U-M Google Updates

New live captions in Hangouts Meet!

5/2/2019

Google has made Hangouts Meet more accessible for hearing impaired users with live captions. Live captions help make meetings more accessible by reducing barriers to holding meetings between users of different hearing abilities, regardless of whether they are participating remotely or in person.

Screenshot of Google Hangouts Meet example of captions

On the web, navigate to the triple-dot menu at the bottom right corner of your screen and select it. Then, select Turn on captions. The captions will start to generate when someone begins speaking.

Google Hangouts Meet turn on captions button

When you turn on captions, they will only be visible on your device. In order for other participants in the meeting to see captions, they’ll have to individually turn it on for their devices.

Currently, live captions are only available in English. Finally, captions will not appear in a recording of a meeting.

For more information, visit Google’s Product Updates blog post.

Threading changes in Gmail conversation view

4/25/2019

Google has announced changes to how Gmail threads messages when you have conversation view turned ON. This change helps to make sure that messages are only threaded when there is a definite relationship between them.

Gmail settings turn Conversation View On

Previously, Gmail would thread together messages when either:

  • A message is sent in reply to another, or
  • A message has:
    • The same sender or recipients
    • The same subject
    • Is sent within one week of an earlier message in the thread

With this change, Google has added the requirement that an incoming message’s Reference header, if present, must reference IDs of previous messages in order to thread. This means that if you receive two emails with the same subject from the same sender, these emails will not be threaded together unless one explicitly references the other.

For further clarification, the first email’s Message-ID should match the second email’s References and In-Reply-To.

Gmail threading example with emails

For more information, visit Google’s G Suite Updates blog.

Write now, send later with Schedule send in Gmail

4/23/2019

You will soon be able to schedule your emails in Gmail to be sent at a later date and time.

When drafting an email or reply in Gmail, you will see an arrow next to the Send button. Clicking this arrow will give you the option to Schedule send. After clicking Schedule send, you can pick the specific date & time at which you’d like the message to be delivered.

GIF depicting how to schedule send in Gmail
 

This feature will be available on Android and iOS apps and Gmail on desktop browsers.

With this launch, Google will also be adding a Scheduled folder in Gmail. Scheduled messages will appear in the Scheduled folder while queued to be sent.

Note: It is expected behavior that you may see the Scheduled folder before you are able to schedule emails.

new Gmail scheduled send Scheduled folder
 

According to Google, the full rollout for scheduled send starts on April 15, 2019, and may take longer than 15 days for feature visibility. For more information, visit Google’s G Suite Updates Blog.

It’s now easier to insert images in cells in Google Sheets!

4/10/2019

You can now insert any image, like those saved on your desktop or mobile device, into a cell by using the new option found inside the Insert menu or the IMAGE function.

You can add images directly to cells in two ways.

On Desktop

  • Use the IMAGE() function within a cell
  • Via the menu bar at the top of the spreadsheet:
    • Select Insert > Image > Image in cell
    • Then select an image from Google Drive or upload one from your computer.

gif of Google Sheets steps to insert picture

On Mobile

  1. Tap once on a cell to select it.
  2. At the top of the screen, select the “+” icon.
    google sheets screenshot - step one of inserting image
  3. Select Image > Image in cell.
    google sheets insert image - step two  google sheets insert image - step three
  4. Select an image from the options presented to you: From Photos or From Camera
    Google sheets insert image - step four

Reminder: Google Classic Site Creation Ending

4/5/2019

In one month, May 3, 2019, you will no longer be able to create classic Google Sites in U-M Google. For the time being, existing classic Sites will remain available for updates. This step is in preparation for the eventual retirement of classic Sites. We urge you to convert any remaining classic Sites to the new Sites format. Beginning May 3, you will only be able to create new Sites in U-M Google.  

New Google Sites are stored in Drive, so you can create them like any other Google file type. From Drive, click +New > More > Google Sites. Classic Sites remain available at sites.google.com by clicking Back to Classic Sites.