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


Send emails about your files to collaborators using the sharing dialog in Workspace apps
Once a file is shared, you have the option to “notify” someone when they’ve been added to view, comment on, or edit a file. We’re building upon this by introducing the ability to send an email to any collaborator if you are a file owner or editor. This is especially useful if you’ve recently made updates to the content or if you’d like to pose a question to the group. To email collaborators, click “Share” > click on the “Email people on this file” icon next to “People with access” > select the email recipients and add a custom message. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for August 26, 2024. | Available to Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about sharing files from Google Drive.

Send emails about your files to collaborators using the sharing dialog in Workspace apps

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.


Expanding multi-party-approvals to domain-wide-delegation actions 
We’re expanding multi-party approvals to include domain-wide-delegation. Domain-wide-delegation is a powerful feature which allows admins to grant third-party applications permission to access your Workspace users’ data. | Learn more about domain-wide-delegation actions. 

Introducing Student Groups in Google Classroom 
There is a new feature in Google Classroom that enables teachers to create groups of students to make assigning differentiated content easier. | Learn more about student groups in Classroom. 

Refine emails faster with updates to Help me write in Gmail 
We’ve introduced two new Gemini in Gmail updates to help you draft emails even faster: 1) a new option for Help me write that polishes emails drafts on web and mobile devices and 2) Help me write and Refine my draft shortcuts on Android and iOS devices. | Learn more about Help me write in Gmail. 

Google Meet increases ultra-low latency live streaming support to 100,000 viewers in distributed audiences 
For select Google Workspace editions*, we’re pleased to announce that the Google Meet ultra-low latency viewing experience for live streamed meetings will now support up to 100,000 viewers. In addition, the Google Meet ultra-low latency viewing experience for live streamed meetings is now available also from Google Meet room hardware. | Learn more about Meet ultra-low latency live streaming. 

Third-party smart chip resource creation now available in Google Docs 
We’re enabling third-party partners, such as Lucidspark, Lucidchart, and Zoho Projects, to create smart chips or resources like tasks or flowcharts that end users can add and edit in their Google Docs. | Learn more about third-party smart chips in Docs.

New host controls for add-ons in Google Meet
We’re giving meeting hosts and co-hosts the ability to control the use of add-ons during meetings* with a new setting. | Learn more about host controls in Meet.


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: 

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 

We’re giving meeting hosts and co-hosts the ability to control the use of add-ons during meetings* with a new setting. We hope this new setting helps keep meetings on task and productive by allowing hosts to control access to add-ons as they deem appropriate. Note that this setting does not impact single participant add-on experiences. 

The setting will be ON by default, which means all meeting participants can start an add-on activity.

To configure this setting, from the bottom right of your screen select Host Controls (lock icon) > Meeting Activities > Let contributors share add-on activities




When the setting is turned OFF, only the hosts can start an add-ons and ask meeting participants to join the add-on activity. If other participants try starting a collaboration with an add-on, they will get an error. 



*Soon you’ll be able to configure this setting from the Calendar event — we’ll share more information here on the Workspace Updates blog when that becomes available.


Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin impact or action required.
  • End users: 
    • This feature will be ON by default. It can only be configured from laptop and desktop devices, however it will apply to all meeting participants, including those using mobile devices. 
    • Your setting configuration will apply to all future instances of recurring meetings.
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about using add-ons with Google Meet. 

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available for all Google Workspace customers

Resources


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What’s changing 

Last year, we introduced the ability to pull rich data from apps directly into Google Docs with third-party smart chips. Today, we’re taking this a step further by enabling third-party partners, such as Lucidspark, Lucidchart, and Zoho Projects, to create smart chips or resources like tasks or flowcharts that end users can add and edit in their Google Docs. 

To access third-party smart chips, an admin or user must first install a partner’s add-on from the Google Workspace Marketplace and then users can search for items to create using the @ menu in Docs. After the item is selected, a creation form will appear that includes text input fields relevant to the type of resource being generated. Once the third-party smart chip is inserted, users can hover over it and view a preview of the content.
Seamless linking between Zoho Projects and Google Docs

Who’s impacted 

Admins, end users and developers (partners) 


Why you’d use it 

This feature expands upon your ability to add, view and engage with critical information from third party apps by letting you create third-party resource content. 


Additional details 

Other third-party partners, such as Jira & Confluence, plan to add resource creation to their existing third-party smart chip add-ons in the Google Workspace Marketplace later this year. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace

Availability 

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What’s changing

For select Google Workspace editions*, we’re pleased to announce that the Google Meet ultra-low latency viewing experience for live streamed meetings will now support up to 100,000 viewers. This gives organizations the flexibility to reach a wider audience with improved user experience at lower bandwidth consumption. In order to receive the ultra-low latency experience, no more than 25,000 viewers can be connected to a single regional data center at a time. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important 

Live streaming is a critical tool for large audiences, such as town-halls or keynote events. Increasing support for the low-latency live streaming experience from 25,000 viewers to 100,000 users helps our customers reach a wider audience, while their users benefit from several functional and quality improvements, such as:

  • A virtually lag-free experience
  • Significantly increased speaker video resolution (up to 720p per speaker)
  • Shared content and presentations shown up to 2880x1800
  • Improved automatic camera cuts that focus on the most relevant speakers & content 
  • Audience interaction through emoji reactions, polls and Q&A, and more.


Additional details

Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN) for Google Meet
If large groups of your audience are connecting from a single network location or a shared gateway, you may benefit from using eCDN for Meet to get full media quality with substantial network bandwidth savings. For more information on eCDN, see this post on the Workspace Updates blog and visit our Help Center.    


Viewers can now join ultra-low latency live streams from Google Meet room hardware
The Google Meet ultra-low latency viewing experience for live streamed meetings is now available also from Google Meet room hardware. Live streaming is a critical tool for large audiences, such as town-halls or keynote events. Support for room hardware means that users can join and watch live streams together in smaller or larger groups. To view a live stream via Google Meet hardware, invite the room to a view-only calendar event granted that your host has allowed guests to modify events. When the event is about to start, the live stream will be visible with its name as an upcoming event in the room agenda. Join the live stream by tapping it on the touch screen.


Meeting hosts and meeting organizers can invite rooms directly in view-only calendar events — visit the Help Center to learn more about live streaming a video meeting. If the calendar event is locked for editing, individual users can also duplicate the event and create their own view-only copy with the rooms they want to add as viewing locations. Visit the Help Center to learn more about viewing a live stream.


Getting started

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Enterprise Essentials Plus customers*

*Note: The ultra-low latency live streaming experience is rolling out at a slower pace for some customers. Once you receive the experience, you’ll be able to take advantage of these updates.


Resources


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What’s changing 

Building upon our popular Help me write feature in Gmail and the recent launch of the summarization feature in the Gmail mobile app, we’re excited to introduce two new Gemini in Gmail updates to help you draft emails even faster: 
  • A new option for Help me write that polishes emails drafts on web and mobile devices 
  • Help me write and Refine my draft shortcuts on Android and iOS devices 
When using Gemini to refine emails, users can choose from the following options: Formalize, Elaborate and Shorten. We recently added the Polish option to web and mobile, which can effortlessly refine your emails, saving you time. For example, if you enter rough notes into a draft, Gemini can turn the content into a completely formal draft, ready for you to review in one click. 
polish draft using Gemini in Gmail

On mobile, when an email draft is empty, the “Help me write” shortcut now appears in the body of the email and when selected, it will open the full Help me write experience. When 12+ words are present in an email draft, the ​​“Refine my draft” shortcut will be shown below the email content to indicate that there are options available to Polish, Formalize, Elaborate, or Shorten your draft, or Write a new draft. The menu can be triggered simply by swiping right on “Refine my draft”. 

refine my email draft on Gmail using Gemini

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

  • The option for Help me write to polish email drafts is available now on web, Android and iOS. 
  • The Help me write and Refine my draft shortcuts are available now on Android and iOS. 

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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Useful Links

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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.

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