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Creating Cards With Google Workspace

Margaret
  • Updated

Business users cropped.png

 

With a HiHello Business or HiHello Enterprise subscription, you can leverage your Google Workspace account to create and provision digital business cards for your whole team. Below, this guide will walk you through the basic steps for connecting your HiHello account to your Google Workspace instance. 

 

Please note that if you already have several cards or users in your account, connecting to Google Workspace can cause duplicate cards or users, which can affect your company seat count. Depending on the number of cards and users in your account, you may be offered the option to speak to our Customer Success team to ensure you have a smooth experience with this integration.

 

Here is a video overview that walks you through how to set up the Google Workspace directory integration. Below, you'll find detailed written instructions for every step of the process.

 

 

 

Preparing Your Card Template

Before you start syncing with your Google Workspace account, we recommend preparing your card template. Once you enable the integration and sync a template, that template will be used to create cards for your team. If you have not already created a template, you can find more information about making your first template here:

If there are fields that you would like to include on your cards that are not in your external directory, you can add them to the template and either fill them out on the template or enter placeholders so that your administrators or team members can enter this information manually at a later time. While creating your template, we recommend only adding generic information that will apply to everyone who will be issued a card from that template. This might include company colors, logo, headline, etc. Other personal information will be added to each card automatically when your directory syncs.

Example template with placeholders.png

If you are going to be syncing multiple groups, it is possible to sync them all to a single template, however, we find that it works very well to create a different template for each group. To quickly create new templates that look similar, you can follow the steps in this guide to duplicate a template.

 

 

Connecting HiHello to Google Workspace

 

To connect your HiHello account to Google Workspace:

Admin sidebar Company icon.png
  • In the User Management section, click "Connect"

User management connect button.png

  • In the window that opens, click "Connect" for Google Workspace:

Google Workspace Connect button.png

  • Proceed to connect to your Google Workspace account
    • You will be asked to log into your Google Workspace account
    • Click "Allow" to give the HiHello integration permission to view your groups and user info in Google Workspace
  • Once the integration has connected to your account, you will receive a confirmation message:

Google Workspace confirmation.png 

 

You can now sync one or more of your templates to your Google Workspace integration. This will allow you to automatically create and issue cards for users in your Google Workspace groups.

 

To disconnect your Google Workspace account, go to your Company Dashboard and click "Manage" next to your Google Workspace integration. In the window that opens, select "Disconnect Account" and then confirm that you want to disconnect your account:

Google Workspace disconnect.png

 

 

Syncing Your Template to Google Workspace

Now that your template is ready and your HiHello account is connected to your Google Workspace account, it's time to sync with your template so that you can create cards for your team. 

Admin sidebar Templates icon.png
  • Select the template you want to sync.
  • Click the edit button in the top right, represented by a pencil icon:

Template cards page edit button.png

  • In the Edit experience, click the toggle in the top right to allow this template to connect with Google Workspace:

AD toggle edit template on.png

  • Set at least one item on your template to Sync (if there are no items set to Sync, the template will not successfully connect to your Google Workspace account). Any information set to Sync will be automatically populated using the information in your Google Workspace group(s) when you issue cards. 
  • When you are finished selecting which items you would like to sync with your directory, save your template.
  • This will take you to view your template
  • To sync your template with a Google Workspace group, click Settings at the top of the page then scroll down to Groups.
  • Use the search bar to select the group(s) you would like to sync with this template:
Groups drop-down.png
  • You can add or remove multiple groups, you will see how many cards will be created. Click Save to confirm the groups and create the new cards.

After issuing cards to your team, remember to add any individualized information that will not be synced from your directory, especially fields that are set as required and non-editable, since your team members will not be able to update those fields. Once the cards are ready, notify your team and instruct them to log into their HiHello account using Google single sign-on (SSO) to see their new card.

 

Disconnecting Your Template from Google Workspace

You can disconnect any of your templates from your Google Workspace directory sync at any time. This allows you to easily switch between templates. 

To disconnect your template:

Admin sidebar Templates icon.png
  • Select the template you want to disconnect.
  • Navigate to the template's settings tab and scroll down to the Groups section. 
  • Remove all of your Entra ID groups from the template. 
  • Click the edit button in the top right to open the template editor. 
  • Use the toggle in the top right to disconnect the template from your directory:
AD toggle edit template on.png

 

Adding and Removing HiHello Users Through Google Workspace 

When you initially sync your Google Workspace group with HiHello, each person in the group will be instantly issued a digital business card. 

