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Read Along in Google Classroom, an AI-powered literacy tool that provides in-the-moment support to students as they read aloud, is now available to all Google Workspace for Education users at no cost. We believe this will open access to literacy tools for millions of students, and help educators and education leaders achieve better learning outcomes and progress on foundational literacy.

Read Along is designed to build students' speaking, listening, and decoding skills. It offers flexible learning modes, allowing students to practice aloud with real-time feedback, listen to stories, or enjoy books independently. To help emerging students transition from simply "learning to read" to "reading to learn," Read Along includes questions directly in the material to continuously strengthen comprehension as well as decoding support through word-breakdown.

Educators can use Read Along in Google Classroom to provide personalized reading practice for every student. The insights dashboard showing individual student and class-wide progress can help inform instruction and make it easier to create tailored reading activities based on student needs.

With this update, all Google Workspace for Education users will have access to:

  • A tailored reading experience in Google Classroom: Educators can easily create interactive reading activities right within Classroom, giving students in-the-moment support while getting actionable insights related to their reading skills.
  • Real-time reading support: Learners get help with pronunciation as they read aloud and get word breakdown support.
  • Class and student insights to inform instruction: View information on accuracy, speed, comprehension, phonics skills, and progress for individual students and the entire class.
  • An extensive content library: Choose from over hundreds of books across eight languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Urdu, Arabic, Thai, Indonesian, and Malay. This includes content such as Heggerty decodables, ReadWorks articles for higher-grade learners, and localized publisher titles like Turma da Mônica in Brazil. 
  • Multilingual support: For students learning English, the reading buddy can provide real-time support in both English and their native language so they can practice their vocabulary. Native language support is available in Spanish, Portuguese, Urdu, Arabic, Indonesian, and Malay.
  • Story creation with Gemini: With help from Gemini, educators can create differentiated reading activities tailored to phonics skills needing practice, specific topics, and reading levels.
  • Existing content: Add existing class content to better tailor real-time student support and insights with Read Along.
Advanced analytics, like viewing student’s progress over time or across assignments and the ability to extract data via BigQuery, are only available with Education Plus and Teaching & Learning add-on.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Education: Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus
  • Education Add-ons: Google AI Pro for Education; Teaching and Learning; Endpoint Education
  • Other Editions: Nonprofits

Resources

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Earlier this year, we announced changes to Google Groups to enhance data security and privacy. The changes, which are rolling out now, include:

  • Stricter “internal” and “external” classifications for Groups
  • Clearer visual indicators for whether a group contains external members
  • Changes to how emails are shown within Google Groups
  • Additional settings granularity to control who can add external users (admins only, or admins and end users) 
  • Changes to how admins can add external users via Groups APIs

API changes

While we originally announced that admins would have to change the classification of a group before being able to add external members to Groups marked as internal, we’re updating that behavior to prevent issues with synced groups. When an admin attempts to add an external member to an internal group via the Cloud Identity or Admin SDK Directory API, or when they sync data from a third-party identity provider via API, the group settings will be automatically updated to allow admins to add external members.

Getting started

  • Admins: To ensure a smooth transition, existing groups will be automatically classified based on their current membership, so there will not be any changes in access. You can review and adjust these labels directly in the Admin console or via the Groups Settings API to match your organization's security needs.
  • End users: There is no action required for end users.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers

Resources

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We are introducing several updates to the Gemini tab in Google Classroom designed to make its tools even more helpful for teachers. These changes make it easier for educators to collaborate with AI and create visual aids from any device, while expanding options for refining lesson plans.

Mobile availability
We know educators and students use Google Classroom on the go on their mobile devices, so we are excited to announce that the Gemini tab is now available in the Classroom Android and iOS apps, making these features more accessible to teachers and higher education students. For educators, the following features are available in the Classroom mobile app: Generate a quiz, Brainstorm project ideas, Craft a compelling hook, Tackle common misconceptions, and starter prompts for the Gemini app. All Gemini starter prompts and personal class notebooks in the student Gemini tab are available in the Classroom mobile app.

Tools to generate visual resources
Powered by Nano Banana 2, Google’s newest image generation model, these starter prompts help teachers create visuals that illustrate complex topics for students:

  • Create an infographic
  • Draw a comic strip
  • Visualize a concept

Teachers can also personalize three new starter prompts to generate a slide deck for a given concept and grade level using Gemini’s Canvas tool:

  • Create a presentation
  • Create an interactive activity
  • Convert a file to Google slides

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Education: Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus

Resources

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Google Meet users can now connect to nearby conference room hardware by entering a 5-character room code on their personal device. Meet recently launched Connect Room using 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.


This feature ensures that meetings remain accessible particularly for private or ad-hoc sessions where automated detection might fail. To maintain security and prevent accidental connections, users must physically confirm their presence by tapping the room hardware screen after entering the code. The room code itself is designed for clarity and security, refreshing every few minutes to ensure only those in the room can initiate the connection.

For IT administrators, this update reduces troubleshooting overhead by providing a built-in alternative for rooms with complex acoustic environments or restricted proximity settings. By streamlining the connection process, organizations can ensure that employees spend less time managing hardware and more time collaborating effectively.

Note: This feature is only available to users in domains on the Rapid Release track attempting to connect to devices enrolled in Early Preview. We’ll provide an update on the Workspace Updates blog when we begin a broader rollout.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

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Google Apps Script is officially a Google Workspace core service. Covered under the Google Cloud Terms of Service and Google Workspace for Education Terms of Service, Apps Script now offers the same enterprise-grade data protection, robust administrative controls, and standard technical support that safeguards other core services. With this update, you can now more confidently deploy Apps Script across your organization.

More about Apps Script

Apps Script is a cloud-based JavaScript platform that enables users to customize, automate, and extend Google Workspace applications like Sheets, Docs, and Forms, as well as build custom solutions and add-ons. You can use it to:

  • Create custom menus, dialogs, and sidebars within Sheets, Docs, and Slides.
  • Write custom functions for Sheets to automate complex calculations.
  • Build internal add-ons to streamline organizational workflows and integrate with third-party APIs.

Getting started

  • Admins:
    • If you already have Apps Script enabled: No action is required. Your organization will automatically benefit from these new core service protections and technical support.
    • If you previously restricted Apps Script: If you turned Apps Script off due to compliance, security, or support concerns, you can now enable the service to provide secure, custom automation for your users. Visit the Help Center to learn how to manage Apps Script access for your organization.
  • End users: No action is required. Visit the Help Center to learn more about getting started with Apps Script.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Apps Script is now available as a core service for all Google Workspace customers

Resources

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