This official feed from the Google Workspace team provides essential information about new features and improvements for Google Workspace customers.
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Google Vids is designed to help users share information and tell stories through video. To help more users create professional-quality content, we are making three features in Vids available to all users, regardless of what Workspace edition they use. These features include: 

  • Read-along teleprompter: Allows you to read from a script that automatically scrolls as you speak, helping you maintain eye contact with the camera and deliver a more natural performance. 
  • Transcript trim: Provides a simple way to edit your video by deleting words or silences directly from the video’s transcript. 
  • Styled captions: Lets you choose from a variety of visual styles to render captions directly on your video, making your content more accessible and engaging. 
Previously, these features were primarily available to paid Workspace users. This change ensures that users on Workspace editions currently on a promotional period—including Business Starter, Enterprise Starter, Google for Nonprofits, Education Plus, and the Teaching and Learning add-on—will maintain access to these features even after their promotion ends in May 2026. Additionally, users on Workspace editions such as Frontline and Education Fundamentals now have access to these essential video editing features for the first time. 

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 

Resources 

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We're excited to announce a major improvement to Microsoft Office interoperability in Google Workspace: you can now edit Microsoft Office files that are password-protected, directly within Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

When a user attempts to open a protected file in Drive, they will be prompted to enter the password with the option to View or Edit. Selecting “Preview” opens the document in read-only Preview mode without removing the password. New with this launch is the option to Edit, which will open the file for editing in Docs/Sheets/Slides and remove the password from the file.


A user opening a password protected Microsoft Office file in Google Drive

This enables better interoperability between Workspace and Microsoft, allowing users for the first time to edit password protected files directly in Drive. Prior to this, users would have to download and rely on third party applications to remove passwords or edit password protected Microsoft files.

Getting started

Rollout pace

  • Rapid Release domains: Full rollout (1–4 days for feature visibility) starting on January 13, 2026, and ending on January 16, 2026
  • Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) starting on January 19, 2026, and ending January 21, 2026

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts

Resources

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What’s changing

We’re expanding the availability of the Google Workspace SecOps data connector to customers using Google Workspace for Education Plus and Education Standard. This feature was previously only available for our Enterprise customers.

The SecOps data connector allows you to seamlessly forward all your Google Workspace activity logs (including Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and more) into the Google SecOps platform (formerly Chronicle Security Operations).

This feature is critical for organizations, especially in the education sector, to maintain a strong security posture. By centralizing your Workspace audit data with other security telemetry, you can:

  • Enhance threat detection: Gain a unified view to correlate activity logs across your entire IT environment, making it easier to spot complex or coordinated threats like unauthorized data access, insider threats, and malicious email activity.
  • Improve incident response: Streamline your security workflows. With all data in one place, your security team can investigate incidents faster and automate responses, such as suspending compromised accounts or revoking file access.
  • Meet compliance and auditing needs: Easily maintain a long-term, searchable archive of activity logs to meet regulatory requirements and simplify internal and external audits.
This feature is a powerful, cost-effective way to utilize your existing Google Workspace data to strengthen your overall security and defense strategy.

Getting started

  • Admins: Configure the forwarding of Google Workspace audit logs to the Google SecOps platform in the Admin console. Visit the Help Center to learn more.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • This change impacts the following Google Workspace for Education Standard and Plus editions. Your organization must have an active Google SecOps subscription to utilize this data connector.

Resources

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We’re launching a new administrative control to assist admins who decide to disable Apple Intelligence Writing Tools within Google Workspace apps.

With Apple's Writing Tools, part of Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1 and later, users have options to proofread, rewrite, or summarize text. To offer additional data protection and mitigate risk on iOS devices, we are adding a dedicated setting in the Google Admin console. When this setting is turned off by an admin, the "Writing Tools" option will not appear when a user selects text within participating Google Workspace apps on their iOS device.

This feature enhances your organization's security posture by giving you granular control over how sensitive data is handled on managed iOS devices and mitigates potential conflicts with established data loss prevention (DLP) policies.

Additional details

  • This setting applies to devices under both basic and advanced mobile management. 
  • Changes to this setting may take up to 24 hours to propagate, although they typically happen more quickly.
  • Participating Google Workspace apps on iOS (including iPadOS) platforms include Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and Chat.

