Upcoming changes to the Google Groups Settings API

Editor’s note: this post was modified on March 19, 2019 to note additional changes to the Google Groups Settings API, including properties that will be added on March 25, 2019 and new changes in behavior. Read on for detail.

If your organization uses Google Groups, there will be some upcoming changes to the management experience starting May 6, 2019. We’ll be combining settings with similar functions, and removing other settings that are rarely used to make it easier for users to manage and configure groups. You can consult this help center article for more information.

As a result, we will also be implementing changes to the Groups Setting APIs by phasing out obsolete methods and consolidating them into new methods you can use to better manage Google Groups. These changes will take effect starting May 6, 2019.

What does this mean for you?

If you are a developer who has built applications on top of Google Groups Settings APIs or use custom scripts to manage your Google Groups, you may be affected. For details on changes to these settings, see this help center article. Details on  changes to the API are listed below.

What’s changing

Take note. The following properties will be deprecated—any attempts to GET, UPDATE or PATCH them will be ignored.

• maxMessageBytes
• allowGoogleCommunication
• messageDisplayFont
• whoCanAddReferences
• whoCanMarkFavoriteReplyOnOwnTopic
• favoriteRepliesOnTop

In addition, please note the following behavior changes that took effect on March 18, 2019:

• The ‘membersCanPostAsTheGroup’ property will not be merged into ‘whoCanModerateContent.’
• The ‘messageModerationLevel’ property will continue to support MODERATE_NEW_MEMBERS. This means it will not be deprecated.
• We are introducing a new property ‘customRoleUsedInMergedSetting.’ This property will indicate if a group uses custom roles in one of the merged settings. If you have a group that uses a custom role, it’s a good idea to review the permissions in the Groups interface. The Groups API does not support custom roles and may report incorrect values for permissions.
• New properties representing all to-be-merged settings, as well as the new settings, will be added.
• The ‘whoCanDiscoverGroup’ property will now indicate the upcoming behavior for ‘showInGroupDirectory.’

If you are affected by these changes, we recommend you take action soon. To sign up to participate in the alpha which begins on April 8, 2019, fill out this form. Note: the Groups Settings API changes that are mentioned above will be available starting March 25, 2019, and may take up to 72 hours to rollout. Check out this table to see an overview of all changes.