At Next 21' this year, Google announced a new Jira integration for Google Chat and Spaces alongside other improvements to Workspace.

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Google said it decided to invest in the underlying platform after seeing 4.8 billion apps installed in Google Workspace and more than 5,300 public apps in the Google Workspace Marketplace.

"Developers have been able to build applications that integrate with Gmail, Drive, and Docs for years. And today, we're announcing significant enhancements to the Google Workspace platform by making it just as easy for developers to build applications and integrate with Google Meet, Chat and Spaces," Google explained.

The Jira integration allows users to create new tickets quickly, see actionable previews and monitor issues as they come into the space they're already using for collaboration. 

Joff Redfern, chief product officer at Atlassian, explained that modern work requires people to switch contexts and tools faster than ever before. 

"We believe an open ecosystem and tight integrations among the tools that users rely on every day is vital to their success. Since 2017, our Trello integration with Gmail has been installed by more than 7 million people," Redfern said. 

"Today, we are excited to build on the partnership between Atlassian and Google to propel work collaboration further with the integration of Jira with Google Chat and Spaces."

Google released a no-code development platform called AppSheet that they want to promote "collaboration equity." The tool allows any team member to access certain documents and collaborate instantly with team members who are not in the field. 

The tool was built with frontline workers in mind, according to Google. 

"This new integration allows anyone -- regardless of their coding experience -- to reclaim time with custom, no-code apps and automations. Budgets and vacation requests can be approved, inventories and asset management systems can be updated, and much more -- all with AppSheet and directly from your inbox," Google explained. 

There will also now be client-side encryption (CSE) available to Google Meet users after the feature was unveiled for Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides users in June. 

Google is also announcing the beta of its Key Access Service Public APIs, which helps organizations manage their encryption keys. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for Chat is also in beta right now as well. 

Google users will now be able to mark certain files under different classifications depending on their sensitivity level. The labels allow Drive users to classify documents and makes it easier for people to manage whether a document can be downloaded, shared or printed. 

Other protections against abusive content and behavior are also among the announcements released on Tuesday. 

"If a user opens a file that we think is suspicious or dangerous, we'll display a warning to the user to help protect them and their organization from malware, phishing, and ransomware. This functionality is now available in Google Docs and will be rolling out soon for Google Sheets and Slides," Google said. 

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