Collaboration Services News and Updates

Google Updates Recap for March 7 to April 8, 2022

In this recap, we will begin to include a table of contents for our updates recaps to provide an easy-to-scan outline of the contents of the post and make it easier to find what you’re looking for. We’re also excited to announce more of the previously announced features from the last Google Cloud event are now being launched, and more of the new Spaces features for Google Chat are also now on the way!

Gmail

Now Available: New integrated view for Gmail features email, Google Meet, Google Chat, and Spaces in one place

As mentioned in our previous blog post, the option to opt into the new integrated look in Gmail is now available. Opting in or out of the new look is available in Gmail settings and the option to be opted out will be available until June 2022 when the new look becomes the default for everyone.

Beginning February 11, 2022:	Users can opt-in to test the new experience, allowing them to try it out and become more accustomed to it. Users can revert to classic Gmail via settings.
By April 2022:	Users who have not opted-in will begin seeing the new experience by default, but can revert to classic Gmail via settings.
By the end of June 2022:	This will become the standard experience for Gmail, with no option to revert back.Around the same time, users will also begin seeing the new streamlined navigation experience on Chat web (mail.google.com/chat). Important Note: This also means users will not have the option to configure Chat to display on the right side of Gmail.

Feature Availability: The option to opt in is now available to all users. 

Google Calendar

Develop Google Workspace add-ons to attach files to Calendar events from third-party services

Developers can now create Google Workspace add-ons to attach files to events from third-party services. With the addition of the feature, you will now be able to select an attachment from an add-on that has attachable items, such as files from a different service. To see this option appear, you will need to add a compatible Google Workspace add-on first from the Google Workspace Marketplace.

Information regarding getting started with developing for Google Calendar can be found at the following links:

• Extending Calendar with Google Workspace add-ons | Apps Script
• Calendar actions | Apps Script | Google Developers

Feature Availability: These developer options are now available.

Create externally friendly booking pages with appointment scheduling in Google Calendar

In Google Calendar, a new appointment slots experience is now available with additional features with a focus on use with external users. Now when scheduling a block of schedule-able appointments you will be able to set options such as appointment duration, day and time availability, repeat settings, scheduling window, location and conferencing, booking form customizations, and default reminder for booked appointments. For a preview of the process, Google has provided the GIF below:

With the present appointment scheduling features, you can already create a page that shows available appointment slots and add meeting information to all scheduled appointments. However, with the new appointment scheduling experience, you have added freedom to customize how your appointment slots are set up in addition to an overhauled experience for end users who schedule appointments. A new user interface for both setting up an appointment schedule as well as viewing and providing a link to open the associated booking page has been added in this update. 

A focus on allowing external users to schedule appointments will open the door to use cases such as external customers and consultations, but can be used in the internal VCU setting as well such as booking hours with an advisor or instructor, or scheduling a Q/A session with an HR representative. The focus on external users will allow individuals without Google accounts to schedule appointments.

In addition, additional functionality has been added to help avoid scheduling conflicts with existing events on your calendar.

To see how the features between appointment slots and appointment schedules differ and determine which you should use, we would recommend visiting this page: Learn about appointment schedules on Google Calendar

Feature Availability: This feature is now available to all users.

Google Chat

View additional Calendar statuses in Google Chat

In addition to seeing when someone is out of the office in Google Chat, you can now also view another’s Calendar status to see if they are in a meeting or in focus time. This status will appear when chatting with an individual who is currently in a scheduled Google Calendar meeting or focus time and can let you know if there may be a delayed response or if you should send your message at a later time. 

View your current status from the “Your status” area or set your own by selecting “Write your own”.

View Calendar statuses in Google Chat for mobile.

Feature Availability: This feature is currently rolling out to all users and is expected to be available on or before April 14, 2022. 

Enable discovery and sharing of Spaces in Google Chat

You can now create spaces in Google Chat that you can share with others in VCU to join via link. These spaces can have this discoverability option set at the time of creation.

When a Space is set to be allowed to be discovered, it will be searchable from the “New Chat”/”New Space” option, then selecting “Browse spaces.”

With this launch, a new way to allow individuals to join your Space outside of directly inviting them is now possible. This update allows for the creation of topic-based conversations that can be shared more broadly within an organization. This can be particularly useful for spaces that are oriented around: 

• Sharing knowledge widely with others, including team discussions, how-to guides and mentoring opportunities. 
• Organizational and policy updates. 
• Situations where you need to quickly gather interested folks or those with relevant expertise, for example to investigate an outage. 
• Cultural and social topics of interest, like reading, sports, or cooking. 

Select your Space’s discovery setting when creating it.

Copy a link to share with others under the “More options” menu.

Easily and quickly join a Space by its link.

Notes:

• Currently, a Space can only have its discovery settings changed at the time of creation. 
• Currently, only individuals in the same domain as the Space can join a Space with domain-wide discovery settings enabled, even when using the link.

Feature Availability: This feature is currently rolling out to all users and is expected to be available on or around May 7, 2022. 

Google Docs

More assistive writing suggestions in Google Docs

Google Docs will now provide additional writing suggestions in your documents which provide suggestions such as tone and style, which can make your documents more impactful.

