Google has been helping teams be more productive for over a decade now. G Suite is one of the best-known productivity platforms in the world. Now that the world of work is transforming, however, Google decided it was time to make some changes to G Suite too.
Today’s teams are under more pressure than ever before to stay productive in remote and hybrid environments. There are more challenges to face than ever before, and employees everywhere are searching for the right solutions. To help aid the new landscape, Google is turning G Suite into Google Workspace. This all-in-one environment offers everything that professionals need to work effectively in one place.
Google Workspace features Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Meet, Slides, and all the other tools you already know and love from G Suite. However, Google is also delivering a more deeply integrated user experience, an updated brand identity, and a range of new ways for people to get started with Workspace.
The New Google Workspace Experience
At the July “Google Next OnAir” event, Google introduced a new home experience for today’s teams that better combines all the solutions people rely on for communication and collaboration. This combined experience is now available for all Google Workspace paying customers to enjoy.
In the coming months, the new Workspace experience will introduce new methods for boosting productivity. For instance, users can dynamically create and collaborate on documents with guests in a chat room. Google is also making it easier to share content and work together with people outside of your organisation while ensuring that everyone has access to the same information.
Google Workspace also comes with new useful features to help save you time. In Docs, Slides and Sheets, users can now preview linked files without having to open a tab. Additionally, when you @mentiion a contact in a document, a smart chip highlights crucial contact details, including information for people outside the organization. The chip can provide contextual information and suggest actions like adding someone to your contacts.
In July, Google also announced the arrival of picture-in-picture to Chat and Gmail, so you can see and hear the people you collaborate with while you’re working. Google will be rolling this feature out to Sheets, Docs, and Slides in the months ahead too.
All that, and Google is also supporting more advanced collaboration environments with forward-thinking devices too. Teams can choose from Series One hardware kits with immersive sound and scalability and native integrations with Nest Smart Displays and Chromecast.
Updated Security and Privacy Features
Google is adding new safety features to its solution, designed to combat abuse and other issues. These include new classifications, audit logging, detection capabilities and more. To prevent disruptive users from entering meetings, Google shows you which users have been ejected from previous meetings on Meet. There will also be new security features on Chat to help admins manage what happens within their organisations. Admins can see logs connected to Google Chat, Groups, Meet, Voice, and Calendar with the Security Centre investigation tool.
Google Workspace will also help to protect organization data, by increasing admin visibility into data security matters. Data protection Insights is a new tool that companies can use to create proactive reports, showcasing sensitive information stored in any organisation. Team leaders can also access features like context-aware access for SAML apps, to unlock granular control policies for custom or pre-integrated SAML applications.
These security and privacy updates reinforce the dedication to privacy shown by Google when it received the ISO/IEC 27701 certification for Google Cloud platform. The same certification now also applies to Google Workspace.
New Ways to Get Started
As part of the new update, Google also introduced more than just a new brand identity. Google Workspace aims to reflect a more flexible and connected experience for today’s teams, and you’ll notice the arrival of new icons to help enhance this brand image. Currently, Google Workspace is available for the enterprise, but it will be coming to non-profit and education customers too.
With helpfulness, simplicity, and flexibility at its core, Google Workspace aims to support companies in finding new ways of getting work done. Google will be providing more choice for teams and helping customers to get the most out of their Workspace experience. Google is even introducing new editions to provide more tailored solutions for all businesses.
New editions for small businesses will support those looking to make faster, more flexible purchases, while large enterprise editions support teams with more complex needs. Google is looking forward to a future where work can be more flexible, productive, and collaborative in this new Workspace environment. You can learn more about Workspace with Google on the Google blog.
