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An update to storage policies across your Google Account

Over the past decade, Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos have helped billions of people securely store and manage their emails, documents, photos, videos and more. Today, people are uploading more content than ever before—in fact, more than 4.3 million GB are added across Gmail, Drive and Photos every day. 

To continue providing everyone with a great storage experience and to keep pace with the growing demand, we're announcing important upcoming storage changes to your Google Account. These changes will apply to Photos and Drive (specifically Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms and Jamboard files) and will enable us to continue investing in these products for the future. We're also introducing new policies for consumer Google Accounts that are either inactive or over their storage limit across Gmail, Drive (including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms and Jamboard files) and Photos, to bring our policies more in line with industry standards. 

These storage policy changes won’t take effect until June 1, 2021. However, we wanted to let you know well in advance and give you the resources to navigate these changes. Google Workspace subscribers, and G Suite for Education and G Suite for Nonprofits customers should refer to our Google Workspace Updates post to understand how these changes may affect them.

As always, every Google Account will continue to come with 15 GB of free storage across Gmail, Drive and Photos, which we estimate should last the majority of our users several years.  Because the content you store with these apps is primarily personal, it’s not used for advertising purposes. We’ll also continue to give you visibility and control over your storage, and provide tools to help you easily manage it. 

New content that will count toward your Google Account storage

Beginning June 1, any new photo or video uploaded in High quality in Google Photos will count toward your free 15 GB storage quota or any additional storage you’ve purchased as a Google One member. To make this transition easier, we’ll exempt all High quality photos and videos you back up before June 1. This includes all of the High quality photos and videos you currently store with Google Photos. Most people who back up in High quality should have years before they need to take action—in fact, we estimate that 80 percent of you should have at least three years before you reach 15 GB. You can learn more about this change in our Google Photos post.

Also starting June 1, any new Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms or Jamboard file will begin counting toward your free 15 GB of allotted storage or any additional storage provided through Google One. Existing files within these products will not count toward storage, unless they’re modified on or after June 1. You can learn more in our Help Center.

A new policy for accounts that are inactive or over storage limit

We’re introducing new policies for consumer accounts that are either inactive or over their storage limit across Gmail, Drive (including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms and Jamboard files) and/or Photos to better align with common practices across the industry. After June 1: 

If you're inactive in one or more of these services for two years (24 months), Google may delete the content in the product(s) in which you're inactive. 

Similarly, if you're over your storage limit for two years, Google may delete your content across Gmail, Drive and Photos.

We will notify you multiple times before we attempt to remove any content so you have ample opportunities to take action. The simplest way to keep your account active is to periodically visit Gmail, Drive or Photos on the web or mobile, while signed in and connected to the internet. 

The Inactive Account Manager can help you manage specific content and notify a trusted contact if you stop using your Google Account for a certain period of time (between 3-18 months). Note that the new two year inactive policy will apply regardless of your Inactive Account Manager settings. 

You can learn more about these changes in our Help Center. 

How to manage your storage

To help you manage your Google Account storage, anyone can use the free storage manager in the Google One app and on the web, which gives you an easy way to see how you’re using your storage across Gmail, Drive and Photos. You can keep the files you want, delete the ones you no longer need and make room for more—all in one place.

If you need more than your free 15 GB of storage, you can upgrade to a larger storage plan with Google One. You can choose from plans starting at 100 GB of space that also include additional member features like access to Google experts, shared family plans and more.

In addition to helping us meet the growing demand for storage, these changes align our storage policies across products. As always, we remain committed to providing you a great experience and hope to continue to serve you in the future. You can learn more about this change in our Help Center. 

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Goodbye from Wunderlist It's time to make the move to To Do

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Join us on our new journey We’ll be with you every step of the way

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The new Microsoft To Do is here

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The latest features in Microsoft To-Do Mac app, list groups, assigning and a whole lot more!

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A new way to help students turn in their best work

Today’s students face a tricky challenge: In an age when they can explore every idea imaginable on the internet, how do they balance outside inspiration with authenticity in their own work? Students have to learn to navigate the line between other people’s ideas and their own, and how and when to properly cite sources.

We've heard from instructors that they copy and paste passages into Google Search to check if student work is authentic, which can be repetitive, inefficient and biased. They also often spend a lot of time giving feedback about missed citations and improper paraphrasing. By integrating the power of Search into our assignment and grading tools, we can make this quicker and easier. 

