U-M Google Updates

Final Reminder: Less secure apps access goes away on September 30

9/19/2024

As a reminder, Google announced that they will be turning off access to less secure apps and removing the Less Secure Apps setting on September 30, 2024. Less secure apps are third-party, non-Google apps that access your U-M Google account with only your @umich.edu email address and U-M password (not through U-M Weblogin). Common examples include Outlook 2016 or older and Apple Mail. These apps may use the Less Secure Apps setting to allow them full access to your account, which puts it at an additional security risk. To continue using these types of apps with your U-M Google account, you must switch to a more secure type of access called OAuth, which most modern applications use today.

If you do not take action by September 30 to reconnect your apps using OAuth, the less secure app(s) you’ve connected to will start showing an error message indicating that the username and password you entered are invalid, consequently preventing you from logging in to these apps via this method.

ITS does not support using third-party, non-Google applications with U-M Google accounts or provide direct support for connecting to OAuth with them. Instead, we have created a detailed guide to help you determine if you are using less secure apps to access your U-M Google account and how you can switch to OAuth access.

Reminder: The Google Jamboard service is retiring on December 31, 2024

9/19/2024

As a reminder, Google has announced that the Jamboard retirement processes will begin on October 1, and the service will be officially shut down on December 31, 2024.

On October 1:

  • The Jamboard service will become view-only.
    • You can no longer create new Jamboard files (“Jams”) or edit existing ones on any platform, including the web, iPhone, iPad, Android, and Jamboard devices.
    • Google will begin automatically converting existing Jams to PDFs. The PDFs will be saved in the same Drive location as the Jam.
      • Google informed us that PDF conversions are done on a “best-effort basis.” If you would like to ensure your Jams are converted before the service is shut down on December 31, we recommend exporting your Jams (as PDFs or PNGs) manually as soon as possible.
      • The PDF will have the same created and last modified dates as the original Jam.
      • The PDF will be shared with the same collaborators as the original Jam.
      • Once a PDF has been created via conversion, any changes to the original Jam file, such as file location, will not be carried over to the PDF.
      • If ownership of the Jam was transferred to a new individual, but the new owner has not accepted it, the original owner will receive the PDF in Drive.
      • After your Jams are converted to PDFs, the original Jam files will remain in Drive until December 31.
  • Jamboard devices will go into “offline mode.” Jams can no longer be opened/edited, and Google will stop releasing security updates and new features for the device. If you own a Jamboard device on campus, ITS has contacted all owners via targeted email with more information.

On December 31, the Jamboard service will become unavailable on every platform and existing Jam files will be permanently deleted.

ITS doesn’t offer an alternative solution to replace the Google Jamboard whiteboarding service or device. If you are interested in another whiteboarding service or device, you should explore other third-party solutions within your unit.

New annual renewal process for Google Shared Accounts and shared drives

9/11/2024

In an effort to improve the lifecycle management of Google Shared Accounts and shared drives, you will now be required to renew your Shared Accounts and shared drives annually using the ITS Shared Account Manager and ITS Shared Drive Manager tools. These processes will be similar to the existing MCommunity group renewal process, where Shared Account owners and shared drive Managers will be notified 30 days before the Shared Account or shared drive expires and asked to use the respective tool to renew it once a year.

If you own or manage a Shared Account or shared drive, you should have received a targeted message from ITS with more details on initiating the new renewal process. Shared Accounts and shared drives must be imported and/or renewed before December 6, 2024, to prevent deactivation and deletion.

Refer to Renew a Shared Account and Renew a Shared Drive for detailed instructions. For more general information on the processes, refer to Shared Accounts in U-M Google and Shared Drives in U-M Google.

U-M Google June & July Monthly Summary

8/29/2024

Updates

Google Calendar

Google has added three new features to Calendar appointment schedules:

  • The option to designate a custom weekly recurrence. This will allow you to repeat the schedule on more flexible recurrences, such as bi-weekly.
  • Bookers (and co-hosts) can add other guests or rooms to booked events. This feature is only available if the user creating the appointment schedule selects the “Guests can invite others” option during the setup or editing of the schedule.
  • Schedule creators can now add MCommunity groups as co-hosts during the setup process.

Learn about appointment schedules in Calendar.

Google Drive

  • Updates to Google shared drive folder/file limits 

Previously in shared drives, a folder could only have up to 20 levels of nested folders and contain a maximum of 400,000 items. Google has increased the nested folder limit to 100 levels and the maximum number of items to 500,000. Learn more about shared drive folder/file limits in Drive.

When you upload a video to Google Drive, captions for the video are now automatically generated in English (with plans to expand to other languages in the future). Videos uploaded before this feature release may require you to manually generate captions by right-clicking the video in your Drive, hovering over File information, selecting Manage caption tracks, and clicking Generate automatic captions. Learn more about adding caption tracks to your videos in Drive.

