As previously announced, skills in the Gemini app are starting to roll out today, with an expected completion by mid-November. In the coming weeks, we’ll also introduce critical features like the ability to share Gemini app skills and an integration with Google Drive. We’ll post on the Workspace Updates blog as soon as those capabilities start rolling out.

We also want to share an update on the rollout of skills in Workspace. We previously shared that the launch to Rapid Release would be complete by October 12, 2026, and the rollout to Scheduled Release would begin on October 19, 2026. While we work to ensure skills in Workspace launch in a safe and reliable manner, those rollouts are slightly delayed. We will share the updated timeline here as soon as it’s confirmed. 

Getting started

• Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about admin controls for skills in Workspace. There are no admin controls for skills in the Gemini app.
• End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about skills in Workspace and skills in the Gemini app. Google Classroom users can also explore our guidance on creating and using teacher-led AI experiences directly in Classroom.

Rollout pace

• Skills in the Gemini app
• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout starting on October 13, 2026, with expected completion by mid-November, 2026
• Skills in Workspace
• Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Delayed until further notice

Availability

• Skills in the Gemini app
• Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts
• Skills in Workspace
• Business: Business Starter, Standard, and Plus
• Enterprise: Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
• Education Add-ons: Google AI Pro for Education
• Other Add-ons: AI Expanded Access

Note that skills in Workspace are available only to users over age 18; skills in the Gemini app will be available to users of all ages.

Resources

• Workspace Blog: Teach Gemini your team’s know-hows with skills in Google Workspace
• News from Google Blog: Let skills in Gemini tackle your most repetitive tasks
• Workspace Handbook: AI skills 101: Customizing AI from Google for your role
• Workspace Admin Help: Allow people to use skills in Studio and Gemini in Workspace
• Workspace Studio Help: Learn how skills work in Google Workspace Studio
• Gemini Apps Help: Create & manage skills for Gemini Apps
• Workspace Admin Help: About the transition from Gems to skills
• Education Transition Guide: Gemini Gems and Skills Transition Guide for Education

You can now switch from watching a Google Meet live stream to participating with audio and video directly on Android. This feature is available for viewers who have been invited to both the live stream and the main meeting.

While watching a live stream on Android, you can switch roles using the meeting title, the live streaming badge, or the info button in the overflow menu. This in-app workflow eliminates the need to reopen join links or switch apps.

Existing meeting access permissions and domain policies apply, ensuring only authorized participants can join with media. Only eligible viewers will see the entry points, protecting the integrity of the meeting or event.

Role switching is already available for Meet clients on iOS and web.

Getting Started

• Admins: There are no administrator controls for this feature.
• End users: While watching a live stream on an Android device, eligible viewers will see an option to transition directly into the main meeting room as an active contributor.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (more than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on October 19, 2026

Availability

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

Resources

• Google Help: Livestream a video meeting
• Google Help: View the Google Meet live stream automatically if an adaptive meeting becomes full

We are introducing next steps in Google Meet. Powered by Gemini and Workspace Studio, our new capability allows users to automate repetitive post-meeting tasks directly within Google Workspace. Next steps help you transform meeting discussions into definitive actions, like drafting follow-up emails in Gmail or exporting action items to Google Tasks.

During busy work days, meetings are frequently just one part of an expanding workflow. Without the right integrations, capturing decisions and executing on follow-up tasks requires manual data entry that leads to context fragmentation and wasted time.

On your post-meeting screen, look for the section titled, “Routines for this meeting,”  where you can enable next steps with one tap. “Take notes for me” must be enabled during the meeting for any next steps to appear. This works for both one-off or recurring meetings, and users can enable a specific next step across all of their meetings (when “Take notes for me” is turned on).

We are starting out with just two routine next steps, draft a follow-up email and add action items to Google Tasks. However, there are several more soon on the way, so be on the lookout!