With protection


Without protection

Getting started

  • Admins: This new setting, called Allow Writing Tools for work data, will be on by default. You must disable it to prevent your users from accessing Apple Intelligence Writing tools. Visit the Help Center to learn more about preventing users from using Writing Tools.
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

  • Enterprise Standard and Plus
  • Education Standard and Plus 
  • Frontline Standard
  • Enterprise Essentials Plus
Also available for:

  • Cloud Identity Premium

Resources

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What’s changing

Google Drive is making significant improvements to the viewing experience of third party file formats, such as PDFs, videos, images, and audio files. With this launch, we are modernizing the interface to include:

  • A new left rail for PDFs which will include a table of contents (where applicable) and thumbnails for easier navigation of documents
  • A new file menu
  • A new toolbar and app bar
  • An option to search by transcript when looking at a video

This modernization will make it easier for Google Workspace users to navigate documents, and will be particularly useful for large documents. 


New Drive Web Viewing Experience for PDFs

New Drive Web Viewing Experience for PDFs

Getting started

  • Admins: This feature will be on by default. There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: This feature will be on by default. You will see it when you open a supported file format in a new tab in Google Drive on the web. Use our Help Center to learn more about how to use Google Drive. 

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts

Resources

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[January 14, 2026] Update: We’re continuing to roll out Workspace Studio to Rapid Release domains. To ensure that rollout completes before we begin rolling out to Scheduled Release domains, we’ve pushed the end user Scheduled Release launch to February. We’ll provide a specific date on the Workspace Updates blog in advance. Please stay tuned.

What’s happening

Today we’re introducing Google Workspace Studio: the place to create, manage, and share AI agents to automate work in Workspace—no coding required. 


What you can do with Workspace Studio

Workspace agents built in Studio offer flexibility and intelligence beyond traditional automation.

  • Automate with agents: Move beyond simple, rule-based automation. Agents can reason through problems and adapt to new information, tackling complex workflows such as intelligent prioritization, support issue triage, smart approvals, content generation, and sentiment analysis.
  • Create agents with AI: Empower every user to build custom agents in minutes. End users can simply describe what they want to automate in plain language (e.g., "every Friday, ping me to update my tracker"), and Gemini will create it.
  • Work smarter with context: Agents can now help with tasks such as “Draft a weekly update for Project Cymbal”, or “What should I do today?”. They are deeply integrated with your Workspace apps (like Gmail, Drive, and Sheets). This allows agents to automatically pull relevant context from your documents, emails, and the web, enabling them to provide smarter, personalized answers and take actions based on your specific situation.
  • Integrate seamlessly: Automate across your entire toolset. Agents can be connected to third-party apps and platforms including Asana, Jira, Mailchimp, and Salesforce.
  • Extend capabilities: Create more powerful and personalized agents for your business or education institution:
    • Call external APIs with webhooks to connect to virtually any internal or external service (e.g., push notifications to Slack/Teams/Discord).
    • Build custom steps using Apps Script to integrate with proprietary internal tools, ADK agents, or models via Vertex AI.
  • Share and scale: Agents can be shared with a team for others to copy, similar to sharing a Google Doc. This makes it easy to scale powerful agents across your organization.
  • Use templates: Users can create agents with a library of zero-configuration templates for common use cases that can be shared across your organization. For example:
    • Get a daily summary of unread emails
    • Label emails with action items
    • Get pre-meeting briefs in chat

Additional details

Workspace customers on all eligible editions will get promotional access to higher usage limits of Workspace Studio, allowing users to further experiment with these features. Please note that usage may be subject to change to ensure a consistent and high-quality experience for all users. Additional details on per-user usage limits will be provided in a future update in January 2026.

Users under the age of 18 will not be able to create agents with Gemini AI or use AI-powered steps in agents.

Getting started

  • Admins: Google Workspace Studio is a core service and will be on or off by default based on your organization’s release preference for new products. It can be enabled or disabled at the OU and group level. Additionally, in the coming weeks, Workspace Studio will be rolling out several new features, including enhancements for external sharing, email sending beyond your primary domain, and robust webhook support. These features will be tightly integrated with your existing trusted domains and allow list configurations, ensuring that admins will have the ability to control, monitor, and audit data flow to meet their organization's specific security and compliance standards. Granular admin controls will also be available to manage these features. More info on default settings for sharing, webhooks, and Gemini features can be found in the Admin Help center.
  • End users: Once available, end users can access this feature by visiting https://studio.workspace.google.com/.

