users to connect and collaborate with people outside of the Meet ecosystem. To learn more about interoperability between Google Meet and Zoom, check out these previous announcements:
Getting started
Rollout pace


Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware Chrome-based devices
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What’s changing
In November 2023, we announced the ability to purchase and distribute iOS apps to user-enrolled devices through Apple’s Volume Purchase Program. Beginning today, we’re expanding this functionality to include device enrollment and company-owned iOS devices.




Who’s impacted
Admins and end users


Why you’d use it 
Admins can use the Volume Purchasing Program to efficiently curate a suite of work-related apps—both free and paid—for their team. This streamlined process not only simplifies the deployment of essential business apps but also ensures that employees have access to the right apps they need to be productive and efficient, all within the secure perimeter of our MDM platform. To further streamline the enrollment and app distribution process, we’re automatically installing mandatory apps during enrollment for company-owned devices. This latest update makes it easier for admins to deploy apps across various device types in their organization.


Additional details
Please note that Apple ID sign-in won't be needed in the company-owned iOS devices flow after configuring apps with VPP.


The automatic installation of mandatory apps during onboarding applies to all enrollment types and devices that violate mandatory apps compliance will be immediately blocked until the required app(s) are installed. 


Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability
Available to Google Workspace
  • Business Plus
  • Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus
  • Education Standard and Plus, and the Endpoint Education Upgrade add-on
  • Frontline Starter and Standard
  • Cloud Identity Premium

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What’s changing 
Meeting hosts can now pre-configure meeting notes, meeting recordings, and meeting transcripts from the Calendar invite. This helps ensure that these specific artifacts are automatically captured, reducing the need for the meeting host to turn them on during the meeting, removing awkward pauses or the risk of forgetting to turn them on all together.

You can configure these artifacts from the Calendar invite by going to Settings > Meeting records and selecting which artifacts you want automatically applied



Getting started
Rollout pace
Availability
Available for Google Workspace*:
  • Business Standard and Plus
  • Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
  • Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade
  • Essentials and Enterprise Essentials,
  • Workspace Individual Subscribers
  • Google One subscribers with 2 TB or more storage space
*Note that your Google Workspace edition will determine which meeting features are available to you.

Resources

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What’s changing 
We know that compliance and data controls are paramount for our customers, both in understanding Google Workspace’s policies and configuring compliance-relevant features according to the needs of their business sector and geographical region. To help our customers navigate these complexities, we’ve centralized some of these relevant features and information into a single location in the admin console: Data.


Within this section, admins can:
  • Find a centralized hub containing all data and compliance-related features such as data regions, access transparency, and more.
    • Access Approvals, Access Management, Access Transparency, Client Side Encryption, Data Regions can now be found under Data > Compliance. Please note that Access Transparency can still be found under Menu > Reporting.

  • Data Export, Data migration, and Google Takeout can now be found under Data > Data import & export.

  • Find a dedicated compliance node containing guides and resources to help them configure their settings within various regulations and standards such as IL4, CJIS, and FedRAMP High.
Data > Overview



Data > Compliance > Guides and Resources


Getting started
  • Admins: You can access the new Data node compliance center in the Admin console by navigating to Menu > Data. From here, you will find the Overview page, as well as the Compliance and Data Import & Export categories. 
  • End users: There is no end user impact or action required.
Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers
    Resources

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    What’s changing 
    Access Management is now also generally available in the European Union — these controls allow customers to select the physical location from which Google support teams can access organizational data during support activities. Customers can now restrict support personnel to EU Google staff in EU locations. If necessary, non-EU Google staff may access data through virtual desktops that are located in EU locations.




    Who’s impacted
    Admins


    Why it’s important
    Google Workspace Assured Controls enables customers to meet strict regulatory information governance requirements. With Access Management, customers can limit the Google staff who can take support actions related to their data. Additionally, since Assured Controls is available on Google Workspace’s native platform, you don’t need to move to a separate GovCloud environment for access to these capabilities. This update gives our customers another way to configure how and where their data is accessed by Google staff.


    Getting started

    Rollout pace
    Availability
    • Assured controls are available as a paid-add on for Google Workspace Enterprise Plus. For more information, contact your Google account representative.

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    What’s changing 
    We’re pleased to announce several new enhancements to Google Workspace data regions: 


    For the first time, admins will be able to specify not only the region (EU or US) where their data is stored, but also the region in which it is processed, with granular controls to allow administrators to easily refine the region and level of compliance needed as appropriate for their organizational groups. Workspace customers have the flexibility to select multiple geographies to suit their needs, versus being restricted to one region mandated by billing address.


    Also, based on customer feedback, we have re-architected our reporting dashboard to both deliver new functionality and simplify the experience for administrators. These include:
    • A simplified experience that focuses on the status of your data region's posture. 
    • Streamlined reporting for Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers.
    • Advanced reporting for Assured Controls customers.


    Who’s impacted
    Admins


    Why it’s important

    Assign data processing to the United States or Europe
    Although customers are not required to use the sovereignty offerings within Workspace in order to comply with the GDPR, we make advanced data residency controls available so that customers can proactively leverage digital sovereignty best practices and keep pace with regulatory legislation. 


    Putting the emphasis on status
    We’ve heard from our customers that it’s critical to quickly determine whether their data is being stored in the proper location. Based on this feedback, we’ve simplified the dashboard to consolidate  parameters like “application” and “data type”, which were not useful to customers into a single status indicator.  


    Also, admins can now access two new reporting cards: Versions and Policies. The Versions card will tell admins how many users have each edition of data regions, while the Policies card will tell you how many users have their storage and processing settings assigned to the US or Europe.




    It’s important to note that if you’re subject to partial domain licensing, you may see a mix of users spread across different editions. A user’s feature set may vary based on their assigned Workspace editions — we recommend using our Help Center to learn more about the difference between editions.


    Advanced reporting for Assured Controls customers
    For those Google Workspace customers using Assured Controls, you can leverage more advanced reporting which will help you determine that data is being both stored and processed properly. You can also drill down into this information on an app-by-app basis.

    Getting started
    Rollout pace
    Availability
    • Enterprise Data Regions are included with Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus, and Enterprise Essentials Plus.
    • Fundamental Data Regions are included with Frontline Starter, Frontline Standard, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Essentials. Reporting is not included with fundamental data regions — you can purchase Enterprise data regions as a paid add-on with any of these editions. 
    • Assured Controls are available as a paid-add on for Google Workspace Enterprise Plus.

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    What’s changing 
    In the last year, we’ve added new features, such as disabling submissions after a due date in Google Classroom and excusing assignments in Google Classroom, in order to give teachers even more flexibility when it comes to grading for assignments and classwork. 

    Today, we're improving support for missing assignments in gradebook by giving teachers the ability to manually mark an assignment as ‘missing’ or ‘complete’ and automatically add a default draft score. 


    Getting started 
    • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
    • End users: 
      • By default, all missing assignments will automatically receive a draft score of ‘0’. However, teachers can adjust the default draft score or turn OFF the automated scoring feature. 
      • Assignments that displayed the ‘missing’ labels prior to this update will be automatically updated and receive the draft score. 
      • Visit the Help Center to learn more about grading & returning an assignment. 
    Rollout pace 
    • Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 2, 2024 

    Availability 
    • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 

    Resources 
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