Starting March 29, 2022, people with Google Workspace accounts gain the ability to choose settings for Workspace search history. This setting controls whether the system stores and suggests prior searches when you enter text in a search box in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive and Currents. By default, Workspace search history will be on.
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Along with the above change, control of Web & App Activity settings shifts from Workspace administrators to individual Google Workspace account holders. This setting controls whether the system may draw upon your activity in Google services that are not part of Google Workspace (e.g., Google Maps location and searches, Google Play activity or Chrome browser history) to inform suggestions, recommendations and search results. (For people with a Google Workspace for Education account who are younger than 18, Web & App Activity will automatically be turned off and cannot be turned on.)
If you have a Google Workspace account, follow the steps below to check both your Workspace search history and Web & App Activity settings. And, if you’re a Google Workspace administrator, review your organization’s Web & App Activity setting before March 29, 2022, and notify people in your organization of these changes.
How to manage search history settings in Google Workspace
When enabled, Google Workspace search history makes it simple to access previous searches, since these searches display as suggestions as you enter a search in Gmail, Calendar, Drive and Currents.
To access the Workspace search history setting after March 29, 2022, make sure you’re signed in to your Google Workspace account and connected to the internet, then open the My Activity page | Other Google Activity | Google Workspace search history. You may adjust the setting to either be off or on. Most people who use Google Workspace will want to turn Workspace search history on.
When Workspace search history is on, you also may choose if or when you want your Workspace search history data to be auto-deleted. By default, the system will delete Workspace search history data after 18 months. You may choose to auto-delete this data after three months, after 18 months, after 36 months (three years) or never. People whose work either takes extended amounts of time (e.g., multi-year projects) or whose projects recur over a period of years might prefer to extend the retention period from the default of 18 months to 36 months.
How to manage Web & App Activity settings
For people who use Google Workspace, the Web & App Activity setting allows Google’s systems to leverage data from Google services that are not part of Google Workspace to inform recommendations and suggestions. For example, when you search for a location in Google Maps, install an app in Google Play or browse and read articles with Chrome that data may be used to improve search or suggestions in Gmail, Google Drive or Google Calendar.
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To access the Web & App Activity setting, sign in to your Google Workspace account while connected to the internet, open the My Activity page and select Web & App Activity (Figure A). You may adjust the setting to either be off or on. As above, if you turn Web & App Activity on, you may set the auto-delete period to three months, 18 months, 36 months or never.
Figure A
People with Google Workspace accounts may review and adjust Web & App Activity controls. (Note: This setting will be off and not selectable for people who are younger than 18 with Google Workspace for Education accounts.)
ALT Screenshot of individual user Google Workspace user account Activity Controls for Web & App Activity. Set to on, with “Include Chrome history and activity from sites, apps, and devices that use Google services” checked. Auto-delete turned on and set to delete activity older than 18 months.
If you use Google Workspace, consider how you use Chrome to browse when you select your Web & App Activity setting. When you’re signed in to your organizational Workspace account, if nearly all of your activities are work-related, you likely will want to turn Web & App Activity on. This will help ensure that recommendations and search results improve as you move between Google services (both Workspace and non-Workspace apps). If your activities in non-Workspace apps are not necessarily related to your organizational account, it may make sense to turn the Web & App Activity setting to off.
Google Workspace administrators: Review Web & Activity setting before March 29, 2022, and notify people of changes
If you are a Google Workspace administrator, review the Web & App Activity service setting (Figure B) for your organization before March 29, 2022. (To do this, sign in to the Admin console | Apps | Additional Google Service | scroll through the list to Web and App Activity and select it. You may apply the change either to the entire organization or to specific organizational units.) Whatever setting you select for Web & App Activity will be deployed as the default for people in your organization when the setting transitions from the Admin console to individual Workspace accounts. In other words, if you set Web & App Activity on, that will be the default for account holders within your organization (and similarly so if set to off). Remember, the setting will always be off for people who are younger than 18 with Google Workspace for Education accounts.
Figure B
After March 29, 2022, control over the Web and App Activity setting transitions from administrators to individual account holders. The default Web and App Activity setting for individual account holders will be whatever setting (on or off) had been selected by an administrator in the Admin console at the time of the transition.
Make sure to notify people of both your selected setting for Web & App Activity and of the new Google Workspace search history setting. For example, you might send an email with the text along the lines of: “After March 29, 2022, you will be able to adjust the Web & App Activity setting. It will be set to [on]/[off] since that is the setting selected prior to that date. You also will gain access to a new Google Workspace search history setting you may review and adjust after that time, as well.”
What’s your experience?
If you’re a Workspace administrator, will you set Web & App Activity on or off in advance of the March 29, 2022, transition? If you have a Google Workspace account, what settings have you selected for Workspace search history and Web & App Activity? Do you leave both on? If so, what auto-delete setting do you use? Or, if you have turned both settings off, why? Let me know your selections and reasoning with a comment either below or on Twitter (@awolber).
