Apps Reporting and getting alerts in Google Workspace

Introduction

In this article, we will explore how Foresight helps in apps reporting and getting alerts in Google Workspace. Google Admin apps report gives insights into the users’ activity in the Google Workspace apps. It helps to examine the usage of apps by the users if they obey the security requirements (password, 2-step verification, etc.) and find out the major security risks. You can even view the domain-level data with user-level details, including visuals like graphs and charts. So, the goal of this use case is to generate app reports to enhance the security of your organization and provide real-time alerts. 

Now, Foresight helps you to generate app reporting and get alerts for these reports in Google Workspace. It automates the whole process through some simple steps.

What is an Apps report in Google Workspace?

As an administrator of your organization, you have access to all the administrative information. Now, instead of presenting them bluntly, you can create a report and share these details. These reports produce a series of charts and graphs that contain data about your domain’s users. You can monitor and examine the potential security risks. Also, you can diagnose any configuration problem, analyze your teams’ collaboration, track which users sign in at which time, and administer activities. 

What is the use of the Apps report?

The Apps report provides a thorough understanding of how your Google Workspace users utilize Google apps. So, you will find the app reports from the app usage under the User Reports of Google Admin Console. Let’s see what the usage of the apps reports –

• Gmail

From the Gmail usage report, you can retrieve the total number of Gmail messages received by the user. Also, the report includes the messages received by third-party SMTP clients through Gmail SMTP servers. Similarly, you can get the total number of Gmail messages sent from your user and also the message sent from the third-party server. 

You will come to know about the last time your user had access to Gmail through the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) and Post Office Protocol (POP). Also, you can find the last time when the user utilized the Web-based Gmail.

• General 

You can find out the Gmail storage (Megabytes) utilized by the user’s Gmail data. Similarly, you can find out the Megabytes of storage consumed by the user for the Drive and photos. Moreover, you will get the total storage used in Megabytes by all the apps of the users. Also, the report will show the percentage of storage space available for that particular user. 

• Drive

Google Drive usage report shows the number of active users of the current month. Again, the Drive – last active time columns reveal the last time the user accessed Google Drive.

Furthermore, you will get the number of Drive files the user added, edited, and viewed. You will get several Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drawings, and text documents.

• Currents

The app's report shows the quantity of posts created by the user. Here, you should remember that the number of deleted posts is also included in this count.

Moreover, you will get several comments the user has created, the likes he has performed, the comments he has received from the other users, the likes he has received from the other users, and the number of reshares created by the user.

• Cloud Search

The cloud search columns of the app report reveal the total quantity of the search queries through Cloud Search. Also, you will find the total quantity of search queries through web browsers (both from mobile devices and computers), Android apps, and mobile apps for iPhones or iPads.  

• Classroom

Google Classroom usage report shows the last time the user accessed the classroom, the quantity of classes created, and the total quantity of posts created by the students and the teachers.

What information does the Apps Report include?

You will get the following information from the app report –

Accounts report

• You will find the data about the number of users in your domain who have already enrolled in 2-step verification and the users who need to enroll themselves in 2-step verification.
• The report helps to find out the user's compliance and non-compliance with the password length and the number of users having strong or weak passwords. To know more, read about enforcing and monitoring users’ password requirements. 
• You can easily find out the user account’s status – whether the user is active, blocked, or suspended. 
• Moreover, you can find out the number of users based on their administrative access, such as – Delegated Admin, Super Admin, or None.
• Through this report, you can find out the number of users who have the option to allow or block the less-secure apps from accessing their accounts.

Current report

• You will find the information about the active users in your domain who used currents for the last 1, 7, and 30 days.
• You can find out the newly activated users who have used the currents. 
• The current report provides information about the total number of communities (number of public, private, and organization-wide communities owned by your domain users) and the collections (amount of public, organization-private, and organization-wide communities owned by your domain users). 
• Also, find out the quantity of video conferences created by your users on a particular date.

Meet report

In Google Meet, you can find the number of active users over the past day, week, or month.

