U-M Google Updates

U-M Google March Monthly Summary

4/24/2025

Updates

Google Chat

When mentioning (“@”) an individual that is not already in a Chat group, direct message, or space, Google will prompt and ask if you’d like to add them to the group or space and send the message, or send the message without adding them. This will not work for one-to-one direct messages. Learn more about mentioning or adding someone to a conversation in Chat.

New Google Chat prompt asking if you'd like to add an individual to a group conversation or space

You can now create names for existing and new group direct messages in Chat. Group names are visible to all members of the group direct message. Named groups will continue to appear in the “Direct messages” section of your Chat sidebar. Learn more about naming a group direct message.

Similar to custom sections in Slack, you can now organize your Chat conversations (including DMs and spaces) into custom-named sections. You can also modify the height of each section, reorder them based on preference, toggle the Unread button on or off, and start a new DM or space message from the three-dot icon next to the Unread button. While this new experience is visible on mobile devices, you can only create and manage sections on Chat for the web or in Gmail.

To create a new custom section, hover over the three-dot icon beside the Direct Messages or Spaces section headers, select Create new section, and enter the name for the section. You can then either drag and drop conversations into the new section or hover over the conversation to find the three-dot icon menu and select Move conversation. Learn more about creating and organizing sections in Chat.

Within Google Chat, a user hovers over a conversation, clicks the three-dot icon, and moves a conversation to a new custom section.

Google has introduced a new “Board” tab in all one-to-one and group direct messages and Chat spaces. Selecting the board will open a right panel displaying it alongside the message stream. Boards feature sections for pinned messages and resources. This feature is similar to Slack canvases.

By default, all members in a conversation can pin, add resources, edit, and delete information from the board, with the exception of announcement spaces. Space Managers can also restrict who can update a board. Learn more about the Board tab in Chat.

Google Chat space displaying the new Board tab, opened on the right side with a red box around it

Google Drive

  • Instant playback after video file uploads 

You can now watch videos the moment you upload them to Drive on the web. This feature eliminates wait times between uploading and playback, while ensuring that your videos are still fully processed. Learn more about storing and playing videos in Drive.

Similar to the Sheets functionality that helps you convert data to drop-down chips in one click, you can now use bulk chip conversion for people chips. If you have a column of data that includes a variety of email addresses, Sheets will show a “Convert to people chips” suggestion when you click into your data range. By hovering over that indicator, you can preview the suggestion and then convert your data to people chips in one click. You can also change the format for these people chips from the default of “First Name Last Name” to “Last Name, First Name” or “Email address.” Learn more about inserting smart chips in your Sheets.

Within a Google Sheets spreadsheet, a user clicks into a data range, hovers over and clicks the new "Convert to people chips" option

You can now view and search transcripts for videos you’ve uploaded to Drive. The transcript appears in a sidebar next to the video player and highlights the currently spoken text. Your video must have captions enabled to access this feature (click the CC button in the lower right corner of the video player to enable it). To access the transcript, open a video with captions, click the gear icon in the lower right corner, and select Transcript from the drop-down menu. Learn more about turning on video transcripts in Drive.

Google Meet

Google has added several more options for how in-meeting reactions are experienced through screen readers. The following options have been added for in-meeting reactions: 

  • Don’t announce reactions: No announcements or sound when a reaction is received
  • Play a sound for all reactions: Play a sound when a reaction is received
  • Announce all reactions: Announce only the emoji when a reaction is received 
  • Announce all reactions and senders: Announce the emoji and who sent the received reaction

You can access and adjust the settings at any time during the meeting by pressing Shift+R. Settings will persist from meeting to meeting. Learn more about using Meet with a screen reader and Meet accessibility in general.

Previously, Meet live captions were displayed in real-time, but disappeared as the conversation continued. This update makes it possible to scroll back and review the last 30 minutes of captions during a meeting.

Previously Communicated

Update to “Make changes to events” permission on shared Google calendars

Introducing Grackle: New accessibility add-ons for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

3/10/2025

The ITS Digital Accessibility team is excited to introduce Grackle, a set of accessibility checker add-ons designed for use with your U-M Google account. Grackle can help you create accessible documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Grackle’s integration into Docs, Sheets, and Slides provides intuitive tools for spotting and resolving accessibility issues as you edit. Ensuring digital accessibility is not just a best practice; it's a vital component of the University of Michigan's commitment to equity and inclusivity. Grackle empowers you to create barrier-free content that everyone can access and enjoy, aligning with U-M policy and our compliance standards of WCAG 2.1 AA.

