Formerly known as G Suite and Google Apps, this comprehensive guide outlines the essential features of Google Workspace for organizations
Google workspace is a set of communication and collaboration apps built for people in organizations. The core Google Workspace communication apps, such as Gmail and Google Meet, are widely used around the world, as are the collaboration apps, such as Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms. The collaboration apps have been built from the beginning to allow multiple people to edit a document, spreadsheet or presentation simultaneously.
What is Google Workspace?
Google Workspace accounts are created and managed by an administrator, in contrast to the standard free Gmail or Google accounts that an individual may create. The administrator has considerable control over Google Workspace defaults, app access and security settings. Workspace allows different configurations to be applied to different groups of people — or, in Workspace terms, different organizational units. Google Workspace can be configured to serve organizations that deal with highly sensitive data as well. For example, an administrator may prevent offline storage of Workspace data, such as email, calendar items and Drive files.
What apps are part of Google Workspace?
The following apps are available as part of the core offering for most editions of Google Workspace. For more details about each app, click the link name to go to the corresponding Google Workspace page.
One important aspect of Workspace apps is speed. Google offers .new shortcuts, which, when entered in a modern browser’s URL box, create a new item of the type indicated. For example, cal.new creates a new Google Calendar event, while doc.new creates a new Google Doc
What do I need to access Google Workspace?
A modern browser (Chrome strongly recommended)
On desktop platforms, such as Windows and macOS, Google Workspace apps may be accessed with a modern web browser. In most cases, organizations that use Workspace will also want to standardize on the Google Chrome browser. Signing in to your Workspace account with the Chrome browser not only gives you access to Workspace apps, but also lets you leverage some Chrome-only features. For example, if an administrator allows it, people may configure Gmail, Docs, Sheets and Slides to sync locally for offline work. Many other modern browsers, such as Microsoft Edge, Firefox Browser and Safari, let people use most Google Workspace app features while online.
Google Drive for desktop
For Windows and macOS systems, Google offers Google Drive for Desktop (formerly Google Drive File Stream), which lets people browse Drive files and folders with a locally installed app. This makes the experience of navigating items stored on Drive much like navigating the local file system.