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.
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.
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.
A new option for Help me write that polishes emails drafts on web and mobile devices
Help me write and Refine my draft shortcuts on Android and iOS devices
When using Gemini to refine emails, users can choose from the following options: Formalize, Elaborate and Shorten. We recently added the Polish option to web and mobile, which can effortlessly refine your emails, saving you time. For example, if you enter rough notes into a draft, Gemini can turn the content into a completely formal draft, ready for you to review in one click.
On mobile, when an email draft is empty, the “Help me write” shortcut now appears in the body of the email and when selected, it will open the full Help me write experience. When 12+ words are present in an email draft, the “Refine my draft” shortcut will be shown below the email content to indicate that there are options available to Polish, Formalize, Elaborate, or Shorten your draft, or Write a new draft. The menu can be triggered simply by swiping right on “Refine my draft”.
Getting started
Admins: This feature will be ON by default and there is no admin control for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Gemini for Google Workspace.
End users: This feature will be ON by default and cannot be disabled by the user. Visit the Help Center to learn more about drafting emails with Gemini in Gmail.
Rollout pace
The option for Help me write to polish email drafts is available now on web, Android and iOS.
The Help me write and Refine my draft shortcuts are available now on Android and iOS.
Availability
Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:
[July 31, 2024] We have temporarily paused the rollout for the ability to view a list of keyboard shortcuts in the Gmail & Chat app when pressing “?” on an external keyboard plugged into an Android device. We expect this feature to be fully rolled out by the end of August. We will share another update to confirm when rollout has completed.
What’s changing
We’re introducing numerous improvements across the Gmail and Google Chat apps on Android foldables and tablets in order to enhance your productivity when using these devices.
In the Gmail app, you’ll notice a new formatting bar located on the email compose screen. This now includes additional formatting options like the ability to change the font type and make a bulleted list.
Next, you’ll be able to view a list of helpful keyboard shortcuts in the Gmail app and in the Chat app by pressing “?” when you plug an external keyboard into your Android device.
Lastly, we’re enabling Smart Compose on Android tablets and foldables, a feature originally introduced on Gmail web that intelligently autocompletes your emails. Similar to the mobile experience, Smart Compose suggests text as you type that can be accepted by swiping across the gray text or pressing tab on a physical keyboard.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
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.
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.
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.
On web, you can access Gemini in the Gmail side panel by clicking on “Ask Gemini” (star button) in the top right corner of Gmail. Visit the Help Center to learn more about collaborating with Gemini in Gmail.
On mobile, you can access Gemini by tapping on the “summarize this email” chip in an email thread.
Rollout pace
Web:
Rapid Release domains: Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) starting on June 24, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 8, 2024
Last year, we introduced AI-powered writing features that help you quickly refine existing work or get you started with something new in Google Docs and Gmail using Gemini for Google Workspace.
Since then, Help me write has assisted numerous users in drafting content for things like emails, blog posts, business proposals, ad copy and so much more. In fact, 70% of Enterprise users who use Help me write in Docs or Gmail end up using Gemini's suggestions. Today, we’re excited to announce this feature is now available in Spanish and Portuguese.
Help me write in Google Docs using Portuguese
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why it’s important
Users who write in Spanish and Portuguese can now benefit from AI-powered creation in their own language.
Help me write in Gmail using Spanish
Getting started
Admins: This feature will be ON by default and there is no admin control for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Gemini for Google Workspace.
Admins can create data protection rules to flag sensitive information from leaving your organization. These rules are applied to outgoing messages sent internally or externally and admins can choose whether all content (including attached files and images), the body of the email, email headers, or subject lines should be scanned. You can configure your rules to look for sensitive text strings, custom detectors, or select predefined detectors. If a message violates a rule, admins can choose to:
Block message — the sender will receive a notification about message delivery failure and more information about the policy they violated.
Quarantine message — the message will require review and approval by an admin before delivery. If the message is rejected by an admin, the user may receive a notification about it.
Audit only — the message is delivered, but it is captured in rule log events for further analysis. This is particularly advantageous because it allows admins to assess the impact of rules before introducing them to your end users.
Data loss prevention for Gmail are available for select Google Workspace customers (see the “Availability” section below) — no additional sign-up is required to use the feature.
Create data protection policies for Gmail alongside Drive and Chat
Build flexible conditions with selection of predefined and custom detectors of sensitive information
Set up a rule with Audit Only action applied to messages sent outside of organization. The severity level for event logging is set up to ‘Medium’ and alerting via Alert Center is turned on
Detailed information about the event in the Alert Center
Overview of DLP incidents in the Security Dashboard with further option to investigate audit logs in detail
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why it’s important
In addition to detecting sensitive content, DLP in Gmail offers additional benefits such as:
Simplified deployment and data protection policies management with rules for Gmail, Drive and Google Chat unified into the same area and workflow.
Advanced detection policies with flexible conditions, wide selection of predefined detectors for global and regional information types, custom detectors (Regular Expressions and word lists), targeting on specific parts of a message (header, subject, body).
Granular configuration of policies scope, defining sender audiences (at domain, OU, and group levels) and recipient audiences (internal, external, both).
Actions with various levels of restriction such as block delivery of message (Block), quarantine message for review (Quarantine), and log event for future audit (Audit only).
Tools for incident management and investigation such as the Alert Center, Security Dashboard and Security Investigation Tool.
Additional details
How does DLP in Gmail compare to Content Compliance rules?
Content compliance in Gmail does offer similar functionality in that you can create rules to prevent messages that contain specific content from being sent. However, unlike DLP in Gmail, admins have no way to preview the impact of these rules before deploying them broadly.
Further, content compliance offers a variety of features that are better suited for filtering content. For example, you can:
Set up a metadata match on a range of IP addresses, and quarantine messages from IP addresses outside of the range.
Route messages with content that matches specific text strings or patterns to a specific department, suited the best to process information.
Getting started
Admins:
Data loss prevention rules can be configured at the domain, OU, or group level. DLP rules can be enabled in Gmail in the Admin console under Security > Access and data control > Data protection. Visit the Help Center to learn more about controlling sensitive data shared in Gmail.
Note that you can modify existing DLP rules for Drive and Chat to also apply to Gmail.
DLP events can be reviewed in the Security Investigation Tool or Security > Alert Center, if alerts are configured in rules.
We recommend selecting “Audit only” when you’re setting up a rule. When selected, messages that match the conditions of a rule will be delivered with the detection being logged. This allows you to rest new rules and monitor their performance, or to passively monitor the environment without interrupting email flow for your users.
Note on asynchronous and synchronous scanning: With DLP for Gmail, data protection rules are scanned asynchronously, which means that the message is blocked or quarantined after it leaves the sender’s mailbox and before being dispatched to the recipient. We’re working on the ability to scan data protection rules synchronously when a user hits “Send” in order to notify users about sensitive content before the message leaves their mailbox.
Please share your feedback on this feature with us — this will help us continue to improve the experience as we move through beta and toward general availability. You can share your feedback by selecting the “Send feedback” button located in the bottom left corner of your screen of any data protection related page in the Admin console.
End users: When configured by your admins, you’ll be notified if your message contains information that violates a DLP rule
Note: For the migration of S/MIME messages from Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Exchange to Gmail, the certificates must be the same as those present in Microsoft.
Today, we’re excited to announce that even more users across Google Workspace editions can now create customized email layouts using a new email layout editor that is accessible from the compose screen in Gmail or Google Drive. In the layout editor, you can create a new email layout from scratch or select from a predefined set of email templates, which include images, text elements and buttons.
You can then fully customize these templates by placing elements such as color schemes, logos, images, footer text and links wherever you’d like.
You can also share a layout file directly from the email layout editor using the Share button. Once another user has edit access, they can open the same layout in their Gmail or from Drive and you can collaborate with them in real time.
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why you’d use it
With Google Workspace, you can create, collaborate and communicate seamlessly across our apps. This new feature is yet another way we are striving to help you do so as you create fully customized announcements, newsletters, and other mass-email campaigns.
Getting started
Admins:
Customized layouts are ON by default at the domain level. You can turn layouts ON or OFF for specific domains, OUs, or groups by going to the admin panel for Gmail.
If you don't want users to use Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and email layouts, but to still use Drive for file management, leave Drive turned ON and turn OFF Docs creation.
End users: If enabled by your admin, visit the Help Center to learn more about using layouts in Gmail and Drive.
Gmail:
You can access custom email layouts in Gmail from the layout icon in your Compose toolbar.
You can then open the full screen editor from the embedded editor in Gmail using the “Edit in full screen” button in the top-right:
Drive:
You can open an email layout that you have in Drive (an email layout created previously or an email layout shared with you) by double clicking the email layout file in Drive.
Your custom layouts are stored in Drive as a special file type associated with the layouts editor. You can find email layouts in Drive by searching: “type:email-layouts”
Mail-merge tags work with email layouts when enabled in Gmail. You can insert mail merge tags in email layouts. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending personalized emails with mail merge.
Rollout pace
Embedded layout editor (in Gmail's compose window):
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 12, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 8, 2024
Full screen editor for email layouts & feature availability via Google Drive:
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 25, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 15, 2024
Availability
Available to Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus and Workspace Individual subscribers
Admins can now set client-side encryption as the default mode for users on both web and mobile that regularly handle sensitive data. This allows organizations the flexibility to meet their compliance and regulatory requirements and reduce the burden on change management programs. Each new email, event and uploaded file on mobile is automatically client-side encrypted with customer managed keys meaning the user is compliant with their org’s policy from the outset. For organizations with strict regulatory or sovereignty requirements, this can help them close compliance gaps by defaulting users to the preferred mode for handling sensitive data while on the go.
Google Workspace Assured Controls is available as an add-on to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers only. For more information, contact your Google account representative.
We know managing unwanted emails is a source of frustration for many users. That’s why we announced new guidelines for bulk senders a few months ago to help users stay safe. Now, we’re introducing new ways to make it even easier to unsubscribe from unwanted emails in Gmail on web and mobile by:
Adding the unsubscribe button to the hover actions in the threadlist on web. When the unsubscribe button is clicked, Gmail sends a http request or an email to the sender to remove your email address from their mailing list.
Moving the unsubscribe button from the three dot menu to appear more prominently in your email on your Android and iOS devices.
Additionally, we know it is common for people to receive unwanted messages, despite initially signing up to receive them from brands or organizations. These messages often originate from legitimate senders, and marking them as spam can negatively impact the sender's email reputation and can potentially affect the deliverability of future emails. For this reason, we're changing the text of the buttons to make it clearer for users to choose between unsubscribing or reporting a message as spam.
These features are now available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts on web and iOS devices, and are rolling out now on Android devices at an extended pace (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility). | Learn more about unsubscribing from emails and reporting spam in Gmail.
Updating the mobile experience on Android tablets and foldable devices
Last year, we announced enhancements to the Google Drive mobile experience on Android tablets. This included several modernizations, such as shifting the navigation bar to the side of the Drive app. Similarly, we’ve moved the navigation bar for Gmail to the side to optimize the experience on tablets and foldable devices. This migration will make it easier for users to switch tabs in Gmail. | Available now to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts.
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.
Launch the Lucidspark whiteboarding app directly from Google Meet Series One Board 65 and Desk 27 devices
By the end of the month, Lucidspark by Lucid Software can be launched directly from Google Meet Series One Board 65 and Desk 27 devices. With this integration, users will be able to share and participate in a Lucidspark whiteboard session in a Meet call, either initiated from the Series One Board 65 and Desk 27 or a remote participant on the call. | Learn more about the Lucidspark whiteboarding app.
Use comments & action items on your client-side encrypted Google Docs
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 added functionality helps bring parity to unencrypted docs while also ensuring your data is behind encryption keys you control, including the identity provider used to access those keys. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers only. | Learn more about CSE comments & action items in Docs.
Combine multiple video effects, improve lighting and audio in Google Meet
Join meetings as a guest without a Google account on mobile devices
You can now quickly join a meeting as a guest without signing into a personal or work Google account or creating a new Google account. This functionality already exists for meetings on the web and, by expanding to mobile, guests now have greater flexibility for joining Meet meetings on the go. | Learn more about joining meetings as a guest.
Star messages in Google Chat on mobile
Last November, we introduced starred on web, an additional shortcut in the redesigned Google Chat navigation panel that helps you stay on top of your most important messages. We’re excited to announce this is now available on Android and iOS mobile devices. | Learn more about starring messages.
DOM XSS occurs when a cyber attacker injects malicious code into a web page, which can then be executed by the victim's browser. This can allow the cyber attacker to steal cookies, hijack sessions, and even take control of the victim's computer.
To defend against this, we’re excited to announce the expansion of Trusted Types to Gmail. This will provide a defense against DOM XSS and further enhances our advanced data protection controls to keep users and data safe across more of the apps they use everyday.
Who’s impacted
Developers (relying on any Chrome extensions that modify DOM APIs.)
Additional details
This new enforcement mode will require third-party extensions to use typed objects instead of strings when assigning values to DOM APIs. Once Trusted Types are fully enforced, the Trusted Types directive will be present in the Content Security Policy (CSP) header:
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
Developers:
To make code Trusted Types compliant, signal to the browser that data being used within the context of these DOM APIs is trustworthy by creating a Trusted Type special object.
There are several ways to be Trusted Types compliant, such as removing the offending code, using a library (such as safevalues or DOMPurify), or creating a Trusted Types policy. To ensure a seamless experience for users, we recommend employing these techniques before Trusted Types enforcement is rolled out. Failure to make code Trusted Types compliant may cause feature breakages for third-party extensions as their DOM manipulations will be blocked by the browser.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.
Rollout pace
Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 12, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 11, 2024
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts
If you haven’t used Standard view recently, you’ll notice we’ve made numerous usability improvements, including enhancements for people that prefer or require the precision of navigating the user interface by keyboard or screen reader. Accessibility of Standard view has significantly improved over the last few years and we’re committed to continuing to improve the accessibility experience and making new features accessible going forward.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. You can use Gmail on your browser in Basic HTML view through February 2024. After this, Gmail automatically changes to Standard view.
End users: Once Basic HTML view is disabled, users will automatically be redirected to the Standard Gmail view which provides the latest in Gmail security and features. Users on old browsers may need to update their browser to use the Standard view. On mobile, users can also download the official Gmail app. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Gmail with a screen reader.
Rollout pace
Gmail automatically changes to Standard view starting February 2024. If you prefer, you can switch to Standard view now.
Availability
This impacts all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts
This is available on the web initially, with support coming for mobile apps in the future.
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why it matters
This feature is important for Google Workspace admins as it improves users compliance behavior without sacrificing productivity and increases control for admins implementing data control policies. It also includes improved audit logs, providing more detail for admins compiling regulatory compliance reports.
Workspace already uses the latest cryptographic standards to encrypt data by default, at rest and in transit between our facilities. Client-side encryption goes beyond this, giving organizations authoritative control and privacy as the sole owner of private encryption keys and the identity provider of the encryption keys. It gives organizations higher confidence that any third party, including Google and foreign governments, cannot access their confidential data. Users can continue to collaborate across their preferred apps in Workspace while IT and compliance teams can ensure that sensitive data stays compliant with regulations.
Getting started
Admins: This feature will be OFF by default and can be configured at the group or OU level. Visit the Help Center to learn more about client-side encryption.
Google Workspace Assured Controls is available as an add-on to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers only. For more information, contact your Google account representative.
New ways to use the Google Sheets app on iOS devices
You can now copy charts from the Google Sheets app on all iOS devices and paste them externally as images or within the same spreadsheet as a duplicate chart. In addition, you can modify text formatting using the contextual toolbar in Sheets when a keyboard is attached to iOS tablets. | Rolling out to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains now. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about adding & editing a chart or graph and editing & formatting a spreadsheet.
Adding ‘Admin managed apps’ category to Google Workspace Marketplace
We’re excited to announce a new featured app category in the Marketplace: Admin managed. These Enterprise apps can be installed only by a Google Workspace administrator for their organization. | Available now to all Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about Featured app categories.
Bulk select in Gmail on Android and iOS devices
We’re introducing a feature that enables you to bulk select a batch of messages in the email threadlist with one tap using the Gmail app on Android and iOS devices. After clicking the select all icon, a batch of messages will be selected, enabling you to easily perform email actions such as deleting multiple messages or marking them as “read”. | This feature is available now on Android devices and is rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains on iOS devices. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts.
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.
Create shareable video presentations in Google Slides
We’re introducing slides recordings, a new Google Slides feature that lets you easily record yourself presenting, and then share the presentation with others to view when it works for them. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Education Plus only. | Learn more about slides recordings.
The next evolution of automated data entry in Google Sheets
Expanding message bubbles in Google Chat to iOS devices
In September, we introduced message bubbles in Google Chat on web and Android, enabling users to more easily differentiate incoming versus outgoing messages in the Chat message stream. This week, we’re excited to announce the expansion of message bubbles to iOS devices. | Learn more about message bubbles.
Updates to the Google Drive scanner on Android & iOS devices
We’re introducing additional enhancements to the Drive scanner on Android devices, which now powers the Google Pixel camera and includes improvements to the scanner experience when capturing content. We’re also expanding the Google Drive scanner and title suggestion feature to iOS devices. | Learn more about Drive scanner.
Introducing a new homepage view in Google Drive
We’ve added a new streamlined homepage for Drive called Home that makes it easier and faster for you to find files that matter most. | Learn more about Drive home.
Introducing a new mobile experience for Google Chat
Google Vault now supports Calendar, which means customers can take new actions around Calendar data. | Available to Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus customers or customers with the Vault add-on license only. | Learn more about Vault supporting Calendar.
More insights to help admins troubleshoot Google Meet hardware issues
In 2022, we introduced several improvements for managing Google Meet hardware devices. These improvements included surfacing additional information about device issues, such as a description of the issue, when the issue was detected, and more. Now, we’re taking these improvements one step further by providing admins with even more data points. | Learn more about Google Meet hardware issues.
Monitor insider risk of Google Workspace data with Chronicle
Admins can now more seamlessly integrate their Google Workspace data with Chronicle (Google’s cloud-native Security Operations platform), to quickly detect, investigate and take action on risky activity and threats. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus customers only. | Learn more about Chronicle.
Google Classroom now supports roster import from SIS partners
Educators can now easily import students from their student information system (SIS) to Google Classroom using OneRoster. This integration saves educators time and helps make class setup much quicker. | Available to Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade only. | Learn more about roster import.
In the Google Cloud Community, connect with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like yourself. Participate in product discussions, check out the Community Articles, and learn tips and tricks that will make your work and life easier. Be the first to know what's happening with Google Workspace.
On the “What’s new in Google Workspace?” Help Center page, learn about new products and features launching in Google Workspace, including smaller changes that haven’t been announced on the Google Workspace Updates blog.