 

After that initial sync, whenever you add a new person to the synced Google Workspace group, they will be issued a card during the next sync, at five minutes past the hour.

 

If you would like to remove a user that was added through your directory sync integration, you can simply remove them from the Google Workspace group. During the next sync, the user will be removed which will free up one seat or user license in your account.

 

This will not remove any templates, cards, or contacts from your business account, it will only remove the user. Their card will still exist on your cards page.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

How often will my Google Workspace sync with HiHello?

  • The integration will sync hourly at five minutes past the hour.

How many templates can I create?

  • As many as your team needs, there is no limit.

How many cards can I issue from a template?

  • There is no limit to the number of cards you can create from a single template.

Can I add items on my template that aren’t in my Google Workspace group? For example, my Google Workspace group doesn’t include phone numbers, but I want to include phone numbers on our digital business cards.

  • Yes, you can add items that are not included in your Google Workspace group. If you’d like to add a field, like a phone number, you can go to the Fields tab while editing your template and add the Phone field to the template and mark it as “Don’t Sync.”

I’d like my team to be able to upload their own profile photos, is that possible?

  • Yes, you can allow your team to update their profile photos. There are several ways to achieve this: 
    • If you would like to use their photo from Google Workspace initially, you can set the profile photo field to sync with Google Workspace and make the profile photo editable. When your cards are initially created, the profile photos will be imported, and your individual team members will be able to upload their own photos at any time.
    • If you do not want the profile photo to come from Google Workspace when the cards are created, you can set this field to “Don’t sync” and the profile photo field will remain blank when the cards are created. If the field is not editable, your account administrators will still be able to upload profile pictures for your team. If the field is editable, each of your team members will be able to upload their own profile picture to their own card.

I want to update information on my cards that are synced to Google Workspace. Should I change the information in HiHello or in Google Workspace?

  • If you are updating a field that is syncing with Google Workspace, we generally recommend changing the information in your Google Workspace account to ensure that this is always an accurate source of information for all of your cards. 
  • If you are updating a field that is NOT syncing with Google Workspace, you can change it directly in HiHello.

If my template is syncing to my Google Workspace account, can I also invite an individual to claim a card manually through HiHello?

  • Yes, you can invite individuals who are not in your Google Workspace group to claim a card using your template. Please note, if there are items on your template that are set to sync with your direcotry, it could generate an error message when you manually invite a user to claim a card linked to that template. The best way to avoid this error message would be to mark those fields that are generating error messages as editable rather than non-editable.

Can I attach cards that I created previously to a new template?

Can my team and I share our digital business cards from the HiHello mobile app?

  • Absolutely! Once you have claimed a card, you can view, edit, or share it from your personal profile which can be accessed from either the web app or the mobile app. Through the mobile app, you can share your card via QR code, email, or text. You can also share your card through some of our additional features, including the HiHello widget, Apple wallet integration, Apple Watch, and more. Click here to see a list of ways you can share your HiHello card.

Can I create and edit templates in the mobile app?

  • The admin profile where templates are managed is currently only available on the web app.

Can I choose which users on my team can edit their cards?

  • You can choose which individual items can be edited by your team. For example, if you would like users to be able to add their own profile photo, you can make that editable on your template. Everyone who has a card linked to that template will be able to edit their own profile picture.

Can I change the font on my template?

  • Yes, while editing your template, you can select a different font on the Display tab.

Can I change the order of items on a template?

  • At the moment, the items on the General tab (Name, accreditation, pronouns, title, department, company, headline) appear in a predetermined order. The other items that you add on the Fields tab can be rearranged into the order of your choosing. If you choose to include an embedded video on your template, it will always appear at the bottom.

Do all of the templates for my organization need to look the same?

  • You can create a completely unique look and style for each template. Each card that is linked to a specific template will share the characteristics and fields that you have set as required and non-editable for that template.

Can I create multiple cards for one employee?

  • Yes, there is no limit to the number of cards you can issue to each person. You can either use the same template every time, send them cards issued from different templates, or create individual cards that are not linked to a template.

Can an employee copy their company-issued card and edit items that I do not want them to edit?

  • No, our copy feature cannot be used by individual team members on company-issued cards.

Can an employee transfer their card to someone else?

  • No, company-issued cards cannot be transferred by individuals on your team.

I used my template to create a card. Why does the card say “Not sharing with anyone” after I sent an invitation to my team member to claim it?

  • Once your team member claims their card, they will be listed as a user for that card.
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