We are introducing a new option which can make the initial setup of Google Workspace Client-side encryption (CSE) significantly easier and faster for admins.
CSE now supports a simple setup path in the Admin console which can help customers get up and running with CSE in minutes. By combining Cloud HSM Keys with Google Identity, we have automated much of the setup flow which could be time consuming. In a few clicks, admins can set up and deploy CSE, reducing the time to live and allowing customers to use their existing GCP resources to add CSE protection to your most sensitive data.
Customers use Client-side encryption across Workspace applications to encrypt emails, files, meetings and events, to comply with sovereignty and compliance regulations from HIPAA to ITAR. With Client-side encryption, data is encrypted by customer keys before it ever reaches Google servers, making the customer the sole arbiter of their data. Previously, this privacy control required deep technical knowledge to set up a third-party key service and configure an identity provider. With simple setup, admins from enterprise to small businesses can start encrypting their important data within minutes.
For admins who require more custom configurations leveraging third-party key services, that option is also still available via the standard CSE setup process.
We recently introduced skills—reusable prompts that guide Gemini—in the Gemini app and Google Workspace. Over the coming weeks, skills will roll out to Workspace users and eventually replace Gems as the tool for tailoring instructions for specific tasks.
Read on for more details on skills, plus critical information and dates related to the transition away from Gems in the Gemini app, Workspace, Google Classroom, and more.
What are skills?
Skills are reusable, custom instructions that you can leverage any time you’re prompting Gemini in the Gemini app and most Workspace apps. For example, you can create a brand voice skill to help you draft blog posts or a lesson planning skill to save time with class prep. You can even use multiple skills in the same prompt or at different points in the conversation.
To learn more about skills and how to create them in the Gemini app, Gemini Enterprise, and Workspace, business and enterprise users should check out our AI skills 101 handbook. Educational institutions should leverage our Gems transition guide for education. For a comprehensive list of resources, see the bottom of this post.
Note: Currently, skills do not sync between the Gemini app and Workspace apps. If you want to use a skill across both platforms, you must create it separately in each.
Create and use skills in the Gemini app
Use skill builder in Google Docs to craft and share new skills with your team
How do skills differ from Gems?
Unlike Gems, skills function inline in your unified chat threads, meaning you can layer or "stack" multiple sets of custom instructions simultaneously in one prompt. For example, an educator can combine a "weekly newsletter" skill with an "institutional brand guidelines" skill to ensure on-brand communications, while a business user can pair a "vendor evaluator" skill with an "executive email drafter" skill to analyze vendors and draft a recommendation in one step.
In addition, skills are built entirely on the open, Markdown-native SKILL.md standard. This allows you to copy skills you’ve created on other platforms into the Gemini app and Workspace apps.
What happens to Gems?
For now, you can continue creating and using Gems in the Gemini app, though you can no longer create Workspace Studio flows with the “Ask a Gem" step. Existing flows with Ask a Gem steps will continue to work.
Over the coming months, we’ll gradually remove support for Gems across all surfaces and eventually auto-migrate any Gems remaining in the Gemini app to draft skills in the Gemini app. If you’d prefer to migrate sooner, you can manually recreate your Gems as skills in the Gemini app. Because skills in the Gemini app won’t automatically appear in Workspace, you’ll also need to recreate them in Workspace if you want to use them in Workspace apps.
Key dates
October 5, 2026: Skills begin rolling out in Workspace, with an expected completion by mid-November.
October 13, 2026: Skills begin rolling out in the Gemini app, with an expected completion by mid-November.
November 17, 2026: Gems move to the Settings panel of the Gemini app, but users can continue to create, edit, and use them.
No sooner than March 1, 2027 (business and enterprise only): Gems can no longer be created, edited, or used, and they’re removed from the Settings panel of the Gemini app. Flows in Workspace Studio with the Ask a Gem step stop working. Any remaining Gems in the Gemini app are auto-migrated to draft skills in the Gemini app.
