Google Workspace Updates

Introducing even more high-quality Google Slides templates to elevate your presentations

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

What’s changing Last year, we released a collection of modern, professionally designed templates in Google Slides to help make it easier for users to build presentations. Today, we’re excited to introduce a second wave of templates that cater to a wide range of use cases such as business proposals, product pitches, marketing plans, quarterly reviews, team intros or celebrations, and more. These make it easier for you to get started building impactful presentations for collaborative teams, businesses, educational users, and more.

high-quality Google Slides templates to elevate your presentations

Who’s impacted End users

Why you’d use it Slides templates enable users to jumpstart their presentation creation, maintain a consistent look and feel, and focus on what matters most—your content. More specifically, they help users overcome the blank canvas and spend less time on design and instead, dive straight into crafting a compelling narrative that is visually cohesive and professional.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be ON by default for domains that do not have default templates & themes turned ON. Domains that have default templates & themes turned ON, will continue to see their company specific template. Visit the Help Center to learn more about default templates & themes.
End users:

You can access templates via the new sidebar or by going to Insert > Templates. Once clicked, you can browse the collection, select a template that aligns with your vision and style, and choose to insert all slides or just the ones you need before personalizing the template with your own content.
Note: This feature is only available for users using the "English (United States)" language setting. Visit the Help Center to learn more about updating your language.
Visit the Help Center to learn more about templates in Google Slides.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 22, 2025
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 6, 2025

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts (using the "English (United States)" language setting)

Resources

Google Help: Use a Template or change the theme, background, or layout in Google Slides

Adding new capabilities to student groups in Google Classroom

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

What’s changingLast year, we introduced student groups in Google Classroom, a feature that enables teachers to create groups of students to make assigning differentiated content easier. As a result of this update, teachers can differentiate content across sub-sections of their class based on their students' needs. For example, teachers can create groups based on different reading levels and as their class adapts, they can edit members of a group or delete groups within their class.

Today, we’re excited to announce improvements to student groups that enable teachers to:

Email groups, which is especially useful when educators want to communicate with a sub-section of their class.
Sort by groups when grading on the Student work page. This makes it easier to grade more efficiently and understand student performance based on groups.
Edit student groups when creating an assignment so that educators can quickly adapt instruction without having to go to the People page.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users:

Group names and members are only visible to teachers or co-teachers, not students.
Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up and using student groups in Google Classroom.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 22, 2025

Availability Available for Google Workspace:

Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning add-on

Resources

Google Help: Manage student groups

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - April 18, 2025

Friday, April 18, 2025

1 New updateUnless 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.

Create custom chart groupings in Connected Sheets

We’re excited to announce that Connected Sheets users can now create custom groupings for numeric values in a chart. More specifically, users can control the minimum and maximum value of the buckets and the interval size of the bucket. We hope this improves upon the experience of using Connected Sheets to visualize a large amount of data. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about analyzing & refreshing BigQuery data in Google Sheets using Connected Sheets, Google Sheets limitations, and getting started with BigQuery data in Google Sheets.

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.

Use Gemini in Google Classroom to generate questions or a quiz based on specific text

We're adding a text-dependent question generation tool to further our efforts for AI to help educators save time, create captivating learning experiences, and inspire creativity. | Learn more about text-dependent questions in Classroom.

Google Docs code blocks now available in additional programming languages

We’re adding support for additional code languages to give even more users the ability to easily visualize code, making more code readable and collaboration much easier. | Learn more about new programming languages for code blocks in Docs.

Google Classroom is expanding to 7 additional languages

Last month, we announced the ability to use the Google Classroom mobile app in additional languages, and today we’re excited to announce the same languages are also now available with the web experience: Afrikaans, Assamese, Estonian, French Canadian, Icelandic, Kazakh and Swahili. | Learn more about new languages in Classroom.

Introducing silent reading mode in Google Classroom’s Read Along

We’re introducing a new feature that allows students to read a book in silent reading mode. | Learn more about silent reading mode.

Control Workspace Business and Enterprise users’ access to new Google Workspace with Gemini features before general availability

In the coming weeks, Google Workspace Business and Enterprise admins will be able to turn on access to Workspace with Gemini alpha features for their users. Turning this on gives your users a head start on leveraging our latest AI features and the opportunity to provide Google with helpful feedback as we develop new features. | Learn more about access to new Gemini features before general availability.

Introducing the ability to grade and assign grading labels in bulk in Google Classroom

To further improve grading options for teachers using grading systems in Google Classroom, we recently introduced the ability to perform bulk grading via ‘grade all’. | Learn more about bulk grading in Classroom.

Updates for configuring your preferred language for “Take notes for me”, recorded captions, and meeting transcripts

You can now set your preferred language from the Calendar invite and during the meeting when using Google Meet on Android and iOS devices. | Learn more about preferred languages 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:

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

Quickly add events to Google Calendar based on your emails with Gemini in Gmail
Introducing updates to sources for NotebookLM and NotebookLM Plus
Help me write in Google Docs now available in four additional languages
Preview summaries in the Google Chat home view now available in three additional languages
Deep Research is now available on Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental
Use Gemini in Google Classroom to generate questions or a quiz based on specific text
Introducing silent reading mode in Google Classroom’s Read Along

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

Updates for configuring your preferred language for “Take notes for me”, recorded captions, and meeting transcripts

Thursday, April 17, 2025

What’s changingWe recently announced additional language support for “Take notes for me”, recorded captions, and meeting transcripts. You can now set your preferred language for these features:

From the Calendar invite. Your preferred language will apply to every meeting in a series.
During the meeting when using Google Meet on Android and iOS devices.

Choosing your preferred language from the Calendar invite

Choosing your preferred language during the meeting on a mobile device

Additional details

Available on iOS for:

Gmail: 6.0.250305.1795546
Meet: 298.0.72766

Available on Android for:

Gmail: 2025.04.06.744527406
Meet: 301.0.744527189

Getting started

Rollout pace

Mobile availability:

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 17, 2025

Calendar availability:

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 23, 2025

Availability

“Take notes for me” is available for Google Workspace:

Business Standard and Plus
Enterprise Standard and Plus
Also available with the Gemini Education Premium add-on
Anyone who previously purchased the Gemini Enterprise* and AI Meetings & Messaging* add-ons will also receive this feature.

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

Transcripts are available for Google Workspace:

Business Standard and Plus
Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
Education Plus and the Teaching & Learning Add-on
Workspace Individual Subscribers

Captions included in a meeting recording are available for Google Workspace:

Business Plus and Standard
Education Plus for users with a "Staff" or "Student" license, and the Teaching & Learning add-on
Enterprise Essentials
Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
Workspace Individual Subscribers
Google One subscribers with 2 TB or more storage space

Resources

Introducing the ability to grade and assign grading labels in bulk in Google Classroom

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

What’s changingTo further improve grading options for teachers using grading systems in Google Classroom, we recently introduced the ability to perform bulk grading via ‘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.

Today, we’re excited to announce that teachers can now take bulk grading action on the Student work page in addition to the Gradebook. This update enables teachers to grade and assign grading labels in bulk, ultimately making grading more efficient and saving teachers time.

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 > Student Work Page > select multiple students > click the bulk actions menu and select the desired option

Visit the Help Center to learn more about grading & returning an assignment.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 16, 2025

Availability

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

Resources

Control Workspace Business and Enterprise users’ access to new Google Workspace with Gemini features before general availability

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

What’s changingIn the coming weeks, Google Workspace Business and Enterprise admins will be able to turn on access to Workspace with Gemini alpha features for their users. Turning this on gives your users a head start on leveraging our latest AI features and the opportunity to provide Google with helpful feedback as we develop new features. More information can be found below which can help you decide whether early access is right for your users. We first introduced this option last year for Google Workspace customers who previously purchased a Gemini Enterprise, Gemini Business and AI Meetings & Messaging add-on.

Access to Gemini alpha features can be turned on for all users or a subset of users in specific Organizational Units (OUs) or Groups.

Admin console > Generative AI > Gemini for Workspace > Alpha features

Additional details

Getting started

Admins:

With this launch, Gemini add-on licenses will no longer be required for your users to access Gemini in Workspace apps alpha features. Please ensure the alpha setting is turned ON only for your desired groups or OUs.
Once the Gemini in Workspace apps alpha setting is enabled, users may be granted access to new alpha features at any time — it is not possible to enable a subset of features or opt-out of specific features. We strongly recommend that admins and end users sign up for the Google Workspace alpha community page. Here, you can find the latest Gemini in Workspace apps alpha features, ask questions and provide feedback about the features on this page.
Features may be added to, modified, and removed from alpha at any time — there is no advanced notice of these features appearing for users.
Some alpha features may not roll out to all your selected alpha users.
As these features are not yet generally available, we will not offer full support for these features.
You can also help us improve Gemini in Workspace apps by allowing users at your organization to provide feedback via research studies and surveys.

End users: When enabled by your admin, you’ll be able to test Gemini in Workspace apps features in alpha. Visit our Help Center to see what Gemini features are currently available in alpha and how to sign-up for the Google Cloud Community.

Rollout pace

Admin setting

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for visibility) starting on April 22, 2025

Availability

This update impacts Google Workspace:

Business Starter, Standard, and Plus
Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus

Resources

Introducing silent reading mode in Google Classroom’s Read Along

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

What’s changing In addition to the recent announcement of educators being able to upload content to Read Along in Google Classroom, we’re excited to introduce a new feature that allows students to read a book in silent reading mode.

Prior to today, students could only read aloud and unlike the default reading mode, silent reading mode will allow students to read a book silently without having to draw attention to themselves or disturbing their classmates. In addition to giving teachers more flexibility in how they use Read Along, this new reading mode is particularly useful in scenarios where multiple students might be working on a reading assignment in the same space. With less noise and fewer distractions, students can still build independent reading skills and will continue to:

Receive assistance from the AI reading buddy when needed by clicking on any unknown words
Be presented with questions to help with their reading comprehension
Receive stars when they read with few errors or assistance and answer questions correctly

Additional details When using silent reading mode, teachers will not be provided with a student's reading performance related to accuracy, words per minute, or phonics. The teacher will receive reading performance insights related to comprehension.

Getting started

Admins:

End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about Read Along in Google Classroom.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now.

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning add-on

Resources

Google Classroom is expanding to 7 additional languages

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

What’s changingLast month, we announced the ability to use the Google Classroom mobile app in additional languages, and today we’re excited to announce the same languages are also now available with the web experience:

Afrikaans
Assamese
Estonian
French Canadian
Icelandic
Kazakh
Swahili

Additional details Certain Google Classroom features might not be accessible in all languages, including Read Along in Classroom, Practice sets, Originality reports and Gemini in Classroom
Getting started

Admins and end users:

The language in Classroom is based on a user's language settings for their Google account.
Visit the Help Center to learn more about getting started with Google Workspace for Education and supported languages for Google Classroom.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 15, 2025

Availability Available for Google Workspace:

Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching and Learning add-on, Endpoint Education add-on
Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on

Resources

Google Help: Get started with Google Workspace for Education
Google Help: Supported languages for Google Classroom

Google Docs code blocks now available in additional programming languages

Monday, April 14, 2025

What’s changingIn 2022, we introduced a smart canvas feature that enables you to format and display code in Google Docs with code blocks.
We’re adding support for additional code languages to give even more users the ability to easily visualize code, making more code readable and collaboration much easier. Starting today, users can now format code blocks in the following additional programming languages:

C#
Go
Kotlin
PHP
Rust
TypeScript
HTML
CSS
XML
JSON
Protobuf
Textproto
SQL
Bash/Shell

additional Docs code blocks programming languages

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: To format and display code in a Doc, select Insert > Building blocks > Code blocks > choose your programming language or search @ > Code blocks > choose your programming language. Visit the Help Center to learn more about inserting smart chips & building blocks in your Google Doc.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility starting on April 14, 2025
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on April 23, 2025

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

Business Standard and Plus
Enterprise Starter, Standard and Plus
Enterprise Essentials Plus
Education Standard and Plus

Resources

Google Help: Insert smart chips & building blocks in your Google Doc
Cloud Blog: Transforming collaboration in Google Workspace

Use Gemini in Google Classroom to generate questions or a quiz based on specific text

Monday, April 14, 2025

What’s changing Earlier this year, we introduced the ability to generate vocabulary lists with the help of Gemini in Google Classroom. Today, we’re adding a text-dependent question generation tool to further our efforts for AI to help educators save time, create captivating learning experiences, and inspire creativity.
Educators can select a Google Drive file or manually input text, select which skills they want students to demonstrate, then generate questions to assess grade-specific comprehension and critical reasoning skills of students. Once generated, educators can then export the questions to a Google Form or Google Doc to assign to students. This new option can be particularly useful in a variety of scenarios, such as creating an exit ticket or a quiz to check students’ understanding.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now.

AvailabilityAvailable for Google Workspace for Education customers with these add-ons:

Gemini Education and Gemini Education Premium

Resources

Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

In the Google Cloud Community, connect with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like yourself. Participate in product discussions, check out the Community Articles, and learn tips and tricks that will make your work and life easier. Be the first to know what's happening with Google Workspace.

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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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Updates

Introducing even more high-quality Google Slides templates to elevate your presentations

Adding new capabilities to student groups in Google Classroom

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - April 18, 2025

Updates for configuring your preferred language for “Take notes for me”, recorded captions, and meeting transcripts

Introducing the ability to grade and assign grading labels in bulk in Google Classroom

Control Workspace Business and Enterprise users’ access to new Google Workspace with Gemini features before general availability

Introducing silent reading mode in Google Classroom’s Read Along

Google Classroom is expanding to 7 additional languages

Google Docs code blocks now available in additional programming languages

Use Gemini in Google Classroom to generate questions or a quiz based on specific text

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