Your users can now express interest in Gemini for Google Workspace 
We’re introducing a simple way for Workspace end users to request a Gemini license from their admins on the Gemini for Google Workspace homepage. To send this request, Workspace end users simply select ‘Get Started’ from the Gemini for Google Workspace marketing page, then click on ‘Ask my admin’ and complete the request form. Super admins will receive this request by email, and from there they can choose to purchase a Gemini license in the Admin console.

Admins will have the option to disable these requests prior to this update. Admins can do so in the Admin console by going to Account > Account Settings > Gemini for Google Workspace, and deselecting the ‘User-requested upgrades’ setting— use this article in our Help Center for more information. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains. | Learn more about Gemini for Workspace, including our recent Gemini for Workspace announcements.

Multi-account support now available for Google Keep on large screen Android devices
Last year, we introduced multi-instance support for Google Keep on large screen Android devices. To take this a step further, we’re now allowing multiple accounts to be used at the same time on the same device in Keep. Having two windows open side-by-side enables better insight into your notes and gives you more ways to work with, display, and organize your content across multiple accounts. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. 
Multi-account support now available for Google Keep on large screen Android devices

Updates for Gemini for Workspace usage reports in the Admin console
Recently, we introduced Gemini for Workspace usage reports in the Admin console. Beginning today, we’re introducing additional updates for these reports: 
  • Usage reports are now available for Gemini Education and Gemini Education Premium customers. 
  • Admins can filter usage reports by OU and Groups. 
Admins can access these reports via Admin console under Menu > Generative AI > Gemini reports. | Also available to Google Workspace customers with the Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Business add-ons. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains. | Learn more about reviewing Gemini usage in your organization.
Updates for Gemini for Workspace usage reports in the Admin console


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.


Google Classroom add-ons now generally available to Google Workspace developers 
Classroom add-ons generally available to all developers. These complement other Classroom API features and let educators and students experience content without having to leave Google Classroom. | Learn more about Classroom add-ons. 

Manage access to eSignature in Google Workspace 
The admin control for Google Workspace’s eSignature feature is live for select Google Workspace editions. Admins can control users’ ability to request signatures before eSignature rolls out to end users in the coming weeks. | Learn more about eSignature in Google Workspace. 

Gemini in the side panel of Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Drive is rolling out now 
We’re pleased to announce the general availability of Gemini in the side panel of Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive. Learn more about the side panel in Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive and Gmail. 

Bringing our Learning Interoperability Tools under one umbrella: Google Workspace LTI™ 
Going forward, all Learning Interoperability Tools, including Assignments LTI™, and Google Drive LTI™, will be consolidated into a single category: Google Workspace LTI™. | Learn more about Google Workspace LTI™. 

Introducing Colab Pro and Colab Pro+ for Google Workspace 
Currently, Google Workspace admins can turn Colab on for their users, allowing them to access the free version of Colab. This week, we announced the Colab Pro and Colab Pro+ standalone subscriptions for Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about Colab for Google Workspace. 

Grading periods API for Google Classroom is now available in Developer Preview
Grading period endpoints and capabilities in the Classroom API are now available through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. | Learn more about the Grading periods API. 

Additional admin space management capabilities in Google Chat API are now available in Developer Preview Program 
We’re pleased to announce more space management capabilities, such as the ability to look up details about specific space, update space details, and more. | Learn more about admin space management capabilities in Google Chat API. 

Improving calculation speed in Google Sheets 
We recently announced the latest advancements in Sheets, including that we’ve doubled the speed of calculation in Google Sheets on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. This update can improve the speed of actions like formulas, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and more, regardless of your file size. | Learn more about Sheets calculations. 

Add up to 500,000 members to spaces in Google Chat 
To provide greater flexibility and inclusiveness for larger organizations, we’re excited to announce that starting today, spaces can now have up to 500,000 members. | Learn more about large spaces in Chat.

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: 
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).  

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spaces can now have up to 500,000 members.
If you are adding a Google Group as a member to set up large spaces, the table below shows how long it will typically take to populate this space. 
Estimated time to populate the space

Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why it’s important 

Companies can now create org-wide spaces to announce news and updates to their employees, helping ensure broader reachability and measurability of their communications. 


Additional details 

We’ve introduced features to enhance membership management, which is particularly important now with larger spaces in Google Chat. Some examples include: 

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers 

Resources 

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Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why it matter 

Whether you’re a small business owner analyzing revenue, a finance leader managing millions of values, or a brand manager reviewing the latest orders of a product line, seeing changes in your data reflected quickly is important. This update helps to make that possible by improving calculation speed in Sheets on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about Google Sheets.

Rollout pace 

  • This feature is available now for all users.

Availability 

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


Resources 

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Today, we’re pleased to announce more space management capabilities, which include the ability to: 
  • Look up details about specific space.
  • Update space details, including the name of a space, space description, and space guidelines. 
  • Verify user’s membership status in a specific space. 
  • Upgrade a role from space member to space manager. 



These features are available now through our Developer Preview Program — see here for more information on how to enroll in the Developer Preview program. 


Getting started 

  • Admins and developers: 
    • If you are part of the Google Workspace Developer Preview, you will get these features by default. Otherwise, you must apply for access using this form. 
    • Use our Developer Documentation to learn how to authenticate and authorize using administrator privilege. 
  • End users: There is no end user impact or action required. 

Rollout pace 

Availability

  • New features for the Google Chat API scoped to admin users are available to participants of Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. 

Resources 

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Today, we’re excited to announce grading period endpoints and capabilities in the Classroom API, available through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. Specifically, developers can now: 

  • Create, modify, and delete grading periods on courses 
  • Read grading periods on courses 
  • Reference and set/read grading periods on CourseWork resources
  • Apply grading period settings to existing coursework items

Who’s impacted 

Developers 


Why you’d use it 

The new grading periods endpoints allows developers to create, modify, and read grading periods in Classroom on behalf of administrators and teachers. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: The Classroom API provides a RESTful interface for you to manage courses and rosters in Google Classroom. Learn more about the Classroom API overview. 
  • Developers: 
    • To use the grading periods API, developers can apply for access through our Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. 
    • Application developers can use the Classroom API to integrate their apps with Classroom. These apps need to use OAuth 2.0 to request permission to view classes and rosters from teachers. Admins can restrict whether teachers and students in their domain can authorize apps to access their Google Classroom data. 
    • All API and Classroom share button integrations should follow the Classroom brand guidelines. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Plus 

Resources 

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Who’s impacted


Admins and end users


Why it’s important


Colab provides access to Google's powerful computational resources, which can be used to train machine learning models and perform other data-intensive tasks — all from your web browser. It can be used for a variety of data science and machine learning tasks, including:


  • Exploratory data analysis
  • Developing with the Gemini API
  • Machine learning model development
  • Natural language processing such as text classification and sentiment analysis
  • Image processing such as object detection and image classification.

We know that many Colab users are also Google Workspace users, especially those within educational institutions. Colab Pro and Colab Pro+ can help enhance their work and research with more compute units, faster GPUs, more memory and more.


Further, these offerings can help admins efficiently subscribe an entire team or organization to Colab, thereby minimizing the friction associated with setting up individual accounts for each user. By managing subscriptions at the group level, organizations can more effectively support collaborative workflows and ensure that all team members have access to the resources they need.


Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • Access to the Admin console is required to initiate purchase. To purchase Workspace Colab Pro or Colab Pro+, go to Billing > Get more services > More products. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to assign licenses to users after purchase, as well as available Google Workspace subscriptions.
    • For Google Workspace for Education K-12 customers: The access control for Colab is OFF by default and requires Admins to enable this control if they want users in their domain to access Google Colab. Before turning access to Colab ON, Admins are required to obtain parental consent for <18 users because Colab is included as an Additional Service. Consent can be requested with this notice template. 



  • End users: 
    • Colab is OFF by default and can be enabled by your Admin. 
    • Note that if you have purchased Colab's “Pay As You Go” offering for yourself, you can continue using it in addition with Colab Pro and Pro+. 

Rollout pace

  • Gradually rolling out over the coming months to all customers

Availability

  • Colab Pro and Colab Pro+ are standalone subscriptions available to all Google Workspace customers with a verified domain. 

Resources


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  • Assignments will be renamed to Google Workspace LTI™ in the Admin console and Google Workspace LTI™ in the Google Cloud console 
  • All LTI tools managed in the Admin console with the Google Workspace LTI™ service 
  • The Google Assignments Help Center will be rebranded to Google Workspace LTI™. The community forum will remain the same. 

Getting started 

Rollout pace

  • This is now available.

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade

Resources

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Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

The side panel will use Google’s most capable models including the Gemini 1.5 Pro model with a longer context window and more advanced reasoning, allowing you to harness the power of Gemini directly from your most used Google Workspace apps. Here are a few examples of when you’d use it:
  • Docs: Gemini in Docs side panel can help you write and refine your content, summarize information, help you brainstorm, create content based off of other files, and more.
Gemini in Docs side panel

  • Slides: Gemini in Slides side panel can help you generate new slides, generate custom images, summarize presentations and more. 


    Side panel in Google Slides

Using Gemini in Slides side panel

  • Sheets: Gemini in Sheets side panel can help you track and organize data. In the side panel, you can quickly create tables, generate formulas and ask how to accomplish certain tasks in Sheets.

Using Gemini in Sheets side panel


  • Drive: Gemini in Drive side panel can summarize one or multiple documents,  get quick facts about a project, or deep dive on a topic without needing to find and click through numerous documents.



    Using Gemini in Drive side panel


Additional details

We’re also introducing Gemini in the Gmail side panel, which you can leverage to summarize email threads, draft an email, suggest responses to an email thread, and more. For more information, see our announcement on the Workspace Updates blog.


Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: You can access the Gemini in the side panel by clicking on “Ask Gemini” (spark button) in the top right corner of Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive on the web. Visit the Help Center to learn more about collaborating with Gemini in Google Drive, as well as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with:
  • Gemini Business and Enterprise add-on
  • Gemini Education and Education Premium add-on
  • Google One AI Premium

Resources


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  • Summarize an email thread 
  • Suggest responses to an email thread 
  • Get help drafting an email 
  • Ask questions and find specific information from emails within your inbox or from your Google Drive files 
While Gemini in Gmail will provide proactive prompts to help you get started, you can also ask freeform questions. 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 "When is the next team meeting?". And just like that, you’ll have the information you need to quickly reply without having to ever leave Gmail. 
Gemini in Gmail



Starting today, you can also use Gemini in the Gmail mobile app on Android and iOS to analyze email threads and see a summarized view with the key highlights, just as you can with the side panel on the web. This is useful when you’re on the go, especially because reading through long email threads can be time consuming and even a bit of a challenge on a smaller screen. Additional mobile features like Contextual Smart Reply and Gmail Q&A are coming soon. 

Gemini in Gmail on mobile


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

While Gemini in Gmail helps you view, understand and respond to email content, it also connects to other Workspace apps like Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drive. For example, let’s say you’re planning a company offsite and get an email from a team member asking for the hotel information so they can book a room. Now you can ask Gemini to look it up from a Google Doc that contains all the offsite details, using a simple “what is the hotel name and sales manager email listed in @Company Offsite 2024.” Then you can easily insert this into your reply to get your team member the help they need. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 

Web: 
Mobile: 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace customers with: 
  • Gemini Business and Enterprise add-on 
  • Gemini Education and Education Premium add-on 
  • Google One AI Premium 

Resources 

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To configure this setting, go to Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > eSignature in the Admin console. Admins can manage eSignature access at the Organizational Unit (OU) level or the Group level, as shown below:

The eSignature control in the Admin console



Why you’d use it 

Admins can manage access to eSignature in advance of the feature rollout to end users so only the appropriate groups will have the ability to request eSignatures. Note: the admin control does not restrict users from providing eSignatures via the feature.


Additional details

eSignature for Google Docs is rolling out to end users soon

In the coming weeks, we will roll out eSignature for Google Docs to end users on select Google Workspace editions. eSignature offers a variety of features to help you streamline requesting and capturing signatures, helping you stay organized and keep your work moving along. Specifically, you can:

  • Request eSignatures, including signatures from more than one user and from non-Gmail users.
  • View the status of pending signatures and find completed contracts.
  • Keep contract templates to initiate multiple eSignature requests.
  • View an audit trail of completed contracts,
  • Use custom text fields to request additional information from signers, such as job titles, email addresses and more. 
  • Sign contracts from both mobile devices and PCs. 

Getting started

Rollout pace

Admin setting

End user availability

Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace
    • Business Standard and Plus
    • Enterprise Starter, Standard and Plus
    • Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus 
    • Education Plus customers
eSignature is already available for Google Workspace individual subscribers. 

Resources


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Today, we’re excited to make Classroom add-ons generally available to all developers. Now, developers can build an add-on to allow teachers to do the following within Classroom: 

  • Discover and attach content to coursework 
  • Preview content from student perspective 
  • Review student responses to activities 
  • Save time with automatic grading of student responses 

    • Google Classroom add-ons now generally available to Google Workspace developers

    Who’s impacted 

    Admins, end users, and developers 


    Why it’s important 

    Add-ons complement other Classroom API features and let educators and students experience content without having to leave Google Classroom. In addition, Classroom add-ons show up directly in Google Classroom as well on the Google Workspace Marketplace, which is the hub for administrators to manage tools across all of their Google products. 


    Getting started 

    Rollout pace 

    • This feature is now available 

    Availability 

    Available for Google Workspace: 
    • Education Plus and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade 

    Resources 

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    Now generally available: Build AppSheet automations using Google Forms 
    AppSheet helps users automate manual workflows by integrating with data sources like Google Drive, Chat and Sheets, and earlier this year we announced its integration with Google Forms in beta. This week, we’re excited to announce this is now generally available. | Roll out to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Available to Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade, Frontline Starter, Frontline Standard, AppSheet Starter, AppSheet Core, AppSheet Enterprise Standard, and AppSheet Enterprise Plus customers only. | Learn more about AppSheet's integration with Google Forms and building your first app and automation using Google Forms. 


    The ability to add and remove Google Groups as space members using the Google Chat API is now generally available 
    Last year, we announced the ability to create spaces, memberships, group chats, and more using the Google Chat API. This week, we’re excited to introduce the option for developers to add and remove Google Groups as space members using the Google Chat API. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about accessing Chat APIs through the Google Chat API. 


    Comments and action items in client-side encrypted Google Docs is now generally available 
    You can now collaborate with others on client-side encrypted Google Docs to add, edit, reply, filter, or delete comments. You can also assign action items to yourself or others. This functionality was previously available in open beta — see our original announcement for complete details. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for July 2, 2024. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers only. | Learn more about working with encrypted files in Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides.


    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.


    Insert images into practice sets in Google Classroom 
    Teachers can now import images, like graphs, charts or photos, into practice sets using files from Google Drive or directly from their computer. | Learn more about inserting images into practice sets. 

    Help your students learn to read with Read Along in Classroom 
    We’re introducing Read Along in Google Classroom, a new feature that helps students build their independent reading skills by enabling teachers to assign differentiated reading activities, based on Lexile® measure, grade level, or phonics skills. | Learn more about Read Along in Google Classroom. 

    External users can now securely collaborate on client-side encrypted files 
    We’re expanding visitor sharing, a feature that provides secure, pincode-based collaboration over sensitive data with people, to include client-side encrypted files. This allows users to securely collaborate with external partners on sensitive Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides files, while maintaining the confidentiality of the information with the granular control of encryption keys, identity verification and user permissions. | Learn more about visitor sharing. 

    Create interactive YouTube assignments in Google Classroom more quickly and efficiently, with the help of AI 
    We’re introducing AI-suggested questions that educators can easily attach to a video based on its content when creating interactive YouTube assignments in Google Classroom. | Learn more about YouTube assignments in Classroom.

    Google Meet adds 52 new languages to translated captions and 11 more languages for closed captions 
    For all Google Workspace customers and users with personal accounts, we’ve expanded support for closed captioning. In addition, for Gemini for Google Workspace customers, we are adding 52 languages to translated captions with full language support. | Learn more about translated captions and closed captions. 

    Improved syncing experience between Google Calendar and third-party calendars 
    We’re pleased to introduce an improved email notification experience for those who are using third-party calendar services—like Outlook—to collaborate with Google Calendar users. | Learn more about the improved syncing experience on Calendar.

    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: 
    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).   

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    • Email notifications that are purely intended to sync information will now be marked as such in the body of the email and sent from a distinct, identifiable email address. The body of the email includes instructions for end users on how to implement inbox filters to avoid this type of email cluttering their inbox. 
    • At scale, Outlook system administrators can use Microsoft’s Powershell to implement an email filter rule for these messages for all users. 
    Google Workspace customers can use this form to sign-up for the beta.
    Improved syncing experience between Google Calendar and third-party calendars



    Who’s impacted 

    Admins and end users 


    Why it matters

    We’ve heard from our customers that the syncing experience from Google Calendar to third-party calendars was not consistently reliable. Additionally, users lacked an effective way to filter out Calendar emails which cluttered their inbox. This update will help improve the overall experience for users collaborating with Google Calendar users. 


    Getting started 


    Rollout pace 

    • Beta sign-ups are available now using this form until July 10, 2024. We will be accepting beta applications and allowlisting customers over the next several weeks. 

    Availability 

    • Sign-up for this beta is available for all Google Workspace customers 

    Resources 

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    • Azerbaijani 
    • Czech 
    • Greek 
    • Icelandic 
    • Kazakh 
    • Lao 
    • Lithuanian  
    • Malay 
    • Serbian 
    • Swahili 
    • Ukrainian 
    *Newly supported languages are denoted with a “beta” tag as we continue to optimize performance.

    For Gemini for Google Workspace customers, we are adding 52 languages to translated captions with full language support, which means these languages can be translated to and from any other fully supported language. We are also launching full language support to 6 previously launched languages. Translated captions now fully support 69 languages which allows for over 4,600 language pairs: 

    -Afrikaans

    -Albanian 

    -Amharic 

    -Arabic

    -Armenian

    -Azerbaijani

    -Basque

    -Bengali

    -Bulgarian

    -Burmese

    -Catalan

    -Chinese (Simplified)*

    -Chinese (Mandarin)*

    -Czech

    -Dutch**

    -English*

    -Estonian

    -Filipino

    -Finnish

    -French*

    -Galician 

    -Georgian

    -German*

    -Greek

    -Gujarati

    -Hebrew

    -Hindi*

    -Hungarian

    -Icelandic

    -Indonesian**

    -Italian*

    -Japanese**

    -Javanese

    -Kannada

    -Kazakh

    -Khmer

    -Korean

    -Lao

    -Latvian

    -Lithuanian

    -Macedonian

    -Malay

    -Malayalam

    -Marathi

    -Mongolian

    -Nepali

    -Norwegian

    -Persian (Farsi)

    -Polish

    -Portuguese*

    -Romanian

    -Russian*

    -Serbian

    -Sinhala

    -Slovak

    -Slovenian

    -Spanish*

    -Sundanese 

    -Swahili

    -Swedish**

    -Tamil

    -Telugu

    -Thai*

    -Turkish**

    -Ukrainian

    -Urdu

    -Uzbek

    -Vietnamese**

    - Zulu



    * Full language support previously launched
    ** Previously only English into these languages was supported. For more information, see our previous announcement on the Workspace Updates blog.


    Additional details 

    Update on the availability of translated captions for some Google Workspace customers 
    As we previously announced, translated captions in Google Meet will be exclusively available to Gemini for Google Workspace customers. This will go into effect starting January 22, 2025, when existing and new customers will no longer have access to translated captions through their Google Workspace subscription. At this time, translated captions will only be available in the following Gemini add-ons: Gemini Enterprise, AI Meetings and Messaging, and Gemini Education premium. 

    We will continue to invest in and improve translated captions with the additional languages and automatic language detection. In addition to translated captions, the Gemini for Workspace add-ons offer other generative AI features such as enhanced audio and image quality on meetings, take notes for me (in alpha), and more — use this link to learn more. 


    Getting started 

    • End users: These features are available by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about captions and translated captions in Google Meet. 
    • Meeting participants: You can use live translated captions if the meeting is organized by a user with an eligible Google Workspace edition. Closed captions are available for all users. 

    Rollout pace 

    Live captions language expansion: 
    • This feature is available now. 
    Translated captions expansion: 

    Availability 

    • Captions: Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts 
    • Translated Captions: Available for Google Workspace customers with the Gemini Enterprise, Gemini Education Premium, and AI Meetings & Messaging add-ons 

    Resources 

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