Google Workspace Changes

Launch of Password Alert Chrome extension to protect accounts from phishing.

Google has launched Password Alert, an open-source Chrome extension that protects Google and Google Apps accounts from phishing attacks by notifying users via email if they enter their password into a non-authentic Google sign-in page. Google Apps admins can also deploy an App Engine App to audit these events, receive notifications, and force password changes for affected employees.

New animations and direction settings for existing animations in Google Slides.

Google Slides has introduced two new animations, 'Appear' and 'Disappear', to make presentations more dynamic. Additionally, users can now set the direction (to and from left, right, top, and bottom) for the existing 'Fly in' and 'Fly out' animations.

Improved email notifications for private messages on assignments.

Google Classroom has improved its notification system so that both teachers and students will now receive email notifications whenever private messages are left on assignments.

Grades are now autosaved as they are entered in Google Classroom.

In response to teacher feedback, Google Classroom now autosaves grades as they are entered. This allows teachers to grade assignments over multiple sessions while still being able to return all assignments to students simultaneously.

Teachers can now save announcements and assignments as drafts.

Teachers can now prepare for their classes in advance by saving announcements and assignments as drafts. These drafts are automatically saved as they are created and can be accessed by multiple teachers in the class, facilitating collaborative preparation.

Multiple teachers can now collaborate in a single Classroom class.

Google Classroom now allows multiple teachers to work and collaborate within a single class. Additional teachers can perform nearly all the same functions as the primary teacher, including creating assignments and announcements, viewing and grading submissions, participating in class stream comments, inviting students, and receiving email notifications.

New features and performance improvements for the Google Slides app.

The Google Slides app now allows users to reorder objects to the front or back. Additionally, the app now provides quicker loading and scrolling when opening PowerPoint presentations.

New features and improvements for the Google Drive Android app.

A new version of the Google Drive Android app is being released, introducing the ability to share files and links directly from upload notifications, access extended contact information in the sharing section, and remove parents from multi-parented files. The update also adds support for 23 new languages, improves the PDF viewer's scrolling and layout handling, and includes general performance and UI enhancements, as well as a fix to prevent uploads for accounts where Drive has been disabled by administrators.

New features for Google Docs apps on Android and iOS.

The Google Docs app for Android and iOS has been updated to allow users to accept, reject, or comment on suggestions and manage tracked changes and comments within Word files. Additionally, table editing is now available for iOS users.

Google Apps Vault now supports retention and eDiscovery for Hangouts chat history.

Google Apps Vault has been extended to support Hangouts chat history, enabling organizations to retain, archive, search, and export user chat data for compliance and eDiscovery needs. For customers already using Vault, full chat retention for all messages will activate automatically once the admin forces chat history on using the new Hangouts policy settings.

New admin policy options to force chat history and restrict chat usage in Google Hangouts.

Google Hangouts is introducing two new policy options for admins to provide greater control over domain chat usage. Admins can now force Hangouts chat history to be permanently on or off, preventing participants from changing the setting on a per-conversation basis. Additionally, admins can require that only Hangouts chat be used, though this disables chat within Google Docs, Hangouts video calls, and third-party chat clients.

Event colors now visible when jumping to dates in Android app

In the Google Calendar app for Android, users can now see the color of events when jumping to a particular date from the drop-down in the header while using Schedule, Day, 3 Day, or Week view.

Calendar view selection moved to the navigation drawer in Android app

Access to all available views (Schedule, Day, 3 Day, Week, Month) in the Google Calendar app for Android has been moved from the overflow menu into the navigation drawer for easier access.

Month view added to Google Calendar app for Android

Google has added the Month view back to the Google Calendar app for Android, providing a high-level overview of all scheduled events for a full month and allowing users to tap on specific days for a closer look.

Google Apps admins can now set custom alerts for various audit stream events.

Google is introducing a new feature that allows Google Apps admins to create custom alerts for audit stream types including Admin, Tokens, Calendar, Login, and Drive audits. Admins can define specific triggering events, add granular criteria such as the username of the person performing the activity, and designate who receives the alerts.