That’s why Google is introducing originality reports. This new feature—with several reports included free in every course—will be part of Classroom and Assignments, which was also announced today. We create originality reports by scanning student work for matched phrases across hundreds of billions of web pages and tens of millions of books. 

When assigning work in Classroom and Assignments, instructors will have the option to enable originality reports. Students will then be able to run up to three originality reports on documents they attach to the assignment before submitting their work. This heads-up gives students an opportunity to proactively improve their work, and also saves time for instructors. 

After submission, a fresh originality report will automatically be available to instructors when grading the assignment. These reports will flag text that has missed citations and has high similarity with text on the web or in books.

But comparing work to search results isn’t the only way to ensure authentic work. Coming soon, schools can choose to have their own private repository of past student submissions, so instructors can receive originality reports that include student-to-student matches within the same school. 

Once the feature is generally available, instructors will be able to access originality reports at no charge for up to three assignments in each course they teach. Schools that would like unlimited access can upgrade their instructors to G Suite Enterprise for Education.  During the initial, limited testing period, all instructors can use originality reports as much as they would like to, at no charge. We’ll continue to add features at no additional cost to G Suite for Education.

To use originality reports with Classroom, sign up to apply to be part of the testing program by filling out our form. To try Assignments, which includes originality reports automatically, sign up through our website.

We’re looking forward to seeing how teachers and students alike use the tool to create work that’s both authentic and original. 

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Google Assignments, your new grading companion

Instructors lose valuable time doing cumbersome tasks: writing the same comment on multiple essays, returning piles of paper assignments, and battling copy machine jams. These frustrations are most often felt by instructors with the highest teaching workloads and the least time. For the last five years, we’ve been building tools—like Classroom and Quizzes in Google Forms—to address these challenges. Now you can take advantage of these tools if you use a traditional Learning Management System (LMS). 

Assignments brings together the capabilities of Google Docs, Drive and Search into a new tool for collecting and grading student work. It helps you save time with streamlined assignment workflows, ensure student work is authentic with originality reports, and give constructive feedback with comment banks. You can use Assignments as a standalone tool and a companion to your LMS (no setup required!) or your school admin can integrate it with your LMS. Sign up today to try Assignments.

If you're one of the 40 million people using Classroom: you've got the best of Assignments already baked in, including our new originality reports. For everyone else, Assignments gives you access to these features as a compliment to your school’s LMS. 

Assignments is your tireless grading companion

Using an LMS can create more work than it saves: students turn in all kinds of files, you have to download and re-upload student files one-by-one, and what if students can keep editing after they already turned in their work? Assignments handles all this for you.

Assignments streamlines the creation and management of coursework, and tackles some of your biggest frustrations:

Stop typing the same feedback over and over by using a comment bank, and never worry about pressing the “save” button again

Check student work for originality and automatically lock work once it’s turned in

Assign files with the option to send each student a copy (no more copy machines!)

Grade assignments for an entire class with a student switcher and rubrics, and review any file type without leaving your grading interface

Comment and leave suggestions on student work with Google Docs

Instructors and students can attach anything to assignments: Docs or Word files for papers, spreadsheets for data analysis, slides for presentations, sites for digital portfolios or final projects, Colab notebooks for programming exercises, and much more. 

Help students turn in their best work with originality reports

With originality reports in Assignments, you can check student work for missed citations and possible plagiarism without interrupting your grading workflow. When students turn in a document, Assignments will check students’ text against hundreds of billions of web pages and tens of millions of books. 

If you enable originality reports on an assignment, students can also check their work for authenticity (a limited number of times) to correct issues, turn in their best work, and save instructors time grading. Since both you and your students can see originality reports, they’re designed to help you teach your students about authenticity and academic integrity. 

Getting started with Assignments

Starting today, you can sign up to get access to Assignments when it becomes available in a few weeks. Assignments will be available for free as part of G Suite for Education and can be used by instructors alongside or integrated with an LMS. 

Instructors can use Assignments even if your school has an LMS. There’s no setup required, all you need is to sign up and have a school-issued Google account. 

Admins can turn on access to Assignments within your LMS. Assignments is available as an LTI tool, which provides a more integrated experience and enables roster syncing and grade transmission to your LMS gradebook. Assignments is an improved and expanded version of Course Kit, so if you’re already in the Course Kit beta, you’ll automatically have access to Assignments. 

If you use Canvas, we’ve worked with their team to complement the Assignments LTI tool with a set of additional features that make Docs and Drive work seamlessly across all Canvas assignments. 

