Google Workspace Changes

Launch of the My Account hub for centralized privacy and security management.

Google has launched My Account, a single hub that replaces the previous Google Account settings page. It features dedicated sections for managing sign-in and security settings, personal info, and privacy settings, and includes step-by-step Privacy and Security Checkups to help users safeguard their data.

Mobile image and table insertion and manipulation now available in Google Slides apps for Android and iOS.

New versions of the Google Slides app for Android and iOS now support inserting, cropping, and masking images, as well as inserting and manipulating tables. These improvements are available for both online and offline use.

Google Drive folder and page URLs will no longer include hash marks.

To improve overall performance, Google Drive is moving from using hash marks (#) to the HTML5 History API. Consequently, folder and page URLs will no longer include hash marks (e.g., /drive/#folders/ABC becomes /drive/folders/ABC). While existing links with hash marks will continue to work, this change may impact Google Apps admins or employees who parse URLs for the '#' symbol or use Chrome extensions that rely on the old URL structure.

Mobile image insertion now available in Google Docs apps for Android and iOS.

New versions of the Google Docs app for Android and iOS now allow users to insert images directly from their mobile devices. This functionality is available for both online and offline use.

New mobile app features for teachers to create, edit, and grade assignments.

Google Classroom has introduced several new features for its mobile app on iOS and Android to support teachers. Teachers can now create and edit assignments, make copies of attachments, attach new photos, grade assignments, and add private comments for students directly from their mobile devices. Additionally, they can snap pictures of whiteboards or notes to post directly to the class stream.

Deprecation of the OAuthConfig class in Apps Script

Google is shutting down the OAuthConfig class in Apps Script on July 6, 2015. Developers who use OAuthConfig to connect to OAuth-protected APIs must migrate their code to the OAuth1 or OAuth2 for Apps Script open source libraries to ensure continued functionality.

Launch of Password Alert Chrome extension to protect accounts from phishing.

Google has launched Password Alert, an open-source Chrome extension that protects Google and Google Apps accounts from phishing attacks by notifying users via email if they enter their password into a non-authentic Google sign-in page. Google Apps admins can also deploy an App Engine App to audit these events, receive notifications, and force password changes for affected employees.

New animations and direction settings for existing animations in Google Slides.

Google Slides has introduced two new animations, 'Appear' and 'Disappear', to make presentations more dynamic. Additionally, users can now set the direction (to and from left, right, top, and bottom) for the existing 'Fly in' and 'Fly out' animations.

Improved email notifications for private messages on assignments.

Google Classroom has improved its notification system so that both teachers and students will now receive email notifications whenever private messages are left on assignments.

Grades are now autosaved as they are entered in Google Classroom.

In response to teacher feedback, Google Classroom now autosaves grades as they are entered. This allows teachers to grade assignments over multiple sessions while still being able to return all assignments to students simultaneously.

Teachers can now save announcements and assignments as drafts.

Teachers can now prepare for their classes in advance by saving announcements and assignments as drafts. These drafts are automatically saved as they are created and can be accessed by multiple teachers in the class, facilitating collaborative preparation.

Multiple teachers can now collaborate in a single Classroom class.

Google Classroom now allows multiple teachers to work and collaborate within a single class. Additional teachers can perform nearly all the same functions as the primary teacher, including creating assignments and announcements, viewing and grading submissions, participating in class stream comments, inviting students, and receiving email notifications.

New features and performance improvements for the Google Slides app.

The Google Slides app now allows users to reorder objects to the front or back. Additionally, the app now provides quicker loading and scrolling when opening PowerPoint presentations.

New features and improvements for the Google Drive Android app.

A new version of the Google Drive Android app is being released, introducing the ability to share files and links directly from upload notifications, access extended contact information in the sharing section, and remove parents from multi-parented files. The update also adds support for 23 new languages, improves the PDF viewer's scrolling and layout handling, and includes general performance and UI enhancements, as well as a fix to prevent uploads for accounts where Drive has been disabled by administrators.

New features for Google Docs apps on Android and iOS.

The Google Docs app for Android and iOS has been updated to allow users to accept, reject, or comment on suggestions and manage tracked changes and comments within Word files. Additionally, table editing is now available for iOS users.