When you place your cursor over a file icon in Google Drive on the web, a hovercard will appear with a thumbnail of your file and other relevant information, such as file type, file owner, who recently modified the file, and when they last modified it. Previously, you had to open each file manually or right-click on a file and click Open with > Preview from the drop-down menu to review files. Learn more about viewing and reordering your files in Drive.

  • View recent shares in the Google Drive Activity page 

Drive’s Activity page shows pending access requests and recent comments. You can now also view recent file shares, which include who shared a file and when the file was shared, under the “Shared with me” header.

If you haven’t been active on Google Drive for seven days and have multiple unviewed shared files from collaborators, Google will send you a reminder email summarizing the files. The digest email will include information about the unviewed files that were shared with you and a link to “See more activity” on the Drive Activity page. Learn more about automatic digest emails in Drive.

Google has expanded support for voice typing and automatic captioning features to additional browsers: Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari. Previously, these features were only available in the Google Chrome browser. When a user turns on voice typing or captions, the web browser controls the speech-to-text service, determines how speech is processed, and then sends text data to Docs and Slides. Learn more about typing with your voice and presenting Slides with captions.

Google has expanded support for composing with Markdown in Docs on the web. These include the ability to: 

  • Convert Markdown to Docs content on paste 
  • Copy Docs content as Markdown 
  • Export a Doc as Markdown (from File > Download) 
  • Import Markdown as a Doc (from File > Open or "Open with Google Docs" from Drive) 

The import and export options are on by default. The “Copy as Markdown” and “Paste from Markdown” options are off by default and can be enabled in Docs by going to Tools > Preferences > Enable Markdown. Learn more about using Markdown in Docs, Slides, and Drawings.

Google has announced tables in Sheets. With tables, you can simplify spreadsheet building by bringing format and structure to unorganized ranges. By selecting your data range and clicking Format > Convert to table, Sheets will now organize data for you, including column types, filters, color coding, drop-down menus, and more. When using tables, you’ll also have access to a new type of view, “group by,” where you can aggregate your data into groups based on a selected column. Learn more about using tables in Sheets.

In Google Sheets, user selects the data range and converts it to a table format

Google has stated that they have doubled the speed of calculation in Sheets on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers.

  • Switch between edit, view, and comment modes in Slides 

Google has made it easier for you to switch between different modes in Slides. For example, if you’d like to hide comments within a presentation or avoid accidental edits, you can switch to view mode. To change your mode, navigate to the View > Mode > select a mode. Learn more about switching view mode on Slides. 

Google Chat

The options within Chat space notification settings are being updated to “All,” “Main conversations,” “For you,” and “None” so that you can better tailor your notifications preferences for in-line threaded spaces. Learn more about customizing notifications for a space with in-line threading.

You can now add up to 500,000 members to Chat spaces.

Google Meet

  • Scroll and zoom while presenting in Meet 

When presenting in Google Meet, you can now scroll and zoom in or out on your content directly from Meet. Learn more about presenting during a meeting.

Google has added 11 new languages for closed captions in Meet, including Czech, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian.

Previously Communicated

Google Calendar appointment schedules will replace appointment slots on July 18

Google Jamboard service will retire beginning October 1, 2024

8/1/2024

Between 2017 and 2018, Google released a digital whiteboard service integrated with Google Drive called “Jamboard.” It was announced last year that they will be retiring the Jamboard service and their physical devices in 2024. According to Google, the Jamboard retirement processes will begin on October 1, and the service will be officially shut down on December 31, 2024.

On October 1:

  • The Jamboard service will become view-only.
    • You can no longer create new Jamboard files (“Jams”) or edit existing ones on any platform, including the web, iPhone, iPad, Android, and Jamboard devices.
    • Google will begin automatically converting existing Jams to PDFs. The PDFs will be saved in the same Drive location as the Jam.
      • Google informed us that PDF conversions are done on a “best-effort basis.” If you would like to ensure your Jams are converted before the service is shut down on December 31, we recommend exporting your Jams (as PDFs or PNGs) manually as soon as possible.
      • The PDF will have the same created and last modified dates as the original Jam.
      • The PDF will be shared with the same collaborators as the original Jam.
      • Once a PDF has been created via conversion, any changes to the original Jam file, such as file location, will not be carried over to the PDF.
      • If ownership of the Jam was transferred to a new individual, but the new owner has not accepted it, the original owner will receive the PDF in Drive.
      • After your Jams are converted to PDFs, the original Jam files will remain in Drive until December 31.
  • Jamboard devices will go into “offline mode.” Jams can no longer be opened/edited, and Google will stop releasing security updates and new features for the device. If you own a Jamboard device on campus, ITS has contacted all owners via targeted email with more information.

On December 31, the Jamboard service will become unavailable on every platform, and existing Jam files will be permanently deleted.

ITS doesn’t offer an alternative solution to replace the Google Jamboard whiteboarding service or device. If you are interested in another whiteboarding service or device, you should explore other third-party solutions within your unit.