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Changing how Google Drive and Google Photos work together

Many of you store your photos and videos on both Google Drive and Google Photos, which keeps them safe and easy to access. We’ve heard feedback that the connection between these services is confusing, so next month, we’re making some changes to simplify the experience across Drive and Photos.

Changes to automatic sync between Google Drive and Google Photos

Starting in July, new photos and videos from Drive won’t automatically show in Photos. Similarly, new photos and videos in Photos will not be added to the Photos folder in Drive. Photos and videos you delete in Drive will not be removed from Photos. Similarly, items you delete in Photos will not be removed from Drive. This change is designed to help prevent accidental deletion of items across products.

 New “Upload from Drive” feature in Google Photos

We’ve heard that many of you would like more granular control when copying photos and videos from Drive into Photos. So we’re bringing a new feature to photos.google.com called “Upload from Drive,” which lets you manually choose photos and videos from Drive, including “Shared with Me” items, to import into Photos. Once copied, these items are not connected between the two products. Since photos and videos will no longer sync across both products, items copied in Original Quality will count towards your storage quota in both Drive and Photos.

 Backup and Sync for Windows and Mac will continue to work

You’ll still be able to use Backup and Sync on Windows or macOS to upload to both services in High Quality or Original Quality. As before, items uploaded in High Quality won’t count against your account storage quota, and items uploaded using Backup and Sync in Original Quality to both services will count only once towards your quota.

 Your existing photos and videos will stay in Google Drive and Google Photos

Any photos or videos from Drive in Photos that you have uploaded prior to this change will remain in Photos. If you have a “Google Photos” folder in Drive, it will remain in Drive, but will no longer update automatically.

 Our goal with these changes is to simplify some features that caused confusion for our users, based on feedback and our own research. We’ll continue to look for more ways to help support Drive and Photos users going forward.

 If you want to take a closer look at these new changes, please check out our guide.

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More science in more places with Science Journal and Google Drive

We first launched Science Journal in 2016 so that students, teachers and science enthusiasts could conduct hands-on science experiments using their phones, tablets and Chromebooks. Since then, we've heard one request from teachers loud and clear: students need to be able to access their experiments no matter what device they're using or where they are. Learning doesn't just happen in the classroom, it happens outdoors, at home and everywhere in between. So today, we’re bringing a new Google Drive syncing feature to Science Journal. Now, you can access your experiments on any device using a Google Account.

Accessing your experiment from Google Drive is easy: you can sign in with any Google Account and all of your experiments will be backed up to a Science Journal folder in Google Drive. If you have existing experiments on your device, you can add them to your Google Drive account. Many viewing, sharing and collaboration features will be coming to Science Journal in the future.

If you don't have a Google Account or you don't want to sign in, you can still use Science Journal—but your data won't be saved to Google Drive. If your school doesn't have Google Accounts, you can sign up for G Suite for free—just remember that G Suite for Education accounts need a domain administrator to activate Science Journal in the G Suite Admin console.

In addition to today’s syncing feature, we have a lot of new resources in Science Journal, just for teachers. Check out the new fundamentals and advanced professional development modules in the Google for Education Teacher Center. For introductory science activities, head over to Scholastic's Science in Action initiative, and for more hands-on physics content, you can pre-order Arduino's Science Kit. If you're looking for new ways to enhance Science Journal's capabilities, check out Vernier's Go Direct line of classroom sensors. Science Journal activities can now be found on the Workbench site, and you can always find activities and more on the Science Journal website and get support in our new help center. Finally, the Science Journal iOS app is now open source, so the app's code is available to the public, making it a great opportunity for students, hobbyists and companies who want to see how Science Journal works and even contribute code back to us.

Our goal with Science Journal is to help you enhance scientific thinking and data literacy in your classroom. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming months, and let us know what you think on our forum. You can tweet at us @GScienceJournal, or just use the #myScienceJournal hashtag on Twitter.

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Version control to Major Tom—keeping track of work in G Suite

How many times have you worked in a document only to realize halfway through that you’re editing an outdated version? Beyond being frustrating, this can cause confusion and slow down your project. One of the great things about working in cloud-native tools like G Suite is that everything is automatically saved. You never have to worry if you’re working on the most up-to-date version of a document because your apps do that for you.

But for the times that you need to go back and see changes, it’s simple. Go to File > Version history > See version history and view a complete list of changes to your document in one place. You can restore previous versions of a document there, too.

