Tag: Google

Google has announced that by the end of 2018, the basic mobile management feature on G Suite domains will be enabled by default.  The announcement comes as part of a series of announcement the company has made regarding data and device security.

When the change is enabled, it will require that all users of Android and iOS phones associated with a G Suite domain to have, at a minimum, a password or PIN to unlock their phones.  Without it, users will not be able to access G Suite associated apps and thus, the data associated with those apps.

A new cloud-side change is rolling out to the Google+ app for Android that brings the same “Delete, Report, and Block” feature that is found on the web site to your mobile.  So long as you have the latest G+ app installed on your phone, you should see this new feature roll out over the course of the next few days.

Google+ has had a spam problem for a long time and the company has continued to try to give administrators of communities and collections the tools needed to deal with it.  The ability to delete a comment, report it and block the user is something that admins have had for a while but with this update, everyone gets it.

After being announced late last month that they would be coming soon, Google has finally rolled out Routines for Google Assistant.  The six routines allow you to perform certain tasks and get information all with one “Hey, Google” command on your Google Home device or your Android phone.  They are designed to make the experience more personal but also more helpful by not having to give Assistant multiple commands to get information.

In all there are six Routines that rolled out today:

• Good Morning
• Bedtime
• Leaving home
• I’m home
• Commuting to work
• Commuting home

It should be noted that both of the Commuting routines are only for your smartphone and won’t work on your Google Home.

Google’s efforts to have Google Assistant available on all the things took another step forward yesterday.  The company released an update to the stand alone app, essentially a shortcut to Assistant, for both Android and iOS that expand device availability and functionality.

First, for Android, two big changes came to the Google Assistant app.  It can now run on devices running Android Lollipop which greatly expands the overall number of devices that Assistant can run on.  Second, support for tablets has also arrived on the app.  So instead of the app looking awkwardly huge and only in portrait mode, it now works in landscape and looks like a proper tablet app.  Keep in mind that both of these were actually supported by Assistant last year.  This update to the Assistant stand alone app just adds the support.

Adding to an already impressive list of apps that can be auto provisioned by G Suite admins, Google has added four more popular apps to the mix.  For those that are new to auto provisioning, this allows an admin to provision an account in a popular service or services along with their G Suite account at the time it is setup or later if the service is added to the domain.

The announcement today brings auto provisioning support for

• Kudos
• 15Five
• Rollbar
• Honey

That brings the total number of auto provisioning supported apps to 22.

August, the company behind some of the best smart locks on the market, have announced a deeper, more direct integration with Google Assistant.  Now owners of the smart locks will be able to directly interact with them from Assistant.

To be clear, August has worked with Google Assistant for about a year ago and to access your locks, you had to say, “Hey Google, talk to August”.  Now you can simply say, “Hey Google, is the front door locked?” and Assistant will interact with your August lock directly to determine if it is locked or not.