This official feed from the Google Workspace team provides essential information about new features and improvements for Google Workspace customers.
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New updates 

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are fully launched or in the process of rolling out (rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete), 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), and available to all Google Workspace and G Suite customers.

Add a background image to Google Keep notes on mobile
You can now customize your Google Keep notes on Android and iOS by choosing a background from a set of designer-created images — simply open a note, select the palette icon, and select a background. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more.

Allow Users to receive shared calendars on mobile
Users can now share their calendar with another user on their mobile device without fear of spam attacks. Once a user shares a calendar with a recipient, the recipient receives an email notification with a link “Add this calendar.” The recipient must explicitly click on the link to add the calendar to their account. 


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.

Indicate whether you’ll join a meeting virtually or in person on Google Calendar
To make Google Calendar more flexible in the hybrid workplace, we're introducing new RSVP options for Calendar invitations. With this update, you can indicate how you plan to join a meeting - in the meeting room, or virtually. | Learn more.


Scheduled refresh improvements for Connected Sheets now generally available
Today, several improvements for scheduled refresh are now available: hourly refreshes, specific start dates, and frequency options such as every five days, every two months, etc. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Education Standard customers. | Learn more.


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


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Quick launch summary

Earlier this year, we announced several new features that give you more ways to work with, display, and organize BigQuery data using Connected Sheets. 

Today, several improvements for scheduled refresh are now available:

  • Hourly refreshes 
  • Specific start dates 
  • Frequency options such as every five days, every two months, etc.

We hope these additional options make it easier to automate data refreshing at a specified frequency with more granular scheduling options, giving you more flexibility when working with your data.

Getting started


Rollout pace

  • This feature is available now.

Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Education Standard customers 
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources


Roadmap

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Quick launch summary 

To make Google Calendar more flexible in the hybrid workplace, we're introducing new RSVP options for Calendar invitations. With this update, you can indicate how you plan to join a meeting - in the meeting room, or virtually. 


Then, both the organizer and guests will be able to see how attendees are planning to attend the meeting in the event detail. This will help meeting attendees know what to expect when joining a meeting, and prepare accordingly. 


Note that if you select the new RSVP options, the join method details (e.g. “joining virtually”) are not shared with contacts on other platforms, such as Microsoft Outlook. The new RSVP options will initially be available on Google Calendar, and will be coming to calendar invitations in Gmail soon. We’ll announce on the Workspace Updates blog when it’s available. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 

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New updates 

Spelling autocorrect is now available when you write comments in Sheets, Slides, and Drawings 
Autocorrect helps you compose documents quickly and with confidence. Misspelled words will automatically be corrected while typing and denoted with a grey dashed underline. This feature is already available in Docs.


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. 


Google Chat will automatically suggest group chats based on your Google Calendar 
We previously announced that Google Chat will automatically suggest 1:1 chats based on your meetings in Google Calendar. Now, you’ll also get suggestions for group chats when you’re meeting with multiple people. | Learn more. 



Expanding Google Meet visual refresh to Meet hardware portfolio 
We’re expanding the rollout of the refreshed Google Meet web experience to Meet hardware devices. Users joining Meet calls with a Chromebase for meetings all-in-one touchscreen device will notice improvements for video feeds, the viewing and presenting experience, and the bottom bar. | Learn more. 



Admins can view more information about apps in the Google Workspace Marketplace before deploying to their users 
In the Google Workspace Marketplace, you’ll now see more information about apps available in the Marketplace. Specifically, you’ll see the following information regarding the app developer, their privacy policy, terms of service, app permissions, and more. | Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers only. | Learn more. 



Enhancing live streams in Google Meet with captions and cross-domain live streams 
We’re improving live streams for Google Meet with two new features: cross-domain livestreams and captions in live streams.| Available to Google Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus customers only. | Learn more.



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

We’re improving live streams for Google Meet with two new features:

  • Cross-domain live streams. Previously, only guests in your organization could view a live stream. Now, admins can designate trusted Google Workspace domains for Google Meet live streams. Once added, you can also invite users in those trusted domains to view live streams hosted by your organization.
  • Captions in live streams. Now, a user has the option of enabling captions when starting a live stream. At launch, captions for live streams will be available in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Note that captions are already available for Google Meet video calls.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users


Why it matters

Many companies have important meetings that require delivering a message to large groups of people, like a company-wide all-hands or onboarding training. With live streaming for Google Meet, up to 100,000 users (or 10,000 in some editions) can watch the meeting from the web or their mobile device.

Cross-domain live streams allows you to extend the viewership of the live streams not only to the guests within your organization, but also to guests in another trusted Workspace domain.
Captions in live streams can help make meetings more accessible for deaf and hard-of-hearing users, and can help other users who have a preference for reading text rather than listening get more out of the meeting.


Captions enable users to read what’s being said in the live stream


Getting started

  • Admins:
    • Cross-domain live-stream support: Use our Help Center content to learn how to add trusted domains for live streaming in Google Meet.
      • Note that you can add any Workspace domain to the trusted domain list, but we recommend that you only add domains that you own (such as subsidiary companies or schools in your school district), as adding domains can potentially give access to livestreams to anyone who has an account in those trusted domains.


Rollout pace

Cross-domain live streams

Captions in live streams

Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus customers
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers

Resources

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Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

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Learn about more Google Workspace launches

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.

Learn about our customers

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