U-M Google Updates

Timeline For The New Gmail

6/22/2018

Since June, U-M has been part of the Google Early Adopter program that lets people test the New Gmail, and switch between Classic Gmail and New Gmail. There’s been a lot of interest in the New Gmail interface, but until now a timeline for launch had not been firmly established. The timeline looks like this:

Early July 2018 Official Launch of New GMail Interface
(Early Adopter Program ends)
2 Months after Launch (September)

Google automatically switches everyone to new Gmail
You can still opt back to “Classic Gmail” for 1 month

3 Months after Launch (October) Everyone permanently switched to New Gmail
Please note: Google could change their above estimated timeline at any time. We will keep you updated!

To learn more, watch a recording of the webinar we broadcast on using the new Gmail!

Include a Message When Changing Meeting Details in Google Calendar

6/13/2018

Google is making it easier to communicate changes to a meeting in Google Calendar. Now, when you change or delete an existing meeting, a dialog box will appear asking if you’d like to send updates to the existing guests. The message you enter will be sent to all people included in the meeting event.

After the message is sent, the other guests will see the message in the email they receive alerting them to the updated meeting details.

Know When Everyone Declined a Google Calendar Event

6/12/2018

In the next few weeks, Google Calendar will begin to indicate when all invitees have declined a Calendar event. Without having to go into an event’s details, or watch your inbox for RSVP responses, you will see beforehand when everyone else has declined the meeting. An indicator icon will appear on the event, flagging to you that all guests have declined the invitation.

After clicking on one of these events within Calendar, you can take one of the following actions:

  • Cancel the meeting: If you’re the event organizer, you’ll be able to delete the event. All other invitees will be able to remove it from their own calendar.
  • Reschedule the meeting: Organizers can reschedule the event, either manually or with “Find a Time.”
  • Dismiss the notification: Until the event is moved to a new time, you can dismiss seeing the flagged indication for the meeting.

A New Look For Google Sign-in Screens

6/12/2018

Soon, Google will be making some minor updates to the sign-in screen. Starting on June 14, 2018, you may notice that when you sign in to your U-M Google Account, the screen might look slightly different. This does not affect the U-M Weblogin screen. These changes are going to roll out slowly over the next couple of weeks. Some of the changes will include:

  • Tweaks to the Google logo
  • There will be an outline around the text field
  • New alignment of all items, now centered on the screen.

Please see the images below, which provide a brief glimpse of the changes to come. Note: The tweaks to the Google logo are not shown.

Current Look

old sign in screen image

Look (After the update)

New Google sign in screen

New! Changes to Embedded Content on Classic Google Sites

6/11/2018
Google is upgrading HTML boxes in Classic Sites. This will improve performance but it may also change the look and feel of some embedded elements. If you have a Classic Site (noted by a navigation bar on the left side), check your embedded items and make some simple adjustments to ensure elements appear as you intended. 
 
Visual changes with this upgrade could include:
  • Different appearance of rich embedded content (e.g. Twitter images, buttons, and more). 
  • Different display size of the embedded element. 
  • Different styling of the embedded element. 
If elements do not appear as expected, you can:
  • Adjust the height and width. Use the Classic Site manual controls to make the box fit the embedded content better. 
  • Adjust the formatting. You may want to adjust the embed HTML to match your page style. If you got the code from a third party, check if there are formatting options there. 
If you want to revert back to the legacy embedded element appearance, you can check the “Use legacy html embed” option. The embedded element will then appear the same as before until the automatic upgrade on June 30th.
 
There are two stages to the upgrade:
  1. Stage 1: Starting immediately, Google will upgrade HTML boxes when an editor opens an HTML box on a Classic Site.  
  2. Stage 2: On June 30th, Google will automatically upgrade all remaining legacy HTML boxes. 
Please note: This only affects sites managed in Classic Sites. Sites built in New Google Sites are not affected.