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

For Google Workspace customers with Chrome Enterprise Core, we’re pleased to introduce a new Chrome browser profile list and reporting features for signed-in Google Workspace users. These new capabilities give IT administrators more insight into Chrome user profiles in their organization. The report includes a new managed profiles list and detail pages where IT administrators can find information such as profile details, browser versions, policies applied, extensions installed and more. The list of extensions installed allows you to identify versions of extensions that can potentially be a risk factor for your users.

Overall, this update significantly improves how admins analyze how their users are interacting with Chrome and allows them to take action to keep their users and data secure in Chrome.

Once enabled, you can view reports by going to Admin console > Chrome browser > Managed profiles



Getting started

  • Admins: Admins can simply log in to the Google Admin console and enable the Managed profile reporting policy. Visit the Help Center to learn more about viewing Chrome browser profile details.

To enable reporting, go to Menu > Devices > Chrome > Settings > User & browser settings > Chrome Browser > Browser Reporting > Managed Browser Reporting

  • End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

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What’s changing 

In 2023, we expanded grading systems in Google Classroom and in 2024 we added a 'missing' grade state to Gradebook. To further improve upon grading options for teachers and give them the ability to perform bulk grading, we’re introducing ‘grade all’. 

With this new feature, teachers can quickly and efficiently grade all students' work on the Gradebook page by selecting ‘grade all’. They can also choose to override existing grades and automatically return them to students after grading. 

Not only does this update save time by eliminating the need to enter each student’s grade one-by-one, but it also provides a solution to grading assignments based on completion rather than accuracy (such as exit tickets, due nows, classwork, etc.) where the grade is binary (‘0’ or ‘100’). 

bulk grading in Classroom



Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why it matters

‘Grade all’ enables teachers to score faster and save time, ultimately making grading more efficient. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • Once a teacher has set up grading, they can follow these steps to grade all: 
      • Go to Google Classroom > Gradebook > In the 3 dot menu for an assignment click “Grade all” > In the dialog that opens, input the bulk grade 
        • [Optional] Select “Override existing grades” to override existing grades with the new bulk grade 
        • [Optional] Select “Automatically return after grading” to return all grades after submitting the new bulk grade. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about grading & returning an assignment. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

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

Resources 

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What’s changing 

Since May of last year, education institutions have been leveraging new and powerful ways of working, teaching and learning with Gemini for Google Workspace. This includes products and features such as the Gemini app, Gemini Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI™), Gemini in Google Vids and Gemini in Classroom.

In continuing our efforts to ensure AI helps educators save time, create captivating learning experiences, and inspire creativity, we’re introducing a new way to generate vocabulary lists with the help of Gemini. 

Starting today, educators can generate custom word lists that are tailored to specific grade levels and topics identified by the educator. Specifically, the list will provide the word’s grammatical category, a clear definition, and a relevant example sentence to help students understand and use the vocabulary effectively. This functionality is accessible via the “Gemini Education” tab in Google Classroom. 

creating a vocab list using gemini in classroom


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important 

This update helps educators create vocabulary lists tailored to specific grade levels and topics while simultaneously empowering students to master vocabulary and deepen their understanding of language – all right within Google Classroom. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons: 
  • Gemini Education and Education Premium 

Resources 

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1 New update

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.




Local files now sync to Google Drive faster 
We’ve added support for differential uploads to Google Drive, which means when large files are edited, Drive for desktop will now upload only the parts of the file that changed. This highly-requested feature results in much faster Drive syncs. | Rollout to Rapid and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about uploading files & folders to Google Drive.



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.


Granular OAuth consent in Google Apps Script IDE executions
The OAuth consent screen will now let users specify which individual OAuth scopes they would like to authorize. | Learn more about OAuth consent in Google Apps Script IDE executions. 


Use Gemini to interact with PDFs in Google Drive’s overlay file previewer 
Earlier this year, we introduced the ability to use Gemini in Google Drive to interact with PDFs. To improve your viewing experience when reviewing PDFs from Drive, we’re excited to announce that Gemini in the side panel of Drive is now integrated into Drive's overlay file previewer. | Learn more about Gemini and Drive’s overlay file previewer. 


Google Meet provides additional privacy for livestreaming with new eCDN On-Premises API 
Admins can now use the eCDN On-Premises API for Google Meet to configure their network for eCDN while keeping classified IP addresses and network information private. | Learn more about the new eCDN On-Premises API. 


Prevent the downloading, printing, or copying of files by all users with Enhanced IRM for Google Drive Data-Loss Prevention
We're expanding IRM to be applicable to all users, including file editors and owners, when it is applied by a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) rule. | Learn more about Enhanced IRM for Google Drive Data-Loss Prevention.


Completed rollouts


Paused rollouts

We have paused the rollout for this feature while we evaluate performance and quality. We will provide an update with new rollout information as soon as possible.

For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases). 
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What’s changing 

Google Drive’s Information Rights Management (IRM) capability protects documents from data exfiltration actions, specifically downloading, printing, and copying. This is useful for making sure that sensitive content is protected from data leakage. 


Historically, this feature has only been applicable to users with either the “viewer” or “commenter” role, which has left administrators unable to apply the setting to users with write permissions (see here for more information on Drive roles). To address this, we’re expanding IRM to be applicable to all users, including file writers and owners, when it is applied by a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) rule. 

The new Enhanced IRM action, as seen in the DLP Rule creation flow.



Additional details

When an editor or owner is affected by IRM, they will retain the ability to copy and paste document content, but they may only do so within that document. Attempting to paste content outside of the document will not succeed. For more information, please refer to the help center content.


Getting started

  • Admins: DLP rules and CAA levels are applied per-file based on how these rules are configured.
  • End users: Only administrators can set IRM for all user roles on a file. File owners may still only set IRM for viewers and commenters. If a file has both an administrator-applied IRM setting and a file owner setting on it, the administrator setting takes priority. Once this feature is enabled, all entry points for downloading, printing, and copying will be removed from Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides on all platforms. Visit the Help Center to learn more about stopping, limiting, or changing how your files are shared.
A view of the file owner’s IRM setting when an overriding administrator setting is present.

Rollout pace


Availability

  • IRM controls are available for all Google Workspace customers
  • Data Loss Prevention Rules and Context-Aware Access conditions are available for Google Workspace:
    • Enterprise Standard and Plus
    • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching and Learning add-on
    • Frontline Standard
    • Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus

Resources


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Useful Links

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