Summary of Google Workspace 2023 improvements (Part 2)

Following on from part 1, let’s take a look at my favourite improvements to Slides, Chat, Meet, Calendar, Classroom, and Gmail.

Slides

Presentable video recordings

This allows for videos to be recorded of Slides content and then shared. This saves having to use 3rd party apps. The rollout for this has been delayed and should be with us in January. More info here.

Annotations

When presenting slides, you can now use a pencil tool to annotate the screen, helping you to get your message across better. More info here.

Chat

There have been a lot of improvements and new features to Google Chat, allowing using to do much more without having to leave Chat.

In-line threading

This makes Spaces much more organised and readable when there are multiple topics being discussed. Plus, it’s good to see that old chats will move over to this, even though there have been delays in the transition. More info here.

3rd party apps

We can now increase the functionality of Chat by installing 3rd party apps. It’s hoped that developers will take this opportunity to make some really good ones. An example of one is the Workday app where actions such as booking time off and filing expense reports can be done from Chat.

Group read receipts, emoji reactions, star messages, hyperlinks in messages

There have been lots of little improvements which make using Chat much simpler and better, like seeing who’s read messages to a group, starring important messages, adding hyperlinks in messages, and reacting with emojis. More info here, here, here and here.

Meet

Full HD — including shared content

We can now see users in Meets much better and probably more importantly we can see the content they’re sharing better with full HD.

3rd party apps, goodbye JamBoard

Google has opened up Meet development to third parties, and we’ve seen some great apps which interact with Meet well, like Miro, Confluence, Figma. One casualty has been JamBoard, which was a simple whiteboard app which could be used from Meet, but Google has decided to withdraw it and users will have to use a 3rd party app.

Join requests

Previously, join requests took over the whole screen, requiring you to admit or decline the user, but sometimes you just want them to wait for you to admit them, especially if you’re in a previous meeting using the same link. Fortunately, these will appear more subtlely and not interrupt your current meeting. More info here.

Captions on meet recordings

Sometimes people want to watch a Meet recording but don’t speak the language the meeting was held in. I had this last year where training sessions were held in English but some don’t understand English well and couldn’t watch the recording as there were no subtitles but now these can be included in the recording, which is great news. More info here.

Calendar

Full screen task lists

Tasks has been incorporated into G Calendar and there’s a page where tasks can be viewed full-screen, so you can see all tasks in one place. Plus, with the convenience of being able to access your calendar from the same place. More info here.

Appointment schedules-paid, shorter, open

It’s now possible to book appointments without needing a Google account, and to set up paid appointments. I also liked that it’s now possible to book shorter appointments, with the minimum being 5 mins instead of 15. More info here and here.

Calendar statuses in Chat

You can see other users’ calendar statuses (depending on their sharing permissions) so you can see, for example, if it’s a good time to chat to someone, as it will show if they have a meeting planned in the next 10 minutes, or if they are out of the office tomorrow. More info here.

Classroom

In-line replies in Email notifications

Teachers can now reply to messages inline straight from their email, saving them having to switch back and forth between Gmail and Classroom. More info here.

Class visitor

There are times when someone needs access to a class but who aren’t a teacher or a student. Here, a user can be set up as a class visitor allowing them into the class. This is only available to Education accounts.More info here.

Shareable class & classwork templates

I see so much duplication of work with teachers, and it’s good to see the ability to share classwork materials. This is currently only available to Education Plus accounts. More info here.

Analytics

One for education coordinators, which gives the ability to see key measureables across classes and drill down to student level. This is only available for Education Plus. More info here.

Gmail

Availability prior to scheduling meetings

How long do we sometimes take looking for a good time to have a meeting with a group of people? This gives you that information to be able to arrange the meeting at an appropriate time quickly. More info here.

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More improvements in part 1 and part 3.