Google updates Workspace with new tools and features

Posted on by Prakhar Khanna

Google Workspace, the productivity platform is receiving new tools and features with an update. It includes tools from Gmail to Google Meet. The company is now making Google Assistant generally available in its Workspace. “Google Assistant is currently available for Google Workspace on supported mobile devices and is in beta for smart speakers and Smart Displays, like Nest Hub Max,” Google wrote in the blog post

Further, if you’re using third-party video conferencing hardware with a third-party calendar service, you can now enable your users to join Meet video calls with just one click from the device. It is also rolling out Access Management, which will enable customers to geographically limit Google staff support actions to U.S. Persons within the Support teams. Google Workspace Assured Controls is available as an add-on to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers only.

Google Workspace will get an integrated set of features that will help people easily “share their work hours and location, while also finding more time to focus on what matters most.” It will include features such as segmentable working hours, recurring out-of-office entries, and location indicators that let employees share their availability and location with their colleagues.

You will also get a new event type — Focus Time, which will let users limit notifications during these event windows to minimize distractions. All these availability and location indicators will show up seamlessly across Google Workspace. The company will also provide new Time Insights, which will be visible only to the employee, not their manager. It will help users assess how they’re spending their time against their own priorities.

It is also rolling out a new mobile tile view to help users see more people at once. Google is rolling out split-screen and picture-in-picture support on Meet mobile. It will help users seamlessly chat or browse their Gmail without missing the visual thread of a meeting. The Live streams will get new features including Q&A, polls, and live captions (in English, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and French). Apart from this, it is also adding Chat, Jamboard, and Calendar to Google Workspace Essentials.

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Gmail simplifies editing and collaborating on Office files sent as email attachment

Posted on by Nadeem Sarwar

Google has allowed users to edit Office files for a while now, and even enabled it for Android and iOS (the latter happened just last month) platforms. But so far, users had to import the Office documents into Docs, Sheets or Slides via Google Drive for editing them. Google is trying to make the process slightly easier as part of an update to Google Workspace. Now, when you receive Office documents as an email attachment on Gmail, you can open and edit them with a single click. And depending on the file type of the Office attachment, it will directly open in Docs, Sheets, or Slides. 

What this means is you can now directly open and edit an Office attachment with a single click, just like you would do with a Docs or Sheets file in Gmail. And despite the Office attachments opening in Docs, Sheets or Slides, they will retain their original file format once you are done editing. This feature will be enabled by default for users. 

Additionally, Google is also making it possible to reply directly from within the file itself, rather than sending back the edited Office file by attaching it with a separate email. “Once the file is opened, you’ll have new options to respond to the email thread from the File menu in Docs, Sheets, or Slides,” says Google. The new changes make it way easier to view, edit, and collaborate on Office files sent as email attachments directly in Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

The new options to respond to emails from the File menu in Docs, Sheets, or Slides. (Image Credit: Google)

Google has already started the rollout of these new editing features in Gmail and they will appear for eligible users within the next couple of weeks. However, these new capabilities are only available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers. In case you’re wondering, Google Workspace is the new name for Google’s suite of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools earlier known as G Suite. 

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G Suite is now Google Workspace, adds new Google-ish icons for Gmail, Drive and Docs

Posted on by Nadeem Sarwar

Google has today announced that its suite of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools – G Suite – will now be called Google Workspace. The rechristening is not entirely surprising, as Google has lately been on a renaming spree, giving old apps a makeover and launching them with the Google brand attached to their very name, with the most recent examples being Google Meet and Google Chat. But Google is not just renaming G Suite to Google Workspace, the company is also introducing new icons for the services that come bundled with it such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar and Meet. And yes, all the new icons follow the same color scheme that is now an integral part of Google’s design philosophy. 

Just to remove any doubts early on, if you’re an existing G Suite customer, you don’t need to take any action, as all Google Workspace-related aesthetic and functional changes will reflect automatically for you. Aside from fresh iconography and brand identity overhaul, Google is also adding some new features to its productivity suite. To start, users can now create a document and then collaborate on it with guests in a Google Chat room. Here’s how the new feature looks in action: 

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Another useful feature is that users will now be able to see the preview of a linked Docs, Sheets or Slides file without having to open it in a separate tab. This is definitely a useful addition and reduces the friction of switching between multiple tabs or windows. Here’s how the file preview feature looks:

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Additionally, when users mention someone with an “@” prefix ina conversation, they’ll see a small window that shows the contact details of that person and some actionable suggestions such as adding them to Contacts, dropping them an email or reaching out to them via chat or a video call. 

Google has also announced that it will roll out Meet picture-in-picture to Docs, Sheets, and Slides for Google Workspace subscribers in the coming months. What this means is you can keep working on your project without missing the action in your ongoing video call. Here’s how the picture-in-picture view of Google Meet looks in action:

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Additionally, Google is now offering more affordable plans for its cloud-based productivity and collaboration suite for small businesses depending on their requirements and scale. The fresh Google Workspace tiers now include Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, and Enterprise. Google says that the Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus plans are only available for companies that have less than 300 users. You can compare the new Google Workspace editions here.

Source: Google Cloud

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