No sooner than June 1, 2027 (education only): Gems can no longer be created, edited, or used, and they’re removed from the Settings panel of the Gemini app, as well as Google Classroom and third-party LMS’ supported by Gemini LTI™. Flows in Workspace Studio with the Ask a Gem step stop working. Any remaining Gems in the Gemini app are auto-migrated to draft skills in the Gemini app.
We’ll share more details on the auto-migration with admins at least 30 days in advance.
Getting started
Admins:
Encourage your users to start creating skills and inform them of key dates for the Gems transition, based on the type of Workspace licenses in your organization (see key dates above). Visit the Help Center to view our comprehensive Gems migration guide, and stay tuned to the Workspace Updates blog for more details throughout the transition.
For educators using Classroom or Gemini LTI™, we recommend transitioning to Gemini Notebook (currently available) and Guided Learning (coming soon to Classroom) for personalized student learning and support. Learn more in the Gems transition guide for education.
Education users can check out the Gems transition guide for education to learn more. Google Classroom users can also explore our guidance on creating and using teacher-led AI experiences directly in Classroom.
Earlier this year we introduced study notebooks, a dedicated space that turns Gemini into an interactive, adaptive learning platform. They offer personalized lessons based on your learning goal, whether that’s tackling a school course or learning a new skill. Now, we’re excited to share that users of all ages who are signed into a school or work-issued Google account will also have access to study notebooks if the Gemini app and Gemini Notebook are enabled by their admin.
Here’s how study notebooks work:
Create your study notebook: From the left sidebar in the Gemini app, select “New notebook”, and then the “Study and learn” tile. Tell Gemini what you are studying, and upload your class materials or other sources.
Assess your knowledge gaps: You can request progress check quizzes, helping pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses to create a tailored learning baseline.
Study with personalized bite-sized lessons: Follow short, custom lessons with built-in practice quizzes. You can ask in-line questions at any point as you learn.
Track your progress: Monitor real-time mastery via a dynamic dashboard that breaks your goals into objectives, categorizing topics into "Strengths" and "Focus areas," to recommend top-priority lessons.
With study notebooks, students’ learning is grounded in trusted class materials, ensuring that lessons from Gemini are consistent with their curriculum.
This expansion gives educational institutions and organizations a secure way to support more personal learning, reinforcing classroom instruction while keeping study material relevant and accurate.
Getting started
Admins: Study notebooks in Gemini are available if the Gemini app and Gemini Notebook are enabled. As an administrator of your organization's Google Accounts, you can control who can use study notebooks. Study notebooks are available to users who are in a group or organizational unit (OU) with both Gemini Notebook and Gemini set to On. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Gemini and Gemini Notebook on or off for users.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more.
Rollout pace
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) started on September 17, 2026.
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers and Workspace Individual subscribers outside of the European Economic Area (EEA), as well as users with personal Google accounts globally. Study notebooks will roll out to users in the EEA in the coming weeks.
Update (Sept 30, 2026): We have updated the information about where to manage access to MCP connections in the Admin console. The previous click path was incorrect, it has been updated to the correct click path, which is Apps > Google Workspace Marketplace apps > Apps list.
Users will now be able to use Gemini in Workspace to directly interact with Asana, Atlassian Rovo, HubSpot, Intuit Mailchimp, Intuit QuickBooks, Monday, and Salesforce through Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations. This will enable them to access information directly without needing to switch tabs, download files, or interrupt workflows across our Google Workspace apps including Sheets, Gmail, Drive, Docs, Chat, and more.
Getting started
Admins: This feature will be ON by default for users with Gemini for Google Workspace access, and can be managed at the domain, organizational unit (OU), or group level in the Admin console under Apps > Google Workspace Marketplace apps > Apps list. Admins can control which third-party connectors are enabled for their organization and manage access policies. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing third-party connectors for Gemini.
