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7 Google Apps Updates That You Might Have Missed During May

3 minute read

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May 2014 was one of the most active months in terms of Google Apps updates that we’ve seen in a long time. Google Apps for EDU users are probably well aware of the new Classroom tool, while many of us were really excited about the new Google+ Stories and Movies.

Below you’ll find a recap of our 7 favorite updates from the month of May, complete with images, videos, GIFs and more!

1. Now you can crop, rotate, add borders to images in Google Docs

After bringing basic image editing to Google Slides and Drawings, the Google Drive team has also added the same tools to Google Docs. This, once again, means that if you need to do basic editing of images in your Google Drive files, you no longer need to involve some other 3rd-party application or website to get the job done.

2. You are now notified when ownership of a Drive file is transferred to you

To make sure you always know what files belong to you, an update to Google Drive adds notifications whenever file ownership has been transferred to you. This helps ensure that you’re aware of everything in your Google Drive, even if you weren’t the person who created the file. These notifications will appear as emails, so be on the lookout!

3. Teachers now have Classroom, a brand new GAFE tool

Google Classroom, announced in May, is a new, free tool for Google Apps for Education that helps teachers easily and quickly create and organize assignments, provide feedback, and communicate with their classes. The video above highlights the experiences of some of the teachers and students who gave feedback to help develop Classroom.

4. Hangouts are even better with several different improvements

Google Hangouts update

There is no doubt that Google’s messaging client, Hangouts, is a work in progress. Last month the Gmail team announced some improvements to the platform, which should make it a little bit easier to use. The most noticeable, and welcomed, change is the return of green ‘availability bubbles’, letting you know which of your contacts are available to chat.

5. Now you can turn your favorite photos & video into beautiful Stories & Movies

Google+ Stories and Movies

In the past year or so, Google+ has encouraged us to upload our photos for storage and sharing by doing some amazing things with them. The Auto-awesome feature has made photo editing even easier, as well as automatically adding some pretty cool features. The Google+ team announced another incentive to upload your media to the platform by turning your collection of photos and videos into Stories and Movies.

6. Admins now have access to even more reporting capabilities

One of the biggest updates for Google Apps Admins during the month of May was some improvements to reporting capabilities in the Admin Console. This update brings a lot of information to the table for Admins, definitely making their jobs a little bit easier.

7. Migrating to Google Apps is now even easier with Cloud-Based Migration

Migrating mail to Google Apps has always been tricky, especially for Google Apps’ smaller customers. This update allows Admins to migrate mail to Gmail directly inside the Admin Console, saving them from downloading tools like GAMME. For more information, check out the Google Support page.

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