I hope your August was filled with plenty of sunshine and days relaxing on the beach.

There were also some important Google Apps updates that you may have missed in all the warm weather. Don’t worry about falling behind! We made this helpful recap of the 5 most important updates for Drive, Admin Console, Hangouts, and Sheets so you can stay up to date.

1. Open Desktop Applications with Google Drive

Google Drive made a big stride towards becoming the only file storage solution you will ever need. While you used to only be able to open files using Google’s native file types (Docs, Sheets etc.) or connected 3rd party Apps, the recent update allows you to open files using desktop applications.

2. Take Control Over the YouTube Videos Your Users Watch

Google’s YouTube restrictions can be a bit too overarching and block videos that may be useful your end users. If you turn on these restrictions, you now have the option to go into YouTube and approve videos that you do not want blocked. If you aren’t sure which videos should be approved, don’t worry, you can also delegate other users on your domain to be designated “video approvers.”

3. Host Slide Presentations via Google Hangouts

Presenting a Slide presentations over hangouts used to be a juggling act of screensharing different windows. Google has simplified this process by allowing you to host Slide presentations via Hangouts. This also makes it much easier to read from your notes while presenting only what you want the viewers to see.

4. Include hidden and filtered data in charts in Google Sheets

Hidden columns and rows were always tricky when it came to making charts from a Google Sheet. With this update you are given the option of including or excluding this hidden data from your chart depending on the situation. I find this extremely helpful when i have forgotten that I even hid a column or row in the first place, and want to make sure I include all pertinent information in my visuals.

5. New owners receive all notifications in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Owners of a shared Google file should receive all notifications of actions done to that file, not just comments that they are specifically tagged in. Until recently, this wasn’t the case if the ownership was transferred to you by a previous owner. Thankfully, Google made an update to the platform so new owners receive all the notifications of original owners.