5 Reasons for why we love the new Google Hangouts

Watch out Slack, Hangouts will be taking over! 
In case you haven’t heard, Google announced that by October of this year, the Hangouts you used to know will disappear forever! However it will be only to transform itself into a brand new state of the art app that you might end up loving. First changes will come up for the adaptation phase in April 16th and you should be prepared. But this article will focus on why you will love this new version (we wrote another article to know more about the upcoming changes in configuration). 

 1. A Better Integration with the Suite


The company has already launched the new group chat and meeting system that looks very similar to Slack and Microsoft Teams, but not everyone has made the switch yet. Hangouts Chat & Hangouts Meet (the way they are called now) have now a deeper integration with the rest of its office suite, unlike Slack that is a third party tool.

The app will still offer direct one-on-one chats, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the new group chat rooms will offer threaded messages and will be deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets. Now you can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them, filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

2.App Scripts & Bots

Some other extensibility options that features, is the possibility to create “app scripts” by having bots working on the inside of the chat and that allow third-party companies to create apps and integrate them with the Hangouts Chat.
Furthermore, Google is using that feature itself, with a bot named @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group chat and automatically suggest a meeting time and schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

3. Ten Going to Hundred

Talking about meetings...Hangouts Chat will integrate with Hangouts Meet. Unlike the Classic Hangouts that only supported a meeting of up to 10 participants, this new video chat have high definition video meetings for up to 100 participants. Not enough people yet? Then wait till you see Hangouts Live feature... ! 

4.Live stream in Hangouts Meet


This past September Google announced the Live stream Hangouts feature, if 100 wasn’t enough. Meeting organizers in G Suite Enterprise domains can enable live streaming on their meeting in Calendar and invite their audience with the stream URL, up to 100,000 in-domain users can watch the meeting from the web or their mobile device.

As to why the feature was added, the company explained: 
“Many companies have important meetings that require delivering a message to large groups of people, like a company-wide all-hands or onboarding training. Now, G Suite Enterprise users can live stream Meet meetings to support these needs.”
 The ability to add live streaming to a meeting open the Admin console and go to Apps > G Suite > Google Hangouts and click “Meet settings” Here, toggle “Let people stream their meetings”. 
For more information on live streaming video meetings, check out the Help Center.

5. Your Meeting is just a Click Away

Setting up a video meeting should be a lot easier guests who aren’t on the invite will be able to “knock” and ask to join. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically and tap the calendar entry from their smartphone to open up the app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial, if they are on the go (to know how to do this click here)
The app’s main screen displays a list of your scheduled meetings, along with other details like location, time, subject, attendees and more. You can click a green “join” button to attend a meeting from your phone, which takes you to the video chat interface. Buttons let you mute your call or switch off video.The app is available for your Android or your Iphone. 

More reasons to love the new Hangouts 


Do you have more reasons to love the new Hangouts or do you need help to switch from the Classic ones? Then don’t forget to contact us or leave a comment below. We are committed to make your daily tasks easier so you can focus on what really matters. 
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Google Hangouts is disappearing forever as you know it

you may have heard of the brand new Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat, but if you’re still using the classic hangouts, be aware that as from October 2019,  Google will start retiring the classic Hangouts app for its G Suite customers! 
This past January Google announced in an official blog post the transition phase with a few changes on the G Suite Admin level,  starting on April 16th of this year.


How to be prepared?


If you want to be prepared and have a smooth transition you should start taking action now. April 16th’s changes include: 


Settings and Inability to create Groups Conversations: 


Although you can still use Classic Hangouts and can direct message any Hangouts Chat user (including external users), Chat admin settings will now control chat capability in both products. Furthermore, you might not view or reply  Group conversations that belongs to the other product.Group messages are separate between the two product and if you want to continue a conversation in Hangouts Chat, you will have to recreate it.

Protection will Change for Google Vault Customers 


By April, mail retention rules and holds will stop protecting chat messages in classic Hangouts. Instead, new Hangouts Chat retention rules and holds will protect chat messages in both classic Hangouts and Chat. This rule is to protect all your chat messages in classic Hangouts when Chat rules start protecting them on April 16, 2019. 
Before April 16, 2019, you must, 
- Review and set new retention rules for Chat in Google Vault.
- Duplicate any existing Mail holds for Chat in Google Vault.
- Set any new holds on chat messages from Chat in Google Vault.
- Once you have set the rules and holds for Chat, in order for them to take effect, remove the indefinite retention rule that may be overriding your rules.
* Click here for more information from the Google Help Center or contact us if you need help!