Benefits of using Grackle:

  • Check and fix accessibility issues directly within U-M Google to ensure your documents are user-friendly and inclusive.
  • By meeting accessibility standards, your content becomes more usable for a diverse audience.
  • Gain insights into accessibility best practices as you compose and edit, with guidance available as needed.

There are three separate add-ons you must install from the Google Workspace Marketplace to begin using the tools:

Refer to the ITS Digital Accessibility site for more information on installing and using each tool:

Join the university community in making strides toward a more inclusive digital landscape for all!

New “limited access” sharing experience in Google My Drive and shared drives

3/6/2025

As of February 18, 2025, Google allows shared drive Managers and My Drive folder owners to limit access to folders for specific individuals. Folders with limited access can only be opened by people who have been added to them directly. People with general access to the shared drive or parent My Drive shared folder can view the restricted folder’s name but cannot open it.

Previously, a version of this feature existed for files and folders in My Drive only. However, this update now applies to shared drives and streamlines the process in My Drive (with an eventual retirement of the “Update item only” sharing option and its related ability to limit access at the file level that existed before).

Sharing dialog is open for a folder in a Google shared drive and the individual is going to the settings and checking the "Limit access" box to restrict the folder

Google My Drive shared folder is open with a red box around a limited-access folder that is grayed out and inactive.

Key changes and feature information include:

  • The “limit access” feature is only available on folders and not files.
    • The workaround for files is to create a new subfolder with limited access and move the file into the subfolder.
  • Shared drive Managers can always access folders with limited access. You cannot remove a Manager’s access to a shared drive folder.
  • Folder owners can always access the folders they’ve limited access to in My Drive. You cannot remove an owner’s access to a folder they own.
  • The restricted folder (including its name) is always visible to people with general access to the shared drive or parent shared folder.
    • People who don’t have access to the folder can click Request access to send an email to the owner.
  • “Editors can change permissions and share” must be checked in the folder’s settings before Editors can manage limited access settings for the My Drive folder they’re shared on.
  • “Allow content managers to share folders” must be checked in the shared drive’s settings before Content Managers can manage limited access settings for subfolders they’re shared on in the drive.
  • Everyone who inherited access to a subfolder but then had their access limited on it will appear under the new “Access removed” tab in the sharing dialog for the folder owner/shared drive Manager(s) and Editors/Content Managers (if applicable) of the subfolder.

As part of their feature announcement, Google mentioned two changes coming later this year involving the “Editors can change permissions and share” setting and limited access for pre-existing files and folders (utilizing the old “Update item only” option). We will provide additional communications closer to when these changes occur and as we know more from Google.

Refer to the Google Help Center to learn more about limiting access to folders in My Drive and shared drives. Refer to Best Practices for Sharing in Google Drive for other tips on sharing at U-M.

Update to “Make changes to events” permission on shared Google calendars

2/25/2025

To improve the experience of individuals with the “Make changes to events” permission on Google shared calendars, collaborators can now view with whom the calendar is shared. Previously, they could not view who the calendar and its events were shared with, even though they could create events on it.

If you own and/or manage a shared calendar with individuals assigned the “Make changes to events” permission, and you do not want them to view who it is shared with, you will need to change their access permissions to either “See all event details” or “See only free/busy (hide details).” Please note that this will also remove their ability to create and edit events on the calendar.

Access permissions and shared with sections of shared calendar settings in Google (as someone with "Make changes to events" permission)

U-M Google November & December Monthly Summary

1/30/2025

Updates

Google Chat

There is now automatic transcription of voice messages in Chat on web and mobile. For screen reader users, voice transcripts are treated as readable texts. Learn more about sending a voice message in Chat.

Your Home view in Chat has a new split pane option to respond to space, group, or direct messages without navigating away from Home. The split pane option can be toggled on and off from the top of your Home view.

In November, Google announced they would be auto-installing the Google Drive app in Chat for every U-M account. As a result, many of you may have received a notification from the app welcoming you and providing more information on its purpose. You will now receive notifications about recent activity in Google Drive documents, such as new comments and share requests, directly in Chat (via the Gmail integration, mobile app, or desktop). If you would not like to receive these notifications, you can either mute or uninstall the app from Chat.

