Good news for anyone who secretly (or openly) resents the digital walls between different office tools. Google Workspace has announced that guest accounts are now officially available.
This means you can finally invite partners or clients who don't use Google Workspace to the real deal. No more hassle of emailing documents back and forth; from now on, you can comfortably and securely collaborate simultaneously in Chat or Docs. Guests can do almost everything you can: participate in Google Chat, collaborate in Documents, Sheets, and Slides, join Google Meet and be tagged in files.
How does it work?
The process is surprisingly simple. As soon as you invite someone without a Google account via a direct message or a Chat Space, Google automatically creates a guest account with a unique ID behind the scenes. You can immediately recognize these guests by an "external" label. This way, you always know to be careful about making internal jokes.
Security first
While we're happy to have guests over, your own IT administrator remains firmly in control. All guests are automatically placed in a special organizational unit in the admin console. This allows you to set specific rules, such as mandatory two-step verification, to prevent your data from being exposed.
It's important to know the organization always remains the owner of all data created within the domain. A guest can view and edit, but cannot create new files or become the owner of your documents.