When should I start moving to Hangouts Chat?

The sooner, the better! A new setting in the Admin console under Apps > G Suite > Hangouts Chat will be added so you can disable classic Hangouts user interfaces whenever you’re ready. And if what’s worrying you is more functionality before the switch, rest assured that between April and September 2019, Google will add features that will make it easier for your users to move to Chat such as:
- Integration with Gmail
- Chatting with external users
- An improved video calling experience
- Making calls with Google Voice

Are you still uneasy with this new change?

Don’t worry, we understand that any change of any kind can be intimidating and since we have as a mission to make your daily tasks easier so you can focus on what really matters, you can now check out in this article,  why the new Hangouts Chat and Hangouts meet will be awesome! 
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How to share Files from your Drive with Non-Google Users


Emily works as a freelance marketing & social media manager. She just got subcontracted by an advertising company in order to manage some of the social accounts from their clients, and part of her tasks include to create a social media report every month and a proposed calendar with upcoming posts for each week. She has a Google Account and all of her work is on the Drive. 

 There’s however a small nuisance: The advertising company that hired her uses Outlook and not Google. 

 These kind of inconveniences are quite common for users that have G Suite but partner with non-Google users.
Google understood this was creating a significant barrier for collaboration. Therefore they decided to release an announcement at the end of 2018: 
“Soon, people without Google accounts will be able to view, comment, suggest edits to, and directly edit Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files.” 

Collaboration in Google files is now for everyone 

G Suite users can now invite people without Google accounts to work on files by sending them a pin code. 

How do I get started? 

The official name for this feature is Pincode Sharing but it hasn’t been launched formally, but you can enjoy it by signing up to Drive Beta. This feature will require the Google team to white-list a non-G Suite domain  before you’re able to share anything with them.

How does it work?

Once you have been accepted by Google to enjoy this feature you can start sharing! 
To do this, 
- send an invitation to collaborate on a file like you normally would. 
- When non-Google users receive the invitation they simply have to request for a pin code from within the email invite they get. 
- That would issue them with a code they can use to see the file and collaborate directly on Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. 

Below is an example of how it works:

Stay in Control of your Files 

As a G Suite administrator, you can control how users in your organization share Google Drive files and folders. Although by giving a pincode to users of other organization you’re granting them access to documents, owners and admins of the G Suite files will still be able to monitor usage through activity logs and can revoke access at any time. Anything you need to know about file sharing settings is here (or contact us for further guidance).

By using this pincode, I share my address book with non-Google users as well?


The answer is no. However there is still a way to do it! 

The Google Contact delegation allows you to share individual contacts within your own domain, however it won’t let you share contact groups with other users, not even if they are using a Google account as well. Furthermore, this does not include non-Google users at all. 

Fortunately, Shared Contacts for Gmail® is the simplest solution for sharing your contact groups with Google users outside of your domain, just like you share a Google Doc or a Calendar. Currently, you can synchronize your contacts with Outlook, but soon you’ll be able to share your address books with anyone. 

Want to know when? Leave a comment below or stay tuned for the next announcement!
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Everything you need to know about Google’s G Suite price raise and how to manage it


On January 16th, Google released an official statement on their Google Cloud Blog, explaining that after 10 years of having the same price, on the 2nd of April of this year they would increase for the first time ever G Suite costs. 

 The rise of fares on their licenses for the productivity suite, which includes tools like Drive, Google Docs, Gmail, Hangouts Meet and other apps, will increase by 20% to $6 per user per month, up from $5 ( and by 44% from $50 to $72 for annual plan) for their G Suite Basic Edition, while G Suite Business Edition will increase to $12 per user per month, up from $10. 
Summary of the pricing transition :
USD Prices per seat:

PlanCurrent PricePrice by April 2nd
Basic Annual$50/year$72/year
Basic Annual (Monthly Payment)$4.17/month$6/month
Basic Flexible$5/month$6/month
Business Annual$120/year$144/year
Business Annual (Monthly Payment)$10/month$12/month
Business Flexible$10/month$12/month

EUR Prices per seat:

PlanCurrent PricePrice by April 2nd
Basic Annual40€year62.40€/year
Basic Annual (Monthly Payment)3.34€/month5.20€/month
Basic Flexible4€/month5.20€/month
Business Annual96€/year124.80€year
Business Annual (Monthly Payment)8€/month10,40€/month
Business Flexible8€/month10,40€/month

Why would would they raise their prices now? 

