Google announced the addition of a new “Access Checker” feature in the settings in the admin console in Google Apps. This is designed to give admins greater control over sharing options of employees.

You can access this by going to Admin console > Apps > Google Apps > Settings for Drive > Sharing settings.

Admins will have three options for how their users can share. These include: Recipients only, their domain ,or public (no Google account required), recipients only or their domain, and recipients only.

“For example, if an admin chooses option 1 and an employee in their domain attaches a Google Sheets spreadsheet to an event in Calendar, that employee will be asked if they want to share that spreadsheet with guests of the event only or one of two additional options: (1) anyone in their domain with the link (if all guests are in their domain), or (2) anyone with the link (if any guests are in different domains),” Google explains.

Admins who allow external, public sharing will see “recipients only, their domain, or public” as the default option. If the admin prohibits external, pubic sharing, they’ll be able to choose from “Recipients only or their domain” or “Recipients only”.

“It’s important to note that the sharing options shown to users will be determined based on the settings in the document owner’s domain, which may not be the same as the settings in the domain of the person sharing the file,” Google says. “If someone tries to share multiple files and different policies apply to each (e.g. because the document owners are in different domains), we’ll abide by the least permissive policy when showing options to users. ”

The new feature should take about three days to fully roll out.

Image via Google