Another trick is to simply click the text at the top of your navigation bar that says “last edit was…” or “all changes saved” in Google Docs. If you hover over that text, it will actually tell you what the last change to the document was and who made it. Or if you’re returning to a document, you can click “See new changes” and the Doc will highlight edits that have been made since your last visit.

Read on for more tips on how to keep track of work in G Suite.

Take it a step further

Beyond viewing versions, there are other cool things you can do to keep track of work in G Suite. You can:

1. Make copies of specific versions. 

This is great for sharing “before” and “after” versions of your work with your boss. You can make copies of specific versions within version history. Click the three dot icon next to your selected version and choose “make a copy” to have a second record.

2. Name specific versions of your work. 

In version history, you can keep track of your work by naming individual versions in your list. Because all of your changes are saved in the cloud, it’s easy to go back and change version names instead of having ten different versions of a “Final” document floating in email threads. Bonus points for creative names!

3. See who’s viewed your work and when. 

If you’ve ever wondered who specifically has looked at your work, there’s a way for you to view activity within Google Docs, Sheets or Slides. Those folks who use paid versions can go to Tools > Activity dashboard and see detail about the number of people reviewing their document, who specifically has reviewed and viewership trends. If you want to get there quicker, you can use this keyboard shortcut to see the activity dashboard: Ctrl + Alt/Option + T, then click Z.

4. Set up notifications to see when changes are made in Sheets. 

If you’re working in a spreadsheet to track a project, you may want to see regular updates for when changes are made. You can set up notifications to alert you of changes immediately after someone changes data in a cell. Select Tools > Notification rules and choose the settings you prefer.

Don’t let version issues slow down your work. Use these tips to maneuver past mix-ups.

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Tips from the people behind your favorite Google products

I’m one of those people who always cuts it close at the airport—it’s a race through security, with just enough time to grab the airline essentials: water bottle, magazine, a soft pretzel if I’m lucky. But I just learned that I can whip out Google Maps to find my way around the airport (by searching the airport name and terminal number), so I no longer waste time running around looking for my snack of choice.

For two decades, Google has built products that make my life more useful. Eight of these products now have a billion users, and with all that extra time at the airport, I got to thinking—how many other unknown tips and tricks are out there? Since Google is celebrating its 20th birthday this month, I present a party favor: tips on Google’s most-used products, straight from the people who helped build them.

Search

For lovers of covers:Try searching for a song and then tapping “other recordings” for different renditions.

Don’t burn daylight: Make the most of your daylight hours by knowing when the sun will go down. Search [sunset] to get the time the sun will set today.

For content connoisseurs:If you’re a fan of bingeable TV shows or a movie buff, you can see all the places to stream any show or film by searching [watch] followed by the title. (Head’s up: this is available in the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, Germany and India). 

Emily Moxley, Director of Product Management

Maps

Beat the crowds:Use Google Maps to find out the estimated wait times and popular times to visit your favorite restaurants and businesses. 

Don’t get lost in the parking lot:If you’ve ever spent way too long searching for your parked car, this tip’s for you. After navigating to your destination, tap on the blue dot and then “Set as parking location” so you can always find your way back to your parking spot.

Quickest route to the airport snacks:If you’re flying to a new place, you can use Google Maps to help you find your way around an airport. A quick search for an airport terminal name, say “SFO Terminal 1,” will show you the lay of the land, including nearby gates, lounges, restaurants and stores.

Dane Glasgow, VP of Product

YouTube

Just add popcorn:Developed to cut down on glare and give you that movie theater experience, Dark Theme turns your background dark while you’re watching YouTube. It’s available on desktop, iOS and now rolling out to Android. 

Pick your pace:Speed up or slow down the playback of a video by tapping on the three dots at the bottom right of any video. 

Take a shortcut:While watching a YouTube video, use the numbered keys to seek in a video. For example, hitting “2” will take you 20 percent into the video, “6” will take you to 60 percent into the video, “0” will restart the video. 

Brian Marquardt, Director of Product Management

Gmail

The ultimate to-do list: Open Tasks in your side panel within Gmail, then drag and drop emails to turn your messages into action items. 

Shhhh:Declutter your inbox with Gmail’s mute feature, which pushes the entire conversation to your archive and any future conversations on the thread bypass your inbox to be automatically archived as well. 

Take it back:Don’t fret over embarrassing typos, unintentional reply-alls, or other email taboos. In your Gmail settings, just implement a 5-30 second cancellation period on your sent emails and once you’ve fired one off, you’ll receive a prompt to “Undo.”

