The users were given two options: either to start paying the per-user monthly fee by July 2022 or to lose their account. Consequently, this move led to a huge outcry and now, the company seems to be backing down from most of the harsher terms of its announcement.

Now, Google is launching a survey of affected G Suite users and second, it’s promising a data-migration option to a consumer account before the shutdown hits.

Google has a survey out for Legacy G Suite users facing the free account shut down.

If you have 10 or fewer people on your custom domain account, Google is hinting at there maybe being "more options" available in the coming months.https://t.co/u3bMpESLdi

— Ron Amadeo (@RonAmadeo) January 26, 2022

Google Apps allows users to have a Google account with a custom domain, so your email ends in your website address rather than “@gmail.com.” This is typically used for businesses.

The free tier of G Suite was from 2006 to 2012 and apparently, during this time a lot of geeks did this for friends, families, and other non-business uses.

Google stopped offering free G Suite accounts in 2012, but it was unthinkable that Google would go after its most enthusiastic, early-adopter users and kick them off the service. Users who has been hit by the shutdown have two options:

• To start paying for their accounts, which had been free for years;
• Lose access to core Workspace apps like Gmail.

Users who didn’t want to pay will be able to only export data with Google Takeout.

If you used your G Suite account like a regular consumer account and bought a bunch of digital content from Google, you could be out hundreds or thousands of dollars in purchases. With no way to get all the data out of a Google account in a seamless and easy way, Google’s “pay up or lose your account” options felt like data extortion.

More information, including a link to the survey, is available in the Google Workspace Admin Help page for G Suite legacy free edition upgrades.

With this, an AppSheet developer could now build an approval workflow or asset management system that users can update right from within an email, for example.

Praveen Seshadri, the CEO and founder of AppSheet who sold the service to Google in 2020, noted that this is a small but important step in the service’s overall mission to enable more users to convert their idea into working software — and to help those developers reach their users where they are. Seshadri also said:

“What we’re in the process of doing is saying, ‘how do we let people who are what we call creators — people with ideas of how to make things run better or automate things, and so on — build those things?’ Traditionally, there were apps, but of late, we’re trying to say, ‘how do we integrate that deeper into the experience of those end users?’ That’s what developers have been doing for a while with the workspace platform and now we’re broadening that to the non-developers.”

Typically, it’s the business users who are the closest to the business problems, so as Seshadri noted, they are also usually the ones who know what they want from an automation solution like this. And while they may not be able to code themselves, Seshadri argues that AppSheet’s focus on a declarative approach lets users focus on outcomes and not the “insanely tedious steps to achieve those outcomes.” But he also noted that in most businesses, no-code users and traditional engineers work together. Somebody has to build and maintain the database that the no-code application sits on top of, after all.

On top of broadening the capabilities of the AppSheet platform, though, the current focus for the team is on how those efforts are consumed by end-users. Seshadri commented:

“Traditionally, if you’re building applications, you got to go to the application and do something there. I’ve got to do an expense report. I’ve got an expense report application, a web page or something And I do that. And then I have to do something with recruiting, I go to that application. We tend to transform your context in all these places. What we’re doing now is taking AppSheet applications built by creators and bringing them into your Gmail, so that the users can stay in the context they are in and the work comes to them, the application comes to them.”

He noted that Gmail is an obvious starting point inside of Google Workspace, though the overall goal is to meet the users where they are so they can stay within their current work context as much as possible.

In this context, it’s also worth noting that Google is also launching a new integration with Atlassian today that brings a Jira integration to Google Chat and Spaces. With this, users will be able to create new Jira tickets right from Chat and Spaces, see previews of their tickets and track active issues. That is pretty much a capability that users of Slack and Microsoft Teams already have access to, so in many ways, Google is simply filling a gap in its tool chest here. Joff Redfern, chief product officer, Atlassian, commented:

“Modern work requires people to switch contexts and tools faster than ever before. We believe an open ecosystem and tight integrations among the tools that users rely on every day is vital to their success. Since 2017, our Trello integration with Gmail has been installed by more than 7 million people.”