Rollout pace

  • Rapid Release domains: Admins will see settings appear in the Admin console at the same time their end users get access to Workspace Studio; this will be an extended rollout starting December 3, 2025.
  • Scheduled Release domains: Admin console settings will roll out gradually starting December 3, 2025. End user access to Workspace Studio will roll out gradually starting in February 2026; we’ll provide a specific date on the Workspace Updates blog in advance of the Schedule Release rollout commencing.

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

  • Business Starter,  Standard, and Plus
  • Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus
Also available to:

  • Google AI Pro for Education
  • Google AI Ultra for Business

Resources

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What’s changing

We’re expanding the capabilities of Gemini’s Deep Research feature by integrating it with your Google Workspace apps. This update allows Deep Research to seamlessly gather information from your content in Gmail, Chat, and Drive - including Slides, Sheets and Docs files - in addition to the web, to create a more comprehensive and personalized report.

Previously, users had to manually upload individual files from Drive to supplement their Deep Research. Now, Deep Research can pull securely from your Workspace content, including emails and even chats, informing reports with relevant context.


This update helps end users, including students, educators and those in small businesses, to do their best work by making research more efficient and context-aware. Your users can now integrate information directly from:

  • Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and PDFs in Drive, including non-Google files
  • Context from emails in Gmail
  • Information from Chat messages
Example use cases for end users:

  • Business planning: Users can ask Deep Research to kickstart analysis for a new product using team documents, build out a competitor report referencing internal strategy memos and communications, or help onboard onto a new project quickly after analyzing documents, emails, and chat history.
  • Project catch-up: Get quickly caught up on an in-progress project by asking, "Catch me up on my <some project you have docs, chats, emails about. e.g., my remodeling project>. What are some decisions I need to make, and for each, can you research potential options".
  • Academic research: Students and faculty can ask Deep Research to review their existing notes and research papers on a topic and combine that with web research to pull together an insightful report that includes insights from their own documents.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

  • Business Starter, Standard, Plus
  • Enterprise Starter, Standard, Plus
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus
  • Frontline Starter and Standard
  • Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus
  • Nonprofits
Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:

  • Gemini Business*
  • Gemini Enterprise*
  • Google AI Pro for Education
*As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details. 

Resources

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 What’s changing

The latest update  for Workday Google Chat app update makes it easier to manage time off with a single, improved flow to request, view, or cancel time off, along with quick commands to check balances and company holidays.


Improving the Workday Google Chat app

Getting started

  • Workday Admins: Workday Admins must activate OAuth and create a new API client for the Google integration setup within Workday. The workday admin must make note of the following details during the API client setup, required for the next step: 
    • Client ID
    • Secret ID
    • Workday REST API Endpoint
    • Workday Token Endpoint
    • Workday Authorization Endpoint
  • Workspace Admins: Admins need to allowlist the add-on to ensure end users have access. Visit the Help Center to learn how to manage Google Workspace Marketplace apps. Once allowed, the admin can either install the app to the domain, or install individually. After installation you will be asked to configure authorization in Workday (this requires the information above obtained during API client setup); This authorization will apply to all users of Workday within your domain. 
  • End users: If enabled by your admin, install the add-on by going to the Google Workspace Marketplace listing. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using the Workday app in Google Chat.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts

Resources

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What’s happening

We are rolling out two significant updates to Connected Sheets pivot tables backed by BigQuery, designed to increase analytical capacity and streamline your workflow.
 
First, we’re doubling row capacity for pivot tables backed by BigQuery in Connected Sheets, from 100,000 to 200,000 rows. This change will allow users to bring in substantially larger views of BigQuery datasets in a single pivot table, enabling wider, more comprehensive analyses within the familiar Sheets environment.

Second, we’re launching the ability to “drill down” into Connected Sheets pivot tables, allowing you to immediately access the granular data making up any aggregated value. Users can now double-click on a pivot table cell or use the right-click > Show details menu option to instantly create a pre-configured extract, focusing on the specific records that make up that summary metric.

