Collaboration Services News and Updates

Table of contents

• Released Feature Highlights of 2022
• Inline threaded conversations in Google Chat
• New integrated view for Gmail features email, Google Meet, Google Chat, and Spaces in one place
• Create externally friendly booking pages with appointment scheduling in Google Calendar
• Join a Google Meet call from Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides
• Cut, copy and paste files using keyboard shortcuts in Google Drive Web
• Rich text formatting in Google Forms titles and descriptions
• What Features Can We Expect in 2023?
• Custom building blocks in Google Docs
• In-meeting reactions for Google Meet
• More News to Come, and More to Read
• Upcoming Storage Changes
• Training Opportunities
• New IT Status Page

Released Feature Highlights of 2022

Inline threaded conversations in Google Chat

Google Chat’s inline threaded conversations, a replacement for conversations organized by topic, became available in November. This popular method of threading keeps messages organized in a linear fashion while providing an organized method for separate conversations to take place.

Original Blog Post:  Google Updates Recap for August 22 to October 21, 2022

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

At the start of 2022, Google announced Gmail would get a fresh coat of paint with their new integrated view, putting Gmail, Google Meet, Chat, and Chat Spaces in one clean and streamlined view. By December, this integrated experience became the default experience for everyone.

You can choose whether to show Google Meet and Google Chat + Chat Spaces through the Settings Gear ⚙️ icon located in the top right corner of the page.

Original Blog Post: Google Updates Recap for January 10 to March 4, 2022

Create externally friendly booking pages with appointment scheduling in Google Calendar

Google Calendar released Appointment schedules, the predecessor to Appointment slots, to provide a new and refined experience for creating an easy-to-use and -view appointment calendar, which can be used by internal and external users alike. Appointment schedules provide additional customization and personalization options not previously available in Appointment slots, including confirmation emails and reminders, a professional booking page, and other options that make appointment scheduling easy to manage.

While appointment schedules provide more flexibility in many ways over appointment slots, some features from appointment slots haven’t made their way over yet for full feature parity, such as attaching rooms (“calendar resources”) or adding additional team members to all scheduled appointments, and creating appointment schedules on secondary (self-created) or managed calendars. Appointment slots remains available in Google Calendar settings (via the Gear ⚙️ icon) if you need to switch back and forth between the two types of appointment features.

Original Blog Post: Google Updates Recap for March 7 to April 8, 2022

Join a Google Meet call from Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides

Gone are the days when you had to repeatedly switch between tabs to participate in a Google Meet and collaborate on a Google Doc (or Sheet, or Slide). With Google Meet integration for the Docs Editors, you can now join and participate in a meeting, whether it is scheduled or ad hoc, from within the document you’re already working on. 

Original Blog Post: Google Updates Recap for April 11 to May 6, 2022

Cut, copy and paste files using keyboard shortcuts in Google Drive Web

Fans of the Control/Command + C and Control/Command + V keyboard shortcuts for copying and pasting, respectively, will enjoy this feature that enables Drive users on the web to quickly cut, copy, and paste files using their regular keyboard shortcuts. This is especially useful if you aren’t a fan of right clicking a file and navigating through the “Move” dialog. Now, you can select one or more items in Drive and use your keyboard shortcuts like you would on your computer’s desktop or in a document.

Original Blog Post: Google Updates Recap for May 9 to June 3, 2022

Rich text formatting in Google Forms titles and descriptions

A highly requested feature for Google Forms has been added, allowing users of Google Forms to apply rich text formatting to the title and description boxes for any element inserted in the form. Finally, you can now apply emphasis to that important line that always seems to be missed in form submissions, or link to a website in a much cleaner way.

Original Blog Post: Google Updates Recap for June 6 to July 22, 2022

What Features Can We Expect in 2023?

Custom building blocks in Google Docs

Building blocks make it easy to get your feet off the ground when starting a new Google Doc, whether that is to collaborate on a draft email or take meeting notes. Soon, you will be able to create custom building blocks which will make it easy to insert your own template, especially for custom frameworks that are reused. 

Estimated availability: Anticipated early this year.

In-meeting reactions for Google Meet

There’s a new way to provide a non-verbal reaction in Google Meets: In-meeting reactions, a popular way to react using emojis without needing to speak or type a message into the chat.

This option to react with an emoji will appear at the bottom the Meet, and selecting the option will give you several common emojis to choose from, as well as a skin-color picker to make your reactions your own.

You can react just once or in rapid succession – whichever accurately expresses how you feel. An icon will also appear in the top corner of your video showing your reaction as well.

Estimated availability: Jan 23, 2023 – Jan 26, 2023

More News to Come, and More to Read

As always, Google is continuously innovating and updating and we will continue to bring news updates. Our first feature updates blog post of the year will be available next week, so make sure to subscribe to the blog so you hear about it as soon as it’s released.

While you’re waiting, also check out our last blog post for 2022 covering features mentioned at Google Cloud Next here: Google Cloud Next Feature Announcements

Upcoming Storage Changes

A recent planned change from Google includes the end of unlimited data for Google Workspace for Education domains. With this change, we’re planning to launch a campaign beginning in Spring – Summer 2023 to establish guidelines and best practices for data storage and retention, such as how long to keep certain data and what to do if you’ve decided data is no longer needed.

While these changes are still forthcoming, there are steps you can take now to get ahead of the curve. For more information, visit: Storage and Retention – Collaboration Services – Virginia Commonwealth University.

Training Opportunities

Collaboration Services holds training sessions regularly for many of the Google Apps. Some of our newest ones include: 

• Getting to Know Google Meet
• Getting to Know Google Chat
• Getting to Know Google Assignments
• And more on the way

To see what courses are available and register, visit go.vcu.edu/gogoogle. Upcoming scheduled classes are also mentioned in the TelegRAM.

New IT Status Page

Technology Services has launched a new IT Status page where you can check the status of many of the services used at VCU and subscribe to find out if there is an active outage or problem, and to find out when it is resolved.

Check out the new IT Status page at https://it.vcustatus.com.

Categories General and Team News, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Feature Updates and Changes, Google Forms, Google Meet, Google Workspace News, Important Changes, Project Updates