Google Updates Recap for June 21 to July 23, 2021
Here is our round-up of features from June 21 to July 23, 2021, which largely include great quality-of-life features for the move to a hybrid on-campus/work from home style of work and improved efficiency of common activities. We are eagerly looking forward to the upcoming smart canvas features we’ve announced previously.
Google Calendar
Indicate if you’ll attend a meeting by virtual meeting or in a meeting room
Google Calendar will now allow you to indicate if you will be attending a meeting in a physical meeting room or by virtual meeting room when responding “Yes” to an RSVP. Note: This feature does not require you to have a virtual meeting attached or physical room specified to be able to specify how you’ll attend the meeting, and works with all types of virtual meeting platforms.
As VCU moves towards a more flexible hybrid workspace, students, faculty, and staff alike will be able to use this to say how they will be present in a team or group meeting, a classroom session, or even conference. This feature is still currently rolling out to all users so don’t panic if you don’t see it yet!
Google Meet
Replacing your background now available on iOS
We previously announced that replacing your background on Android was available and would be coming to iOS. We’re glad to announce this feature is now available to all users.
Similarly to Google Meet on the web and Android, your device must be compatible to use this feature. Use this page to determine if your device is compatible: Change background and use effects in Google Meet – iPhone & iPad – Google Meet Help.
Captions in live-streams
Live captions have already been available in Google Meet, and recently were expanded to be available in other languages for live translation. Now, live captions can also be enabled in live-streams and includes the live-caption languages already available in Meet (English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.)
Improvements to Hand Raise in Meet
Several improvements have been made to the Hand Raise feature in Google Meet.
These features include:
- An updated and improved visual icon and animation on the video tile
- Tiles of people with raised hands may be moved to make them more visible in the video grid
- An audio notification for all participants when the first raised hand is raised
- A clickable notification that shows the number of raised hands and links to an ordered queue of all of the participants with raised hands
- Participant hands are automatically lowered when they speak
Google Chat
Improved search on Android mobile devices
Searching for files in Google Chat on Android devices is now quicker through the use of interactive filters that help you find files and links more easily. Search results also now show a balanced view of search results and also now include the content of the messages. This feature is rolling out for Android now and is slated to be released for Desktop web browsers and iOS by the end of July, 2021.
Filter using different search chips in Chat
Filters will be visible below chat search bar
Use the ‘Said in’ filter to narrow down to the conversations that matter
Chat now suggests Group chats based on Calendar events
In a previous blog post, we announced that Google Chat would provide 1:1 chat suggestions based on upcoming Google Calendar events to enable you to more easily indicate, for example, if you were running late.
Now you will also get suggestions for group chats if you’re meeting with multiple people. Similarly to 1:1 chat suggestions, group chat suggestions will appear at the top of the “Chat” sections in Chat in Gmail and full Google Chat, and the suggestion will be available 10 minutes prior to the meeting and 10 minutes after the meeting.
Google Sheets
Select multiple tabs in Google Sheets to perform basic actions in bulk
You can now select multiple tabs in a Google Sheet to perform some basic actions on multiple tabs at once, such as moving multiple tabs at once, and deleting, duplicating, copying to, coloring, and hiding.
