Google Workspace Updates: August 2021

View embedded Office files in your documents

Tuesday, August 31, 2021

What’s changing You can now view embedded Microsoft Office files in your documents when you’re working with Office files in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.. This feature allows you to:

View the files in preview mode,
Copy an embedded file directly to Drive, or download it.

View your embedded files from Office in your documentsWho’s impacted Admins and end users
Why it matters We’ve heard your feedback that it’s important to be able to access embedded files within your Microsoft Office files. This feature enables you to access embedded Office files within your existing Office files from Docs, Sheets, and Slides for a seamless work experience.
Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: There is no end user control for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to work with Office files using Office editing.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 31, 2021
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 6, 2021

Availability Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. Also available to users with personal Google Accounts
Resources

Google Help: Work with Office files using Office editing

Better understand how you’re spending your time in Google Calendar

Monday, August 30, 2021

What’s changingYou can now use Time Insights in Calendar, a personalized, analytical experience on the web, to see how your time is spent across meetings and collaborators.

Time Insights in Google Calendar appearing on the right side of a week view

Time Insights experience for an example calendar week view

Please note, you can only view Time Insights on a computer.
Who’s impactedAdmins and end users
Why you’d use itWith the changes to our working environments in the past year, some people have more meetings and may feel less control over how their work time is spent. Time Insights can show you this data, and help you plan your time better.
Additional detailsWith Time Insights, you’ll see information such as:

Time breakdown: Based on your working hours and the types of meetings you have
Time in meetings: Highlighting meeting-heavy days and time frames, as well as meeting frequencies
People you meet with: Showing who you spend the most time meeting with. You can also pin key stakeholders to make sure you’re keeping in touch with them. Hovering over an individual will also highlight the meetings on your calendar that include that person

This information is visible to you, not your manager—so you can assess how you’re spending your time against your own priorities.
If you manage other people’s calendars and have “manage sharing access” permission to those calendars, you can view their Time Insights.
Getting started

Rollout paceAdmin setting

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 30, 2021

End user feature

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 6, 2021
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 20, 2021

Availability

Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Nonprofits customers
Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, and Frontline, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

Set the Google Chat standalone app to run automatically at startup

Thursday, August 26, 2021

Quick launch summaryYou can now configure the Chat Progressive Web Application (PWA) to "Start app when you sign in" to your computer. This can be done on your Windows, MAC OS or Linux computer by going to chrome://apps, right clicking on Google Chat and then choosing "Start app when you sign in."

App starter window with right-click menu options on Google Chat app

Right click on the Chat app to select this new option

Please note, this feature is not supported on Chrome OS.
If you don't have the Chat PWA app already, you’ll first have to install the Chat PWA app.
Before this launch, you’d have to manually start the Chat PWA app by searching for and clicking on it every time you restart your computer. With the new feature, you can simply choose to launch the PWA app at system startup every time.
Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled by the user. Once turned on, the Chat PWA app will automatically start when the user logs into their computer.

Rollout pace

This feature is available now for all users.

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

Google Help: Install the Google Chat standalone app

New intelligent suggestions for formulas and functions in Google Sheets

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Quick summary You’ll now see in-line, sequential, context-aware suggestions for formulas and functions when working with data in Google Sheets.
Formula suggestions will make it easier to write new formulas accurately and help make data analysis quicker and easier.
Simply begin inserting a formula in Sheets—suggestions will be automatically displayed and as you continue to type. You can view additional incremental suggestions in the drop-down menu.

We hope these formula suggestions make it easier and faster for you to work with and analyze your data.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be available by default and can be disabled by going to Tools > Enable formula suggestions or from the three-dot menu of the suggestion dialog box. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using formulas and functions in Google Sheets.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 25, 2021

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available to users with personal Google accounts

Resources

Google Help: Add formulas & functions

Replace your background with a video in Google Meet on iOS

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

What’s changing In addition to replacing your Google Meet background with a static image on web and mobile, you can now replace your background with a video. At the moment, you can select from three Google made videos: a classroom, a party, and a forest — more options will be available soon. This feature is already available on Google Meet on web.

