Google Workspace users will see their Calendars front and center in Chrome

Google is adding a new daily calendar overview in newly opened Chrome tabs for Workspace users with easy access to schedules and video calls. That way, when you’re signed in with your organization’s account, the first thing you’ll see is your appointments and meetings, in addition to files stored in Google Drive.

The new feature comes alongside several other Google Workspace updates, including new enterprise-managed site shortcuts, which let IT set up quick links to frequently used sites on the URL dropdown.

Regular Chrome users could already set up site shortcuts for themselves — for instance, you could program it to bring up a site search for Reddit just by typing “red.” Now, a group policy can be applied to departments and automatically get workers the most useful shortcuts without asking them to figure it out on their own.

The feature is rolling out now and will work even if users aren’t on Workspace, and for all Chrome users, the browser will start nudging you about tabs you may have forgotten, no matter which device you opened them on originally.

IT teams are also getting more granular management controls, including profile-level security policies and managed browsing designed to keep personal and work data separate in BYOD environments. On the end user side, when people sign in to their work accounts, there will be a new UI to more clearly show users what data the company has access to on the device and help keep personal bookmarks, extensions, and browser data in separate profiles.