Kevin Smilak, Engineering Director

Google Drive

Give your docs a gold star:Find your favorite Drive items by starring your most important docs within the Drive main menu, and then bookmarking your Starred page. 

File_name_V2:Freeze moments in time by naming different versions of the docs you edit frequently. In a Doc, Sheet, or Slides go to File > Version History > Name current version. Name any version then access it easily from "Version history" by name. 

Your search is our command:Google Drive makes the text within all of the images and PDFs you upload searchable. Try searching for a phrase that you know is inside a picture or PDF, which is especially helpful when you can’t remember your filename. 

Alexander Vogenthaler, Director of Product Management

Android

Lost and found:If you’ve misplaced your Android phone, Find My Device lets you locate it by signing into your Google account. Or you can call it directly from a browser by typing “find my device” on Google. Lock your phone remotely or display a message on the lock screen, so if someone finds it they know who to contact. If you’re convinced it’s lost for good, you can erase all your data.

Always reachable:Don’t miss any urgent phone calls and messages from important contacts like close family members or your child’s school, even when you have Do Not Disturb turned on. Just add a star to people that matter to you, and then allow calls and messages from “starred contacts only” in Do Not Disturb settings. 

Use your voice:You can ask your Google Assistant to handle tasks on your Android phone (running Android 6.0 Marshmallow or later). Start by saying “OK Google,” then try “take a screenshot,” “turn on flashlight,” or “open WiFi setting.” You can even ask to “take a selfie”—this will open the camera app and start a countdown. Cheeeeeeeese. 

Sagar Kamdar, Director of Product Management

Google Play

When you’re good with faces, but not names:Just hit pause on your movie, tap the circle around the actor or actress's face, and learn more about them and what other movies they’ve been in.

Read like a superhero: When you’re reading a comic on your phone, tap on a voice bubble and use your volume buttons to zoom in on the dialogue between two characters.

What you wish for:You can create a wishlist to keep track of items you want to install or purchase on Google Play.

Kara Bailey, Global Merchandising Director

Chrome

Access history across devices:Open Chrome and click on “History.” From the drop down menu, click “Full History” and “Tabs From Other Devices.” If you’re signed into the same Google account on both your phone and your computer, you’ll see the article you were just about to finish on your way into work.

Keeping tabs on your tabs:You can save eight days of time per year using keyboard shortcuts. Try this one in Chrome: jump between tabs at light speed by pressing Ctrl and the tab number you want to go to (i.e., Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3).

👀☝😀 = 🎉. Right-click in any text field for a shortcut to access emoji on any platform Chrome can be found.

Ellie Powers, Group Product Manager, and Chris Beckmann, Product Management Director 

So many tips, so much saved time.

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Upgrade to Google One to get more out of Google

Recently, we introduced Google One, a plan that gives you expanded storage and helps you get more out of Google. Over the past few months, people with Google Drive paid plans have been upgraded to Google One. And starting today, people in the U.S. can choose to upgrade to Google One.

Google One

More storage for what matters

Google One gives you more storage across Drive, Gmail, and Photos. With plenty of space, your most important memories and files are stored safely in the cloud and available on all your devices. We've improved the price of some of our plans and added new plan options, so you can find one that works for you.

More help when you need it

As a Google One member, you can easily get in touch with a team of Google experts 24/7 to answer your questions—whether you need help recovering a file you accidentally deleted or want to learn how to use Gmail when you're offline.

More benefits for members

With Google One, you’ll also get extra benefits across Google. We’ve started with credits on Google Play and deals on hotels found in Google Search. In the coming months, keep an eye out for Google Store and Google Express benefits and more.

More for your family

You can also share your plan with up to five additional family members. That means simplified storage under one bill, and access to the benefits of Google One.

We're just getting started and will be rolling out to more countries over the next few weeks. If you’re in the U.S. and would like to upgrade, visit the Google One website.

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For Louis Armstrong’s birthday we tune in to “Tiger Rag” on a Gramophone

In 1934 the trumpeter, singer and movie star Louis Armstrong visited a studio in Paris to record his song “Tiger Rag” on a phonograph record that people could play on home gramophones. And while later recordings of “Tiger Rag” made it a celebrated jazz standard, the original recording that captured Armstrong’s passionate and original interpretation faded from memory.

To mark the birthday of Louis Armstrong 117 years ago, Google Arts & Culture and the record label Deutsche Grammophon teamed up to restore and digitize phonograph records like “Tiger Rag” from the label’s archive, and to tell the story of Emile Berliner, who invented the grammophon player and records that brought the music of Armstrong and many other artists to the masses.