Redfern concluded that nowadays, they are excited to build on the partnership between Atlassian and Google to propel work collaboration further with the integration of Jira with Google Chat and Spaces.

Dublin-based Academy of Code and Cocoon Education have joined forces to provide a blended learning portal for children, teenagers and teachers to use in schools. Olus Education said that its learning platform can be used by students at home and in the classroom, equipping them with essential digital skills from beginner to more advanced levels.

According to the company’s CEO, Diarmuid Ó Muirgheasa, a lot of Irish children and young people have very good tech skills already and Olus Education’s aim is to expand on this. “Ireland’s young people are already leaders in this area and Olus Education wants to inspire them to reach their full potential,” he said.

Students will learn using tools such as Google Workspace, creative media and coding. They will also learn about digital wellbeing. Meanwhile, schools can choose to avail of a designated mentor to help them implement lesson plans.

Olus Education plans to continue the Academy of Code’s Pathway to Computer Science programme, which provides a detailed learning framework for young people who want to develop their coding and technology skills on an extra-curricular basis. The new company has ambitious plans for the next few years, aiming to bring 250,000 students from Ireland, the UK and further afield onboard its platform by 2026. It currently has a team of 30 educators and support staff and has a target of employing more than 100 full-time staff within the next five years.

Olus Education’s chief product officer, Gavin Molloy, said the increase in remote learning for children and adults alike during the pandemic has opened many people’s eyes to the possibilities surrounding virtual education platforms. He commented:

“This trend was growing before the pandemic, but now digital learning has been accepted as a vital part of a well-rounded education, preparing young people for future careers and a more tech-reliant society.”

Joe Hogan, Olus Education investor and founder of telecom company Openet, added that he believes the company is offering the right product at the right time.

It was first announced last October and since then the company has released a number of innovations to it for businesses, nonprofits, and classrooms.

Users can use Google Workspace to create a secure collaboration space to share ideas and keep track of information. It provides suggestions for recommended files and people to share with. To access these integrated, collaborative experience users need to turn on Google Chat. They can then use Rooms in Google Chat as a place for connecting, creating, and collaborating. Google plans on evolving Rooms over the coming months into Spaces. It will introduce a new user interface, in-line topic threading, presence indicators, custom statuses, expressive reactions, and a collapsible view.

The company also announced Google Workspace Individual, which is designed for small business owners. It provides premium capabilities such as smart booking services, professional video meetings, personalized email marketing, and more. Google Workspace Individual will soon be available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Japan. Kelly Waldher, vice president of marketing for Google Workspace, and Aparna Pappu, vice president of engineering at Google Workspace, wrote in a post:

“Every day, the world’s most innovative companies, schools and nonprofits use Google Workspace to transform how people work and achieve more together. It’s a daily part of how leading healthcare providers revolutionize patient care, schools turn remote learning into an immersive, personalized experience, and aerospace companies rethink flight. Now, with Google Workspace for everyone, you can organize your junior sports league with ease, take that fundraiser to the next level, or even turn your hobby into a business. Whatever it is, Google Workspace helps people (teams, families, friends, volunteers, neighbors…) connect, create and collaborate.”

In addition, Google announced new security and privacy features protecting Workspace. It has launched Google Workspace Client-side encryption, which gives customers direct control over their encryption keys and identity service. According to Google, client-side encryption is especially helpful for organizations storing sensitive data, such as intellectual property, healthcare records, or financial data.

There are also new trust rules for Drive, which gives customers more control over how files can be shared within and outside of their organization. They will be able to set specific rules for organizational units and groups, which allows for a more granular approach than applying blanket policies to all users. New Drive labels will allow users to classify their files to ensure they’re handled correctly. Drive labels also integrate with Google workspace’s data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities. Files can also be classified automatically based on DLP rules defined by the administrator.

In addition, the company is introducing new phishing and malware protection. When abusive content is found, the file will be flagged and will only be visible to admins and the file’s owner, preventing sharing and reducing the number of users exposed to the abusive content.