Google Data

Today, we’re announcing that as of July 1, 2016, we will discontinue support for Drive for Mac/PC sync client versions 1.22 and lower and going forward, any Google Drive for Mac/PC versions which are older than 1 year old.

Newer versions of the sync client offer several performance and security updates. We recommend that you take the following actions as soon as possible:

• If you manage your users’ installations, upgrade by following the instructions in the “Install Google Drive for Mac/PC” Google Apps Administrator Help Center article.
• If users have installed the client on their own, direct them to the “Install Google Drive for your Mac/PC” Drive Help Center article for end-users.

OS X and Windows users may check what version of the sync client they are using by clicking on the Drive for Mac/PC menu (which appear as three dots) and then clicking About. The dialog that appears will include the version number on it. Users still on versions 1.22 and lower after July 1, 2016 will no longer be able to sync files between Google Drive and local storage using Google Drive for Mac/PC.

In the coming weeks, we’ll also be contacting domain administrators whose users currently use older versions of Google Drive for Mac/PC and provide guidance on the appropriate migration path.

Release track:
Rapid release and Scheduled release

We recently announced that the new Google Contacts is available for preview from the Admin console. By enabling the preview, administrators can allow their users access to the new Google Contacts, along with the many benefits that come with it, like a new fresh look and improved contact merge features.

One popular request from Google Apps users was the ability to easily import their contacts into Google Contacts. We’re happy to announce that starting today, the ability to import contacts, powered by ShuttleCloud, is now available for Google Apps users.

Getting started for administrators

• Administrators must first enable the “Contacts Preview” for their users via Apps > Google Apps > Settings for Contacts > Advanced Settings
  

Posted by Matt Ward, Software Engineer

(Cross-posted on Google for Education blog) 

In August 2015 we launched YouTube Settings in Google Apps to give schools and other organizations a way to manage the YouTube experience for users logged in to their domains and on networks they manage. Today we’re happy to announce a number of new features to make these more flexible and easier to use.

Channel whitelisting
Administrators and designated approvers can now whitelist entire channels, not just individual videos. For example, if you want to ensure that all current and future videos uploaded to your organization or school’s channel are watchable by your users, you can now simply add the entire channel to your approved list. Learn how to designate approvers.

More flexible options for administrators
Administrators have new capabilities to help them manage YouTube to meet the needs of their organization.

• Administrators can now choose between two levels of Restricted Mode restrictions — strict or moderate — for their logged-in users. 

• Network managers can now use an HTTP header to enforce either strict or moderate restricted mode on managed devices. 
• Network managers can also use this new DNS configuration if they want to enforce moderate restricted mode on wifi networks they manage.
• Coming soon, logged-out users on YouTube’s mobile apps on restricted networks will also get a restricted experience. 
• And since we know this can be tricky to set up, network managers can visit this page to ensure their network restrictions have been configured correctly. 

YouTube for Schools
In August we announced that we would no longer be maintaining YouTube for Schools (YT4S). As of July 1, 2016, YT4S will no longer be available. View the YouTube Settings in Google Apps Help Center for additional details.

More information
Learn how to enable YouTube settings for your Google Apps domain and join the discussion in the product forum.

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Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace: 
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact: 
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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Working with long and complicated formulas is tough enough as is; you shouldn’t have to struggle to simply read them. Fortunately, this launch makes it easier to view and type those lengthy equations in Google Sheets on the web, by allowing you to drag and expand the formula bar.

Only have view or comment access to a spreadsheet? Previously, it was difficult to read the entire content of a cell containing a large amount of text. With this launch, you can simply click the bottom of the function bar and drag it up or down to make it big enough to see everything within it.

Check out the Help Center for more information on working with formulas in Sheets.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Add formulas and functions to a spreadsheet

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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We’re pleased to announce that Google Drive will now support web notifications when your colleagues share Google Drive files with you, or request access to files.

Please note:

• Users must opt-in to turn on notifications.
• This feature will only be visible while using Google Chrome. 
• Users can control which notifications they receive, on a per-device basis.

To make users aware of these notifications, Google Drive will show a message in the bottom left of the document list, outlining the benefits with a link to enable the feature.

Posted by Vartika Agarwal, Technical Program Manager, Identity & Authentication, and Wesley Chun, Developer Advocate, Google

(Cross-posted on Google Apps Developer Blog)

As we indicated several years ago, we are moving away from the OAuth 1.0 protocol in order to focus our support on the current OAuth standard, OAuth 2.0, which increases security and reduces complexity for developers. OAuth 1.0 (3LO)* was shut down on April 20, 2015. During this final phase, we will be shutting down OAuth 1.0 (2LO) on October 20, 2016. The easiest way to migrate to the new standard is to use OAuth 2.0 service accounts with domain-wide delegation.

If the migration for applications using these deprecated protocols is not completed before the deadline, those applications will experience an outage in their ability to connect with Google, possibly including the ability to sign-in, until the migration to a supported protocol occurs. To avoid any interruptions in service for your end-users, it is critical that you work to migrate your application(s) prior to the shutdown date.

