Google Apps customers can now whitelist external domains for cross-sharing

Customers of Google’s Internet-based productivity suite, this one’s for you: As an Apps for Business or Education admin, you can now whitelist specific outside domains to share files with people across organizations.

Many companies using Google Apps for Business rightly restrict data sharing only to those email accounts that fall under the company’s own domain. There could be no greater nightmare than accidentally sharing an acquisition offer with a competing bidder, for example, and we all know of instances when we sent a message to the wrong person.

What this new tool — simply called Whitelisted Domains — does is pretty self-explanatory. Once a domain is added to the whitelist, employees at your organization will be able to work together with employees working under the whitelisted domain. Currently the products which support this whitelisted sharing include Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

In one of Google’s examples of when this might come in handy, an Apps customer may have a trusted supplier or newly acquired company who they except to communicate and collaborate with regularly. By whitelisting these partners, businesses reduce friction and get more done.

Going even further, Apps admins have the ability to toggle Whitelisted Domains on and off for specific organizational units within their companies. That way, particularly when dealing with highly-sensitive material, admins can provide this external sharing only to those who absolutely need it. As we mentioned late last month, Google Classroom has also joined the Whitelisted Domains party.

To learn more, visit the Google Help Center or read the company’s blog post.