Google Workspace Updates

Additional iOS data exfiltration enhancement: account level data sharing between Google Workspace apps and non-Google Workspace apps on or off

2024-09-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Admins can now enable content sharing on personal Workspace accounts while preventing data sharing from corporate Workspace accounts on iOS devices.

Additionally, admins can now prevent data sharing from unknown sources (typically non-Google Workspace apps) to personal Workspace accounts on Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Chat, and more, by setting a managed configuration.

The {customer_id} is a unique customer ID that’s assigned to your account. You can find it in your Admin console at Account > Account settings > Profile.

Getting started

Admins: Blocking sending of work data to personal apps, including all non-Google Workspace apps on the iOS share sheet, will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the OU level. These settings can be configured in the Admin console under Devices > Mobile and endpoints > iOS settings > Data Sharing. Visit the Help Center to learn more about data protection on iOS devices. Use this article in our Help Center to learn more about how to set up the managed configuration, go to set up iOS apps with managed configurations.
End users: Sharing of data between Google Workspace apps and non-Google Workspace apps depends on your admin configuration. If you’re unable to share data between apps, you may see a warning message. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how your iOS device is managed.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on September 19, 2024

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

Enterprise Standard and Plus
Education Standard and Plus
Enterprise Essentials Plus
Frontline Standard
Cloud Identity Premium

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Prevent accidental data leaks on iOS devices

Create birthdays in Google Calendar

2024-09-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Currently, Google Calendar automatically pulls in birthday information from Google Contacts. However, it is not currently possible to create birthday events directly in Calendar.

To ensure a birthday is never missed, we’re introducing the ability to create and modify birthday events in Google Calendar on Android devices.

For developers, newly created birthday events will be available in the Calendar API with the eventType “birthday.” Both Events.list and Events.watch will support the “birthday” event type filter and return “birthday” events by default. Only a subset of the event properties will be supported for birthday events. To learn more, see our developer guide about working with the birthday event type.

Who’s impacted

End users and developers

Additional details

Birthday events do not support all event properties. If you’re using the Calendar API, we recommend reviewing your code so you don’t apply any non-supported properties.

Creating dedicated birthday events in Google Calendar will also become available on web and iOS devices in the future.

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 about managing birthdays on your calendar.
Developers: Use our developer guide about working with the birthday event type.

Rollout pace

Web:

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 19, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on October 9, 2024

Mobile:

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 24, 2024

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Manage birthdays on your calendar

Admin features for space management via the Chat API are now generally available

2024-09-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Earlier this year, we introduced a series of space management capabilities for Workspace admins in the Google Chat API via the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. These API features are now generally available for all Google Workspace customers and developers.

Using these features, admins can easily perform a variety of space management related tasks at scale. This includes membership management, like adding and removing members, onboarding and offboarding users from spaces, cleaning up inactive spaces, and more.

These features are also available when using the Google Apps Manager (GAM), an open source command-line tool that helps administrators to perform bulk operations associated with various aspects of their Google Workspace. The tool can be used to automate space management tasks with command-line scripts, helping to reduce admin overhead and potential errors when using APIs. See this article in our Help Center for more information on using a third-party tool for mass provisioning.

Who’s impacted

Admins and developers

Why you’d use it

In 2023, we launched the Space Management tool, which allowed admins to view all the spaces within their organization, understand the activity within those spaces, and perform essential actions like deleting a space or assigning space managers. While finding the tool helpful to perform one-off tasks, admins expressed a desire for tools to perform these tasks at scale, for example, with the help of APIs. Admins can now use the Chat API to find information and manage spaces in their organization in bulk or programmatically. Specifically they can:

Find and delete inactive spaces: Using spaces.search, you can find spaces that haven’t been used since a specified date and time and then delete them.
Onboard and offboard users: Automatically add new users to relevant spaces and remove them from spaces when they leave or change roles.
Audit external members: Monitor and control access to your organization's data by identifying and removing external members from sensitive conversations.
Lookup and update space details: Easily manage space information like names, descriptions, and guidelines.
Verify user membership and upgrade roles: Manage user access and roles within spaces.
And more — please refer to our developer guidance for even more information.

Getting started

Admins and developers: Use our Developer Documentation to learn how to authenticate and authorize using administrator privilege, managing Google Chat spaces as a Workspace admin, and searching for and managing Google Chat spaces for your Google Workspace organization.
End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

Rollout pace

Available now

Availability

Available for all Google Workspace customers

Resources

NotebookLM now available as an Additional Service

2024-09-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Last year, we introduced an Early Access App called NotebookLM, an experimental product using some of Google's most advanced models, like Gemini 1.5 Pro, that helps you gain critical insights grounded in the content of source documents you trust.

Today, we’re excited to announce that NotebookLM is officially available as an Additional Service.

Over the past year, NotebookLM, now available globally in over 100 languages, has been made more powerful with new features, and early users have been using NotebookLM to supercharge their learning and work. For example, NotebookLM can:

Be an interactive expert in your trusted sources: Once you upload source documents (e.g. Google Doc and Slides, PDFs, web URLs, copied text) into a notebook, you can ask NotebookLM questions about the information in your sources. As a result, it will respond with an answer from the sources you’ve uploaded along with inline citations from those documents to show you what NotebookLM based its answers on.

Generate new ideas and connect dots: NotebookLM can also be used to generate a variety of content based on your sources, like summaries, briefing docs, timelines, FAQs, study guides or even audio overviews (a new feature that lets you listen to a conversation about your source). NotebookLM can also spark creativity, help you brainstorm new ideas and make connections in your sources. You can save a response to a note, so you can come back to polish it later.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users 18+

Why you’d use it

NotebookLM is an AI-powered research assistant that lets people in your organization interact with trusted source content to get grounded insights. You can upload sources, such as your research notes, course materials, interview transcripts, or corporate documents, and instantly NotebookLM becomes an expert in the material that matters most to you.

Additional details

As an Enterprise or Education user whose use of Google Drive is subject to the Workspace Terms of Service or the Workspace for Education Terms of Service, your uploads, queries and the model's responses in NotebookLM will not be used or reviewed by human reviewers to train AI models. NotebookLM is an Additional Service covered under the Google Terms of Service.

Getting started

Admins: Customers who had access to NotebookLM as an Early Access App can continue to use it. For all others, admins must turn on Notebook LM as an Additional Service if new services are not set to turn on automatically for end users. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning on or off additional Google services.
End users: Once NotebookLM is enabled by your admin, go to NotebookLM.google.com to start using it. Visit the Help Center to learn more about NotebookLM.

Rollout pace

Available now

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers

Resources

New design and accessibility improvements for embedded Google Calendars

2024-09-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Users currently have the ability to add an interactive version of their Google Calendar to their website, and add buttons for their website visitors to save their calendar events.

Starting today, you’ll notice a refreshed look and feel for embedded calendars that is in line with Google Material Design 3 and now includes:

Enhanced accessibility features, such as the ability to use an embedded calendar with a screen reader and keyboard shortcuts to navigate more easily.
Improved spacing to make text easier to read.
A responsive layout that adapts to different screen sizes seamlessly.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about adding a Google calendar to your website.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 17, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on October 7, 2024

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Add a Google calendar to your website

New beta available that restricts access to folders in Google Drive

2024-09-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

If your admin has set up shared drives for their organization, shared drive managers were previously not able to restrict access to folders in shared drives. Today, we’re introducing a beta that allows shared drive managers to restrict folders to specific users within a shared drive. This provides shared drive managers with greater flexibility to keep relevant content within a single shared drive, while restricting access to shared folders with sensitive information.

A folder with “limited access” can only be opened by people who have been added to it directly. People with general access to the shared drive or shared folder can see the restricted folder in Drive, but will not be able to open it.

Eligible customers can use this form to express interest in the beta and will receive an email confirmation prior to the feature being enabled in their specified domain.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s important

Folders with limited access allow users to organize files by project, in a single shared drive or shared folder, while ensuring that sensitive information is only accessible to the right team members.

Additional details

Folders with limited access are available in both shared drives and My Drive:

Shared drive managers can always access folders with limited-access
Folder owners can always access limited-access folders in their My Drive

Getting started

Admins: Eligible customers can express interest in the beta here. We’ll begin accepting domains into the program in the coming weeks. Once accepted into the beta, visit the Help Center to learn more about folders with limited access.
End users:

As a shared drive manager or My Drive folder owner, go to your shared drive > choose the folder you want to limit access > click the overflow menu > share > select share settings in the top right corner > click limited access to “Folder Name”. Visit the Help Center to learn more about folders with limited access.
For users whose access has been limited, you will see the folder name, but the folder will be grayed out:

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

Business Standard, Plus
Enterprise Standard, Plus
Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus
Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, the Teaching & Learning Upgrade
Nonprofits

Resources

Adding multi-monitor support to Google Slides

2024-09-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Starting today, we’re making it easier to view your Google Slides presentation controls on your computer while presenting to an audience using a connected external monitor or projector.

Multi-monitor support enables presenters to see Presentation View components, such as speaker notes and the timer, on one display, while displaying the slides presentation on an external monitor.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why it matters

This updated experience helps you present with greater confidence and gives you more control when managing multiple presentation displays.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: You can enable this feature by using “Presentation display options”. Visit the Help Center to learn more about presenting slides with other monitors.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 16, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 30, 2024

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Present slides

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - September 13, 2024

2024-09-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

3 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.

Co-annotate from select Google Meet hardware devices

We’re expanding annotation capabilities in Meet to include select Google Meet hardware devices. These devices can be appointed co-annotators by presenters and you can use annotation tools such as a pen, sticker and more directly from the touchscreen of the device. | Rollout to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Standard, and Plus; Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus; Frontline Starter and Standard; Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus; Education Standard, Plus, the Teaching & Learning Upgrade; Workspace Individual subscribers. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about using annotations in Google Meet.

New advancements in Connected Sheets for Looker

Last year, we introduced Connected Sheets for all Looker-hosted instances, enabling users to analyze data using pivot tables, charts, formulas, and other integrated data sources. This week, we’re excited to announce the ability to directly link Connected Sheets to existing Looker queries, rather than having to start from scratch in Sheets by connecting to an Explore every time. This highly-requested feature is especially useful for Looks, a special type of query that’s been saved in the Looker UI, and whose definition can be updated over time if needed. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Admins should use the Looker's Admin menu to make sure Connected Sheets for Looker is enabled. End users can visit the Help Center to learn more about using Connected Sheets in your organization.

TeamViewer Add-on for for Google Meet now supports remote desktop

A TeamViewer add-on for Google Meet is now available in the Google Workspace Marketplace, allowing Meet to tap into a leading remote connectivity platform. You can now rely on Meet + TeamViewer to enable remote support (e.g., IT support desk) that's easy, secure and reliable for your business. | Rollout to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Available to Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Admins can visit the Help Center to learn more about managing Marketplace apps on your allowlist or installing Marketplace apps in your domain. End users can view the TeamViewer Remote Control listing, learn more about the offering on TeamViewer’s website, and use the Help Center to learn more about using add-ons with Google Meet.

TeamViewer launched as a featured Meet add-on to enable remote IT support

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.

Gemini reports now include user-level usage, including app usage insights

We’re incorporating additional data in Gemini reports to help our customers gain a deeper understanding of Gemini usage and adoption across their organizations. Gemini reports now include user and app level Gemini usage and adoption data based on the last 28 days of usage. | Learn more about Gemini reports.

Access and sort shared files more easily in Google Chat conversations

The Shared tab is now available in 1:1 direct messages and group messages, enabling easier collaboration across all conversation types. | Learn more about the shared tab in Chat.

Google Cloud Directory Sync now complies with your conflicting accounts management settings

Google Meet Add-ons SDK is now generally available

The Meet Add-ons SDK is now generally available for the web, which allows developers to iframe their app into Meet, and lets meeting participants interact with the app’s content directly inside the Meet canvas. | Learn more about Meet Add-ons SDK.

Improving the Google Workspace Marketplace app publishing experience with Drafts

Developers can now make changes to their app listing, save them as a draft, and send the draft version to review. | Learn more about app list drafts.

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 and Scheduled Release Domains:

For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

Improving the Google Workspace Marketplace app publishing experience with Drafts

2024-09-12T13:30:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Developers can create apps for the Google Workspace Marketplace that automate tasks, integrate Google Workspace with third-party products, and enhance communication and collaboration.

To improve upon the publishing experience, we’re excited to announce that developers can now make changes to their app listing, save them as a draft, and send the draft version to review. This will allow developers to preview changes and share drafts with specific users to help with validation before publishing a listing.

Who’s impacted

Developers

Why you’d use it

This update allows developers to test and preview their Google Workspace Marketplace app listing prior to publishing, which enables feedback collection and ultimately makes updating an app listing much easier.

Additional details

While changes are under review in the draft state, the original app listing remains available on the Google Workspace Marketplace.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Google Workspace Marketplace and getting started as a Marketplace app admin.
Developers: Visit the developer resources to update your app listing with drafts, learn how to develop apps and add-ons for Google Workspace, and how to make your apps and add-ons available in the Marketplace.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 12, 2024

Availability

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

Resources

Google Meet Add-ons SDK is now generally available

2024-09-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

We’re pleased to announce that beginning today, the Meet Add-ons SDK is now generally available for the web. This SDK allows developers to iframe their app into Meet, and lets meeting participants interact with the app’s content directly inside the Meet canvas.

Who’s impacted

Admins, end users, and developers

Why it matters

The Add-ons SDK expands Meet’s existing platform capabilities, providing the opportunity for developers to build interactive and collaborative experiences for their users in Google Meet which they can find and install from the Google Workspace Marketplace. These experiences allow for users to launch, install, and engage with the app’s content during their meetings, all without ever leaving Google Meet. Examples of already built add-ons include whiteboarding experiences with Figjam, Lucidspark and Miro; note taking experiences with Read Notetaker; and also polling and surveying experiences via Polly.

Add-ons can be displayed in two ways during a meeting:

The main stage allows apps to be the focal point of a meeting experience, unlocking the opportunity for add-on users to supercharge collaboration while in a meeting.
The side panel allows users to do actions such as share data, take surveys, or update records and notes while keeping the meeting and the discussion with other participants the focal point of this experience.

Additional details

The Google Workspace Marketplace automatically respects any controls that have been configured by admins, including whether their users can download and install add-ons. Additionally, all apps on the Marketplace have been reviewed and approved by the Google Marketplace team before they’re published.

Getting started

Admins: The availability of Google Meet Add-ons in meetings can be controlled through the Google Meet Admin Controls. Visit the Help Center to learn more about admin controls for Add-ons.
Developers: Our Developer Documentation has more information about using the Meet Add-Ons SDK.
End users:

Visit the Help Center to learn more about using add-ons with Google Meet.
Meeting hosts can control the availability of add-ons during meetings by going to Host Controls (lock icon) > Meeting Activities > Let contributors share add-on activities. Refer to this announcement on the Workspace Updates blog for more information.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now.

Availability

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

Resources

Google Cloud Directory Sync now complies with your conflicting accounts management settings

2024-09-10T06:03:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

When Google Cloud Directory Sync (GCDS) attempts to create new users, it may encounter unmanaged accounts that conflict with the accounts it’s attempting to create. In these instances, GCDS will now comply with the conflicting accounts management settings specified in the Admin console. This update helps reduce the time spent migrating user accounts to business accounts, helping to accelerate the adoption of Google Workspace and Google Cloud. Visit the Help Center for specific information on how GCDS will handle conflicting accounts based on your configured settings.

Getting started

Admins: Google Cloud Directory Sync will automatically respect your existing Admin console settings for handling conflicting unmanaged accounts. We do not recommend turning this feature off in GCDS, rather you should configure these settings as you see fit in the Admin console. Visit the Help Center to learn more about handling conflicting unmanaged accounts with Google Cloud Directory Sync, as well as unmanaged accounts in general.
End users: Depending on your admin configuration:

You’ll be invited to transfer your account — if accepted, your admin will have the ability to manage your account.
If you do not accept the request, your admin may replace your unmanaged account with a managed one. In that case, you’ll receive a new @gmail.com address and retain your content in this unmanaged, personal Google account.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now.

Availability

Available for all Google Workspace customers

Resources

Access and sort shared files more easily in Google Chat conversations

2024-09-10T05:43:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Earlier this year, we improved upon the file management experience in Google Chat spaces by creating the Shared tab, a central place to manage all conversation-related artifacts including files, links and media. Today, we’re excited to announce that the Shared tab is now available in 1:1 direct messages and group messages, enabling easier collaboration across all conversation types.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

The Shared tab provides a centralized and visible method to access shared content shared within a conversation.

Additional details

Using the new sort drop-down, you can narrow down the list of documents displayed based on category (file, link, media) or date shared.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: At the top of a Google Chat message, you will see the following tabs: Chat and Shared. Upon clicking Shared, you will see three sections: Files, Links and Media. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending & sharing files in Google Chat messages.

Rollout pace

Web:

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 10, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 23, 2024

Android & iOS:

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 16, 2024

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Send & share files in Google Chat messages

Gemini reports now include user-level usage, including app usage insights

2024-09-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

We’re incorporating additional data in Gemini reports to help our customers gain a deeper understanding of Gemini usage and adoption across their organizations.

Gemini reports now include user and app level Gemini usage and adoption data based on the last 28 days of usage. These insights can help admins identify power users in their organization, whom they can tap into for practical use cases and best practices, which can then be shared broadly with other users to drive adoption. Identifying users with lower adoption rates is equally important and can provide helpful context for creating training, change management programs and materials, and more.

From Menu > Generative AI > Gemini Reports > User-led usage you can track active Gemini usage days and how that usage is spread across various apps. You can also export this information for further analysis.

As of August 22, usage of gemini.google.com is now captured in the org-level usage portion of the report under the “Chat with Gemini” label, as well as in the new user-level usage reports. Including gemini.google.com usage and adoption information provides a more complete picture of how users are interacting with all Gemini tools across Workspace.

Gemini.google.com adoption data can be found under the “Chat with Gemini” label. Data reported as of August 9, 2024

Note: Gemini reports are denoted as 'beta' as we continue to optimize reporting functionality based on customer feedback. These are subject to the "Pre-General Availability Offerings Terms" section of the Google Workspace Service Specific Terms"

Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about reviewing Gemini usage in your organization.
End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on September 9, 2024

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:

Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Review Gemini usage in your organization

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - September 6, 2024

2024-09-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

1 New update

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.

Improved user experience for Google Meet on Android devices

If you’re joining a Google Meet call from Android phone, tablets or large screen devices, you’ll now see a more streamlined, space-efficient experience with edge-to-edge video. We’ve expanded the video feed to encompass spaces where there were previously margins around the video feed. This helps provide a richer, more immersive viewing experience. You’ll also notice a sleeker user interface for meeting controls, and clearer indicators for information such as the meeting title. | Rollout to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Available now for all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about joining a meeting.

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.

Gemini (gemini.google.com) now shows related content links in its responses

You can now access additional information on topics directly in Gemini’s (gemini.google.com) responses to your prompts. Specifically, you’ll see links to related content in responses to fact-seeking prompts — you can click the arrow chips to dive deeper into the topic. If you have a Gemini for Workspace license and Google Workspace extensions in Gemini are enabled, Gemini will also now include inline links to relevant emails referenced in responses where the Gmail extension is used. | Learn more about related content links shown in Gemini.

View your most relevant Google Drive folders and files on a single page

You will now see a combined, unified view for file and folder suggestions on the Drive homepage that leverages machine learning to help you find and organize your most relevant content faster and intuitively. | Learn more about the view in Drive.

Empowering Google Workspace customers to take control of their emissions with Electricity Maps

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.

Scheduled Release Domains:

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

Empowering Google Workspace customers to take control of their emissions with Electricity Maps

2024-09-06T06:22:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

To help our customers continue to understand and measure the carbon intensity of their cloud computing, we have partnered with Electricity Maps to provide hourly emissions data within the Carbon Footprint report. Since we launched the Google Workspace Carbon Footprint report at Cloud Next 2023, we have continued our collaboration with Electricity Maps to further help users understand their emissions. Directly within the Admin console, admins can track the carbon footprint and emissions of using Google Workspace, down to specific tools such as Google Meet, Gmail, Google Docs, and more.

We’ve also added a new admin role for accessing Carbon Footprint reports. Previously, only Workspace admins with reporting privileges had access to the carbon footprint dashboard. However, we know our customers have specialists, such as a dedicated Sustainability team, who rely on this information to inform their work. Now, admins can grant access to the Workspace Carbon Footprint report to select users by creating a custom role.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why it’s important

Cloud computing has immense significance for powering global business operations and innovation. But, in a world facing the accelerating impacts of climate change, it is increasingly important to keep an eye on its environmental impact. The dynamic and global nature of cloud computing creates challenges for precisely measuring its emissions and requires granular data that captures the carbon emissions of electricity at every hour in locations around the world. Partnering with Electricity Maps gives our customers a way to monitor their cloud emissions over time by product — giving IT teams and developers the high quality metrics they need to monitor, improve, and reduce their carbon emissions.

Electricity Maps gathers real-time and historical power generation and power exchange data from multiple sources around the globe, calculating the hourly consumption mix available on the grid and its carbon intensity. Electricity Maps follows a highly granular approach, combined with a transparent and scientific methodology and a strict collective vetting process of their open-source community. This guarantees high-quality and trustworthy data that aligns with Google’s ambition for a realistic and science-backed perspective on climate impact. For maximum transparency, emissions can be viewed on either location-based or market-based Scope 2 accounting standards. Location-based emissions show the emissions linked to the actual electricity used for the operations, whereas the market-based emissions represent emissions from the purchased electricity, including Google’s annual renewable energy purchases. More information about the methodology behind Google’s Workspace and Cloud Carbon Footprints can be found here.

Additional details

More about Google's sustainability commitments

In 2020, we set a goal to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy—every hour of every day on every grid where we operate—by 2030. We continue to make product and operational improvements to reduce environmental impact and we're sharing technology, methods, and funding to enable organizations around the world to transition to more carbon-free and sustainable systems — see here for more information about our sustainability commitments.

Google uses the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the global standard for carbon accounting to generate the Workspace Carbon Footprint reports. We recommend that admins familiarize themselves with the GHG terminology — you can find more information in our Help Center or the video below.

Getting started

Admins: You can find your Carbon Footprint report in the Admin console under Reporting > Carbon footprint. Visit the Help Center to learn more about the Workspace Carbon Footprint.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now.

Availability

Available to all domain verified Google Workspace customers

Resources

View your most relevant Google Drive folders and files on a single page

2024-09-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Last year, we introduced a new homepage view in Google Drive that makes it faster and easier for you to find files that matter most. That update included personalized file and folder suggestions with machine learning algorithms that can help you get started quickly.

Starting today, you will see a combined, unified view for file and folder suggestions on the Drive homepage that leverages machine learning to help you find and organize your most relevant content faster and intuitively. More specifically, you’ll notice:

Combined file and folder suggestions: Drive's homepage shows suggested files and folders, intelligently chosen based on recent activity, sharing patterns, and connected Google Calendar events.
Seamless navigation and organization: You can easily switch between viewing additional files or folders, or organize content directly from Home.
Enhanced search filters: Search chips allow you to quickly start a search by by file type, people, modification date, and location modification date, location, and people.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users:

Up to 6 suggested folders will show at the top of the homepage view of Drive and you can click the “View more” option to see up to 12 total folders.
Up to 10 suggested files will show underneath the suggested folders in the collapsed state and up to 30 suggested files will show if you click the “View more” option.
You may not see the “View more” option if you do not have additional file or folder suggestions.
The homepage view of Drive will be ON by default and can be opted-out by the user. If a user chooses to opt-out, their default page will be My Drive. To opt-out, go to the Settings icon in top right corner > Settings > Start page and select My Drive.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 5, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on September 25, 2024

Availability

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

Resources

Gemini (gemini.google.com) now shows related content links in its responses

2024-09-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Starting today, you can access additional information on topics directly in Gemini’s (gemini.google.com) responses to your prompts. Specifically, you’ll see links to related content in responses to fact-seeking prompts — you can click the arrow chips to dive deeper into the topic. If you have a Gemini for Workspace license and Google Workspace extensions in Gemini are enabled, Gemini will also now include inline links to relevant emails referenced in responses where the Gmail extension is used.

Including this information offers another easy way to dig deeper into Gemini’s responses. You can also use Gemini’s double-check feature to verify responses by using Google Search to highlight which statements are corroborated or contradicted on the web.

Additional details

At this time, this feature is limited to English prompts only.
This feature is available in most countries where Gemini (gemini.google.com) is available

Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Gemini (gemini.google.com) on or off for your users and turning Google Workspace extensions on or off for your organization.
End users: You’ll automatically see related content where applicable in Gemini’s responses. If you have a Gemini for Workspace license and your admin has enabled Google Workspace extensions, you may see related content from email for prompts that use the Gmail extension. Refer to the Gemini Apps FAQ for more detail.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on September 4, 2024.

Availability

Available to any Google Workspace users with access to gemini.google.com.
Users with a Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium add-on license will see Gmail citations if Google Workspace extensions in Gemini are enabled by their admin.

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - August 30, 2024

2024-08-30T12:17:00.000-07:00

2 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.

The AppSheet Admin Console is now available in public preview

For the first time, Workspace admins will have visibility into the users, apps and licenses associated with their AppSheet users via the AppSheet Admin Console. Previously, these advanced monitoring capabilities were limited to AppSheet Enterprise customers. Now all Workspace admins with the AppSheet service privilege can use this data to gain a deeper understanding about how their users are interacting with AppSheet. With the AppSheet Admin Console, you can view all the app users across any of your organization’s apps, review the most popular apps and creators, and more. Admins can also take actions like exporting a list of accounts, users, apps, and licenses for their organization or set the role of users in their organization. Eligible customers can access the AppSheet Admin Console using this direct link or clicking out from Apps > Google Workspace > Settings for AppSheet in the Workspace Admin Console. | The open beta for the AppSheet Admin Console is available now for AppSheet Enterprise customers and AppSheet Core entitled customers. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about using the AppSheet Admin Console.

Google Workspace for Education users can now set and share personal pronouns and name pronunciation

Google Workspace for Education admins of K-12 and higher education institutions can now give their students the option to set their pronouns from their Google Account at aboutme.google.com. This option is OFF by default and can be enabled for all users or a subset of them (such as for a specific location or class). User-defined pronouns will appear in personal information cards displayed when hovering over or clicking someone’s profile photo across Workspace apps like Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Chat, and Drive. Pronouns will also appear in Google Contacts, accessed by clicking “Open detailed view” from the personal information cards. | Pronouns are rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. | The ability to add name pronunciation will be available by the end of Q3, 2024. | Available to all Google Workspace for Education customers. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about allowing Directory users to change their pronouns and changing pronouns in your Google Account settings.

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.

Automate your workflows on Google Chat with IFTTT and UKG Flow integrations

Following the announcement at Google Cloud Next 2024, we’re excited to introduce Google Chat integrations with IFTTT and UKG Flow. | Learn more about Chat integrations with IFTTT and UKG Flow.

Picture-in-picture in Google Meet will now open automatically when switching tabs

Picture-in-picture mode will now automatically trigger when you switch tabs during a meeting. | Learn more about picture-in-picture in Meet.

Business Starter customers will soon have access to shared drives

Business Starter will officially have access to shared drives starting mid-September. When shared drives are made available to Business Starter customers, all users will be able to create shared drives by default. If this default behavior is undesired, admins can update their settings before Business Starter users gain access to the feature starting on September 23, 2024. | Learn more about shared drives for Business Starter.

Reply to emails in Gmail faster on Android devices

You can now reply to emails directly from the bottom of the conversation, without opening a new screen, making it easier to reference the email you’re replying to. | Learn more about replying to emails on Android.

Upload additional types of documents to Gemini (gemini.google.com) for insights and analysis

Google Workspace users with a Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education or Education Premium license can now upload a variety of files from Google Drive or locally from your device into Gemini. | Learn more about document upload with Gemini.

“Take notes for me” in Google Meet is now available

“Take notes for me” is an AI-powered feature in Google Meet that automatically takes notes, allowing you to focus on discussion, collaboration, and presentation during your meetings. | Learn more about “Take notes for me”

Google Meet provides consolidated email for all meeting artifacts

Currently, Google Meet sends an email for each type of meeting artifact initiated in a meeting, including meeting recordings, meeting transcripts, Gemini notes with “take notes for me,” live streams and more. Going forward, you’ll receive one email consolidating these artifacts. | Learn more about Meet’s meeting artifacts.

Customize Gemini (gemini.google.com) for your specific needs with Gems

Gems are now available to Google Workspace customers with a Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, or Education Premium add-on. | Learn more about Gems.

Gmail Q&A: A new way of searching your inbox with Gemini on Android devices

Gmail Q&A feature is rolling out now on Android devices and coming soon to iOS. | Learn more about Gemini in Gmail.

Additional data protection in Gemini (gemini.google.com) when using a school account is now available

Earlier this year, we brought Gemini for Google Workspace to education communities with two new paid add-ons. At that time, we announced that educators and students 18 years and older who did not have a Gemini Education license would soon get added data protection when using Gemini (gemini.google.com) as an Additional Service with their school accounts. Beginning this week, that added data protection is now available — free of charge. | Learn more about data protection in Gemini.

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:

Scheduled Release Domains:

Google Meet annotation updates for mobile devices

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

Additional data protection in Gemini (gemini.google.com) when using a school account is now available

2024-08-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Earlier this year, we brought Gemini for Google Workspace to education communities with two new paid add-ons. At that time, we announced that educators and students 18 years and older who did not have a Gemini Education license would soon get added data protection when using Gemini (gemini.google.com) as an Additional Service with their school accounts. Coming soon, we will have Gemini as an Additional Service with these added data protections available to teen students as well.

Beginning today, that added data protection is now available — free of charge. With added data protection, the data you share is only used for responses to your prompts and is not used to improve Gemini or other generative AI models. Added data protection is available to Google Workspace for Education users in every language and country where they can access Gemini.

