August 13, 2024
Chat safer with new settings for students in Google Chat
What’s changing
We're introducing a new setting that enables education admins to restrict which users can create and manage members in Google Chat conversations.
This can be useful for admins who want to prevent groups of students from initiating or adding users to a conversation.
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why it’s important
This is a highly-requested feature that restricts the creation of unsupervised activity among K-12 students and helps provide a safer and easier way for teachers to communicate with students.
Getting started
- Admins:
- To restrict users from accessing features in Chat, go to the Admin console > Apps > Google Workspace > Google Chat > click the Chat and Space restrictions setting > Inside the Google Chat box, search for the group of users you'd like to apply Chat restrictions to > check the box for Restrict creating direct messages, group messages, and spaces > hit Save.
- Note: groups can be restricted at the group level only.
- We recommend admins enable the "automatically accept chat invitations" setting for their OU. This will ensure teachers can easily initiate messages to students that instantly deliver without the need to accept an invitation. We also recommend turning OFF Chat with external users.
- Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up Chat restrictions for Education accounts.
- End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.
Rollout pace
Admin setting:
- Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on August 13, 2024
Chat UI:
- Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 13, 2024
Availability
Available for Google Workspace:
- Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, the Teaching & Learning Upgrade