Google Calendar already lets you specify your working hours and earlier this year added support for split schedules. Google is now letting users share day-to-day locations in Calendar amid the increase of hybrid work environments.
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With Chat serving as a key part of the integrated Gmail experience, Google lets users quickly specify their activity status. In addition to the existing availability options, you’re now able to set a custom status in Gmail and Chat on the web.
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Google is rolling out a handful of new features for Meet that focus on improving safety and security. Namely, the ability to have co-hosts in Meet calls is coming to more Google Workspace users.
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Last month, Google announced a revamp of all its emoji — nearly 1,000 characters — coming to Android 12 this fall and Chrome OS 92. These new emoji designs are also set to arrive in Google Chat over the coming weeks.
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Google today announced a “Security update” for Drive to “make file sharing more secure.” This is part of a broader company-wide change that also affects YouTube and will impact the productivity app on September 13, 2021.
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Google Chat conversations let you quickly schedule a Calendar event, add a file from Drive, or start a Meet call. The secondary file and image-sharing options in Google Chat can now be disabled by Workspace admins.
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To increase its enterprise standing and encourage adoption, Google Cloud today announced “Google Enterprise APIs” that will be governed by a stricter policy in regards to when the company changes or deprecates them.
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Back in March, Google made Assistant generally available for all enterprise accounts on Android. Workspace users will soon be able to use Google Assistant on the Nest Hub Max and other dedicated devices.
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As of last month, all personal Google Accounts can enable the new Gmail that supports Chat and Rooms. The latter aspect, which will soon be renamed to “Spaces,” allows for large-scale productivity. Gmail now supports opening a Google Slides presentation directly to allow for multitasking with Chat.
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Downtime among Google’s largest services is typically rare, but it does occur from time to time. Google is now updating the Workspace Status Dashboard and other tools that admins can use to keep track of outages.
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Google has a multi-stage plan to shut down classic Hangouts and move enterprise Workspace customers to Chat. This latest step in advancing Google Chat adoption takes place next month.
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Back in October, Google announced that Meet video calling would be available on Glass Enterprise Edition 2. Following a closed beta that required sign-up, Meet on Glass is now available for any Google Workspace customer/account.
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In addition to video backgrounds on the web, Google is rolling out the ability to change your background in Meet for Android today. This feature is initially limited to pre-selected defaults and first came to desktops last October.
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Announced last month alongside Workspace becoming available “for everyone” (i.e., free personal accounts), Google said today that its “Individual” tier is now available in five countries for those with a small business or other “passion project.”
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At the start of this year, Google announced that it was revamping its desktop client strategy for Drive. The new “Google Drive for desktop” that replaces “Backup and Sync” by adding automatic Google Photos upload is now appearing for some users.
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In the transition to Meet, Google got rid of “Hangouts on Air,” or the ability to livestream video calls directly to YouTube for anybody to view. That feature is coming back, starting for education customers this year, but until then, Google is extending who can see internal Meet livestreams.
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Following the web rollout, the Google Meet redesign is now coming to dedicated video calling hardware, like Chromebases. This is meant to ensure a consistent experience and workflow across all platforms.
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In addition to different applications being accessible all on one page, Google’s vision for the future of productivity involves having those services be tightly integrated together. The latest example of this will see Google suggestions for 1:1s in Chat based on Calendar.
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Gmail has seen a number of big changes in recent weeks, but Google is now rolling out a smaller one to the web client that better surfaces the advanced search capability to end users.
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Last month, Google started rolling out an online revamp of Chat to free consumer accounts as part of the classic Hangouts migration. That Google Chat web redesign is now coming to paid Workspace users over the coming weeks with a number of enhancements.
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Following a slew of Workspace developments in recent weeks, Google Contacts is getting visual tweaks and more information that’s particularly beneficial for people within a company.
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Google for Education today hosted The Anywhere School 2021 to reveal the latest capabilities for teachers and students. Updates include PIN login for Chromebooks and Classroom add-ons, as well as Google Meet.
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Google’s fast iteration on Meet continues with a series of upcoming new features for education customers. One particular highlight for Google Meet “in the coming months” is the return of YouTube livestreams.
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Following the official launch last week, Google Chat is picking up improved search. Starting on Android, the experience is adding filters to “help you find artifacts like files and links more easily.”
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