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

In order to help organizations, particularly those in the financial services industry, meet strict regulatory archiving requirements, today we are introducing Google Meet Compliance Recording, a new feature that can be enabled by administrators to automatically record meetings and capture transcripts for specific users or groups requiring regulatory monitoring by a registered organization. This feature helps financial firms comply with communication retention and supervision rules mandated by the SEC, FINRA, and the CFTC. It enables firms to retain, monitor, and store digital communications in the required format to adhere to specific regulations like FINRA Rule 3170 and CFTC 17 CFR 1.31. This solution can also be used for other applications, including other global Financial Services compliance regimest (MIFID, etc), and for regulatory requirements in other industries like Healthcare, Public Sector, and more. This solution is available as part of the Assured Controls add-on. 

In this article, we will refer to users who benefit from the solution as “regulated users”. This can include any persons who need to be monitored to comply with regulatory requirements; registered broker/dealers, compliance officers, broader employees who communicate with the former groups, and more.

New Google Meet Compliance Recording feature

New Google Meet Compliance Recording feature

Why this matters

  • Meet regulatory requirements: When compliance recording is turned on for a regulated user, their Meet meetings are automatically recorded, and transcripts are captured. Both the recordings and transcripts are stored in a WORM (write once, read many) compliant Google Cloud Storage (GCS) bucket with appropriate retention policies, ensuring immutable records for regulatory archiving.
  • Enable collaboration features: Historically, regulated entities had to disable several valuable collaboration features in Meet (like chat and screen sharing) to comply with SEC rules. This new framework solves that by automatically creating unalterable records of the recording and transcript when a regulated user joins a call, preserving the standard Meet experience for both participants with the feature turned on or off.
  • User experience: All call participants will have an uninterrupted experience, with the assurance that regulated user communications are automatically archived for regulatory purposes.

How compliance recording works

Compliance recording is automatic and cannot be disabled by participants once the recording starts.

  • Visibility: All meeting participants will see a Compliance badge displayed when a regulated user is present. This badge cannot be turned off. A notification is also shown on the pre-meeting screen on the web and when the recording starts.
  • Storage and Sharing: The recordings and transcripts are not automatically shared with attendees, attached to Google Calendar events, or sent via email notifications to users. They are for compliance archiving only.
  • Limitations:
    • Users cannot access these compliance recordings; they must record the meeting themselves if they want a personal copy.
    • As with existing Meet recordings, compliance recordings are limited to a maximum of 8 hours, after which regulated users might be removed from the meeting.
    • The recording will not capture content in Breakout Rooms when regulated users join them.
  • Audio/Video Options: Admins can choose to record Audio only or Audio & video.

Getting started

  • Admins: The compliance recording setting is off by default. This setting can be applied at the organizational unit (OU) or configuration group level to target only your regulated users. This feature is tied to the license, so only users with an eligible add-on license will be subject to these measures. 
  • End users: No action is required for end users. The recording and transcription process for compliance is automatic and transparent to the user, except for the in-meeting notification and the permanent Compliance badge.

Rollout pace

  • Available now

Availability

  • Available for users with the Google Workspace Assured Controls or Assured Controls Plus add-on license

Resources

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What’s happening

Google Voice is introducing call queuing for ring groups.

Currently, when all members of a ring group are busy, incoming calls are often sent to voicemail or, in some cases, disconnected by the carrier. With this update, when a caller dials a ring group, they will be automatically placed on hold in a queue to wait for the next available person.

This new feature allows administrators to customize several aspects of the caller experience, including:

  • Music and periodic announcements to be played while callers are on hold
  • A maximum number of callers allowed in the queue
  • A maximum time a caller can wait in the queue before being routed elsewhere
  • A "wrap-up time" to give agents a brief pause after a call before they receive the next one from the queue


Why it's important 

This feature is designed to solve common frustrations for both businesses and their customers. With this update, you can:

  • Capture more calls: By placing callers in a queue instead of sending them to voicemail, businesses can significantly reduce the number of unanswered calls and ensure more inbound inquiries reach an agent.
  • Boost sales: For sales-focused teams, call queuing ensures that no potential lead is lost due to a busy line. For support teams, it provides a structured way to handle high call volumes, especially during peak hour
  • Improve customer experience: Call queuing prevents callers from being abruptly disconnected and reduces their frustration, which is particularly helpful for businesses that experience high call volumes or have customers in regions with carrier-imposed ring time limits.

Getting started

  • Admins: This feature can be enabled or disabled per ring group. Visit the Help Center to learn more.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available for Google Workspace customers with the Voice Standard and Voice Premier add-ons

Resources


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What’s changing

Additional access controls for Google Meet will now let hosts decide who can view their live streams. Live streams can now reach a wider audience with added flexibility for events like town halls, webinars, and large presentations. This allows for mixed internal/external audiences and better granularity for hosting restricted internal broadcasts.

  • External live streaming: Hosts can now also invite external users outside their own domain to join live streams. External viewers join live streams with their invited Google Account.
  • Targeted internal live streaming: Hosts can now optionally limit in-domain access to a live stream to only specific users or groups and not the entire domain.
  • New "Adaptive" meeting type: A new opt-in "Adaptive" meeting type setting provides access to these new controls. Existing meetings will keep their behaviors unchanged.



Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users (meeting hosts): The new Adaptive meeting type is available for meetings with a live stream. Visit the Help Center to learn more about hosting a live stream.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available for Google Workspace editions that support live stream hosting:

  • Enterprise Standard and Plus
  • Enterprise Essentials Plus
  • Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning add-on

Resources

 

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What’s changing 

Google Meet now supports automatically opening picture-in-picture when starting a screen share. This will allow you to see your audience while focusing on your presentation content. This feature is an enhancement to picture-in-picture opening automatically when you switch tabs. 



In addition to this change, users can now control when picture-in-picture should open automatically from the General tab in Settings. You can choose to: 

  • Never use automatic picture-in-picture 
  • Only use automatic picture-in-picture for tab switching 
  • Only use automatic picture-in-picture for window and screen sharing 
  • Always use automatic picture-in-picture 
Note: Automatic picture-in-picture for tab switching requires you to grant permission in your browser once. 


End users can choose when to use automatic picture-in-picture in Meet’s settings. 

Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

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

Resources 

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A summary of announcements from the last week:

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog over the last week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

Control whether users can request to join a space in Google Chat

New Google Chat Access Control Space owners and managers can now disable the "request to join" feature. Previously, users with a link to a restricted space could ask for permission to enter; with this new setting, managers can block these requests entirely, preventing users from asking to join via a link. | Learn more about controlling whether users can request to join a space in Google Chat.

Educators can now assign public notebooks in Google Classroom

Expanded NotebookLM Assignments in Google Classroom Educators can now attach public notebooks to assignments, rather than being limited to notebooks they personally create or own. This update allows teachers to easily integrate external shared resources—such as content from the OpenStax partnership—directly into their curriculum. | Learn more about assigning public notebooks in Google Classroom.

New to Gmail: share emails in Google Chat

We’re launching a new integration between Gmail and Google Chat designed to improve team collaboration and productivity. With this feature, you can easily share a conversation from your Gmail inbox to a Chat direct message or space. No need to start your chat conversation with, "Did you see the email I forwarded?" or dig through your inbox to find the message being discussed. | Learn more about sharing emails to Google Chat directly from Gmail.

Choose your preferred caption language for Meet live streams on mobile devices

Google Meet live stream viewers can select their own preferred language for translated captions on mobile devices. Individual language selection helps overcome language barriers during presentations and events, maximizing each viewer's potential to understand and engage with the content being shared. | Learn more about choosing your preferred caption language for Meet live streams on mobile devices.

Google Meet translated captions now available in Cantonese

Cantonese Support for Google Meet Translated Captions Google Meet has added Cantonese to its list of supported languages for translated captions. This allows real-time translation of Cantonese speech into other languages, significantly improving accessibility and collaboration for global teams and educational institutions operating in diverse linguistic environments. | Learn more about Cantonese support for Google Meet translated captions.

A refreshed user interface for Google Meet hardware touch controllers

In the coming weeks, we’ll roll out a streamlined user interface for the following Meet Hardware devices: Mimo Vue HD, Mimo Mist, Logitech Tap, Logitech Tap IP, and Lenovo Series One Touch controllers (with Android devices coming soon). This new experience will offer users a more efficient and intuitive way to manage their meetings. | Learn more about a refreshed user interface for Google Meet hardware touch controllers.

Seamlessly join meetings on Google Meet hardware with “Connect room”

In the coming weeks, we’ll introduce Connect room, a new way to seamlessly begin your meetings on Google Meet hardware directly from your personal device. This will be available in early preview. Connect room streamlines how you start meetings in a conference room. Instead of manually typing a meeting code, this feature uses ultrasound proximity detection to identify a nearby, available Google Meet hardware device. | Learn more about seamlessly joining meetings on Google Meet hardware with “Connect room”.

Get quick insights on your Google Drive folders with Gemini

Earlier this year, we introduced Gemini “nudges” at the top of folders in Google Drive, and we’re now making it even easier to get the context of your folders at a glance. Gemini will now proactively provide insights about the files within a folder, right at the top of the folder view. This makes it easier to quickly understand what’s inside without having to open individual files. | Learn more about getting quick insights on your Google Drive folders with Gemini.

Now available: Create AI agents to automate work with Google Workspace Studio

Today we’re introducing Google Workspace Studio: the place to create, manage, and share AI agents to automate work in Workspace—no coding required. | Learn more about creating AI agents to automate work with Google Workspace Studio.

A more modern interface for viewing PDFs, videos, images, and audio files in Google Drive on the web

Google Drive is making significant improvements to the viewing experience of third party file formats, such as PDFs, videos, images, and audio files. | Learn more about a more modern interface for viewing PDFs, videos, images, and audio files in Google Drive on the web.

BYOD on Google Meet on Chrome OS touch controller rooms

We're launching an integration with Lightware peripheral switchers, so that you and your team can bring your own devices (BYOD) to Google Meet on Chrome OS touch controller rooms. Now, you can plug your laptop into a Meet room with a single USB-C cable and easily use the room's display, speaker, microphone, and camera—along with your laptop—for video conferencing. | Learn more about BYOD on Google Meet for ChromeOS touch controller rooms.

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