As a Directory administrator, you control what profile information users can change for themselves, like their profile photo, at About me or in their Google Account. If you allow it, users can change their profile name, photo, gender, pronouns, birthday, or work location.
A user's phone number and other contact information can be updated only by the administrator. For details, go to Add information to a user’s Directory profile.
Allow or disallow users to edit their profile
Before you begin: If needed, learn how to apply the setting to a department or group.
-
Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
- In the Admin console, go to Menu
Directory
Users.
- At the top-right corner, click More options
- (Optional) To apply the setting only to some users, at the side, select an organizational unit (often used for departments) or configuration group (advanced). Show me how
Group settings override organizational units. Learn more
- Under Profile editing, check or uncheck the boxes for the profile information you want to let users change.
For more information about the choices, go to the Name, Photo, Gender, Pronouns, Birthday, or Work location sections below. - If you disabled name editing, click Continue.
- Click Save. Or, you might click Override for an organizational unit.
To later restore the inherited value, click Inherit (or Unset for a group).
Name
To allow users to edit their profile name and nickname, check the Name box. The profile name and nickname are used throughout Google Workspace apps, including Gmail, Contacts, shared docs, and calendar invites. When a user edits either their profile name or nickname, it overrides the admin-set names. Only the User details page in the Google Admin console shows the admin-set names.
If you uncheck Name, user-modified names and nicknames are deleted, and names are reverted to the admin-set names.
Name pronunciation
This feature is not available for Google Workspace for Education.
To allow users to record and add their name pronunciation to their profile, check the Name pronunciation box.
If a user adds their name pronunciation, other users can play the pronunciation, which is available next to the user's name on their information card. To find the information card, users can point to the profile photo (desktop) or tap the user's name (Android and iOS).
Photo
To allow users to edit their profile photos, check the Photo box. If you add a profile photo for a user, it overrides the user-set photo.
If you uncheck Photo, only an admin can set or update a user's profile photo.
Changes can take up to 24 hours but typically happen more quickly. Learn more
Gender
To allow users to edit their gender, check the Gender box.
Pronouns
This feature is not available for Google Workspace for Education.
To allow users to edit their pronouns, check the Pronouns box. Users will be able to set and choose visibility settings for their pronouns. If you uncheck this setting, all pronoun information set by users will be deleted within 24 hours. For more information, go to Change your Google Account pronoun information.
Birthday
To allow users to edit their birthday, check the Birthday box.
Note: If a user enters a birthday indicating they're too young, their account might be disabled.
Work location
To allow users to change their work location, check the Work location box. Users can edit their desk location in Calendar settings. For more information, go to Set up room booking suggestions.
Profile discovery
This feature is not available for Google Workspace for Education.
To let users edit their profile discovery details, check the Profile Discovery box. Users can then choose how they appear in Google services to people who have their email address or phone number, but who can’t see the user’s Directory profile.
Users can choose:
- Whether to show a full or shortened version of their name
- Whether to show or hide their profile picture
After they interact with someone, their full name and profile picture becomes visible to that person.