Draft a followup email or export your action items to Google Tasks on the Google Meet post-call page after a one-off meeting

You can also complete your next steps after a recurring meeting

Getting started

• Admins: This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled at the domain/OU/group level via the Workspace Studio Admin settings or the Take Notes for Me setting. Visit the Help Center to learn more.
• End users: This feature is available to users when "Take notes for me" is enabled. Users can manage their routine next steps from the Meet post-call screen or in the Workspace Studio Flows library once turned on for the first time in Google Meet. Visit the Help Center to learn more.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) started on October 5, 2026

Availability

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

Resources

• Google Help: Complete routine tasks with post-meeting next steps

We’re introducing Assured Controls rules in the Google Workspace Admin Console, giving administrators a more granular, resource-centric way to enforce Access Management and Access Approvals policies on Google Drive files.

Previously, Access Management and Access Approvals policies could only be scoped at the user level, applying broadly to all covered data owned by users within a selected Organizational Unit (OU) or group. With Assured Controls rules, admins can now configure both Access Management and Access Approvals policies together in a single unified rule and target specific Google Drive files using classification labels in addition to existing OU and group-based scoping capabilities.

By scoping Assured Controls policies to specific classification labels, organizations can reserve their strictest sovereign and compliance controls for only their most sensitive files while maintaining standard, rapid support workflows for less sensitive business data.

How organizations can use Assured Controls rules:

• Automated end-to-end protection with Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Admins can combine data protection rules with Assured Controls rules to automatically apply Access Approvals and Access Management policies based on Drive file contents. A DLP rule can automatically apply a classification label when sensitive content (such as Personally Identifiable Information, financial records, or regulated project identifiers) is detected in a Drive file, which then automatically triggers the corresponding Assured Controls rule using that label as a condition to enforce Access Management and Access Approvals protections.
• Regional data sovereignty across multinational teams: Multinational enterprises can apply regional classification labels (such as EU Restricted or U.S. Restricted) to Drive files and restrict access to EU or US support staff based on the contents of the file itself.
• Targeted compliance for regulated workloads: Public sector and financial services organizations can apply a classification label (such as CJIS / IRS 1075) to sensitive Drive files and use an Assured Controls rule to restrict support actions on those files to CJIS-authorized and IRS 1075-authorized individuals while simultaneously requiring explicit Access Approvals—without impacting support speed for unclassified files owned by the same users.

Getting started

• Admins: Use our Help Center to learn more about Assured Controls rules for Access Management & Access Approvals.
• End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) started on September 30, 2026

Availability

• Access Approvals rule-based enforcement: Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus and Frontline Plus customers with the Assured Controls or Assured Controls Plus add-on.
• Access Management rule-based enforcement: Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus and Frontline Plus customers with the Assured Controls Plus add on.

Resources

• Google Workspace Admin Help: Assured Controls rules for Access Management & Access Approvals 
• Google Workspace Admin Help: Access Management: Limit the Google staff who can take support actions related to your data
• Google Workspace Admin Help: Access Approvals: Require Google staff to request approval before viewing support data
• Google Workspace Admin Help: About Assured Controls and Assured Controls Plus
• Google Workspace Admin Help: What data is covered by Access Management and Access Approvals? 
• Google Workspace Admin Help: Create data protection rules
• Google Workspace Admin Help: Create classification labels for your organization

Calls in Google Meet will use post-quantum cryptography (PQC) for extra protection, starting now with laptop web clients and meeting room hardware, with mobile support coming soon. There are no visible changes, and you can continue using Meet normally. The updated encryption protects your data against potential future quantum computer threats.

The expansion of PQC to all Meet calls will help to secure infrastructure and services against the potential threat of a future cryptographically relevant quantum computer. No such computer exists today; however this change helps protect today's Meet traffic from the theoretical risk of being harvested and decrypted by a future quantum computer, an approach commonly referred to as Store Now, Decrypt Later.

Google Meet has used quantum-safe encryption previously for client-side encrypted calls (CSE).

Google automatically implements all necessary updates to benefit all Meet hosts and participants. Administrators and end users don't need to take any action.

Getting started

• Admins: 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 call & meeting encryption in Google Meet.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on Oct 12 for web and room hardware

Availability

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

Resources

• Cloud Blog: PQC in Plaintext: Google Cloud’s post-quantum cryptography roadmap
• Google Blog: Setting a timeline for post-quantum cryptography migration
• Google Help: Learn about Meet client-side encryption (CSE)
• Google Admin Help: How Google protects your organization's security and privacy
• Google Workspace: Advanced Security & Threat Prevention
• Google Cloud: Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) hub