David Thacker (Vice President of G Suite product management) explained that Google justified the 20% increase for its Basic and Business Editions by saying that it has not updated prices since introducing G Suite over a decade ago, while its product offering has grown substantially:

“We’ve brought businesses more than a dozen new G Suite services to help them reimagine how they work, including powerful video conferencing…, secure team messaging... and enterprise-grade search capabilities…” 
All of this by also infusing their products with advanced artificial intelligence to make it easier to respond to emails, gather insights from data and protect against phishing attacks before they happen!

Rumor also says that the change of price could be due to the change of leadership in Google since Thomas Kurian officially took over as Google Cloud CEO at the beginning of 2019, replacing Diane Greene. 

Will Google's G Suite price increase drive more businesses to Office 365?

While $1 or $2 USD doesn’t seem that much of a dramatic difference, this might affect some small businesses and big enterprises that have several licenses under their G Suite domain. However, even at $12/user/month, G Suite is still much less expensive than Microsoft's popular Office 365 E3 plan for larger businesses, which costs $20/user/month.

The pricing moves are still in line with Office 365, and the apps + storage from G Suite seem to be superior by far from their competitor. Furthermore, G Suite prices are easier to follow and understand. Microsoft's Office 365 Business Essentials is $5 per user a month(yearly) and  $8.25 (monthly). Office 365 Business Premium costs $12.50 (monthly) with same terms and E5 is $20. Additionally Microsoft has raised prices on standalone Office to their customers to move to the cloud. While Google was already on the cloud and didn’t raise the prices before. 

Not to mention that since Google has the leading position against its cloud competitors it might be setting the tone for other to follow through as well. 

There’s always a silver lining… 

Your G Suite reseller can maintain the current pricing for one more year under certain conditions. So if you are buying your G Suite licenses through a Google partner, contact them to know what is possible ! If you don’t have one yet, contact us ASAP since we can help you to keep the current pricing price for one more year!
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Is Google+ Shutting Down?!

This past October 8th, Google announced that they would be shutting down Google+ over the next 10 months in order to give people a full opportunity to get ready for the closing and export their information if needed. In other words,this August 2019, Google + will be gone as we know it today. Furthermore, the company will be providing consumers with additional information on how to download and migrate data.

Why tho? 

Ben Smith (President of Engineering at Google) writes on the company’s official blog that while their engineering teams have put a lot of effort and dedication into building Google+ over the years “it has not achieved broad consumer or developer adoption, and has seen limited user interaction with apps.”

 In fact, 90% of the platform’s sessions last less than 5 seconds and have very low engagement. The decision follows reporting of a previously undisclosed security flaw that exposed users’ profile data and that was remedied in March 2018.

So... Is Google+ REALLY dead?

YES and NO… Google+ won’t be the same and will be gone for consumers. However, a new business version of Google’s social network will be available soon for professionals and it’s already getting a bunch of new features today.
Before you start thinking what we all did at first: No it won’t look like LinkedIn

 While Linkedin is for any consumer that would like to post their professional trajectory, this new platform has a different purpose. Some of the features Google has highlighted seem to indicate perhaps the creation of something that might compete with Microsoft Teams or Slack. Therefore, large enterprises that work with G Suite business might be tempted to standardize on one product across the board.

Meet Google+ for G Suite

Google+ for G Suite isn’t all that different from the original Google+, but is is more focused on on allowing users inside a company to easily share information. Additionally, the new features added will provide admins more tools for managing and reviewing posts, allow employees to tag content and provide better engagement.

Bulk Actions for Admins

Recently Google introduced the ability for admins to bulk-add groups of users to a Google+ community and disable the features for others. Additionally, members of the domains and sub-domains can be organized in units according to the departments they belong to in the organization.

 Soon, admins will also be able to define custom streams so that employees could get access to a stream with all of the posts from a company’s leadership unit.

Review and moderate Posts’ Privacy

Prevent posts and communities from being shared outside your organization’s domain by default by:
1. Opening your Google Admin console.
2. From the Admin console Home page, go to Apps> G Suite> Google+.
3. Click on Advanced Settings.
4. In the Sharing posts section, select “Make the default setting for new posts restricted”.

