Last year, we launched Gemini in Google Classroom to help educators save time on planning and create more engaging lessons, and later expanded Gemini in Classroom to higher education students 18 years of age and older to help them study and learn. Starting August 10, 2026, Gemini in Classroom will also be made available to K-12 and higher education students of all ages who have already been granted access to Gemini in Classroom, Gemini and Gemini Notebook by their admin, offering a guided space to interact with these tools.

In Classroom, students can access the Gemini tab to transform their class materials into interactive experiences that help them study and learn. For example, students who have access to Gemini can select course materials to create flashcards or practice quizzes with Gemini that are tailored to their class. Students with Gemini Notebook access can also sync the materials provided by their teacher to Gemini Notebook, enabling them to create interactive study guides, audio overviews, infographics, and more.

Additionally, starter prompts on the student Gemini tab can now use context from Classroom to tailor Gemini interactions specifically to students’ schoolwork. This update transforms the existing starter prompts into highly contextualized experiences, eliminating the need to go back and forth between Classroom and Gemini to get support relevant to what they’re learning in the classroom.

When a student clicks on one of these starter prompts, a new box now appears that allows them to select a specific class and assignment. The Gemini prompt will then incorporate the relevant title, assignment instructions, and curriculum materials as context directly from Google Classroom, ensuring that the resulting interaction is grounded in the student’s academic context.

If Gemini in Classroom and the Gemini app are enabled, students will also be able to access “Learn with Gemini” when they hover over any assignment in “Due Soon” on the redesigned Classroom homepage. “Learn with Gemini” helps students get guided help or create study guides, practice quizzes, and flashcards – all based on their class curriculum.

Access to the Gemini tab in Classroom is currently available globally in all Classroom-supported languages in which Gemini is also available.

Getting started

Admins:

• Access to the Gemini tab in Classroom is On by default for teachers and students of all ages, and is controlled using the Gemini in Classroom control. If Gemini in Classroom is currently turned off for students, access will remain off for all students, including students younger than 18.
• As an administrator of your organization's Google Accounts, you can control who is allowed to use Gemini in Google Classroom. The student capabilities are only available to users:
• Whose role is defined as “Student” in Classroom
• Who are in a group or OU with Gemini in Classroom set to On
• Who are in a group or OU with Gemini Notebook set to On and/or Gemini set to On

Note: Users do not need to have both the Gemini app and Gemini Notebook set to On in order to see the Gemini tab. For example, if Gemini is set to Off, Gemini features will not be visible.

• If you would like to disable Gemini in Google Classroom for users who are under 18 years old, you can create an OU with only those users and turn off access for that OU only. Visit the Help Center to learn about managing access to Gemini in Classroom, Gemini app, Gemini Notebook, and the option to turn these services on or off for users in your Admin console.
• Ensure roles in Classroom are appropriately assigned to users. Learn more about teacher and student roles.

• Navigate to the Gemini tab in the navigation bar in Google Classroom.
• When using generated content, you should always review the outputs as AI can make mistakes and refine the output so that it fits your context and local policies.
• Visit the Help Center to learn more about Gemini in Classroom and learn more about how to use generative AI for students.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on August 10, 2026, on the web and on August 17, 2026 on mobile

Availability

• Education: Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus

Resources

• Workspace Updates Blog: Gemini in Google Classroom is expanding to students in higher education 
• Workspace Updates Blog: Students can now create personal class notebooks with NotebookLM in Google Classroom
• Google Classroom Help: Learn about Gemini in Google Classroom
• Google Classroom Help: Verify teachers and set permissions
• Google Workspace Admin Help: Manage access to Gemini in Classroom
• Google Workspace Admin Help: Control access to Google services by age

We’re improving the ‘Take notes for me’ feature in Google Meet by giving you the ability to automatically capture and include screenshots of presented content directly in the meeting notes document.

While meeting transcripts capture what is said, they often miss critical visual context, like content that was presented. Without these visuals, notes can lack necessary detail or even be confusing if a speaker refers to a chart or diagram without describing it out loud.

