Google Apps Updates [December] - New sign-in page & Admin Hangout Controls

Notable new features include:

• New Sign in Page - Consistent sign-in pages across all apps products
• Admin Hangout Controls - Filter Hangouts features by employee
• Save Attachments Directly to Gmail - Save docs directly to Google Drive
• Domain-restricted G+ communities - Create a domain specific G+ community

Full release notes below...

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New Sign-in Page

Early 2014 the Google Apps sign-in page will be consistent across all apps services. Some key changes include: 

• Google Apps sign-in page can no longer be personalized with colors or logos.
• Users will have to log in with their full email address
• For SSO domains with a network mask, users will be presented with the new Google sign-in page when they log in from outside the SSO network mask. This change does not affect SSO domains without a network mask.

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Admin Controls for Hangouts

Customize what features are available to which employees. A few abilities include:

• restrict hangouts to internal-only
• set chat history to off by default
• can users within domain contact each other without an official invite
• video and audio chat can be turned off across the org

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Deploy 3rd party apps from admin console

Administrators are now able to find, manage and deploy 3rd-party applications directly from the Google Apps Admin Console. All 3rd party apps offer OAuth 2.0 security, single sign-on, and integration with Google services.

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Save attachments directly to Drive

Users are now able to save Gmail attachments directly to Google Drive without ever leaving Gmail. Simply click the Drive button when hovering over an attachment preview.

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Calendar events update with Google Group Changes

Google event invites sent to Google Groups will update their attendee lists automatically as people join and/or leave the group. As you join events will be added to your calendar and when you leave they will be removed.

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Domain restricted G+ communities

Now communities in Google+ can be restricted to your domain via the Admin console. Posts in these communities are only viewable by those within your domain. Public communities are still possible.

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