Automatically create a pre-configured extract to drill down into any pivot table aggregated cell


Automatically create a pre-configured extract to drill down into any pivot table aggregated cell

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts

Resources

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What’s changing

We are updating the schema and event modeling for several Admin audit log events, specifically some of the events related to account security, Gmail, and Drive settings, along with other admin-defined setting audit logs. These improvements aim to make the logs more understandable, detailed, and precise.  A complete list of the updates can be found in the Help Center. 

The updates involve changes to event names, event types, and the volume of these affected log events. Some legacy events may be redundant as a part of this change. If you're using any legacy events, some of the updates might require changes to your existing queries, alerts, and reports to get the full benefit of the changes. Both the new and old events will continue to be available for you to make the necessary changes.

Who’s impacted

Admins 

Why it matters

Granular audit logs are critical to helping organizations investigate cybersecurity incidents and understand their data usage. The changes announced today expand the depth of analysis that can be performed.  

Rollout pace

Getting started

  • Admins:  As the changes become available, you can get started with your analysis in either the Audit and Investigation tool. 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Availability

  • Available for Google Workspace with Audit Log eligible licenses.  To learn more about the Audit Log availability for your license types, please review this article. 

Read More

What’s happening

We are introducing improved LaTeX rendering and PDF export capabilities directly within the Gemini app. LaTeX is a document preparation system widely used in academic, scientific, and technical fields to create high-quality documents with complex formatting, such as mathematical equations, tables, and multi-column layouts.

Previously, working with LaTeX required specialized editors and significant technical expertise to find and fix errors. With this update, Gemini makes it much easier for everyone to create professional documents.

Our new LaTeX features include:

  • PDF generation: Users can now generate a pdf using LaTeX, preview it in gemini and download the pdf, ready for sharing or printing
  • Easy editing in Canvas documents: You can now add LaTeX to any document in Canvas by clicking the 𝒇𝚡 button in canvas and edit any LaTeX by clicking on the formula directly in canvas
  • Copying: Copying LaTeX from any response in Gemini will now copy the unrendered LaTeX code
This update makes Gemini a more powerful tool for students, researchers, engineers, and anyone in your organization who needs to create polished, complex documents like academic papers, problem sets, technical reports, or resumes.


Exporting to PDF is available on web and mobile web with read-only viewing available in the Gemini app on Android and iOS. 

Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more.

Rollout pace

  • This feature is now available.

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

  • Business Starter, Standard, and Plus
  • Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
  • Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus
  • Nonprofits
Also available to:

  • Google AI Pro and Ultra
  • Gemini Business, Enterprise*
  • Google AI Pro for Education
*As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details.

Resources


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What’s happening

Last month, we announced that Ask Gemini in Meet was starting to roll out for select Workspace customers. Today, the experience is now rolling out to Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus domains.

You can use Ask Gemini to: 

  • Summarize ongoing discussions or get a recap of what someone said 
  • Improve meeting outcomes by identifying key takeaways, decisions, and action items 
  • Catch up on what you missed if you joined late (if Gemini powered note taking was enabled) 
Ask Gemini in Meet brings the power of Gemini into your organization’s meetings. Acting as a personal assistant, it can help make meetings more productive and more efficient.

Gemini in Google Meet

Additional details:

  • A user’s interactions and responses from Ask Gemini in Meet are private to that user.
  • Ask Gemini generates answers by referring to meeting captions, Google Workspace resources (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail, etc.) that the user has permission to view, and content from Google search and public websites.
  • No caption data will be stored after the meeting ends. Using Ask Gemini in Meet does not generate a meeting recording or transcript.
  • Ask Gemini in Meet cannot answer questions about meeting discussions that happen before the user has joined the meeting, unless "take notes for me" is on.
  • Only meetings in English are currently supported, but support for more languages is coming soon.
  • Ask Gemini in Meet will be ON by default, but can be turned off by meetings hosts and Admins.

Rollout pace

Availability

After this rollout completes, Ask Gemini in Meet will be available for the following Google Workspace customers:
  • Business Plus
  • Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus
If you’d like immediate access for your organization, you can join the Google Workspace Gemini Alpha.

Read More

What’s changing

We previously announced an increased credit limit of 25,000 credits per user per month for Google AI Ultra for Business users. Now, we're adding a new admin control that enables admins to allow users with an Google AI Ultra for Business license to exceed their 25,000 per user per month AI credit limit. If a customer turns on this setting and has users who exceed their monthly allocation, then we'll send them an invoice at the end of the month to pay for any overages. 

