This official feed from the Google Workspace team provides essential information about new features and improvements for Google Workspace customers.
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What’s changing

Recently, we announced that next steps will automatically be captured when using “take notes for me” in Google Meet. Building upon that momentum, your meeting notes document will now include citations, or timestamps, which correlate to the exact point in the meeting transcript that references the summarized notes. 

For example, you’ll see something like: “Sophie discussed the updated marketing plan (00:08:32)”. When you click on the timestamp, the meeting transcription tab in the document will open and take you to  the moment that the discussion occurred. From here, you can drill into the details of the discussion for even more context.

When you click on a timestamp, the transcription tab will open automatically to the specific point in the conversation


Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to Google Workspace
  • Business Standard and Plus
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus
  • Also available with the Gemini Education Premium add-on

Anyone who previously purchased these add-ons will also receive this feature:
  • Gemini Enterprise*
  • AI Meetings & Messaging*

*As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details.

Resources

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What’s changing 

We recently introduced the Policy API in open beta, letting super admins programmatically access information regarding how their Google Workspace environment service level settings and rules are configured. Beginning today, the Policy API is now generally available with more functionality: 

Admins can now use the API to audit more settings, specifically: 
  • Calendar 
  • Gmail 
  • Multi-factor authentication settings (2-Step Verification) 

Refer to our developer documentation for a full list of settings that can be audited by the API. 


Who’s impacted 

Super admins 


Why it’s important 

Simplifying the management of Workspace settings continues to be a priority for us. The Policy API is an important new tool that helps streamline the process by providing a comprehensive view of security settings as needed, eliminating the need to navigate to numerous pages in the Admin console. In forthcoming releases, the Policy API will also include the ability to configure settings. 


Due to the increasing sophistication and scale of cyber threats, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency’s Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) project provides guidance to help agencies secure their cloud business application environments. The general availability of Google’s Workspace Policy API marks a significant milestone, enabling CISA to expand Scuba Goggles’ capabilities in assessing Google Workspace environments against CISA’s SCuBA secure configuration baselines. This advancement helps organizations better align with industry-leading security practices while maintaining operational efficiency. 


ScuBA has published a new release to leverage the GWS Policy API with ScubaGoggles, an automated assessment tool that compares tenant configurations with CISA’s Google Workspace Secure Configuration Baselines.

Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • You must be a super admin to use the Policy API. Use our developer documentation to learn more about the Policy API.
    • You can also use GAM, an open source tool for managing Workspace, which now supports the Policy API.
  • End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers.

Resources


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What’s changing

Building on last year’s announcement of the general availability for Chat APIs to import data from messaging platforms to Google Chat, we’re excited to introduce a new migration solution from a Workspace partner, CloudM. 


Working with CloudM, you can move your Microsoft Teams channels into Chat spaces. This includes public and private channel messages, public channel attachments, reactions, and channel members mapped to the corresponding space. CloudM also migrates the data while maintaining historical timestamps to ensure users can continue conversations right where they left off.

Migrate data from Microsoft Teams channels to Google Chat spaces using CloudM

Who’s impacted 

Admins 


Why you’d use it 

This CloudM solution imports your team collaboration data and knowledge repository from Microsoft Teams channels into Google Chat spaces. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers. Note that a separate CloudM license is required to enable data migrations. 

Resources 

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What’s changing

We are updating the location of some Google Meet meeting controls on Android and iOS devices, which are intended to organize features in a more intuitive way. This will help you to navigate the Meet layout faster and more intuitively. These are strictly design updates with no changes in functionality. 

1. Emoji reactions are moving from the triple-dot overflow menu to the bottom bar. Simply tap the Emoji toggle to access or hide the reaction picker.

Before

After





2. The hand raise feature is moving from the bottom bar to the triple-dot overflow menu. This change applies to mobile devices only - if you’re using a larger screen device, such as a tablet, you’ll continue to see the Hand Raise icon in the main call controls menu.

Before

After



3. Host management controls will move from the overflow menu to the settings menu, under the “General” section.

Before

After



4. The option to report a problem is now in one location, in the Settings menu.

Before

After




Finally, there is an additional change for iOS only: The end call button is moving from the left side to the right side of the primary controls, bringing the experience inline with Android.

Before

After



Additional details

The minimum build required for these updates are:
Android:
  • Meet: 291.0.722438190.duo.android_20250202.14
  • Gmail: 2025.02.02.722438226
iOS:
  • Meet: 294.0
  • Gmail: 6.0.250209

Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin impact or action required.
  • End users: You’ll notice these improvements automatically. 

Rollout pace

These updates will rollout to Android devices first, followed by iOS. We will update this post as the respective rollouts complete.

Android:

iOS:

Availability

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

Resources







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What’s changing 

Beginning today, Gemini in the side panel of Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and Gmail can be used in seventeen additional languages: 
  • Arabic
  • Chinese
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • Finnish
  • Hebrew
  • Hungarian
  • Norwegian
  • Polish
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Swedish
  • Thai
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian
  • Vietnamese
With Gemini in the side panel of your Workspace apps, you can get help summarizing, brainstorming, and generating content by utilizing insights gathered from your emails, documents, and more—all without switching applications or tabs. Check out our original announcements for Gemini in the side panel of Docs, Sheets, and Drive, and Gmail for even more information. Image generation is supported in these languages as well. 


Additional details

  • While Gemini in the side panel of Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail, is generally available in these additional languages - as we keep rolling out more Gemini alpha features in the side panel, end users with Gemini alpha features turned on may continue to see the “Alpha” badge. 
  • Gemini in the side panel of Slides and Chat is only available in English at this time.
  • Image generation of people is not supported in these additional languages at this time.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to Google Workspace:
  • Business Standard and Plus
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus
  • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 
  • Customers with the Gemini Business or Gemini Enterprise add-on*

Available for Gemini in the side panel of Gmail for:
  • Business Starter
  • Enterprise Starter
*As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details.

Resources


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Useful Links

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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.

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