Completing a single task shouldn't mean breaking your focus or switching apps. To keep you in the flow of work, Gemini can tackle complex tasks behind the scenes, working as an intelligent orchestrator across Workspace using the power of Workspace Intelligence. You can prompt Gemini to help from wherever you are working, including Google Chat, Drive, Docs, Slides, and Gmail*.
Before, you had to prompt within each individual app to get personalized AI help. For example, generating a personalized document with Gemini required being in Docs while building AI-powered spreadsheets required being in Sheets. Now, for example, with richer AI integrations across Workspace apps, Gemini can help you drive your work forward faster by creating personalized and formatted docs or beautifully designed slides without leaving Gmail. This functionality also will soon power the flows you build in Workspace Studio.
Now you can use Gemini across your Workspace apps to:
Create content: Generate formatted Google Docs, structured Sheets, or stylized Slides in the background, saved securely to your Drive.
Example prompts:
When in Gmail (via the side panel) to create a doc: “Create a strategy brief for this project with goals, milestones and next steps.“
When in Gmail (via the side panel) to create a spreadsheet: "Create a tracker for this project in a new spreadsheet"
When in Docs (via the side panel) to create a deck: "Turn this proposal into an easy to read slide deck for my director using @presentation as a style reference.”
When in Chat (via Ask Gemini in Chat) to create a document: "Create a deck outlining Project Zebra with the latest updates"
When in Drive (via Ask Gemini in Drive) to create a document: "Create a customer insights deck from project Zebra using my project files including sheets, reports, and emails”
Conduct deep research: Synthesize complex data scattered across large folders or long threads into a summary report, complete with clear source attributions.
Example prompts:
When in Docs (via the side panel): “Can you do deep research to see how this blog post compares to other content we have drafted internally and what competitors have published externally?”
Draft and send emails: Compose detailed emails based on meeting notes or active documents, open as a draft in Gmail or send it directly from the Workspace app you are in.
Example prompts:
When in Docs (via the side panel): “Send an email to my sales team for their review and feedback"
Schedule your meetings: Find open times, schedule meetings, or resolve calendar conflicts when communicating with your teams without switching to your calendar.
Example prompts:
When in Chat (via Ask Gemini in Chat): “Schedule some time for me to discuss next steps with product around launch timelines for our new customer support tool“
Keep track of your to-dos: Instantly log a reminder or create a to-do list, mapping them straight into Google Tasks.
When in Slides (via the side panel): “Based on the presented strategy, can you remind me to follow up with the Marketing team next week to see how the social campaign went?”
Build branded decks without having to leave Docs
Enterprise security and compliance controls are built-in:
Data confidentiality: Your data is not reviewed by humans or used to train Gemini models.
Granular permissions: Gemini respects the authenticated user’s existing access permissions and sharing policies. If the user cannot access a document, neither can Gemini.
Human-in-the-Loop controls: For actions involving external communication or calendar commitments, such as sending emails or scheduling meetings, Gemini presents an interactive preview card, allowing users to review, edit, and confirm before execution.
Consumer: Google AI Pro (with the exception of scheduling functionality) and Google AI Ultra
Other Editions: Frontline Plus (only for scheduling functionality)
Education Add-ons: Google AI Pro for Education
Other Add-ons: AI Expanded Access
Note: Usage of advanced AI features across Workspace apps is subject to usage limits. At launch, this feature will be supported in English only. Support for more languages will be added in the future.
Earlier this year, we introduced the ability for Workspace users to set persistent custom instructions for Gemini in Google Docs. We're now expanding support for these custom instructions to additional Gemini in Workspace surfaces, specifically:
Ask Gemini in Drive
Ask Gemini in Chat
Gemini side panel in Slides, Sheets, and Gmail
These instructions help personalize your interactions with Gemini and ensure that Gemini adapts to your style, tone, and formatting preferences without needing to repeat them in every conversation, ultimately saving you time and ensuring consistency.
With this update, users can build a set of custom instructions that Gemini respects across these Gemini surfaces. The update ensures that users have a consistent personalization experience across the platform based on their individual needs or preferences.
You can declare preferences in any Gemini in Workspace Surface
All saved instruction can be viewed and managed in the Personalization Setting tab
These instructions are then used to personalize Gemini’s responses across Workspace
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: Get started by opening the side panel, Ask Gemini in Drive, or Ask Gemini in Chat. You can then prompt Gemini to store a specific instruction. You can also access the ‘Your Instructions for Gemini In Workspace” Menu by selecting the hamburger menu > Settings > Personalization. Visit the Help Center to learn more about customizing Gemini in Workspace's responses with your instructions.
Available to all Google Workspace customers with access to Ask Gemini in Drive, Ask Gemini in Chat, and/or the Gemini side panel in Gmail, Sheets, and Slides. See more details on feature availability here.
We are introducing new admin assist capabilities, bringing two new Gemini-powered capabilities to the Google Admin Console: the side panel and AI overviews. Designed to simplify complex administrative workflows and troubleshooting, this launch makes managing Google Workspace easier and faster. Admin assist features are available for customers with Google Workspace Business editions only.
Previously, administrators often had to toggle back and forth between different browser tabs, troubleshooting documentation, and the console to manage domain policies. With this update, we are integrating conversational AI assistance directly into your Google Workspace management surface to provide instant, contextual support.
Gemini-powered side panel: Conveniently accessible via the Google Bar on most of the pages of the Admin console. Super admins can use the side panel to get help with complex tasks, learn about administrative best practices, and receive interactive, step-by-step guidance.
Gemini-powered AI Overviews: A proactive search feature that triggers when you ask a question in the main Admin console search bar. This will automatically synthesize Google Workspace Help Center articles into conversational summaries, presenting you with the exact answers you need alongside direct, actionable next steps.
Whether you are looking to audit application usage or investigate configuration drifts, these features act as your personal technical co-worker—allowing you to manage your domain securely and efficiently.
Getting started
Admins: This feature will be ON by default for super admins with eligible Business plans. It is not available to delegated admins.
End users: There is no end-user setting or impact for this feature, as these capabilities are restricted exclusively to super admins in the Google Admin console.
We are excited to announce the general availability of Google Workspace inbound SCIM APIs to help IT administrators standardize identity lifecycle management. This new capability allows you to sync your Google Workspace directory in real time with any SCIM-compatible Identity Provider (IdP), HR system (HRIS), or custom application.
With inbound SCIM, when a Workspace end user’s account permissions are changed via their organization’s IdP, their access to Workspace data and any downstream apps, such as Gemini Enterprise, will also be updated in real time. Previously, customers would need to build custom integrations using Google directory APIs.
SCIM overview
System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) is an open protocol that synchronizes directory information between identity systems. With inbound SCIM, Google Workspace acts as a SCIM Service Provider, enabling compatible Identity Providers (IdPs) to automatically provision, update, and deactivate users and groups in real time.
Inbound SCIM offers:
Automated lifecycle management: IT teams no longer need to manually create user accounts or update details for Workspace, saving significant time and costs.
Seamless onboarding and day-one productivity: New employees have access to all Workspace productivity tools the moment they start, creating a frictionless onboarding experience.
Enhanced security with instant deprovisioning: When an employee leaves your organization or changes roles, SCIM instantly pushes an update request to Workspace. This eliminates the security risks associated with orphaned accounts and makes compliance audits significantly easier.
Simplified admin experience: Inbound SCIM offers a one-click token generation experience and admin controls to lock synced groups from your external source to prevent manual changes in Workspace that would conflict with your identity provider.
Getting started
Admins: This feature will be available by default and can be disabled/enabled at the domain level. Visit the Help Center to learn more.
End users: This is an admin-facing feature only.
The Manage external directories page in the Admin console showing Inbound SCIM setup
Configure a new Inbound SCIM connection with external IdP
Google Workspace administrators can now utilize incremental exports when backing up organizational data. Instead of re-exporting their entire organization's data, admins can export frequent snapshots of their data into their organization’s own Google Cloud Storage (GCS) bucket.
Key benefits include faster completion times, reduced Google Cloud Storage consumption and costs, and the ability to establish more frequent backup schedules to mitigate the risk of potential data loss.
Specifically, admins can schedule automated exports for Gmail, Drive, and Chat, with the flexibility to scope data by organizational unit (OU), group, or specific users. They can initiate:
Periodic full backups - establishing a baseline snapshot through regular full exports
Quarterly (every 3 months)
Semi-annually (every 6 months)
Annually (every year)
Frequent incremental backups - supplementing the baseline with frequent incremental backups, such as backing up data from the "last x days" every "y days"
Capture data from the last 5 days, running every 3 days
Capture data from the last 7 days, running every 5 days
Google Apps Script is officially a Google Workspace core service. Covered under the Google Cloud Terms of Service and Google Workspace for Education Terms of Service, Apps Script now offers the same enterprise-grade data protection, robust administrative controls, and standard technical support that safeguards other core services. With this update, you can now more confidently deploy Apps Script across your organization.
More about Apps Script
Apps Script is a cloud-based JavaScript platform that enables users to customize, automate, and extend Google Workspace applications like Sheets, Docs, and Forms, as well as build custom solutions and add-ons. You can use it to:
Create custom menus, dialogs, and sidebars within Sheets, Docs, and Slides.
Write custom functions for Sheets to automate complex calculations.
Build internal add-ons to streamline organizational workflows and integrate with third-party APIs.
Getting started
Admins:
If you already have Apps Script enabled: No action is required. Your organization will automatically benefit from these new core service protections and technical support.
If you previously restricted Apps Script: If you turned Apps Script off due to compliance, security, or support concerns, you can now enable the service to provide secure, custom automation for your users. Visit the Help Center to learn how to manage Apps Script access for your organization.
We’re updating icons across Google Workspace to introduce a modern visual design that gives every app a more distinct identity. Over the next several weeks, users will see new icons for Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Meet, Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Vids, Keep, Forms, Voice, Sites, and Tasks.
These changes drive consistency and cohesion across our product suite, while ensuring each individual application remains modern and recognizable on your screen. These design updates do not alter any core functionality or administrative controls.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this update; changes will roll out automatically according to the schedule below. If you need to update internal documentation, visit the Help Center to find the new icon designs.
End users: There is no end user control for this update; changes will roll out automatically according to the schedule below.
This new feature allows these businesses and educational institutions to automatically copy their existing Microsoft users into Google Workspace. Once you connect to Microsoft, the system automatically identifies users in your Microsoft account and prepares to add them in your new Google Workspace account. This feature significantly reduces the time and effort of switching from Microsoft and helps you get your organization up and running in no time.
You can complete the import in a single click after connecting to your Microsoft business account.
Additional details
If you are a small business looking to switch from Microsoft to Google Workspace, you can now import up to 10 Microsoft users automatically through this new feature. Visit the Help Center to learn how to import more than 10 users from Microsoft.
You can import users only after completing your domain verification.
Getting started
Admins: This feature will be available in the setup process for Google Workspace. Once you’ve verified your domain and activated your email records, you will find an option to import your users from Microsoft to Google Workspace before completing the setup. Visit the Help Center to learn more about importing business data during setup.
At Cloud Next ‘26, we announced a new suite of agent tools for Google Workspace, including a Workspace MCP server, command line interface (CLI), and remote MCP integrations.
Today, we are opening the Workspace MCP server to public developer preview. As AI agents become a central part of how we work, they need a standardized way to access the right context and tools. The Workspace MCP server provides that bridge, allowing AI agents to safely tap into the richness of Workspace capabilities.
Workspace MCP server: Now in public developer preview
The Workspace MCP server allows developers to access a suite of dedicated tools to power agents interacting with Workspace data:
Gmail MCP: Profile access, drafting, searching, and read/write capabilities.
Drive MCP: File fetching, permissions management, listing, and uploading.
Calendar MCP: Finding available times and managing events.
Chat MCP: Finding conversations, searching messages, and reading/sending replies.
People dictionary MCP: Managing user contacts and accessing profile information.
Empower agents with a secure ecosystem
As these agents scale, we are committed to maintaining a healthy ecosystem by addressing the unique risks associated with large-scale agentic actions, such as API abuse and unintended large-scale data egress. To foster innovation while managing the potential impact of high-volume data access, we are introducing a standardized tiering model for all agent tools inclusive of our APIs in Workspace.
This model is designed to manage agent workflows at scale, providing a structure as application impact increases The framework is intended to maintain the agility of developers:
Empowering the community: We expect less than 1% of active Workspace developers will need to move beyond our standard usage tiers. This means the vast majority of our developer community can continue to build and innovate without friction.
Scalability with confidence: For those developers and agents that grow to serve millions of users, the model provides a clear, predictable path to scale safely, ensuring the performance and data integrity that enterprise customers expect.
Admins: No action is required at this time. Access to Workspace APIs can be managed via the Admin console under Security > API Controls.
Rollout pace
Workspace MCP server: Gradual rollout starting May 1, 2026
Workspace API and MCP tiering: Updated usage quotas for new projects only will roll out starting May 1, 2026. We'll notify owners of existing projects at least 60 days before any changes go into effect to ensure a smooth transition.
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers and developers
For enterprises, data migrations and change management for a new productivity and collaboration platform can feel daunting and create business disruption across the organization. Not anymore. Today, we are excited to announce the general availability of our new Google Workspace data migration tool for enterprises: Data import.
With data import, enterprise organizations will be able to achieve easier, faster, and higher-fidelity data migrations than before for emails, calendars, and contacts – all at no additional tool cost. Moreover, the substantial time and cost-savings to IT teams will free up their bandwidth and budget to prioritize other business critical tasks.
Data import provides:
Ease of use: A turnkey, scalable cloud-native solution that can be accessed and deployed directly from the admin console.
Quicker speeds and accuracy: Finish importing data sooner with faster migration speeds from parallelization and improved algorithms.
No additional tool cost to use: No additional infrastructure costs for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) during migration or licensing costs for third-party data migration tools.
Additionally, customers will have access to a new migration planning utility that will help improve their change management and data migration forecasting. The migration planning utility is available to provide migration timeline estimates and organize user data into speed-optimized batches. This offers customers zero-friction discovery and data-driven planning when undertaking large scale enterprise migrations from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace.
Additional details
Data import and the migration planning utility are now available to accelerate enterprise-scale data migrations for Microsoft Exchange Online, with additional support for OneDrive, SharePoint Online, and Teams coming soon.
Today, we announced Workspace Intelligence, an underlying AI system that provides Gemini with a real-time understanding of your work across Google Workspace. With Workspace Intelligence, all of your generative AI tasks within Workspace will be grounded in your Workspace data across Gmail, Chat, Calendar, and Drive (including Docs, Sheets, and Slides), eliminating the need for users to manually provide context to Gemini on every query.
As an administrator, you can control which data sources Workspace Intelligence can use for your organization via new settings in the Admin console.
Impact of disabling data sources
If you turn off Workspace Intelligence for a data source, generative AI features will not actively search for content from the disabled source. However, if a user adds a specific source to their prompt, that source will be used in Gemini's response. For example, if you turn off Drive as a source, users can still ask Gemini about specific files. Gemini will consult these specific files, but it won't actively search for other files. We recommend keeping access to all data sources ON to ensure optimal performance of AI features across Workspace.
Strong privacy protections
These changes align to our existing data handling practices and privacy commitments. AI features respect user-level content access, ensuring that responses are grounded only in content that a user already has permission to view. Your data is never used to train generative AI models or for advertising purposes.
Managing generative AI tools that can access your Google Workspace data will be easier than before with dedicated controls to manage Gemini Enterprise access in the Workspace Admin console. These settings will live in a new subsection in the left side menu bar under “Generative AI.” As part of this change, the existing "Gemini Business and Enterprise settings" card within the Google Cloud Platform app will be redirected to the new Gemini Enterprise section. Existing configurations will be inherited by the new standalone settings.
This update brings several improvements for administrators:
Centralized management: You can now find Gemini Enterprise settings—including service on/off toggles and data sharing configurations—directly within the Generative AI section of the Workspace Admin console.
Granular control: While we’ve unified the service on/off switch for all Gemini Enterprise editions, we’ve maintained independent controls over access to Workspace data based on your license. This will allow us to support edition-specific specialized features, like sharing rules, in the future.
This change provides admins with more options to set policy preferences and protect sensitive data within a familiar Workspace environment.
End users: There is no end-user setting for this feature. Users with an active license will be able to access the Gemini Enterprise site if the service is turned ON by their administrator.
We’re introducing a new capability that allows end users to purchase Google Workspace add-ons directly, starting with the AI Expanded Access add-on for users in the United States and Canada with a Google Workspace Business edition. This feature is designed to help organizations and admins address the growing demand for AI tools while simplifying how users can get higher access to the latest advanced AI tools in Workspace.
Currently, users who want more access to advanced AI capabilities - such as higher usage in the Gemini app and NotebookLM, or specialized tools like Veo 3 or Avatar creation in Google Vids - must rely on their IT administrators to procure and assign add-on licenses. This can create bottlenecks for motivated users who have adopted these tools and are eager to further boost their productivity with Google Workspace. With this update, eligible users can purchase the AI Expanded Access add-on themselves using their own form of payment and an individual billing account.
Admins retain control
You retain full control of this feature, including the ability to turn this capability off for your entire organization or specific groups. Administrators can review which users have purchased subscriptions through the Admin console, and have the ability to cancel subscriptions if they wish to do so. Visibility of user-purchased subscriptions can be a valuable source of information to central teams around broader licensing decisions while maintaining administrative visibility and control.
End users: If your organization is eligible and the setting has not been disabled (see availability details below), users may see an in-product prompt to upgrade to get higher access when they reach their usage limit for certain AI features in Google Workspace. Clicking this prompt will allow the user to buy the add-on directly using their own payment method. Once they’ve signed up, they’ll get access to higher usage of advanced AI features in Workspace with the AI Expanded Access add-on when using their company Workspace account. Users will be able to manage their add-on subscription by visiting the user subscription management page at workspace.google.com/individual/user/manage.
Users in eligible organizations may see the option to upgrade to the AI Expanded Access add-on when they reach certain AI feature usage limits starting no sooner than April 7, 2026.
Availability
Business Editions: Initially, users with Business Standard or Business Plus licenses in the United States and Canada will be able to make these purchases. We plan to make this capability available to more customers in the coming months. Administrators will be notified by email when user-initiated purchases will be made available in their domains, and they’ll have the opportunity to adjust settings for this capability in the Admin console before the rollout of user-initiated purchases.*
*Note: This feature is not yet available to customers who have purchased Workspace from a resale partner, an offline order form, or customers outside of the United States and Canada. For these customers, AI Expanded Access licenses can be purchased by Administrators in the Admin console, through your partner, or Google account manager.
We’re releasing a number of enhancements to Workspace audit logs, including:
Log filtering enhancements for Resource fields in the security investigation tool for Gmail and Google Drive
Updated Application and Network fields available in the Workspace audit log integration with Google Security Operations (SecOps)
Expanded filtering in the AdminSDK Activities.List method
New OwnerDetails field in the events published to the AdminSDK and BigQuery
Log filtering enhancements for Resource fields in the security investigation tool for Gmail and Google Drive
The security investigation tool now features improved filtering for the Resources attribute for Gmail and Google Drive log events. These updates enable administrators to execute more granular searches, particularly by utilizing classification labels. Because classification labels offer essential metadata for identifying sensitive content and enforcing security policies, the capability to filter audit logs through these labels is vital for analyzing data patterns and investigating security incidents.
Additionally, we have also added filtering support for the Actor application info attribute for Gmail log events.
Updated Application and Network fields available in the Workspace audit log integration with Google Security Operations (SecOps)
The following fields will now be included in the audit events sent to SecOps, where applicable:
Expanded filtering in the AdminSDK Activities.List method
We’re adding filtering for the following fields in the Activities.List method of the AdminSDK:
RegionCode: Filter audit logs belonging to specified region using networkInfoFilter field in the api request
OAuthClientId: Filter audit logs where actions are done by specified app using applicationInfoFilter field in the api request
New OwnerDetails field in the events published to the AdminSDK and BigQuery
A new OwnerDetails field in Resource Details identifies who owns a resource using two primary fields:
Owner Type: This specifies the category of the owner. The owner of the resource can be an individual person (USER), entire organization (CUSTOMER), or a GROUP. SHARED_DRIVE
Owner Identity: This contains specific details (like IDs or email addresses) of that owner
Google Workspace admins can now enable users in their organization to share their Gemini chat conversations by creating public links to share and publish. Previously, this capability was only available to users with personal Google accounts; this update expands access on web to Gemini users with a work or school account.
Creating public links to share Gemini conversations can improve collaboration, efficiency, and content sharing. Recipients do not need their own account. This feature lets you share full conversations - including prompts and responses - with a clickable URL.
Google Workspace admins will have a new control to allow users in their organization to share their Gemini conversations with public links.
Getting started
Admins:
Public Gemini chat link sharing will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the domain, organizational unit (OU), or group level using a new control in the Admin console. Visit the Help Center to learn more.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about sharing your chats in Gemini. If you choose to share a chat, anyone with the link can read the chat, reshare it with others, and, except for chats created with Gems or for users under the age of 18, continue the chat with Gemini Apps on their own. Do not create public links to chat conversations containing confidential information or any data you wouldn’t want to be seen or shared publicly.
[Update - April 16, 2026] This rollout is now complete for end users in domains on the Rapid and Scheduled Release tracks.
Conversation history is coming to the Gemini side panel in Google Workspace apps. This feature will enable users to resume their conversations with Gemini across sessions. This history will only persist in a single app and conversations will remain private. For example, a conversation in the side panel of Google Docs will not appear in the side panel of Google Sheets, and a conversation in the side panel of a shared file will not be visible to other users with access to that file.
Timeline
As of February 25, 2026: Admin controls for conversation history are available. See below for more details and recommended actions.
Starting March 3, 2026: Conversation history will start rolling out to end users participating in the Gemini Alpha and Workspace Labs programs, as well as users with Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions.
No sooner than March 17, 2026: Conversation history will begin rolling out to all other Workspace users. We’ll provide an update on this blog before that rollout begins.
Accessing conversation history in the side panel of Google Drive
Deletion controls
This launch includes two new controls for administrators to ensure conversation data management aligns with organizational policies: the ability to decide if users can manually delete their history and the ability to set automated retention periods to manage the data lifecycle effectively. These settings can be configured at the domain, organizational unit, or group level.
This launch does not include Vault support or the ability for end users to auto-delete conversations; we’ll roll these features out in the future. Stay tuned to the Workspace Updates blog for more details when these features launch.
Manual deletion: This setting is ON by default, meaning end users can manually delete individual conversations unless the setting is changed.
Auto-deletion: Conversations are stored indefinitely by default, unless admins enable auto-deletion. If enabled, admins can choose to delete inactive chats after three months, 18 months, or three years.
End users: Once the feature is live, users can access their history within the Gemini side panel of the specific app they are using.
History will only begin to populate once the feature is live for a specific user; conversations held prior to the rollout will not be saved.
Users in Gemini Alpha program and users with Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on March 3, 2026
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