Create Tags for different Posts

Tags will make it easy for employees to route content to everybody in the company, no matter which group they work in. Soon you’ll be able to draft posts and see suggested tags.

The announcement of shutting the consumer platform down along with the one of new business features, is clearly meant to be a reminder that Google+ for the enterprise isn’t going away anytime soon. In other words, Google+ isn’t dying but going through a metamorphosis.
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No Wifi? No problem! You can work offline with the New Gmail

Picture this situation: A sudden storm hit your city and you lost internet connection because of it. Your Internet provider won't answer your calls and you don’t know what to do in order to finish that report you’re supposed to deliver in a couple of hours right now or you’re fired. What are you going to do? 

We hope you’re not in this situation (with such an unsympathetic boss), but if you were in a similar event you shouldn’t worry, as having no wifi is not a problem anymore.

 Wait what?! 

Yes. Just like you read. This past 8th of May Google announced this feature, but not a lot of people know about it yet. With the New Gmail interface, you can work without interruptions by using your Chrome browser (v61 or higher). Search, write, delete, and archive up to 90 days of messages, even when you’re offline. 

Enable Gmail offline for your domain

As the feature is disabled by default, you must enable is first on your domain in the Admin Console. To do this: 

 1. Log into your Admin console 
2. From the Admin console Home page, go to Apps > G Suite > Gmail > User settings.
3. Scroll to Gmail web offline.
4. Check the Enable Gmail web offline box.
5. Click Save. It may take up to an hour for changes to propagate to all users.  


* Optional: If you want offline content deleted for your users when they sign out of their Google accounts, check the Force deletion of offline data on log out of Google account box. This will prevent your users from keeping content on their local devices when they log out.

Turn on Gmail offline for your account

All users who are using the new Gmail can benefit from this feature, once you enable it for your domain. But in order to do so, they must turn the feature on, as well on their accounts.
In order to do so: 
1. From each  inbox, choose Settings 
2. Click the Offline tab.
3. Check the Enable offline mailbox. 
4. Under Security, select one of the following to indicate how to handle offline content when you sign out of your Google account. 
  • Keep offline data on my computer. Data stored on your device will not be deleted when signing out of your Google account or when changing your password. To delete account data from your device disable offline mail and save changes.
  • Remove offline data from my computer. Data will need to be re-synced to your computer when signing back into Google.com Mail. It may take a few hours to re-sync the mailbox.
Note: If the G Suite admin has enabled the option to remove offline content when users sign out of their account, users don't have the option to change this in Gmail Settings.   
5. Click Save changes.

Make your offline working station yours 

Gmail offline stores the latest 30 days of attachments and emails on your local device, and Chrome allows Gmail to use up to 7% of your available hard drive space for online content. 
You can reduce the amount of storage space your offline content uses, uncheck the Download attachments box in Sync settings or reduce the storage duration to 7 days.    
To set up your preferences when working with Gmail offline: 
1. Click on Settings in your Gmail  
2. Click the Offline tab.
3. Choose a value in Sync settings.
4. Values are 7, 30, and 90 days.
5. (Optional) Uncheck the Download attachments box.
6. Click Save changes. 

So let’s get started: How do I use Gmail offline already? 

Now there’s not much left to do… using your Gmail offline is as simple as creating a bookmark for your inbox to open it when you’re not connected or browsing in your Chrome browser for mail.google.com.

Don’t have the New Gmail Interface on?

Then what exactly are you waiting for? In this article we tell you how to enable the new interface and more reasons to convince you to have it if this one isn’t enough. But who doesn’t want to be more productive even when there’s no holly wifi to save you?!

Need further help? Leave a comment below or contact us for further assistance!



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Google has your information, but you can control it! Here's how...


Google collects your data when you’re using its products, in order to make its services better for you and all other end users. Several articles have taken a somehow Orwellian view on the information that has been collected by the company and how worrisome it might be. But you shouldn’t be as long as you know which information is collected and how to manage it! 

Google has also explicitly acknowledged  that when you use their products, you are trusting them with your data and it is their responsibility to be clear about that. Therefore they made an entire section on their privacy site about what is stored and how it’s stored. 
Here’s a quick guide on how to find out which data is being collected about you and how you can personalize your security and privacy settings. 

