Every month Google rolls out new features for G Suite and many of their other products. Some of those updates are irrelevant for teachers and students while others can have a direct impact on how teachers and students use their favorite Google products. If you want to see every update that Google makes to G Suite throughout the month, follow the G Suite Updates Blog. But if you prefer to trust me to filter and pass along the relevant updates, here’s what I think were the Google product updates that were relevant for teachers and students.
- Insert images into cells in Google Sheets.
- I covered this update ten days ago. The feature is still rolling out to users.
- The Google Drive iOS and Android apps were updated.
- As I wrote a few weeks ago, this change is almost entirely cosmetic. It’s worth noting this update because it does change the layout and location of some features. Overall, it’s an update that I appreciate because it makes the app’s user interface cleaner and easier to navigate.
- Google is adding a “priority page” to Google Drive in your web browser.
- When I wrote about this update earlier this month I questioned whether or not Google suggesting which files to prioritize would be annoying. A handful of beta testers of Priority Page wrote to me to share that they liked it. In particular, they liked the workspace function that is a part of Priority Page.
- Set start times and reminders in Tasks.
- I’m surprised it took this long for Google to add that feature to Tasks. It has been available in Keep for years.
- Jigsaw, a Google/ Alphabet subsidiary, launched a Chrome extension called Tune.
- This isn’t a G Suite product, but since most G Suite users use Chrome it is worth mentioning. Tune is designed to help you hide “toxic” comments on social media platforms. I tested it this week. You can read about my Tune experience here.
- You can now use your own VR tours in Google Expeditions.
- You can use Google’s VR Tour Creator through your G Suite account if your domain administrator has enabled it. Those tours can now be used in the Android and iOS versions of Google Expeditions. I wrote about this update and included tutorials here.