In the summer of 1888, thirteen years before Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Emile Berliner travelled to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia to unveil his gramophone player and record. Together, they represented the first iteration of the record player as we know it today, and a technology that would outlast every other audio format until the invention of digital formats. For the first time, music lovers everywhere could purchase their favorite songs and enjoy them at home. Later on, Berliner would also launch Deutsche Grammophon, the world’s first record label, as an attempt to commercialise his groundbreaking invention.

Emile Berliner

Emile Berliner (1888) working on the invention that would bring music to the masses

Family listening

A family listening to Edison’s cylindrical phonograph in 1909

Typical press

A typical pressing plant in the 1950s, with Berliner’s original disc format still in use

An ad

An advertisement for Deutsche Grammophon, released in 1904

Berliner's gramophone

Berliner’s gramophone, this version originating from 1889

Deutsche Grammophon is home to one of the world’s oldest sound archives and still releases music today. Although much of the early archive has been lost due to war and natural decay, there are still thousands of recordings—from jazz and classical, to opera and even spoken poetry awaiting to be listened to again.

With Google Arts & Culture, Deutsche Grammophon is restoring and digitizing hundreds of these previously unpublished cultural treasures. Some of them will be played for the first time in decades; all of them will be made available to the public in high-quality.

In addition to these recordings, Google Arts & Culture launched 12 online exhibitions curated by Deutsche Grammophon with background material on Emile Berliner and the label’s heritage. All of the above is accessible via the Google Arts & Culture website at g.co/deutschegrammophon, as well as the Android and iOS mobile apps.

Join us in celebrating Louis Armstrong’s birthday and Emile Berliner’s inventions by listening to the original recording of “Tiger Rag” here.

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Android 9 Pie: Powered by AI for a smarter, simpler experience that adapts to you

The latest release of Android is here! And it comes with a heaping helping of artificial intelligence baked in to make your phone smarter, simpler and more tailored to you. Today we’re officially introducing Android 9 Pie.

We’ve built Android 9 to learn from you—and work better for you—the more you use it. From predicting your next task so you can jump right into the action you want to take, to prioritizing battery power for the apps you use most, to helping you disconnect from your phone at the end of the day, Android 9 adapts to your life and the ways you like to use your phone.

Tailored to you

Android 9 aims to make your phone even smarter by learning from you and adapting to your usage patterns. That’s why Android 9 comes with features like Adaptive Battery, which learns the apps you use most and prioritizes battery for them, and Adaptive Brightness, which learns how you like to set the brightness in different settings, and does it for you.

Android 9 also helps you get things done faster with App Actions, which predicts what you’ll want to do next based on your context and displays that action right on your phone. Say it’s Tuesday morning and you’re preparing for your commute: you’ll be suggested actions like navigating to work on Google Maps or resuming an audiobook with Google Play Books. And when you put in headphones after work, you may see options to call your mom or start your favorite Spotify playlist.

Later this fall, we’ll also roll out Slices (pie...slices...get it?!) which shows relevant information from your favorite apps when you need it. If you start typing “Lyft” into Google Search, you’ll see a “slice” of the Lyft app, showing prices for your ride home and the ETA for a driver so you can take action more quickly and easily.

Now easy as pie

Making your phone smarter and more adaptive is important, but we also want Android to be easier to use and more approachable. In Android 9, we’ve introduced a new system navigation featuring a single home button.

This is especially helpful as phones grow taller and it’s more difficult to get things done on your phone with one hand. With a single, clean home button, you can swipe up to see a newly designed Overview, the spot where at a glance you have full-screen previews of your recently used apps.

Swipe up from anywhere to see full-screen previews of recently used apps and simply tap to jump back into one of them. If you find yourself constantly switching between apps on your Pixel, we’ve got good news for you: Smart Text Selection (which recognizes the meaning of the text you’re selecting and suggests relevant actions) now works on the Overview of your recent apps, making it easier to perform the action you want. You can enable this new system navigation in Settings once you’ve received your update to Android 9 (learn more in the help center).

Changing how you navigate your phone is a big deal, but small changes can make a big difference too. Android P also brings a redesigned Quick Settings, a better way to take and edit screenshots (say goodbye to the vulcan grip that was required before), simplified volume controls, an easier way to manage notifications and more. You’ll notice small changes like these across the platform, to help make the things you do all the time easier than ever.  