Google Docs now provides suggestions for:

• Word choice: More dynamic or contextually relevant wording 
• Active voice: Active rather than passive voice 
• Conciseness: More concise phrases 
• Inclusive language: More inclusive words or phrases 
• Word warnings: Reconsidering potentially inappropriate words

Note: This feature will be on by default. It can be enabled or disabled under Tools → Spelling and grammar → Stylistic Suggestions.

Feature Availability: This feature is currently rolling out to all users and is expected to be available on or before April 29, 2022.

New Emoji reactions in Google Docs on web

In Google Docs on the web, you can now react with emojis to content with your document. This will give a less formal option to react and share your feelings regarding the content within a document. The option to react will appear alongside the options to comment on or suggest edits when selecting content in a Doc. 

Additional notes regarding this release include: 

• The Emoji set to be used will be Emoji 14.0.
• Skin-tone and gender preference are saved per emoji. 
  • These preferences are also shared from Google Chat and will already be selected if they were already selected.
• Gender-neutral options are available where applicable

Feature Availability: This feature is anticipated to be available by or shortly after April 22, 2022.

Google Drive

Compose with Markdown in Google Docs, Slides, and Drawings on the web

In Google Docs, Slides, and Drawings, you can now use the Markdown syntax to apply formatting to text. Markdown syntax is a lightweight markup language that is used to apply formatting to text, such as bolding, italics, underlining, etc. Google Docs can be allowed to automatically detect and autocorrect Markdown syntax in your document by enabling it under Tools → Preferences → Automatically detect Markdown.

Presently, Google Docs already supports and autocorrects the following markdown syntax: 

• Starting a new line with * or – starts, then typing a space automatically corrects to bullet points / an unordered list
• Various ways to start a numbered list, such as starting a new line with a number or roman numerals, then typing a dot then a space
• [] (an opening and closing square bracket) followed by a space starts checkboxes

Now with this addition, support has been added for:

• Headings (each heading level is indicated by starting a line with one or more #, then a space, e.g. ## to indicate a level 2 Header.)
  • Only available in Google Docs
• Italics (surrounding text with one underscore or one asterisk on both sides, e.g. _like this_ or *like this*)
• Bold (surrounding text with two underscores or two asterisks on both sides, e.g. __like this__ or **like this**)
• Both Bold and Italics (surround text with three underscores or three asterisks on both sides, e.g. ___like this___ or ***like this***)
• Strikethrough (surrounding text with one hyphen on both sides, e.g. -like this-)
• Links (surrounding your link text in square brackets and surrounding your link in parentheses with no space between the closing bracket and opening parenthesis, e.g. [Visit my Blog for More Features News!](https://blogs.vcu.edu/drgee) )
• The above can be combined with each other.

For more information regarding use of Markdown in Google Docs editors, please visit: Use Markdown in Google Docs, Slides, & Drawings – Docs Editors Help

Feature Availability: This feature is anticipated to be available by or shortly after April 13, 2022.

Google Meet

Google Meet attendance reports available now for meetings with two or more participants

Google Meet now will automatically produce an attendance report if a meeting has 2 or more participants. This minimum requirement has been decreased from the previous minimum of 5 participants.

For more information about attendance reports, please visit this link: Track attendance in Google Meet

Note: Presently, the link above contains information regarding turning automatic attendance reports off via an in-meeting setting. Unfortunately, this setting is not yet available but we anticipate it will be soon to provide another level of granularity for controlling your Meets. 

If needed, an automatic Gmail filter can be set to automatically archive these emails so they skip the Inbox and/or have a label automatically applied. More information on how to create an automatic email filter can be found at this link: Create rules to filter your emails – Gmail Help

Feature Availability: This feature is now available to all users.

Additional improvements for Google Meet

Two new improvements have been added to Google Meet:

• When you are the only one in a meeting, after five minutes you will receive a prompt to confirm whether you want to stay in the meeting. 
  • The prompt will indicate you will have two minutes to respond and then will end the meeting after the two minutes has ended.
  • A setting will be available to prevent automatic disconnection from meetings in Settings → General
  • A similar prompt will appear if you have been waiting to join a meeting for a long time (after you’ve clicked “Ask to join”)
• Currently, the host controls can be accessed from multiple locations while in a Google Meet. This update will consolidate all of those into a singular “Host controls” menu, which is already present for Hosts and Co-hosts of a Meet in the bottom right corner.

After waiting 5 minutes, a prompt will appear asking if you want to stay in the call or leave now.

A setting can be toggled to prevent automatic leaving of empty calls under Settings → General.

The new consolidated location of the Host controls can be found in the bottom-right corner of the Meet for Hosts and Co-hosts.

Feature Availability: 

• Automatic disconnection for empty Meets: This feature will be available by or shortly after April 18, 2022 for Meet on the web and iOS, and will be available for Android at a later date.
• Host controls update: This change is now available to all users.

Google Sheets

Google Sheets doubles cell limit

The maximum number of possible cells in a Google Sheet has been increased from five million cells to ten million. This applies to both new, existing, and imported spreadsheets.

Feature Availability: This feature is now available to all users.

Categories Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Drive, Google Feature Updates and Changes, Google Meet, Google Sheets, Google Workspace News, Other Google Feature News