What upcoming Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) changes should I know about?

May 13, 2019

Tell Me

Google will be making many changes to the Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) environment over the next few months. The Office of OneIT has reviewed upcoming updates and the information below serves as the most relevant regarding updates. 

Google Team Drives/Shared Drives Update

Beginning May 21, users who save data to Google Workspace (formerly G Suite's) Team Drives will notice a change: Team Drives will be renamed to "shared drives." But that's it—just a name change. It is important to note that storage will not be affected. Google File Stream Users: the app should auto-update to accommodate this change. Any desktop shortcuts to files in File Stream may need to be manually updated. Users will begin seeing the moniker switch as follows*: iOS: May 21 | Android: May 28 | All Users: June 3
*The name change is expected to begin on these dates but Google's full implementation could take a few days.

Google Group Changes

On or after June 3, 2019, Google is condensing Google group settings to make it easier to manage groups. Settings with similar functionality will be combined, and rarely used settings will be removed. See this Google post for more details. The Office of OneIT will email group owners and managers regarding these permission changes. To validate these changes, Google group owners and managers should check permission settings the second week of June. 

Google Marketplace Apps

Two Marketplace apps are in review. Sortd Gmail is an app that allows for drag-and-drop email organization, Trello-style Kanban Boards, email-open tracking, and more. copyDown allows for the automatic application of formulas to Sheets populated by Google Forms.

Classic Google Hangouts/Google Meet/Google Chats Update

Google is moving away from classic hangouts to Google Hangouts Meet, and Hangouts Chat with Classic Google Hangouts end-of-life expected this fall. They are also working on a new embedded interface for Google Chat and Gmail, expected Fall 2019. Here's a Google video that explains the rationale behind some of these changes. 

This table highlights tool functionality: