Data regions are critical for helping organizations meet internal compliance, legal, regulatory, and data sovereignty obligations by controlling the geographic location of covered data at rest and through data processing. Expanding these controls to Apps Script allows organizations—including those in highly regulated industries and the public sector—to build, deploy, and automate enterprise workflows with confidence that their script data and executions remain within designated geographic boundaries.

When a data regions policy is applied to an organizational unit or group, Apps Script data storage and runtime execution adhere to the specified region:

• Data at rest: Script project files, code definitions, manifest configurations, trigger metadata, and key-value storage (such as Property Service and Cache Service) are stored within the designated geographic region. 
• Data processing: Script executions, container-bound automations, and associated runtime operations are processed within the selected region.

Note on non-regionalized services:

As Google Apps Script transitions to a regionalized data residency model, non-regionalized Apps Script services will be disabled starting in November 2026 for organizations that turn off the Drive and Docs disablement toggle in data regions advanced settings in the Admin console. Learn more about disabling non-regionalized services.

Enabling Data regions support for Apps Script (Under Drive & Docs)

Getting started

• Admins: Apps Script automatically adheres to your existing organizational data location policies configured in the Admin console under Menu > Data > Compliance > Data Regions.
• To manage advanced controls, such as allowing or disabling features that process data outside designated regions, navigate to Data > Compliance > Data Regions > Advanced settings.
• Visit the Help Center to learn more about choosing a geographic location for your data, what data is covered by a data region policy, and advanced settings for data regions.
• End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Script project creation and executions will automatically follow the data region policy assigned to the user by their administrator. For custom cloud logging and external services, developers can review recommendations in the Apps Script Cloud Projects guide.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now

Availability

• Enterprise: Enterprise Plus (provides in-region data storage and processing)
• Education: Education Standard and Education Plus (provides in-region data storage only)
• Other Editions: Frontline Plus (provides in-region data storage and processing)

Resources

• Admin Help Center: Select geographic locations for data residency
• Admin Help Center: Data covered by region policies
• Admin Help Center: Configure advanced regional settings
• Admin Help Center: Overview of Assured Controls add-ons
• Developer Documentation: Apps Script overview and guides
• Developer Documentation: Managing Google Cloud Platform projects

Google Meet users can now connect to nearby conference room hardware by entering a 5-character room code on their personal device. Building on the recent Connect Room launch that uses proximity-based detection to identify nearby hardware, this update provides a reliable manual fallback when ultrasound is unavailable or disabled. Users will see a "Connect with room code" button on their device’s pre-call screen, which allows them to enter the alphanumeric code displayed directly on the hardware’s screen.

See our Early Preview announcement for full details.

Getting started

• Admins: This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled/enabled at the device level. We have updated our admin settings for Connect room and related features, visit the Help Center to learn more.
• End users: This feature will be ON by default. Your admin can turn this feature off for devices in your organization.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 15, 2026

Availability

• Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices

Resources

• Google Meet Help: Use Connect room feature in Google Meet
• Workspace Updates Blog: Seamlessly join meetings on Google Meet hardware with “Connect room”

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 > Gemini for Workspace > Third-Party Connectors. 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.
• End users: Once enabled by an admin, end users can access third-party connectors through the Gemini side panel in Docs, Sheets, and Slides, as well as in Google Chat. Visit the Help Center to learn more about third party integrations with Gemini in Google Workspace.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now

Availability

• Business: Business, Standard, and Plus
• Enterprise: Enterprise, Standard, and Plus
• Consumer: Google AI , Pro, and Ultra
• Other Editions: Enterprise Essentials Plus
• Education Add-ons: Google AI Pro for Education; Teaching and Learning; Endpoint Education

Resources

• Google Workspace Admin Help: Managing third-party connectors for Gemini
• Google Help: Collaborate with Gemini in Google Sheets
• Google Help: Get started with Ask Gemini in Google Chat

We recently announced the launch of AI Overviews in Gmail search which allows users to ask natural language questions in Gmail’s search bar and get concise summaries and answers without digging through emails. Starting today, we are expanding access to AI Overviews in Gmail search to global users (with paid plans) who have their Gmail language set as English. Previously, this was only available to users in the US with their language set as English.

Getting started

• Admins: This feature will be ON by default if Gemini for Workspace in Gmail is enabled and Workspace Intelligence access to Gmail is enabled.
• End users: This feature is available by default when smart features are enabled. Users must have both “Smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet” and “Google Workspace smart features” turned on to access AI Overviews in Gmail search.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) started on September 3, 2026 
• Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on September 21, 2026
• Personal Google Accounts (Consumer): Gradual rollout started on September 3, 2026

Availability

• Business: Business Starter, Standard, and Plus
• Enterprise: Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
• Consumers: Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra (excluding personal accounts in the EEA, UK, Switzerland, and Japan)
• Other Editions: Frontline Plus
• Education Add-ons: Google AI Pro for Education
• Other Add-ons: AI Expanded Access

Resources

• Google Workspace Admin Help: Manage access to Gemini features in Workspace services
• Google Help: Get an AI Overview in Gmail search
• Google Workspace Updates Blog: Search faster and smarter with AI Overviews in Gmail search
• Consumer Launch Blog: Gmail is entering the Gemini era

We’re introducing a new capability that allows Google Workspace administrators to configure audience sharing and sensitivity-based data conditions in a single, unified rule. This unified rule flow helps organizations elevate their security posture to proactively mitigate insider risks, prevent data exfiltration, and safely unblock collaboration for high-sensitivity environments.

Previously, administrators managed user/group-based sharing controls with trust rules and data loss prevention (DLP) policies separately for Google Drive. With this launch, admins can now build granular, content-aware sharing boundaries that can evaluate data sensitivity (with classification labels or DLP conditions) and the audience with whom the data is being shared using trust rules criteria (such as organizational units, groups, or domains).

New granular admin policies that prevent sharing between audiences based on data sensitivity

Additional details

The feature supports three audience restriction options:

• Block sharing with all external users: Prevents any file meeting the content criteria from being shared outside the organization
• Block all internal and external sharing, except with specific users (Allowlist): Restricts access to a curated list of trusted internal organizational units (OUs), groups, or external domains
• Block sharing with specific users (Denylist): Explicitly blocks sharing with specific internal organizational units, groups, or external parties (such as vendors or contractors) while permitting sharing with everyone else 

Getting started

• Admins: When configuring data protection rules in the Admin console, admins should select Google Drive as the app and the “block sharing” option to use this functionality. Visit the Help Center to learn more.
• End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 14, 2026

Availability

• Enterprise: Enterprise Standard and Plus
• Education: Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus
• Other Editions: Enterprise Essentials; Frontline Standard and Plus

Resources

• Google Workspace Admin Help: Set up sharing boundaries in data protection rules