Find the balance that’s right for your life

While much of the time we spend on our phones is useful, many of us wish we could disconnect more easily and free up time for other things. In fact, over 70 percent of people we talked to in our research said they want more help with this. So we’ve been working to add key capabilities right into Android to help people achieve the balance with technology they’re looking for. 

At Google I/O in May, we previewed some of these digital wellbeing features for Android, including a new Dashboard that helps you understand how you’re spending time on your device; an App Timer that lets you set time limits on apps and grays out the icon on your home screen when the time is up; the new Do Not Disturb, which silences all the visual interruptions that pop up on your screen; and Wind Down, which switches on Night Light and Do Not Disturb and fades the screen to grayscale before bedtime.

Digital Wellbeing will officially launch on Pixel phones this fall, with Android One and other devices coming later this year. But these features are available in beta now for Pixel phones running Android 9. To try them out:

Make sure you’re running Android 9 Pie on your device. (Learn how to check which version of Android you have.)

Sign up for the beta with the email address you use with Google Play.

Accept your invitation to become a beta tester by clicking the link in your welcome email.

Once you’ve accepted your invitation, Digital Wellbeing will appear in your phone’s Settings app. It may take up to 24 hours for Digital Wellbeing to appear on your device.

Security and privacy baked in

Improving security is always important in each of our platform releases.  In addition to continuously hardening the platform, and an improved security model for biometrics, Android 9 enables industry-leading hardware security capabilities to allow protecting sensitive data like credit card information using a secure, dedicated chip.  Android 9 also brings important privacy improvements, such as TLS by default and DNS over TLS to help protect all web communications and keep them private.

Coming to a device near you

Starting today, an over-the-air update to Android 9 will begin rolling out to Pixel phones. And devices that participated in the Beta program from Sony Mobile, Xiaomi, HMD Global, Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus and Essential, as well as all qualifying Android One devices, will receive this update by the end of this fall. We're also working with a number of other partners to launch or upgrade devices to Android 9 this year.

Learn more about Android 9 Pie at android.com/9.

[smartworkingpackage]

Android 9 Pie: Improving productivity, security, and digital wellbeing for the enterprise

Today we’re serving up Android 9 Pie, freshly baked for the enterprise.

The newest release of Android delivers AI-powered productivity tools, security enhancements, new features to promote digital wellbeing, and support for a range of use cases.

Apps in the work profile are bundled together, with a toggle available for switching off when it’s time to step away from work.

In Android 9, work apps have their own tab in the All Apps menu, making them easier to find and distinctly separate from personal apps. Android 9 also brings support for in-app switching between apps that exist in both the work and personal profiles.

The work profile also complements Android’s focus on digital wellbeing. While our phones are a big part of our work lives, it’s important to be able to disconnect. A new toggle feature lets users turn off work apps and notifications quickly and easily.

Android 9 also includes new digital wellbeing tools like the Dashboard and Do Not Disturb, which helps users monitor device usage and turn off all visual interruptions respectively. These tools are available today in beta on Pixel devices. You can learn more about the beta program here.

AI baked in

To help your team get things done faster, Android 9 introduces App Actions, an AI-powered feature that displays suggested actions based on a user’s context. These appear in the Android launcher, Smart Text Selection, the Google Search app, Google Assistant, and the Play Store.

For example, if an employee is working, they might see a suggestion to share a Drive folder. 

App Actions suggest specific tasks throughout the day.

Over time, users will see prompts to take specific actions from both personal and work apps as the phone learns about how they use the device. It’s one more way that Android works behind the scenes to make the phone more responsive to individual needs.

New recipes for dedicated devices

Many Android devices in organizations are dedicated to a single purpose, such as ruggedized tablets, point-of-sale terminals, digital signage, or informational kiosks.

In Android 9, admins have full flexibility to show or hide elements of the Android user-interface including the status bar and navigation buttons. Enterprise mobility management providers can set a custom home screen, and populate it with the apps of their choice.

Admins can use a custom launcher and select multiple apps for a focused experience on single-use devices.

By doing this, admins can enable switching between a set of apps. So, for example, a restaurant worker could take an order on their tablet, then switch back to the menu or to a payment app to process the transaction.

Additionally, Android 9 supports multiple people using a shared device. Devices can be configured as a kiosk, with a user’s data erased at the end of every session or set up for multiple employees. An employee working the day-shift can hand off their device to their colleague working late with data preserved between sessions but fully separated at all times.