With this step, we continue to move away from legacy authentication/authorization protocols, focusing our support on modern open standards that enhance the security of Google accounts and that are generally easier for developers to integrate with. If you have any technical questions about migrating your application, please post them to Stack Overflow under the tag google-oauth.

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*3LO stands for 3-legged OAuth: there’s an end-user that provides consent. In contrast, 2-legged (2LO) doesn’t involve an end-user and corresponds to enterprise authorization scenarios such as enforcing organization-wide policy control access.

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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In the Google Sheets Android app today, you can insert charts, change their types, and move, resize, and delete them. With this launch, we’re giving you the ability to do even more, including:

• Add or change a chart’s title.
• Add or change the titles of a chart’s X and Y axes.
• Change the color of a series in a chart.
• Specify where the chart’s legend should be located.

Check out the Help Center for more information on creating and editing charts in the Sheets Android app.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Edit and format your chart

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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An internet connection isn’t always easy to come by, but that shouldn’t stop your employees from completing their work. That’s why we give Google Apps admins the option of allowing their users to enable offline access to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files. Once an individual user has enabled offline access in Google Drive, a subset of their Docs, Sheets, and Slides files are synced to their computer or device. The specific files synced are based on certain criteria, primarily recency. 

With this launch, we’ll allow end users to choose the specific files they want to make available for offline access when they’re working in a Chrome browser on their desktop computer. This will make it easy for individuals to work anywhere, anytime, even when they don’t have an internet connection. To make a file available for offline access, a user simply needs to visit the Docs, Sheets, or Slides home screen and toggle the Available offline switch in a file’s overflow menu to ON.

Please note that this feature will only be available to users working in a Chrome browser on desktop and whose admins have allowed them to enable offline access in Drive. For more information, check out the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming in two weeks

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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Google Drive for Mac/PC — the app that syncs your computer with Google Drive — is an easy way to make sure your files are safe and accessible from anywhere. Today, we are releasing new features that make your syncing and sharing experience better (and faster, too).

• Select which subfolders sync to your computer

  While syncing top-level folders is already possible, you can now choose which subfolders from My Drive to sync to your desktop.

  To do this, click  Preferences > Sync Options > Only these folders… Here, you’ll be presented with a list of subfolders from Google Drive that you can check or uncheck to enable or disable syncing.
  

• Manage your local storage transparently

  While you get tons of storage with Google Drive, your local desktop may not have the same amount of free disk space. Now, Drive’s interface will show the size of your individual subfolders as well as the space remaining on your computer. It will also warn you if there is not enough space to sync.

  On top of that, during setup, if the default folders don’t fit, Drive will guide you to use selective sync to help you better manage your storage space from the start.

• See warnings before deleting or moving shared files
  When you’re working with folders on your computer, moving and deleting things is simple. But, doing that with shared files or folders can cause others to lose access. Now, Drive warns you so you’ll know if someone might lose access.
  

Please note that Google Apps administrators must first choose whether their users are allowed to use the Google Drive sync client from the Admin console, before it can be used.

• For steps on how to enable or disable this feature, visit this Help Center article.
• If you manage MSI files to install programs on behalf of your Windows users, visit this Help Center article to obtain the latest Drive for PC .msi file.

The improved Google Drive sync client is available now on both Windows and Mac here.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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A new version of the Google Drive for Android app is coming to Google Play. New features include:

Calendars should help users make the most of their time. That’s why starting today, we’re introducing a new feature called Goals in Google Calendar on Android and iPhone to help users find time for personal activities. With Goals, users can add a goal and Calendar will help them find the time and stick to these goals.

Goals are easy to set up
To set a goal (like “Work out more”), a user must simply answer a few questions (like “How often?” and “Best time?”). From there Calendar will look at the user’s schedule and find the best windows to pencil in time for that goal. Goals created in Google Calendar will have the same privacy setting as the default calendar setting.

Goals adjust to your busy life
Goals aren’t easy—especially when the unexpected comes up—but Calendar can help adjust in a number of important ways. For example, Calendar will automatically reschedule if a user adds another event that’s a direct conflict with a goal.

Users can also defer a goal at any time, and Calendar will make time for it later.

Finally, Calendar actually gets better at scheduling the more it is used—if a goal is deferred or edited then Calendar will choose even better times in the future.

To get started, users can download the Google Calendar app on Android or iPhone, and set their first goal.

Please note: Currently, events created through Goals does not take into account secondary calendars or other personal calendars synced to the device.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information  
Help Center: Goals
Get the latest Google Calendar Android app on Google Play
Get the latest Google Calendar iPhone app in the App Store

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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In March, we introduced the ability to quickly and easily scroll through Google Docs files on your Android phone or tablet. We’re excited to announce that we’re now launching that same functionality for your iOS device. Starting today, when you begin scrolling in Google Docs on your iPhone or iPad, a small navigation handle will automatically appear on the side of the screen. Touching that handle will display any headers you’ve created or—if you haven’t manually applied them—headers that we’ve intelligently detected. This will allow you to quickly skip from section to section, instead of slowly swiping up and down.

Check out the Help Center for more information on using this feature.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Edit and use a document outline

NOTE: The image above uses material from this Wikipedia article, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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