Review your basic account information


Some of the basic information that might be stored about you is:
Your name, email, phone number, birthday, gender, “about me” section, Google+ Settings, Location Sharing & Search Settings.
How?


STEP 1: Log into your account
There are a few different ways to log into your account information; you could log into your Gmail and select the app drawer icon at the top > then select where it says “Account”, or you can simply go to myaccount.google.com.

STEP 2: Under the menu that says “Your Personal info & Privacy”, click on “Your personal info”. STEP 3: See your personal information overview and edit whatever you would like to see!

Check-Ins and Places you have been

When you use the Google Maps app or have your GPS on and use your browser, your phone sends anonymous bits of data about your location back to Google. Google's Location Timeline shows a complete guide to everywhere you've been, in addition to your home and work, which you may have saved.

How?

You can turn off Location History for your account at any time.


On your smartphone, open your device's Settings app Settings app and then Google and then Google Account.
STEP 1: At the top, tap on Data & personalization. STEP 2: Under "Activity controls," and then Location History and then Manage settings STEP 3: Change whether your account or your devices can report Location History to Google:
  • Your account & all your devices - At the top, turn Use Location History on or off.
  • Only a certain device- Under "This device" or "Other devices on this account," turn the device on or off.
  • If you're on a browser- go to the Activity controls section of your Google Account. At the top, turn Location History on or off.
You can click here to learn more about your location history!

Manage your topics of interest


As users browse Google sites like YouTube and other partner websites, Google stores an advertising cookie in a user's browser to understand the types of content that the user is viewing. This information is used to show ads that might appeal to you  based on your your inferred interests and demographics.


For example, if  you browse many fitness websites or watch workout-related videos on YouTube, Google may associate a fitness interest with your cookie or Google Account 

How?

In order to edit your information or topics of interests,

STEP 1: Go to the Ad Settings page.
If you aren't signed in, at the top right, select Sign in. Follow the steps.
STEP 2:Turn on Ad Personalization if it’s off.
STEP 3: Under "How your ads are personalized," select your personal info or interests.
To update your info, select Update.
To remove an interest, select Turn off.

Notice that if you turn off Ads Personalization while you are signed in, Google will stop showing you ads related to your interests across Google services as well as websites and apps that partnered with them.

Check and Manage all Apps & Sites you accessed with your Account

Accessing different apps and websites with your Facebook or Google account can make things way easier and faster. The downside? Sometimes because it’s so easy to do it, you forget easily to which services and sites you signed with your account. But don’t worry as Google can remind you of that and you can see how to unsubscribe to those services or manage them directly from your account!

How?

STEP 1: Log into your account STEP 2: Click on “Personal Info & Privacy”
STEP 3: On the left menu of your screen where it says “Sign in & Security”, click where it says “Apps with Account Access”

STEP 4 : Keep track of which apps or services you gave permission to access your account, and remove the ones you no longer use or trust!

Manage your Activity 


Remember that Google not only saves the information that makes you ‘you’, but also the things you do and create when using their services and sites like Youtube, Calendars, Google Maps, etc. My Activity is the central place where you can find things you have searched, viewed, and watched using their services. You can see and permanently permanently delete specific activities if you want to at any time.

How?


STEP 1: Log into your account 

STEP 2: In the middle menu of your account (under “Personal Info & Privacy”), you will see the option to go to your activity at the bottom. If you’re already logged in, then you can simply go to myactivity.google.com 
STEP 3: To eliminate any kind of activity associated to your account all you have to do is clicking at the upper right site of each activity, the three dot icon for more options and then click on “Delete”.
STEP 4: Now that you’re at your timeline you will notice that this one has been divided by date and categories, but not everything is at simple sight. If you would like to see more than just your activity from certain categories, just click on the left menu where it says “Other Google Activity”.

 Manage your Overall Privacy Settings 


Remember that ignorance can create fear, therefore thoughts about feeling that we can’t get a hold of our own information out there, But as you can see, “knowledge is power”... Quite literally! Want to limit what Google can find and share about you beyond tips above? Then you can’t miss the Privacy Checkup tool. With this tool you’ll be able to manage the types of data Google collects, update what personal information you make public, and adjust the types of ads you would like Google to show you in a matter of minutes!


Found this information useful? 


Share it with your friends and colleagues. You can also follow us in our social networks for further updates, and if you would like to receive more guidance on how to manage your G Suite account don’t hesitate to contact us!




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