Category: G Suite

The G Suite team has announced that 23 new pre-integrated apps have been added to their SAML Single Sign-on (SSO) support in the platform.  SAML is one of two SSO standards that are supported by G Suite and additional apps being supported means that it is easier for Admins to get their users enabled across various services used by their organization.

For those who may not be familiar with Single Sign-On, the hint is somewhat in the name.  SSO allows a domain user to use their network username & password to sign into other services that their organization uses.  It cuts down on users having to remember several passwords but also gives admins greater control and recover tools for those additional services.

Google Jamboard, the whiteboard sharing and collaboration tool, has a new feature rolling out that will be handy for G Suite users who have the device.  You will now be able to see your Jamboard created files in your Google Drive, making it easier to review and to share those files with others.

While the rollout of this new feature will take a few days, once you have it, you will be able to do three key functions within Google Drive with Jamboard files:

• Share jam files directly from Drive.
• Open jam files from Drive in the Jamboard web and mobile applications.
• Search for jam files in Drive (by entering “type:jam” in the Drive search bar).

Google has announced that by the end of 2018, the basic mobile management feature on G Suite domains will be enabled by default.  The announcement comes as part of a series of announcement the company has made regarding data and device security.

When the change is enabled, it will require that all users of Android and iOS phones associated with a G Suite domain to have, at a minimum, a password or PIN to unlock their phones.  Without it, users will not be able to access G Suite associated apps and thus, the data associated with those apps.

Google’s continuing efforts to improve menus within the G Suite apps has brought a new update once again to users.  This is the fourth month in a row that one of the G Suite apps has had a menu update with this month’s efforts focusing on Google Docs and Google Slides

Functionally across all of these changes, Google hasn’t changed much.  Rather, this is an effort to more clearly define what a feature does and, in some case, move the feature to another menu within Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides where it makes more sense to have it.  The updates to Docs and Slides are along those lines.

Adding to an already impressive list of apps that can be auto provisioned by G Suite admins, Google has added four more popular apps to the mix.  For those that are new to auto provisioning, this allows an admin to provision an account in a popular service or services along with their G Suite account at the time it is setup or later if the service is added to the domain.

The announcement today brings auto provisioning support for

• Kudos
• 15Five
• Rollbar
• Honey

That brings the total number of auto provisioning supported apps to 22.

A new feature is rolling out to all G Suite customers on Google Drive that will show you who shared files with you.  To this point, when you go to the shared with me section of Drive, you see the files that are shared with you and, if you view in list mode, you will see the name of the person sharing it with you.  This works okay-ish but Google has found that one of the most common searches done in Drive is the name of someone who shared a file with you.

Enter in this new feature.  Once deployed, you will have a Quick Access card in the shared with me  section which will feature that person’s name and the files they have shared.