With the rising cases of Covid 19 and the latest government policies, many companies have announced to start working remotely. In order to assist all users to quickly solve all the issues they face while working remotely, Master Concept released the latest series of “What’s new in Google” blogs (please click here to read the previous episode). In this blog, we will share a few updates in Google Workspace which we think would be helpful to all users. Hopefully these new features could help everyone who is working remotely!
Limit Google Drive sharing to specific groups
Administrators can now use Target Audiencesettings to help users accurately share projects with the right departments, teams, or groups and protect confidential corporate data from accidental outflows. In the past, when sharing files, users could only choose to share with users who have access rights, within the enterprise, or all users who have the link. After this update, it will be possible to create target audiences for department or regional teams and run more accurate File sharing, while improving safety, simplicity and accuracy. Up to five target groups can be set, and companies can set them according to their own needs such as the department (finance department, administration department, business department) or region (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan).
This update can help you with the following:
- Improve corporate security by making data more difficult to share widely
- Assist users to share documents with more specific and suitable target audiences
- Reduce the need to manage multiple file sharing requests and time-saving
- Make it easier for your users to collaborate with their colleagues simply, efficiently, and securely
Source：Google Workspace Update
Improvements for new comments/conversations on Google Doc
Google Doc is a very helpful tool when working remotely. Users can open and start editing via laptop, tablet or mobile device anytime and anywhere. Its collaborative collaboration function allows colleagues to edit the same file at the same time. In order to shorten the completion time, the smart writing and automatic pinyin correction mentioned in the previous What’s New in Google create a better experience for all users.
The “comment function” in Google Doc is a very important function when collaborating with colleagues. The main purpose is to discuss the content. The users can text to make comments, and pin colleagues who will then receive a reminder via email. But if a document has multiple annotations at the same time, the user will not be able to quickly know which is specifically marked by a colleague that needs to be modified this time.
Two updates have been made to “Comments” this time, and we hope that these updates will help you to quickly find and modify important comments and conversations.
- New comment activity since the last time you viewed a document will be “badged” with a blue dot. Additionally, when you hover over the blue dot, you’ll see a “New” banner.
- In the Comments history dialog, we added new filtering options. You can sort comments by: “For you”, “All comments”, or “Resolved”.
Source：Google Workspace Update
Separate your Work and Break time on Google Calendar
We understand that when you are working remotely, it can be hard to separate your work time and your break time.
The new update “Working Hours” in Google Calendar will effectively help you to show your working time through Google Calendar. By setting working time, the actual working time will be divided, so that colleagues can know your work time and your availability for meetings. When you are invited to participate in a non-working hours meeting, the system will display a notification to inform the organizer that the meeting time is not set within your working hours.
How to set it up?
- Clink on Setting Menu on Google Calendar -> Setting
- On your left side, click “General”, then “Working Hours”
- Click on “Enable working hours”
- You can then set your daily working hours. The system might automatically suggest your daily working hours, but you can make changes to these anytime.
- If you want to set the same working hours for all days, you can “Copy time to all”.
Source：Google Workspace Update
Customized notification frequency on Google Chat
Annoyed by so many notifications on Google Chat? Well we feel you!
With the launch of all new features on Google Chat and the integration with Google Workspace (for example: start video conferencing directly through Google Meet), companies have begun to use this instant messaging tool specially developed for companies and build them according to their needs. By adding notification setting options on Google Chat and Gmail’s Chat, you will have more control over the amount of notifications you receive instead of being overwhelmed by a large number of notifications.
You can set your notification preference to:
- Notify always:You’ll receive a notification for every message and new messages will be badged.
- Notify less:You’ll receive notifications and badges for direct mentions, @all mentions, and followed threads. Additionally, there is an option to be notified about new threads in threaded rooms.
- Notifications off: You will receive no notifications, but you’ll see a badge if you’re directly mentioned.
Source：Google Workspace Update
New & Improved Google Chat UI on the Web
In order to provide users with a better experience, Google has updated the interface of the web version of Google Chat (chat.google.com) and Progressive Web Application (PWA). The new interface is similar to the Chat interface in Gmail, providing users with a consistent chat experience, and adding some integrated functions to effectively improve work productivity.
This update includes：
- In Chat rooms, you can now access shared files and tasks via tabs at the top of the room
- At the top of the chat room, icons like “Chat” and “File” are added, reducing the time for accessing the file and change of applications.
- Easily search any keyword on personal or group conversation on Search bar
- Integration with Google Meet which can start any meeting instantly
- Personal conversations or top conversations in chat rooms will be placed on the top of the personal conversation or chat room field, instead of in a separate “top” block
Source：Google Workspace Update
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