Additional details

If you use gemini.google.com with a Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium license, it is covered by the Google Workspace for Education terms of service. Gemini Education licenses are available to users 18 years and older.
If you use gemini.google.com with a school account without a Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium license, it is covered under the Google Terms of Service as an Additional Service. This is available to users 18 years and older.
You can learn more about available pricing and discounts for the Gemini Education add-ons or contact your existing Google Workspace for Education reseller or a Google for Education sales specialist.

Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Gemini (gemini.google.com) on or off for your users. This setting will be rolling out over the course of the next several weeks.
End users: If enabled by your admin, visit the Help Center to get started with Gemini (gemini.google.com).

Rollout pace

Added data protection is available now.
Updates to the Gemini settings page in Admin Console to note the added data protection will be rolling out over the course of the next several weeks.

Availability

This update impacts Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus customers.

Resources

Gmail Q&A: A new way of searching your inbox with Gemini on Android devices

2024-08-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

A few months ago, we announced the general availability of Gemini in the side panel of Gmail, which not only allows users to summarize and suggest responses to email threads, but also includes using Gemini in Gmail on web to ask questions and find specific information from emails within your inbox or from your Google Drive files. For example, you can ask Gemini to search your inbox for things like "What was the PO number for my agency?", "How much did the company spend on the last marketing event?", or “Catch me up on the emails about quarterly planning.”

Today, we’re excited to announce that the Gmail Q&A feature is rolling out now on Android devices and coming soon to iOS. Gmail Q&A offers similar functionality as the side panel on the web. You can ask Gemini questions about your inbox or to do things like find specific details in your emails, show you unread messages, view messages from a specific sender, or summarize emails about a topic in your inbox.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why it matters

We are excited to help users supercharge their productivity with the help of Gemini in Gmail. Users now have even more capabilities from Gemini to help users get more done during their day at their desks and now, on the go.

Getting started

Admins: To access Gmail Q&A on Android, users need to have smart features and personalization turned on. Admins can turn on default personalization setting for their users in the Admin console.
End users: Open Gemini in the Gmail app via the black Gemini star at the top right of your app or from a “summarize this email” chip. To start, Gmail Q&A can find information from your inbox. In the future, it will be able to find information from your Drive as well. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Gemini in Gmail.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 29, 2024

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:

Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium
Google One AI Premium

Resources

Customize Gemini (gemini.google.com) for your specific needs with Gems

2024-08-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

At Google I/O 2024, we pre-announced Gems, custom AI experts that you can build across a variety of topics. In a few easy steps, you can describe what you want your Gem to do and how you’d like it to respond — Gems will help complete specific goals, tasks, and workflows based on your inputs. Gems will remember the instructions you provide, and you can access them when needed to help save time on repetitive tasks or get deep expertise. Included are Premade Gems, which allow you to easily chat with an already built, topic-defined, Gem. Most premade Gems also allow you to customize them, serving as a template for creating new Gems.

Beginning today, Gems are now available to Google Workspace customers with a Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, or Education Premium add-on.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use them

Gemini.google.com can help you speed up time-consuming tasks, generate fresh ideas and more. With Gems, you can further leverage the power of Gemini in a way that’s customized to your needs more efficiently by minimizing repetitive prompting. We’ve provided a few premade Gems to help you get started, like a Writing editor, Coding partner, and Learning coach, and you can build your own Gems to:

Gain valuable insights: Gather targeted feedback on your new product or service from different personas or audience segments (i.e. Urbanites, Tech Enthusiast, etc.).
Streamline copy editing: Get feedback and suggestions on your copy ensuring it’s clear, accurate and consistent with your desired brand, tone, and voice.
Scale your marketing: Generate a prescribed set of marketing materials (emails, social media, etc.) that meet style guidelines, character limits, and more, from a single campaign brief.
Stay ahead of the curve: be informed about the latest industry trends and competitive news that interest you with summaries of relevant articles, blogs, and newsletters.
Elevate your instruction: Gamify your lesson plans or brainstorm creative learning experiences to boost student engagement and bring learning to life.

Additional details

Gems are available in most languages for Gemini for Workspace add-on subscribers
Gems are not available to Google Workspace users accessing Gemini as an additional Google service

Getting started

Admins: Gems will be available in Gemini (gemini.google.com) by default to all Gemini Enterprise, Business, Education and Education Premium users. There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Gems.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Available now.

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:

Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium

Resources

Google Meet provides consolidated email for all meeting artifacts

2024-08-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: You’ll begin receiving these consolidated emails automatically.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Available now.

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers. Note that your Google Workspace edition will determine which meeting features are available to you.
“Take notes for me” requires one of the following Gemini for Google Workspace add-ons:

Gemini Enterprise
Gemini Education Premium
AI Meetings & Messaging

Resources

“Take notes for me” in Google Meet is now available

2024-08-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Today, we’re pleased to announce that “take notes for me” will begin rolling out to Google Meet for select Google Workspace customers. “Take notes for me” is an AI-powered feature in Google Meet that automatically takes notes, allowing you to focus on discussion, collaboration, and presentation during your meetings. After the meeting, the notes document is attached to the calendar event where participants internal to your organization can access them. At launch, this feature will be available when using Google Meet on a computer or laptop, and meetings must be conducted in spoken English.

Select the pencil icon in the top right corner of the screen to start taking meeting notes.

