 This week’s big news continues to be the changes to Google Workspace storage policies. Essentially, from 1 June 2021 items which previously didn’t count towards your storage – Photos and any newly created Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard files – will all count towards your storage. Google’s obviously giving us a fair bit of time to prepare for this – if you’re concerned about how much storage you’re using check out the Apps usage user report (see General > Photos and Drive sections) as well as this article on 5 ways to avoid Google Workspace storage issues. |
All the other stuff!
Schedule Google Calendar events directly from Chat. You can now schedule meetings in Calendar directly from Chat conversations. You’ll see a new Calendar icon in the conversation’s compose bar – clicking on the icon will start a draft calendar event with the attendees from the chat. You can then customise the invite (including attendees) before sending it to guests. A Guide to Scheduling Emails in Gmail on Mobile and Desktop. We’ve all been there right? Drafted an email that we don’t want to send right now but don’t want to leave it sitting in the Drafts Folder just in case we forget to send it when appropriate. Well welcome to the world of scheduled emails – on both mobile and desktop 🙂 Collaborate with people who don’t have a Google account. (Video with subtitles). This is a fantastic addition to the Google way of working – it’s now possible to collaborate in Google Workspace with people who don’t have a Google account (known as Visitor Sharing). This is ideal for those clients or customers who just refuse to move away from Microsoft Office but with whom you still want to do joint editing. iPhones just got more helpful with Gmail, Drive and Fit widgets – I’m not an iPhone user but if you are, then you’ll probably be interested in this update! Two new features have been added to Google Meet: Ability to virtually raise one’s hand as a participant and Breakout Rooms. These were both originally introduced for Education users and are now available for the broader Google Workspace community. I can see great value in both these features if you run online training of any sort (workshops; webinars) but otherwise most small businesses probably won’t use them too much. Both features are enabled by default with no admin controls. |