Tasty slices of security and privacy

Android 9 enables industry-leading hardware security capabilities by leveraging a phone’s tamper-resistant hardware,similar to the “secure elements” built into credit and smart cards. Android 9 is also the first major operating system to support secure transactions via Protected Confirmation APIs as well as enabling app developers to leverage the tamper-resistant hardware (Strongbox) which raises the bar when it comes to protecting sensitive app data. We also continue to harden the Android platform through additional compiler-based mitigations, to make bugs harder to exploit and prevent certain types of bugs from becoming vulnerabilities.

Android 9 protects all data that enters or leaves a device with Transport Layer Security (TLS) by default. It’s also the first mobile operating system to support DNS-over-TLS for private browsing. Additionally, IT administrators can require different PINs and timeout rules for personal and work profiles and set policies to further prevent data sharing across profiles. New APIs will be available that work with keys and certificates to securely identify devices accessing corporate resources. 

Served up to a range of devices

This is just a taste of the goodness in Android 9. For more details on all the new work features and APIs in Android 9, see our developer page.

Android 9 is available starting today on Google Pixel phones and will be available later this fall on a range of devices, including Android Enterprise Recommended devices and those featured in the beta program.

[smartworkingpackage]

Try out Digital Wellbeing to find your own balance with Pixel

We all love our phones—the cameras capture the memories we make, they find us the best route to work each day, and they answer the questions we have throughout the day. But many of us can probably use a little bit of help disconnecting from our devices from time to time so we can focus on the other things in our lives.

Earlier this year, we previewed Digital Wellbeing, a new set of features across our products that aims to help people achieve their desired balance with the technology they use every day. Starting today, all Pixel users can try these features out for themselves as part of an exclusive beta:

The new Dashboard helps you understand how you’re spending time on your phone, with a daily overview, a graphic of how frequently you use different apps, how many times you unlock your phone, and how many notifications you receive.

App Timers let you limit the amount of time you spend using your favorite apps.  

Do Not Disturb helps eliminate the anxiety you may feel as notifications pile up. When you’re in a “devices down” meeting or at dinner with friends, Do Not Disturb can be set to keep all visual interruptions from appearing on your screen, including notifications, as well as the sounds.

You can activate the Wind Down feature so that at night, as you get close to bedtime, your device goes into Do Not Disturb mode and your screen fades to grayscale to help you disconnect.

The Digital Wellbeing beta is available for download on Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL now, and it will be pushed as an update to all Pixel devices later this year. Get step-by-step instructions on downloading the beta app and try out Digital Wellbeing for yourself.

Pixel keeps getting better, and with Android 9, it’ll also get a number of other AI-backed features, including Adaptive Battery, Adaptive Brightness, and a revamped look and feel. Find out more about Android 9.

Our goal has always been to deliver our newest features to Pixel users as soon as they are ready, and the Digital Wellbeing beta and Android 9 are part of that. So dig in!

[smartworkingpackage]

ICYMI in July: here’s what happened in G Suite

More than 25,000 folks flooded Moscone Center in San Francisco to hear about the latest cloud technology at this year’s Google Cloud Next.

In short, a lot happened. Google leaders, like Prabhakar Raghavan and Garrick Toubassi, shared the latest G Suite product updates (read more). The team also hosted more than 50 deep-dive sessions explaining everything from how AI can positively impact team performance to time-saving tips to how to use partner integrations within G Suite apps. Check out our YouTube channel over the next few weeks to see keynotes and sessions for yourself.

The next Next is just around the corner: April 9-11, 2019. Mark your [Google] calendar!

Got a Google Sheet that you want to pay special attention to? You can be notified the minute that someone makes a change to your spreadsheet, like, say, if you’re tracking changes to quarterly revenue figures closely.

Open up your Google Sheet and select Tools > Notification rules at the top. Choose how and when you want to get “noties” and click “Save.”

→ Now Calendar gives you the option to “propose a new time” in invites so that you can reschedule meetings faster.

→Drive will surface information based on more search parameters to help you track down what you need quicker—stuff like top collaborators, suggested search queries and file types, edit history, priority items and more.

→ We published a new Salesforce Add-on in Sheets to help businesses import data and reports from Salesforce into Sheets and vice versa. We also have a new integration with SAP ERP. Speaking of Sheets, we’re making it easier to connect Sheets to BigQuery to analyze your data.

→ Now Admins can assign “main work locations” for employees in Calendar (this helps the system more easily suggest a room). Go to the Admin Console and click Apps > G Suite > Settings for Directory > Profile editing and choose “Work location.”

Check out the full recap of product updates in July. Cheers!