Google Apps
A legacy Salesforce integration that connected Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) applications with Salesforce, allowing data sharing between Google Docs, Calendar, and Salesforce records.
Definition
A legacy Salesforce integration that connected Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) applications with Salesforce, allowing data sharing between Google Docs, Calendar, and Salesforce records. Now largely superseded by newer integrations.
In plain English
“Google Apps was an old Salesforce integration with what's now called Google Workspace (formerly G Suite). It connected Google Docs, Calendar, and other Google tools with Salesforce records. It's been largely superseded by newer integrations like Lightning for Gmail and Einstein Activity Capture.”
Worked example
Inverbrook Trucking adopted the legacy Salesforce Google Apps integration in 2014 to sync Outlook-style calendars and contact info between the company's then-named G Suite (now Google Workspace) and Salesforce. The integration was deprecated years ago in favor of Lightning for Gmail and Einstein Activity Capture. Inverbrook's IT team migrated their 80 sales reps to Lightning for Gmail in 2023 - better Gmail-side experience, supported by Salesforce, integrated with Einstein. The Google Apps connector still lives in some old setup pages but no longer functions; references in documentation are slowly being scrubbed during sprint cleanups.
Why Google Apps matters
Google Apps was a legacy Salesforce integration that connected Google Workspace (formerly G Suite, before that just Google Apps) applications with Salesforce. It allowed limited data sharing between Google Docs, Calendar, and Salesforce records, supporting use cases like attaching Google Docs to Salesforce records and syncing some calendar events. The integration dates from an earlier era of cloud collaboration when these capabilities weren't yet standard.
The Google Apps integration has been largely superseded by newer integrations: Lightning for Gmail (now Gmail Integration) for email, Einstein Activity Capture for automatic email and calendar sync, and direct Google Workspace integrations for documents and calendar. New Google Workspace integrations are richer, more reliable, and better maintained. References to 'Google Apps' in Salesforce documentation are typically about the older integration; modern advice is to use the newer tools instead.
How organizations use Google Apps
Helps clients migrate from legacy Google Apps integration to modern Gmail Integration and Einstein Activity Capture during modernization projects.
Treats any reference to Google Apps as a flag that the integration needs updating to current Google Workspace tools.
Replaced their Google Apps setup with Einstein Activity Capture and Gmail Integration during a productivity tooling refresh.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What was Google Apps integration?
Q2. What replaced Google Apps for modern workflows?
Q3. Should you use Google Apps integration today?
Discussion
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