We hope this additional control will enable admins to make sure their users have the right amount of access to the tools they need. 

Additional details

  • Pricing depends on your local currency. You can use the Admin console to review specific pricing for credit overages in your region before you enable this feature.
  • Your organization is billed only for the additional credits they use. You'll see a separate line item on your monthly invoice for any additional credits used during the previous billing cycle.
  • You can't enable credit overages if your account is managed by a reseller. 

Getting started

Rollout pace

  • The Admin console setting is available now. Credit overages will begin accruing on November 1, 2025.

Availability

  • Available for Google AI Ultra for Business

Resources

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What’s changing 

When your primary systems are compromised, you need a dependable partner to keep your organization operational. Our new Business Continuity editions are designed to serve as a robust backup solution that works in tandem with your primary, non-Google Workspace collaboration platform, providing a secure and familiar environment that can be activated when you need it most. 

We are introducing two distinct offerings to meet your specific needs: 

1. Business Continuity 
This edition is a true disaster recovery solution designed for a "cold" standby scenario. It provides a secure, isolated environment to ensure your leadership and critical teams can communicate and collaborate during a crisis. 

  • Core Functionality: Allows for syncing your active directory, ensuring your user directory is available when needed. 
  • Usage: Intended for limited use, with access to Google Workspace and generative AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM for up to 21 days per year. 

2. Business Continuity Plus 
This is our full-featured solution for organizations that require a "hot" standby environment with more data readily available to drive immediate adoption and productivity. It is designed to keep your core functions operating with minimal disruption. 

  • Core Functionality: In addition to allowing for syncing directory, this edition allows for data syncing across any product, including but not limited to email, calendar, drive, chat and more. We recommend using a partner-based solution for implementation. 
  • Usage: Provides extended access to Google Workspace and generative AI tools for up to 60 days per year. 

Learn more about these new offerings in our main blog post: Break free from Microsoft 365’s lock-in, vulnerabilities, and outages with Google Workspace and partners

Getting started 

  • Admins: These solutions are intended for organizations who do not use Google Workspace for their primary collaboration platform. Contact your Google rep or partner to discuss suitability and purchase options. 
  • End users: No end user impact. 

Availability 

  • Available everywhere Google Workspace is sold. These solutions are intended for organizations who do not use Google Workspace for their primary collaboration platform. 

Resources 

Read More

What’s changing 

Last year, we announced the general availability of Google Vids, our AI-powered video creation app for work to help tell stories across your organization for select Workspace editions. 


Vids helps novice video creators easily build videos with a host of Gemini features that get them to a first draft faster using a set of generative AI capabilities. Help me create can generate a fully editable initial storyboard using a prompt and a doc from your Google Drive. After choosing a style, Gemini pieces together your video draft with suggested scenes, including recommended stock media, scripts, AI voiceovers, background music and more. Recently announced at Next, users will soon be able to generate custom video clips directly in Vids with Veo 2, enabling them to spend less time searching for assets to tell their story. 


Today, we’re excited to expand Google Vids to Business Starter, Enterprise Starter, and Nonprofit customers, giving them full access to Vids, and access to Vids AI features for a limited time (see below for more details). 


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

We know that creating and editing video feels challenging because it previously required special skills or licensing, but with Google Vids, anyone can be a great storyteller. Now teams can build and tell more compelling stories at work that break through the noise to engage their coworkers and colleagues.


Additional details 

For a period of 12 months after the rollout, Business Starter, Enterprise Starter, and Nonprofit customers can create a video with AI in Google Vids (using the “Help me create” feature) and use other AI features, to produce engaging videos that help scale your message, build connections and break through the noise across your organization. 

Full access to Vids (non-AI features) will be available to Business Starter, Enterprise Starter, and Nonprofit customers, allowing users to create, write, produce, edit, collaborate, and share videos.


Getting started

  • Admins: Vids will be ON by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Vids on or off for users. 
  • End users:
    • To start, open Google Vids and choose an option to create a new video. You can create a new video or make a copy of an existing video for editing. Visit the Help Center to learn more about getting started with Google Vids. 
    • You can use Vids on your computer with the two most recent versions of these browsers: 
    • You can access our always-on resources in the Google Workspace Learning Center to learn what you can do with Google Vids. 
    • Currently, Vids is available in the user’s local language, but the AI features (e.g. Help me create, read-along teleprompter) are only available in English at this time. 
    • Note: View and collaborate access is available to anyone with a Google Workspace account, while create and copy access is available for select editions of Google Workspace and Gemini with Google Workspace customers. 

