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.
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.
EDU - personal pronouns and name pronunciation


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: 
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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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 


Getting started 

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 

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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. 

Gmail Q&A on mobile (Android)



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 


Availability 

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons: 
  • Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium 
  • Google One AI Premium 

Resources 

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Beginning today, Gems are now available to Google Workspace customers with a Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, or Education Premium add-on.
Customize Gemini (gemini.google.com) for your specific needs with Gems

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 

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 

Availability 


Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:
  • Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium

Resources 

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Google Meet provides consolidated email for all meeting artifacts

Getting started 


Rollout pace


Availability


Resources 

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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-takingApps > Google Workspace > Google Meet > Gemini Settings > Gemini AI note-taking

Rollout pace

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:
  • Gemini Enterprise 
  • Gemini Education Premium
  • AI Meetings & Messaging



Resources

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  • 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. 
Gemini document uploads


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 

Rollout pace 

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:
  • Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium 

Resources 

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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. 

respond to emails in the Gmail app on your Android device with a new quick reply experience



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: 

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 

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With this change, Business Starter users will be able to create shared drives and add members, files, and folders. Please note that certain admin-level and security controls—like the ability to control access to the items in a shared drive—will not be included in the fundamental version of shared drives for Business Starter. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important 

Part of empowering our customers to do their best work means reducing the friction around file sharing and collaboration. Shared drives are a key tool for collaboration—users can store, search, and access their team's files instantly. Additionally, they offer benefits such as: 
  • Easy discoverability: Less time spent requesting access to files and searching for relevant documents with all of your team’s files in one place. 
  • Files are forever: All content stays put — even when collaborators or team members leave, your content won’t. 
  • Easy collaboration: Every member of a shared drive can explore and collaborate in the same files. You can also add users outside your team or organization. 
  • Accessible anywhere: Regardless of location or device, you can always access the files you need most.

Additional details

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. To restrict this, go to the Admin console > Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Sharing settings > Shared drive creation > turn on “Prevent users in [domain] from creating new shared drives.” 


Getting started 

  • Admins: 
    • When shared drives are available to Business Starter, admins can use the Admin console to: 
      • Add and remove members 
      • Change access level of members 
      • Restrict moving content externally 
    • The following features aren't available for shared drives in Business Starter: 
      • Admins cannot set default settings
      • Business Starter users cannot change settings 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn how to set up shared drives for your organization and then allow users to create shared drives. If you need more storage for your organization, consider purchasing additional pooled storage or upgrading your Google Workspace edition to a plan with more storage.
      • Note: Resold customers should contact their reseller to purchase more storage or upgrade their edition. 
  • End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about shared drives.

Rollout pace 

Admin setting: 
Shared drives enabled by default: 

Availability 

  • This update impacts Google Workspace Business Starter customers. 

Resources 

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[September 12, 2024]: We have updated the rollout timelines for this feature. See the Rollout section below for more details.

What’s changing 

Have you ever lost your video screen after switching to another tab? Google Meet’s picture-in-picture feature helps to solve that problem, but now we’ve made it even easier. Picture-in-picture mode will now automatically trigger when you switch tabs during a meeting. Previously, you had to manually turn on this feature during a meeting. This simple, yet impactful update, will help ensure your meeting stays visible and accessible if you need to switch tabs to take notes, view meeting related documents, and more. Note that picture-in-picture is only available with Google Chrome on a computer.
Picture-in-picture in Google Meet will now open automatically when switching tabs

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: You can turn this feature off from your Google Chrome settings. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using picture-in-picture with Google Meet.
You can turn this feature on and off by selecting the “View site information” icon in the Chrome URL bar and turning “Automatic picture-in-picture” off.
You can turn this feature on and off by selecting the “View site information” icon in the Chrome URL bar and turning “Automatic picture-in-picture” off.


Rollout pace 

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

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