Collaboration Services News and Updates

Google Updates Recap: September 2024

This month we have some quality of life upgrades for Google Drive and Google Meet and improved tables and dropdown chips for Google Sheets.

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].

Gmail

Reply to emails in Gmail faster on Android devices

Previously, there were only options to Reply, Reply all or Forward a message when in the conversation view of an email on your Gmail app. Upon selecting one of those options, you’d be directed to a full screen compose view to send your reply. 

Now, you can reply to emails directly from the bottom of the conversation, without opening a new screen, making it easier to reference the email you’re replying to. We know this new option is best for quick, lightweight responses, so for longer, more formal responses, you can simply expand the text box to access more formatting options.

Feature Availability: This feature is currently rolling out for Android phones, with iOS availability to come later this year.

Google Drive

Save files scanned in the Google Drive Android app as a .JPEG

Currently, users can scan files as PDFs with their Android mobile device using the Google Drive app. Users can now choose whether to save scanned files as a PDF or a JPEG.

For more information about file scanning via the Google Drive app, visit: Scan files as PDFs with your mobile device – Google Workspace Learning Center.

Feature Availability: This feature is now available on Android devices.

Send emails about your files to collaborators using the sharing dialog in Workspace apps

Through the “sharing dialog” in Google Drive files, editors of the file and the owner can now send emails directly from the dialog to notify collaborators.

To get started, click Share → Click on the Email people on this file ✉️ icon next to “People with access” → Select the email recipients and add a custom message. 

Feature Availability: This feature is now available.

Google Meet

Picture-in-picture in Google Meet will now open automatically when switching tabs

When switching tabs during a Google Meet, picture-in-picture mode will automatically open, making it easier to use this feature and stay engaged in meetings.

This feature can be turned on or off by updating the site setting for Google Meet in your web browser:

For more information about picture-in-picture mode in Google Meet, visit: Use picture-in-picture with Google Meet.

Feature Availability: This feature is anticipated to be available on or before September 25, 2024 for Google Chrome.

Google Meet provides consolidated email for all meeting artifacts

After a Google Meet ends, you will now receive a consolidated email of all of the files (or “artifacts”) that are generated during or because of the meeting, such as transcripts, recordings, polling results, Q&A questions, etc., making it easier to locate the items and reducing email clutter.

Feature Availability: This feature is now available.

Google Sheets

Improving tables in Google Sheets

Several improvements to tables in Google Sheets have been added, including:

• The ability to add rows or columns by just clicking a button
  
• Automatically set column types when converting a range to a table.
  
• Drag values down or across to auto-fill cells, which expands the table automatically.
  
• Use spaces in table names, meaning you can name something “Project tracker” instead of “Project_tracker”.
  

For more information about using Tables in Google Sheets, visit: Use tables in Google Sheets – Google Docs Editors Help.

Feature Availability: These improvements are now available.

Allow dropdown chips to have multiple selections in Google Sheets

Previously, dropdown chips could only allow selection of one option at a time. Now, you can choose to allow multiple options to be selected.

For more information about dropdown chips, visit: Create an in-cell dropdown list – Google Docs Editors Help.

Feature Availability: This feature is now available.

Categories Gmail, Google Drive & Docs Editors, Google Feature Updates and Changes, Google Meet, Google Sheets, Google Workspace News