Getting started

• Admins: You can configure this feature in the Admin console to either always allow screenshots of presented content or only allow them when a recording is enabled. Visit the Help Center to learn more.
• End users: When you begin presenting in a meeting where notes are being taken, you will see a notification alerting you that Gemini may capture screenshots of your presentation to add to the notes. This feature can be disabled from the notes panel.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 3, 2026

Availability

• Business: Business Standard and Plus
• Enterprise: Enterprise Standard and Plus
• Education: Google AI Pro for Education

Resources

• Google Workspace Admin Help: Let Google Meet AI take notes for my users
• Google Meet Help: Take notes for me in Google Meet (Optional customizable settings)

We are introducing timestamped comments for videos in Google Drive on the web. Users can now anchor comments to a specific time mark in a video, making video collaboration more direct, precise, and contextual.

When reviewing a video file, users can choose between adding a timestamped comment or a general file-level comment using a split button in the commenting interface.  Each timestamped comment generates a visual marker directly on the video player timeline. Clicking a marker automatically jumps to that point in the video and highlights the associated comment, allowing reviewers and video owners to navigate feedback without manually scrubbing through media files. Standard commenting capabilities—such as editing, resolving, replying, and mentioning colleagues with @ notifications—remain fully supported and integrated with time-anchored notes.

This feature streamlines cross-functional workflows by eliminating the need to track timecoded feedback in separate documents, chat threads, or emails. Teams producing demos, training videos, marketing content, or recorded presentations can now conduct precise, asynchronous reviews directly within Drive. While timestamped comments must be created on the web, mobile users viewing videos on iOS or Android will still see these entries formatted as standard file-level comments.

Getting started

• Admins: This feature will be available by default for all users. There is no admin control for this feature.
• End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about commenting on videos.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now

Availability

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

Resources

• Google Help: Store & play video in Google Drive - Comment on a video

Visual screenshots in Google Meet meeting notes will soon be generally available, pre-configure admin settings in advance

In the coming weeks, we’re starting the rollout of visual screenshots for the ‘Take notes for me’ feature in Google Meet. Visual screenshots automatically capture presented content (such as slides, diagrams, and charts) directly into the generated meeting notes document, ensuring critical visual context is preserved alongside spoken summaries and transcripts. | Learn more.

Streamline collaboration in Google Docs with Gemini-powered comment workflows

We’re introducing Gemini-powered comment workflows in Google Docs to help you quickly understand and respond to collaborator feedback. These new features enable Gemini to read, summarize, and act on comments throughout your document, saving you time and streamlining collaboration. | Learn more.

Generate and edit visuals with Gemini in Google Docs

You can now create and edit images, diagrams, and infographics directly alongside your text using Gemini in Google Docs. These images leverage the context of your document, so you can generate relevant visuals to accompany your writing without ever leaving Docs or relying on external tools. Plus, you can refine your existing visuals and graphics using simple natural language prompts. | Learn more.

Updated options to better view Google Calendar on large monitors

To provide users with more control over their viewing experience, we’re updating information density options for the calendar grid. These updates allow users to customize how calendar events scale on their screens to accommodate various monitor sizes and personal preferences. | Learn more.

Create and import scatter charts with multiple x-series in Google Sheets

Google Sheets now supports creating and editing scatter charts with multiple independent x-series. This update allows users to map separate data series to their own unique x-axis, rather than forcing all series in a single chart to share the same horizontal axis domain. | Learn more.

Use Gemini in Google Forms to quickly create a new quiz

Help me create in Google Forms now supports generating quizzes. With this launch, you can quickly create a quiz by writing a specific prompt for Help me create describing the quiz you want to create. Your prompt can reference Google Drive files like Docs, Slides or PDFs to use as sources for the quiz, should you choose. | Learn more.

Prevent accidental disclosures with new Reply All BCC warnings in Gmail

To help protect your privacy and ensure intentional communication, we are introducing a new caution notification in Gmail. This feature is designed to prevent accidental information disclosure by alerting users when they are about to "Reply All" to a thread where they were originally BCC’ed. | Learn more.

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

To help protect your privacy and ensure intentional communication, we are introducing a new caution notification in Gmail. This feature is designed to prevent accidental information disclosure by alerting users when they are about to "Reply All" to a thread where they were originally BCC’ed.

Previously, users might inadvertently reveal their presence on a confidential thread by hitting "Reply All" while BCC'ed. With this update, Gmail will now display a prominent warning prompt to confirm your intent before the message is sent to all recipients, ensuring that your participation remains private unless you choose otherwise.

Getting started

• Admins: This feature is available by default.
• End users: This feature is available by default and will trigger automatically when a BCC'ed recipient attempts to "Reply All" on a thread.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now

Availability

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