You can upload and send up to 20 photo and video files in one Chat message. Dragging and dropping files into the compose bar from your desktop is also supported. Learn more about sending and sharing files in Chat messages.

  • Improving out-of-office notifications in group messages and spaces 

You will now notice a banner that shows when a person you are chatting with is out of office and the date they are returning in Chat group messages and spaces. Previously, this banner only appeared in direct messages with someone.

Google Drive

The video player within Google Drive has a new look and feel and enhanced functionality, including improved controls for fast forward/rewind and an updated experience when adjusting playback speed and managing captions.

  • Send emails about files to collaborators using the sharing dialog

Once a file is shared, you can choose to notify someone when they’ve been added as a viewer/commenter/editor. Google has built upon this feature by adding the ability to send an email to any collaborator if you are a file owner or editor. To email collaborators, click Share, click the envelope icon (“Email people on this file”) under the text field, select the email recipients, and add a custom message.

You can create and manage tabs in Docs to better organize your documents, especially to break down long, structured ones into smaller, more digestible sections. Within each tab, you can also create subtabs. Learn more about using document tabs in Docs.

A user creates and customizes a new document tab in Google Docs

You can now add cover images that extend from one edge of your document to the other using Google’s gallery or uploading your own image. Cover images can only be added to documents set to pageless mode. Learn more about adding cover images to your Docs.

Google has released 40 new, customizable templates to their Docs template gallery. These pre-made templates use the pageless format and incorporate several new features like document tabs, placeholder chips, and cover images. You can access these templates via the Templates button at the top of a newly created Doc, by going to File > New > From a template in an open Doc, or by clicking New, hovering over Google Docs, and selecting From a template in Drive.

  • Improved accessibility tagging to PDFs exported from Docs

Google has improved the ability for individuals with screen readers and other assistive technology to read and navigate PDFs by adding more structural and accessibility tagging in PDFs exported from Docs. Specifically, they’ve improved tagging for paragraphs, headings, hyperlinks, image ALT text, and lists. Learn more about using Docs with a screen reader.

You can now add a rating question type to your Forms. The rating scale can be three to ten whole numbers (starting at 1) and use star, heart, or thumbs-up icons.

Previously, form creators had two sharing options: restrict responses to U-M Google users or make forms public (i.e., anyone with the URL can respond). Form creators can now limit response access to specific individuals or MCommunity groups, similar to how owners can restrict the sharing of their Drive files. Currently, this feature is limited to newly created forms and is not retroactive for existing forms. Learn more about publishing and sharing your form with responders.

When you create a new Sheet using your Forms data, Sheets will automatically open the data as a table. If you open a pre-existing Sheet connected to a Form, there will be no change, and you will need to convert the data to a table by clicking Format > Convert to table.

  • Allow drop-down chips to have multiple selections in Sheets

Previously, drop-downs could only have one value selected in Google Sheets. Sheets now allow for multiple selections within a drop-down. Learn more about inserting drop-down chips in Sheets.

Multi-monitor support lets presenters see Presentation View components, such as speaker notes and the timer, on one display while displaying the Slides presentation on an external monitor. Learn more about presenting Slides with other monitors.

Google has released a new collection of customizable templates in Slides. You can access these templates using the new Templates button in the Slides toolbar or by clicking Insert and selecting Templates. Once clicked, you can browse the collection, select a template, and choose to insert all slides or just the ones you need. According to Google, you can expect more Slides templates in the coming months.

Google Meet

Picture-in-picture mode now automatically triggers when you switch tabs during a Meet call. Previously, you had to manually turn on this feature during a meeting. Picture-in-picture mode is only available on a computer using the Google Chrome browser. Learn more about using picture-in-picture mode with Meet.

  • Pronouns are displayed in Meet

If you have set your pronouns in your U-M Google account settings with visibility set to “Anyone,” they will be displayed on your video tile during Meet calls. This update is available only when using Meet on the web. Learn more about setting your pronouns in U-M Google.

Access to the automatic framing feature has been expanded to include Education Fundamentals domains like U-M Google. With automatic framing, Meet will automatically center your video before joining a meeting to ensure equal visibility for all participants. Additionally, Meet will now continuously keep you centered when using a virtual background, ensuring your background is fixed and not constantly reframing. Learn more about turning video framing on or off in Meet.

Google Meet pre-meeting audio and video check featuring the automatic reframing feature on an individual's video feed

Previously Communicated