All meeting participants will see a blue pencil icon on their screen and a notification that notes are being taken. They can click on the pencil to see the meeting notes taken so far.

After the meeting ends, the meeting organizer and whoever turned on the feature will receive an email with a link to the generated meeting notes document. The notes document will also be attached to the calendar event, where internal meeting participants can access it.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

It can be challenging to stay on top of and engaged with meeting discussions while also trying to keep a record of the meeting and subsequent follow-ups. This is where “take notes for me” can help. When turned on, the feature will do the following:

Automatically capture meeting notes in Google Docs and save it to the Google Drive of the meeting owner.
Catch you up during the meeting with “summary so far” if you join late.
Send an email with a link to the recap after the meeting. This email goes to the meeting organizer and whoever turned on the feature.

This will help you be more present and engaged during your meetings, while still ensuring important information is captured for record-keeping and follow-up. If users also turn on meeting recordings and transcripts, those will be linked within the notes document.

Additional details

Notes documents will be stored in the meeting owner’s drive folder and will follow the Meet retention policy that your organization has configured. If you are currently testing this feature in Workspace Labs and Alpha, your experience will change from respecting the Drive retention policy to respecting the Meet retention policy.

Getting started

Admins: Take notes for me will be ON by default and can be configured at the OU and Group level. Visit the Help Center to learn more about allowing Google Meet AI to take notes for my users.
Apps > Google Workspace > Google Meet > Gemini Settings > Gemini AI note-taking

End users: Once enabled by your admin, you can use this article in our Help Center to learn more about “take notes for me” in Google Meet. You can also turn this feature on in advance from the Calendar invite — visit our Help Center to learn more about enabling meeting records to start automatically.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 27, 2024 with expected completion on September 10, 2024

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:

Gemini Enterprise
Gemini Education Premium
AI Meetings & Messaging

Use this link to learn more about Gemini for Google Workspace and how you can get started today with a no-cost trial.

Resources

Upload additional types of documents to Gemini (gemini.google.com) for insights and analysis

2024-08-27T07:32:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

Beginning today, Google Workspace users with a Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education or Education Premium license can now upload a variety of files from Google Drive or locally from your device into Gemini (gemini.google.com):

Document and text files, such as TXT, DOC, DOCX, PDF, RTF, DOT, DOTX, HWP, HWPX and Google Docs
Data Files, such as XLS, XLSX, CSV, TSV and Google Sheets

Gemini can use uploaded files to gain context and analyze your content. In turn, this can help enhance your understanding, research, and writing through summarization of complex subject matter, identification of trends and insights, and recommendations for improving writing and document organization. Uploading a document can also help give you more personalized and relevant responses.

Additional details

At this time, Context-Aware Access (CAA) for files uploaded from Google Drive isn’t supported. Context-Aware Access gives you control over which apps a user can access based on their context, such as whether their device complies with your IT policy. Learn more about Context-Aware Access.
Uploading files from Google Drive honors access control settings for files within Drive, meaning users can only upload files that they own or have been shared with them.
File upload is not available to Google Workspace users accessing Gemini as an additional Google service.
Users with a Gemini for Google Workspace license who access Gemini as a core service are subject to the Google Workspace Terms of Service or Google Workspace for Education Terms of Service (for education institutions). When users use Gemini as a core service, their chats and uploaded files won't be reviewed by human reviewers or otherwise used to improve generative AI models.

Getting started

Admins:

Local file upload will be available in Gemini (gemini.google.com) by default to all Gemini Enterprise, Business, Education and Education Premium users.
File upload from Google Drive in Gemini (gemini.google.com) requires you to turn on Workspace extensions in Gemini. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Google Workspace extensions on or off for your organization.
Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Gemini (gemini.google.com) on or off for your users, or about Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Business in general.

End users:

Users can upload up to 10 files at a time, and each file can be up to 100 MB. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to upload and analyze files in the Gemini web app.
File upload from Google Drive in Gemini requires you to connect Google Workspace apps & services in Extensions setting.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on August 27, 2024

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:

Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium

Resources

Reply to emails in Gmail faster on Android devices

2024-08-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

What’s changing

We’re making it easier to respond to emails in the Gmail app on your Android device with a new quick reply experience.

Previously, there were only options to Reply, Reply all or Forward a message when in the conversation view of an email on your Gmail app. Upon selecting one of those options, you’d be directed to a full screen compose view to send your reply.

Starting today, you can reply to emails directly from the bottom of the conversation, without opening a new screen, making it easier to reference the email you’re replying to. We know this new option is best for quick, lightweight responses, so for longer, more formal responses, you can simply expand the text box to access more formatting options.

Additional details

This feature will be available on iOS devices later this year.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: Using the Gmail app on your Android device, open an email > click into the text box at the bottom > type your reply > tap the send icon. Clicking the “Expand to full screen” icon allows you to switch to the full screen compose view. Visit the Help Center to learn more about replying to messages in Gmail.

Rollout pace

Workspace Customers:

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 26, 2024

Users with personal Google accounts and Workspace Individual Subscribers:

This feature is available now.

Availability

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

Note: Individuals who are testing gen AI features in Workspace Labs will not immediately get access to this new quick reply experience.

Resources

Google Help: Reply to messages in Gmail