U-M Google Updates

Google Talk Transitioning to Hangouts

4/10/2017

Google announced that on June 26, 2017 Google Talk will be transitioned to Google Hangouts. Accounts on the UMICH domain that have Talk installed on one or more devices will be affected by this change. The U-M Google Team will send an email to those affected later this week with the following information:

What will happen if you are affected?

  • You will get an invitation to switch to Hangouts. After June 26, you will be automatically transitioned to Hangouts. You can then go to Options and check the Use dense roster box to remove avatars and create an experience more like Google Talk.
  • Using Hangouts, you can communicate with other people using Hangouts, but not other chat clients.
  • The legacy Google Talk Android app was replaced in 2013 and will stop functioning after June 26. You are encouraged to install Hangouts now.

For reference, you can review the differences between Hangouts chat and Google Talk. Hangouts includes group chat, Android and Apple iOS apps, group video calling, and integration with other Google products. If you have any questions or need any help with this change, contact the ITS Service Center.

Consent for 3rd-party apps and Single Sign-on providers

4/6/2017

Starting Monday, April 10, Google is rolling out changes to the way you authorize third-party applications to access your U-M Google data.The U-M Google team has determined that this will not affect ​normal sign-in to your U-M Google account via a web browser. However, the next time you authorize a new application to access your U-M Google data, the screen may look different. More notable is that this automatically grants the application access to your email address and profile. Previously, these were listed separately on the screen. After selecting your account, you'll be taken to more information about the application, any additional permissions, and the application's developer. 

Google's blog post on this change has additional details.

If you have any questions or concerns about this change, please contact the ITS Service Center.

Introducing Google Hangouts Meet

3/14/2017

Hangouts Meet is a new video meeting service designed to make joining meetings effortless. It allows you to smoothly run large and small video conferences by a shared link—no accounts, plugins, downloads, or hassles. Meet provides a place to join from Google Calendar, an email invite, or a web link. Classic Hangouts are not affected with the addition of Meet and continue to function as before.

With Meet, native, full-screen presenting makes it easy to showcase your team’s research and projects. And as Meet integrates directly with U-M Google, information you need about each meeting is automatically pulled from Calendar.

Streamlining Group Chat Creation in Google Hangouts

1/24/2017

Last year, Google implemented a change to Hangouts that allows your team to opt-in to a chat, rather than having to invite people one by one. Now Google is improving how you create group chats for projects or teams. You can name your group chats more easily when creating them. Once the group chat has a name, you can create "placeholder" group chats which can be shared with a link.

These improvements will be available in all three Hangouts user interfaces on the web. In Hangouts in Gmail, a "+" button will be next to the contacts list in Hangouts. In hangouts.google.com and in the Chrome extension, you will see a "New conversation" option. By clicking "New group" or "New conversation" you can name the group or start adding members.

Gmail Phishing Scam

1/23/2017

You might have seen recent reports in the news about a phishing scam making use of Gmail. This is similar to many common phishing scams, so please exercise caution whenever you are asked to enter your UMICH password. Read Safe Computing's NOTICE: Watch for hard-to-spot GMail phishing scam for full details.

The Collaboration Services Team