Google Updates Recap: August 2024
This month, we’re bringing you news of new and improved update notifications in Google Sheets, a new Google Meet LTI integration in Canvas, continued improvements to appointment schedules in Google Calendar, and more.
Table of contents
Important Notices
Jamboard is winding down
Google has announced that Jamboard, their collaborative whiteboarding tool, is winding down. Jamboard files will become view-only beginning October 1, 2024, and after December 31, 2024, Jamboard will no longer be accessible and all Jamboard files will automatically be converted to a PDF format.
Notice emails have been sent from [email protected] to Jamboard users with necessary steps to take before October 1, 2024.
For any questions, please email us at [email protected].
Google Calendar
Enhancing the Google Calendar appointment scheduling experience with additional features
Appointment schedules in Google Calendar are receiving several highly requested features:
- Repeating weekly schedules now have more flexibility to accommodate, for example, bi-weekly schedules.
- Bookers (and co-hosts) can now add other guests or rooms to booked events. This feature is only available if the user creating the appointment schedule selects the “Guests can invite others” option during setup or edit of the schedule.
- Finally, the appointment schedule creator can now add Google Groups as co-hosts during the setup process so users can more easily host appointments with others.
For more information about appointment schedules, visit: Create an appointment schedule – Google Calendar Help and Customize your appointment availability – Google Calendar Help.
Feature Availability: This feature is now available.
Google Chat
Catch up on followed threads from the home shortcut in Google Chat
Updates for threads you’re following will now appear in the Home section in Google Chat, allowing you to more easily see updates at a glance without going into the specific Spaces where conversations are happening.
Note: The following ways will result in you following a thread:
- You are the author of the main message that a thread was initiated from.
- You are explicitly following (via the “Follow” button).
- You have replied via thread or were mentioned.
- You have set the notification setting of the corresponding space to notify for “All”.
If a thread is no longer relevant to you, you can “Unfollow” it via the button in Home.
Feature Availability: This feature is currently rolling out and is anticipated to be available on or before September 30, 2024.
Google Drive & Docs Editors
Automatically generated captions for videos in Google Drive
Videos uploaded to Google Drive will now have a captions track automatically generated for them. Videos uploaded previously will not automatically be captioned, but users will have the option to generate them with a new button.
Currently, this feature supports generating captions in English, with additional languages to be added in the future.
For more information about automatically generated captions for videos in Google Drive, visit: Add caption tracks to your video files – Google Drive Help.
Feature Availability: This feature is now available.
Import and export Markdown in Google Docs
Google Docs now supports the importing and exporting of Markdown formatted documents and copying/pasting of Markdown formatted text into and from Google Docs.
These new features includes:
- Convert Markdown to Docs content on paste
- Copy Docs content as Markdown
- Export a Doc as Markdown (from File > Download)
- Import Markdown as a Doc (from File > Open or “Open with Google Docs” from Drive)
Note: The import and export options are ON by default. The “Copy as Markdown” and “Paste from “Markdown” options will be OFF by default and can be enabled in Docs by going to Tools → Preferences → Enable Markdown.
For more information about using Markdown in Google Docs, Slides, and Drawings, visit: Use Markdown in Google Docs, Slides, & Drawings
Feature Availability: This feature is now available.
Google Meet
Pre-configure recordings and transcripts from the Calendar invite
When creating a Google Calendar invite with a Google Meet attached, the Google Meet can now be pre-configured to begin recording and transcribing when someone with the appropriate host controls joins the meeting. When this is turned on in the Meet’s calendar settings, the resulting recording and transcription are saved in the calendar event creator’s Google Drive.
For more information about this feature, visit: Start or schedule a Google Meet video meeting.
Feature Availability: This feature is now available.
Introducing Google Meet LTI™
LTIs, or Learning Tools Interoperability, are integrations used in our learning management system Canvas that expand functionality from third parties. Now, in addition to the Google Drive and Google Assignments LTIs, the Google Meet LTI will soon be available.
The Google Meet LTI provides instructors and students with an easy and intuitive interface for both scheduled and unscheduled meetings, such as scheduled lectures and daily office hours respectively.
The new Google Meet LTI allows an instructor to set up both ongoing and scheduled meeting instances that can be joined during available times and is protected by the course’s roster. In addition to a list of unscheduled and scheduled meetings, a “meeting artifacts” tab will be available where students can locate materials from previous meetings such as recordings, transcriptions, and more can be easily located.
For more information about using the new Google Meet LTI, visit:
- Instructors: Create, edit & delete meetings – Google Workspace LTI Help
- Join meetings – Google Workspace LTI Help
- Open Meet artifacts – Google Workspace LTI Help
Feature Availability: We’re anticipating this feature to be available in VCU’s Canvas instance in late October, 2024.
Google Sheets
Stay up to date on important changes in your Google Sheets
In order to provide greater visibility into spreadsheet changes most relevant to your workflow and help enable more efficient team communication, Google is introducing conditional notifications in Sheets.
These allow you to create rules in spreadsheets that send email notifications when certain criteria are met. When a specific change is made, such as a column value change or a specific range of cell changes, you will receive an email notification with alerts of what occurred in the spreadsheet and who made the update. You also have the option to configure the notifications for others by inputting their email addresses during the notification setup.
Some examples of ways this can be used include:
- Tasks have changed status
- A number drops below a specified value
- Items are checked off on a list
If you own or have edit-access to a Sheet, you can set notifications when:
- A range of cells changes value
- A range of cells matches a particular condition
To set conditional notifications, open your spreadsheet, go to Tools → Conditional notifications → Add rule. You can also right-click directly on a spreadsheet and select Conditional notifications.
The rules are assigned default names automatically. However, you can update the name of the rule by utilizing the text editor.
For more information about conditional notifications, visit: Use conditional notifications – Google Docs Editors Help.
Feature Availability: This feature is now available.
Categories Google Calendar, Tasks, and Keep, Google Chat, Google Drive & Docs Editors, Google Feature Updates and Changes, Google Meet, Google Workspace News, Other Google Feature News