Google Updates Recap for August 23 to September 24, 2021
Here is our round-up of features from August 23 to September 24, 2021! This round of updates brings several quality-of-life improvements and features. Google Chat “Rooms” are also now being renamed to “Spaces” in preparation for the new Spaces features coming soon.
Gmail
Improved search in the Gmail app on Android devices
New drop down menus will soon be available in the Gmail mobile app for Android to quickly search for emails. These filtering criteria can be used separately or together to widen or narrow the scope of the search.
Feature Availability: This feature is on an “extended rollout” schedule and should be available to all users by the end of October.
Perform refined email searches with new rich filters in Gmail
Existing search chips in Gmail on the web now have richer search options to make searching for a certain email or emails faster. Now, you can select a search chip and select a suggested search criteria or begin typing. In certain fields such as the From and To fields, you can select multiple email addresses to filter on.
Note that search chips appear under the search bar after you have already initiated a search.
Feature Availability: This feature is now available to all users.
Google Calendar
Quickly start a chat with meeting participants
In Google Calendar, you will begin to see an option on calendar events in the guest list area to start a group chat that contains all of the event participants. This will allow you to quickly start a conversation with the meeting participants before, during, or after any meeting. Note that the group conversation will only contain users within the VCU Google domain and will not include external attendees (such as other Google domains or personal Gmail accounts.)
Feature Availability: This feature will be available in early to mid-October.
Use Time Insights to help better understand how you’re spending your time
Time Insights, a tool to help visualize how your time is spent across meetings and collaborators, is now available on Google Calendar. Time Insights will show you how your time is broken down in terms of what types of meeting you have vs the working hours you’ve set, how much time is spent in each meeting and how often, and who you meet the most with. This information is only available to you or anyone who you have granted “manage sharing access” permission to your calendar.
To view your Time Insights, click on the arrow in the “Time Insights” area located on the left of the screen in Google Calendar on the web to view basic information:
Then you can click “More insights” to see more details information, which appears on the right side of the page:
Feature Availability: This feature is available to all VCU users.
Google Meet
Google Meet now helps prevent echo in meetings
Google Meet will now notify you if it detects noticeable echoing coming from your system that may be heard by other meeting participants. Google Meet usually does automatic reduction of detected echo, but echoing can still occur. Now, a red dot indicator will appear on the “More options” button with a text notification that says “You’re causing echo.”
Clicking the notification will bring you to the “Troubleshooting & help” area and will provide you with this feedback to reduce echoing:
- Use headphones
- Lower your speaker volume
- Mute yourself when not speaking
Feature Availability: This feature is available to all VCU users.
Automatic light balancing in low-light situations
Automatic adjustment for low-light using AI has previously been available on the Google Meet app on mobile devices. Now, this feature is coming to Meet for the web. This feature will use AI to automatically adjust your video for situations where there is too much light or not enough light to improve visibility. You will also be able to toggle this option on or off in your video settings similarly to automatic noise cancellation.
Feature Availability: This feature will be available in early to mid-October.
Google Chat
View the corresponding message for a Task in the Tasks menu for a Chat Room
Now when viewing a Task created in a Google Chat Room (or “Space”), you will be able to jump back to the corresponding chat message. This will make it easier to locate the context surrounding the Task and request additional information. This is available in the Tasks area for a Room/Space both on the web and Google Chat and Gmail mobile app.
Feature Availability: This feature is available to all VCU Users on the web and should appear soon on mobile.
Google Chat “Rooms” now appear as “Spaces” in Gmail and mobile apps
Previously, it was announced Google Chat “Rooms” will be evolved to “Spaces” and will include a new suite of features. As part of this upcoming change, “Rooms” in Gmail now appears as “Spaces”. Note that “Rooms” may still appear in other situations, such as the Google Chat on the web and web app. More information about the upcoming Spaces experience can be found here: Enabling hybrid work with Google Workspace.
Google Docs
Smart Reply in comments in Google Docs
Smart Reply is now available in comments in Google Docs. This feature joins the Smart compose and spelling autocorrect features announced in January 2021 to make replying to comments in Docs faster and easier. Now, you will see relevant suggestions to reply with. To use a suggestion, simply select it to quickly send it.
Note this feature will already be ON by default. It can be disabled or re-enabled by going under Tools → Preferences → Show Smart Reply suggestions.
Feature Availability: This feature is now available to all users.
Google Sheets
Intelligent Formula and Function Suggestions
You will now see in-line, context aware suggestions for formulas and functions when working with data in Google Sheets. These suggestions will make it easier to more quickly and accurately insert relevant formulas for data analysis.
You will see these suggestions as you begin to type a formula, and can either select the suggested formula or select from an additional selection of relevant formulas.
Note this feature will already be ON by default. It can be disabled or re-enabled by going under Tools → Enable formula suggestions or from the three-dot menu of the suggestion dialog box.
Feature Availability: This feature is now available to all users.
Categories Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Feature Updates and Changes, Google Meet, Google Sheets, Google Workspace News