Drive report

• First of all, you can track the total number of active users in the present month. So, you can click a specific date to see the number of activated users in Drive. It will show the number of users from the 1st of the month to the mentioned date.
• You can see the number of internal and external shares made by your users. The internal share includes file shared with anyone in the domain, file shared with anyone within the domain with a link, private shares, and explicit share. The external shares include shared files that are available to the public, anyone with the link, and explicitly shared with groups or individuals.

Google Chat report

• It shows the total number of generated conversation rooms, activated conversation rooms, the number of users who are involved in message sending and reading, and the number of messages posted on Chat through the users.

Voice report

• From the Google Voice usage report, you can retrieve the total number of inbound calls, outbound calls, outbound messages, inbound messages, active users, and licensed users. 

Gmail report

• The Gmail report shows the number of inbound-encrypted messages, outbound delivered messages, TLS-encrypted messages, and more.

How to find and use Apps Report in Google Admin Console?

• Sign in to your Google Admin Console.
• Then, go to the Menu> Reporting> Reports > Apps reports > choose a report.

How do you generate Apps Report and get alerts in Google Workspace through Foresight?

Foresight is a powerful SaaS platform that provides end-to-end automated solutions for Google Workspace workflows. Its cutting-edge automation techniques help to streamline business operations by eliminating the need for manual tasks. With the help of this platform, admins and users can design complex workflows efficiently and improve their business productivity.

Now, let’s talk about our current use case. Although Google Admin Console does provide exporting these apps reports. But It does not have an automation alert feature via email when an app has unauthorized access and performs unusual activities in your Google account. Thus, Foresight creates real-time alerts to make you aware of unusual app usage. But Foresight is not able to export these report in CSV due to Google Admin API limitations.

Video Demo

Instruction

Rule Creation

1. Sign in to your Foresight account and click the New Rule (+) button to start the process.
2. Select the Recurring times trigger. 
3. Select the Start time. Here you should select a time at least 15 minutes later. Then select Repeat every 1 day. After that, select the Ends time. Here, we have been selecting Never. You can select other times as per your requirements. Click Next.

4. Select the Convert date action.

5. Then select the Current date in the Source date field. After that select the Date change steps. So, select Subtract and 3 Days. Enter Date as the Variable name. 
6. Select Add Next Action. Then, select the Get apps report action.
7. Now select the Date in the Date field.
8. Again click Add Next Action. Select the If action. 
9. Then select the Exchanged Email Count variable and, Is greater than the operator, and email count 2 in Branch 1. 
10. Click Add Next Action. Select Email action. 
11. Enter the manager’s email and select a subject line. Now create an email body and insert the Exchange Email Count variable. 
12. Click the “If” action again, from the “workflow diagram” on the right side.
13. Now select the Drive Storage Used variable, is greater than the operator, and 100 MB in Branch 2.
14. Again click Add Next Action. Select the Email action. 
15. Again enter the manager’s email ID, subject (Device Storage – Exchange 100 MB), and email body. Insert the Drive Storage Used variable. 
16. Now, again click Add Next Action. Select If action to add the Branch 3. 
17. Select the 7 Days Logins, then variable, which is greater than the operator, and 99 times.
18. Click Add Next Action. Select Email action. 
19. Enter email Id, create a subject line, and email body. Also, insert the 7 Days Logins variable in the email body. 
20. Now return to the If action and set Branch 4. Select Anyone with Link Shares variable, is greater than the operator, and 15.
21. Again select the Add Next Action. Again, select the Email action. 
22. So, enter the email ID, and subject line (Anyone with Link Shares), and create the email body. Also, insert the Anyone with Link Shares variable. Click Review. 
23. Give a Rule Name (Apps Reports and Alerts in Google Workspace). Click Create. 

Verifying the Result

Now our rules have been created. You need to wait for 15 minutes to get the final result. 

Conclusion

So, you have learned about the Google Workspace accounts reports and their necessity for your organizational security. Google API generates app reports but doesn’t provide any alerts about the unsecured apps that access your Google account. Foresight generates this alert to warn you and automates the process of generating app reports. So, learn about Foresight and explore its automation work procedures. So, try a 14-day free trial of this automation tool. You can read more topics related to this one -  Reports API Overview, etc.