Gmail and other Google Workspace apps will stop supporting Internet Explorer 11 in 2021

Abner Li | Dec 8 2020 - 2:24 pm PT

While Microsoft is clearly focused on iterating the Chromium version of Edge, the company’s previous browser is still available. Google announced today that Workspace apps will cease support for Internet Explorer 11 in March.

This comes as Microsoft Teams dropped support for IE11 on November 30, while other Microsoft 365 apps will follow on August 17, 2021.

In light of that, Google Workspace apps will stop supporting Internet Explorer 11 on March 15, 2021. This includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive, Docs/Sheets/Slides, Meet, Chat, Keep, Currents, and more. The sites will presumably still load on that date and continue to do so in the short term, but some functionality might break as Google will no longer work to ensure compatibility. This will help the company conserve engineering resources.

Over the next few weeks we’ll start showing a banner to all Google Workspace users still using IE 11 that informs them of the need to upgrade their browser by March 15, 2021.

IE11 users visiting Workspace apps over the coming weeks will encounter a banner about the upcoming change. Google officially recommends Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge to “avoid any possible disruptions in service such as degraded performance or security vulnerabilities.”

Today’s announcement is mostly aimed at the enterprise, and impacts all Google Workspace customers:

Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers