This official feed from the Google Workspace team provides essential information about new features and improvements for Google Workspace customers.
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We are introducing the ability to set custom, persistent instructions for Gemini in Google Docs. These instructions ensure that Gemini adapts to your style, tone, and formatting preferences without needing to repeat them in every conversation, ultimately saving you time and ensuring consistency.

Users can add instructions and rules using Gemini in the side panel of Docs such as "Always respond in bullet points," "When summarizing Docs, always include a 3 bullet points at the top."" or "Use a concise and professional tone for all my documents."

Note that users are currently limited to 1000 active instructions.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Business: Business Starter, Standard, and Plus
  • Enterprise: Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
  • Education: Education Plus
  • Consumer: Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra
  • Other Editions: Frontline Plus
  • Education Add-Ons: Google AI Pro for Education, Teaching and Learning
  • Other Add-Ons: AI Expanded Access; AI Ultra Access

Resources

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Securely managing access for generative AI and agent actions to Workspace data is easier ever than before with the new AI control center in the Admin console. This new capability gives enterprise organizations greater visibility and control, especially for teams with stringent data security and compliance requirements.

With the AI control center, admins will feel empowered to confidently deploy and adopt AI in their organizations through

  • A single pane of glass that provides a centralized view of security and governance settings for generative AI and agent actions
  • More granular security, governance, and auditing capabilities for Gemini and agentic solutions accessing Workspace data
  • Additional integrations with other 1P and 3P AI apps to manage AI access and controls to Workspace data
Additional details
The AI control center has four core modules, each addressing key areas of interest for administrators.

  1. Monitor and control AI access: Provides immediate visibility into who is using AI in your organization. It features direct links to Gemini usage reports and core management settings for the Gemini app, Gemini for Workspace and other AI features. To start, the AI control center will show usage for Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, Calendar, Chat, and the Gemini App.
  2. Manage security for AI products: Enables granular authority over specific services, such as Gemini in Meet, allowing admins to ensure every AI surface adheres to domain-specific data and security policies.
  3. Manage fundamental security: Anchors AI usage in a secure environment by surfacing foundational protections like classification labels, trust rules, and data protection rules to prevent oversharing and data leaks also when using AI.
  4. Review privacy, abuse, and compliance standards: Directs admins to Google’s guaranteed safeguards, including our "Secure by Design" architecture and the commitment that your domain's data is never used to train our models.
Throughout the AI control center, certain settings will be marked “Coming soon,” allowing admins to plan longer-term rollouts with future capabilities in mind.

Getting started

  • Admins: The AI control center is available by default in the Google Admin console under Generative AI > AI control center. No manual opt-in is required to access the dashboard. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing AI security and data privacy.
  • End users: No end user action is required. This feature provides administrative visibility and control within the Admin console.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Enterprise: Enterprise Standard and Plus

Resources

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Previously available in beta, client-side encryption (CSE) customers can now conduct bulk migrations of sensitive files from both cloud and on-premises data sources. This process ensures confidential content is wrapped with customer-managed keys before it's imported into Google Workspace. Using this tooling, CSE customers can decommission their legacy third-party storage while ensuring the CSE model is in place throughout the document lifecycle. The API is highly configurable, we share a generalized sample code to make deployment simple, but customers can further customize it depending on their needs.

Getting started

  • Admins: This feature will be ON by default for customers. Admins or authorized users will need to call the Drive API to leverage the feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more.
  • End users: There is no end-user setting in Drive for this feature.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Enterprise: Enterprise Plus
  • Education: Education Standard and Plus
  • Other Editions: Frontline Plus

Resources

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Move from conversation to creation with file generation in Gemini

Gemini can now transform your ideas, using conversational prompts, directly into thoughtfully formatted files, such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, PDFs and more, directly in your chats with Gemini. | Learn more about how to move from conversation to creation with file generation in Gemini.

Students can now create personal class notebooks with NotebookLM in Google Classroom

With this launch, we’re allowing students in higher education who are 18 years of age and older to create their own notebooks for courses in Google Classroom. | Learn more about students creating personal class notebooks with NotebookLM.

Workspace audit logs: New functionality and expanded event fields in the Admin console

We're releasing several enhancements to deepen the security investigation capabilities of the Workspace audit log, including expanded fields across many data sources. | Learn more about new functionality and expanded event fields in the Admin console.

New ways to customize AI-generated meeting notes

We are giving users more control over "Take notes for me" in Google Meet with new customization options and an improved Decisions section. | Learn more about new ways to customize AI-generated meeting notes.

New: Agent tools and security updates for Google Workspace developers

We're opening the Workspace MCP server to public developer preview and introducing a standardized tiering model for all agent tools inclusive of our APIs in Workspace. | Learn more about agent tools and security updates for Google Workspace developers.

Google Takeout Transfer now supports Google Photos for Education users

We’re expanding Google Takeout Transfer to include Google Photos, allowing users to migrate their memories from their school or university-issued Google account to a personal Google account. | Learn more about Google Takeout Transfer support for Google Photos.

The announcements above were published on the Workspace Updates blog over the last week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.
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When users graduate or leave an organization, they can preserve their academic work by using Google Takeout Transfer to take their Google Drive and Gmail content with them. We’re now expanding Google Takeout Transfer to include Google Photos, allowing users to migrate their memories from their school or university-issued Google account to a personal Google account.

This is the first step in providing a clear migration path for Photos data, ensuring that creative work and personal history stays with individuals long after they leave an organization. When users navigate to takeout.google.com/transfer they will soon see an option to include Photos content. Note that users will need to have sufficient storage in their personal account to complete the transfer.

A browser window showing the third step ("Transfer your content" screen) within Google Takeout migration process. The screen displays three product toggles - Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos - all switched to the "on" position, indicating they are selected for transfer. Under the Google Photos section, the detailed text specifies "Photos, videos & albums you own". A banner at the bottom offers a Google AI plan to help the user secure more storage for the transfer, and a blue "Start Transfer" button is visible at the bottom left.

Users leaving your organization can now use Google Takeout to seamlessly copy and transfer their Google Photos content - including photos, videos, and albums - alongside their Drive and Gmail data to a personal Google account.

Later this year, we will introduce new Photos management and bulk-deletion capabilities in the admin console. These tools will provide better visibility into which users have migrated their data and allow you to proactively manage Photos content to help your institution free up critical pooled Drive storage. 

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Education: Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus

Resources

Read More

Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

In the Google Cloud Community, discuss the latest features with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like you. Learn tips and tricks that will make your work and life easier. Be the first to know what's happening with Google Workspace.

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

Discover how a diverse range of organizations, from small businesses and nimble startups to globally recognized Fortune 500 corporations, leverage the collaborative power of Google Workspace. Explore examples of how teams of are streamlining workflows and driving productivity by utilizing Google-Workspace.