Don't Use Google Workspace

We use Google Workspace at Zivash, Inc. We’ve had continuous trouble with Google authentication for months. This morning, within about an hour, we hit two new failure modes — both for users whose every detail matches Google’s own definition of “familiar.”

The GrapheneOS instructions

For security reasons, one of our employees runs GrapheneOS , the most rigorous privacy-hardened Android distribution. When his Workspace session needed re-verification, Google presented this:

There is no such menu path on GrapheneOS. The Settings app has no profile picture to tap. No problem, let’s click “More ways to verify” -

Oh.

The only solution that doesn’t involve getting a 2nd phone is to first sign out of the account on Android, and then sign in on PC. There is no option in the Google Workplace settings to disable this.

The employee under house arrest

We try not to be judgemental about the situations our employees are in. But Google makes the situation ridiculous. This employee logs into their Workspace account from the same laptop, on the same Wi-Fi, from the same IP, in the same room, almost every day. Google’s verification page lists its own criteria:

This employee satisfies the criteria both literally and completely. Workspace blocks them anyway. This morning, like many mornings past, we’ve had to do an admin password reset to get them into their account. Over the last several months, we’ve had to do this multiple times now.

If we’d known we’d be having these issues with Google Workspace, we never would have switched from Zoho Mail. We switched because we thought consolidating everything on Google would make our lives easier. It’s not worth switching back, but it was definitely a mistake to come here.

Don’t use Google Workspace.