Rollout pace

Availability 

This update impacts Google Workspace: 
  • Business Starter 
  • Enterprise Starter 
  • Nonprofits 

Resources 

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What’s changing

Following the recent announcement of being able to use Gemini in the side panel of Workspace apps in seven additional languages, we’re excited to announce that image generation is now supported in the following languages as well: 
  • French 
  • German 
  • Italian 
  • Japanese 
  • Korean 
  • Portuguese 
  • Spanish 
using gemini to generate an image of coffee in Spanish


Additional details 

  • Although Gemini is generally available in the side panel of Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail in these languages, users with Gemini alpha features enabled may still see the "Alpha" badge as we continue rolling out more alpha features 
  • Image generation of people is not supported at this time in these additional languages. 
  • Gemini in the side panel of Slides is only available in English at this time. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: You can access the side panel by clicking on “Ask Gemini” (spark button) in the top right corner of Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail on the web. Visit the Help Center to learn more about collaborating with Gemini in the side panel of Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail. Note that for accessing other Gemini for Google Workspace features that are supported in English only, you will need to set your Google Account language to English. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

Image Generation in the side panel of Gmail only is available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Starter 
  • Enterprise Starter 

Image Generation in the side panel of Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail is available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus 
  • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 
  • Google One AI Premium 

Anyone who previously purchased these add-ons will also receive this feature: 
  • Gemini Business* 
  • Gemini Enterprise* 
*As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details. 


Resources 

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What’s changing

Google Workspace admins can now turn on “Profile discovery” for their users. When turned on, users can customize how they appear across Google products to people who search for them by their phone number or email. Specifically, you can choose how you want your name to be displayed and how your profile picture will be displayed. 

This feature is available in open beta, which means no additional sign-up is required to use the feature.








In the Admin console, under Directory Settings > Profile editing, you can turn “Profile discovery” on or off for your users.

To help people recognize you, we’ll share basic information needed to confirm your identity. After you interact with someone, they'll typically see your full name, profile picture, and more from your Google Account.




Getting started

Rollout pace



Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers

Resources

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What’s changing

From your Google account settings, you can now record your name and share its pronunciation with other users. The pronunciation can be played from your profile card across various Google Workspace tools such as Gmail or Google Docs on web or mobile devices. We hope this update makes it easier for you to represent yourself and connect with colleagues in Google Workspace. 


When you record and share your name pronunciation, it can be viewed across various Workspace products



Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline Starter, Frontline Standard, and Nonprofits customers
  • Not available for Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade customers 

Resources 

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4 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.


Multi-task using new split screen feature in the Gmail app on large screen Android devices 
Last year, we announced numerous improvements to the Google Workspace experience on large screen Android devices, which included multi-instance support on Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides. We’re excited to introduce a similar feature for the Gmail app on Android tablets & foldables. With this update, you can now open links & attachments directly beside your email content when your device is in landscape orientation. 
  • Upon tapping a link (or attachment) in your email, the link (or attachment) will open on the right half of the screen and the email will move to the left half. 
  • You can control the width of each half or make one the full screen by dragging on the divider handle. 
This feature is now available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about 7 productivity apps for Android tablets and foldable phones. 
Multi-task using new split screen feature in the Gmail app on large screen Android devices

Add Google Groups to spaces in Google Chat 
Last month, we rolled out the admin controls for a new feature that enables space managers and users with the permission to manage members to add Google Groups to a space. Starting this week, end users can utilize this option and add Groups to spaces in Chat. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for November 1, 2023. | Available to all domain-verified Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about adding a Google Group to a space. 


Add emoji reactions to comments in Google Slides 
Last week, we announced the ability to add emoji reactions to comments in Google Sheets. We’re excited to announce this is now available for comments in Google Slides, increasing collaboration by enabling you to quickly and creatively express your opinions about presentation content. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for October 31, 2023. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about using comments, action items, & emoji reactions. 
Add emoji reactions to comments in Google Slides

Respond to access requests for Google Workspace files more efficiently on Android devices 
Earlier this year, we introduced a new file access experience to make it easier for file approvers to respond to pending access requests across Google Workspace. We’re happy to announce that this update is now available on Android devices. Within a file (Docs, Sheets, Slides, PDFs, etc.), click the Share button > select the Review button in the new banner to view the access request(s) > respond to the request(s). | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about sharing files from Google Drive. 





Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.



Upcoming changes to third-party cookie requirements in Google Drive
Google Chrome and other browsers have begun phasing out third-party cookies in order to better protect user privacy. Starting January 2, 2024, Drive will start serving downloads without requiring third-party cookies that are embedded on third-party websites. | Learn more about third-party cookie requirements in Google Drive. 


Understand the impact of Context-Aware Access policies with Monitor Mode 
Admins can now use Monitor Mode to understand the implications of a Context-Aware Access (CAA) policy before deploying it to their end users. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus, and Cloud Identity Premium customers only. | Learn more about Context-Aware Access policies with Monitor Mode. 


Use the space management tool to bulk delete Google Chat spaces 
Using the space management tool, admins can now delete multiple spaces within their organization at once. Over time, as more spaces are created, the list of spaces for an organization can become cluttered with abandoned and inactive spaces. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Frontline, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching & Learning upgrade, Education Plus customers only. | Learn more about bulk deleting Google Chat spaces. 


Subtly enhance your appearance with portrait touch-up when using Google Meet on mobile devices 
We’re introducing portrait touch-up in Meet, a new feature on mobile that enables you to lightly touch up your appearance from the green room before joining or during the meeting. | Available to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Teaching & Learning Upgrade, Google One and Google Workspace Individuals only. | Learn more about portrait touch-up in Meet. 


Map and sync system attributes of users from External Directory into Google Workspace 
Using Directory Sync, admins can map all the system or default user attributes, including custom attributes, from Microsoft Active Directory or Microsoft Azure Active Directory to Google Directory user attributes and synchronize them. | Learn more about Directory Sync. 


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains:


Read More

This announcement was made at Google Cloud Next ‘23. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about the next wave of AI innovation in Workspace. This feature is exclusive to the Duet AI for Google Workspace Enterprise add-on.

What’s changing

From the beginning, Google Workspace was built to allow you to collaborate in real time with other people. And with the launch of Duet AI, we’re making it possible to collaborate just as easily with AI. Duet AI is a powerful collaborator that can act as a coach, thought partner, source of inspiration, and productivity booster — all while ensuring every user and organization has control over their data.


Beginning today, Duet AI for Workspace Enterprise is now generally available. You can preview the power of Duet AI with a no-cost trial.


Who’s impacted

Admins


Why it’s important

Duet AI for Google Workspace Enterprise enables organizations to create, connect, and collaborate like never before.

You can use Duet AI to:
  • Help you write and refine emails in Gmail - even on the go from your mobile device
  • Help you write, refine, and proofread content in Google Docs
  • Generate original images for your presentations directly in Google Slides
  • Create plans for projects in Google Sheets with just a simple prompt
  • Look your best in Google Meet with studio look 
  • Generate  background images in Google Meet
  • Use translated captions in Google Meet

In the coming months, we’ll be introducing more features for Duet AI such as studio lighting and sound for Meet, Enhanced Smart Fill for Google Sheets and more. We’ll share more details here on the Workspace Updates blog as those features become available.

Getting started


Availability

The Duet AI for Google Workspace Enterprise add-on is available for purchase with the following Google Workspace editions:
  • Business Standard and Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, Education Fundamentals, Frontline Starter and Frontline Standard
Note: Duet AI features are only available for users over the age of 18.


Read More

Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

In the Google Cloud Community, discuss the latest features with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like you. Learn tips and tricks that will make your work and life easier. Be the first to know what's happening with Google Workspace.

Learn about more Google Workspace launches

On the “What’s new in Google Workspace?” Help Center page, learn about new products and features launching in Google Workspace, including smaller changes that haven’t been announced on the Google Workspace Updates blog.

Learn about our customers

Discover how a diverse range of organizations, from small businesses and nimble startups to globally recognized Fortune 500 corporations, leverage the collaborative power of Google Workspace. Explore examples of how teams of are streamlining workflows and driving productivity by utilizing Google-Workspace.