When using Google Meet on iOS, you have the option to replace your background with a video.

Use a video background to make calls more fun.
Who’s impacted Admins and end users
Why you’d use it Custom backgrounds can help you show more of your personality, as well to help hide your surroundings to maintain privacy. With the option of replacing your background with video, we hope this makes your video calls more fun.
Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to control background replacement in Google Meet with the Admin setting. Note: the “Let users select custom images” option is disabled by default for Google Workspace for Education customers.
End users: No action required. When enabled by your admin, visit the Help Center to learn more about changing your background in a video meeting.

Rollout pace

This feature is available now for all users.

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Help: Change your background in a video meeting
Google Admin Help: Control whether users can change their backgrounds in Meet
Google Workspace Updates Blog: Control background replacement in Google Meet with a new Admin setting
Google Workspace Updates Blog: Replace your background with a video in Google Meet

View corresponding Google Chat messages from the Tasks tab in a Chat room

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Quick launch summary When viewing your tasks in the "tasks" tab in a Google Chat room, you can quickly navigate back to the Google Chat message where the task was created or the task creation was indicated.

Simply hover over the task on the web or select the task on mobile and then select the Chat. We hope this feature makes it easier to surface context for your tasks, and re-engage your stakeholders with updates, questions or further collaboration.

Select a task in the "Tasks" portion of a Google Chat room — you can select the chat icon to navigate to relevant messages.

The new "View in Chat" icon within the Tasks section of a Google Chat room.

When viewing tasks on mobile, the chat icon will be in the top right hand corner.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be available by default.

Rollout pace

Rapid and scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 25, 2021

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

Google Help: Create & assign tasks in a Google Chat room

Save time replying to comments in Google Docs with Smart Reply

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Quick launch summary In 2017, we introduced Smart Reply in Gmail to save you time by suggesting quick responses to your messages. Now, Smart Reply in Google Docs saves you time replying to comments in Docs by suggesting relevant replies.
Smart Reply suggestions appear below the reply box on comment threads in English. You can choose a suggested reply or write your own. Smart Reply joins Smart compose and spelling autocorrect announced in January 2021 to help you compose comments in Docs quickly and with confidence.

Smart reply suggests replies to comments in Google Docs

Smart Reply can help saves you time replying to comments in Docs by suggesting relevant replies

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be ON by default To turn it off, go to Tools > Preferences > Show Smart Reply suggestions. If turned on, click on a comment thread in Google Docs, and Smart Reply will suggest responses if available. It may not present suggestions in all cases, and the comment thread must be in English. Simply click on a suggestion to use it, once you click, you can send it as-is or edit it before sending. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Smart Reply in Google Docs, and replying to comments in Google Docs.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 24, 2021
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 4 days for feature visibility) starting on September 13, 2021.

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. Also available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Security groups are now generally available

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

What’s changingIn 2020, we launched security groups to beta. Beginning today, this feature is now generally available. Security groups help you easily regulate, audit, and monitor groups used for permission and access control purposes. They enable admins to:

Apply a label to any existing Google Group to distinguish it from email-list groups.

Provide strong guarantees that:

External groups (owned outside your organization) and non-security groups cannot be added as a member of a security group.
Security labels, once assigned to a group, cannot be removed. This ensures that once a group is used for security purposes, it will remain in that state.

Why it’s important

Groups are used in a variety of ways. This can include groups that help teams communicate and collaborate, as well as groups that control access to important apps and resources. Security groups can help customers manage these categories of groups differently to increase their overall security posture.

For example, if you have compliance or regulatory requirements for managing access control, you may have set up naming conventions to keep track of which groups were used for this purpose. With security groups, you can now assign a security label to these groups and more easily manage them without having to use workarounds like naming conventions.