This official feed from the Google Workspace team provides essential information about new features and improvements for Google Workspace customers.
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Google Chat is the central hub for real-time collaboration in Workspace, and starting August 26, 2026, it becomes the place where you can bring the power of Gemini into your flow of teamwork. We’re introducing Ask Gemini in Google Chat, a unified command line for your work, powered by Workspace Intelligence.

Ask Gemini in Chat helps you navigate your day, stay on top of the flow of collaboration, find what you’re looking for, and help you take action.

  • Find answers quickly: Search across your Workspace data (like Gmail, Drive, or Calendar) to gather information.
  • Create content: Generate images or draft critical updates without leaving the conversation.
  • Stay on top of discussions: Catch up on all your conversations in one place.
  • Manage tasks and events: Schedule your meetings and manage tasks without breaking your flow.
  • Organize your work: Structure your conversations with individual sessions to revisit and continue work on specific topics over time.
Ask Gemini helps you reduce time spent searching for information and toggling between tabs, to ensure you have everything you need to take action and keep up with the busy pace of modern teamwork.

A GIF showing how to ask questions from Gemini in Chat

Ask Gemini is available in the Shortcuts menu in Chat

Important changes to Gemini side panel in Chat

  • Ask Gemini in Chat provides many of the functions previously available in the Gemini side panel in Chat, including finding files, capturing action items and summarizing conversations. With this launch, you’ll no longer see the side panel in Chat.
  • In addition, you’ll no longer be able to access Gems via Gemini side panel in Chat. However, Gems will remain available in the Gemini side panel of other Workspace apps.
  • Your conversation history from the Gemini side panel in Chat will not migrate to the new Ask Gemini surface in Chat. However, admins will be able to export Gemini conversation history, including conversation history from the Chat side panel, and if permitted by their organization, end users will be able to download their conversation history as well. Note that in the Data Export tool and Google Takeout, this data is stored under “Gemini in Workspace,” not “Google Chat.”

Language availability

This change will only affect users who have English as their Google account language. Users with other language preferences will be able to continue using the side panel as this update will not apply to them. Support for more languages will be added in the future.

Getting started

Through October 1, 2026, Workspace customers will get promotional access to higher limits for Ask Gemini in Chat, allowing users to experiment with this feature. Usage limits will apply after that date; we’ll provide more information in the Help Center in advance of updated usage limits going into effect.

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

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We are excited to introduce Room Display mode, a new dual-window experience for Google Meet on the web. Launching in beta, this feature is designed specifically for "Bring Your Own Device"  meeting spaces, where users connect a personal laptop to a shared external display, such as a TV or projector.



Joining in Room Display mode

Historically, setting up a meeting on a shared display (e.g. in a meeting room) meant manually dragging browser windows across screens, dealing with clunky display layouts, and risking showing your browsing windows. Room Display mode removes this complexity by automatically splitting your meeting interface into two dedicated views the moment you connect your device and join the call:

  • Shared View (TV/Monitor): A clean, distraction-free, entire-screen view on your external display. It displays remote participant video tiles and shared presentations edge-to-edge. You can choose to go full screen by clicking the full-screen window button.

Shared View (TV) in Room Display mode with and without and active presentation
  • Personal View (Laptop Controller): Your laptop screen becomes a private personal view and "control center" for the meeting. In addition to your persona
    l view of the active presentation, it houses the meeting controls, peripherals selection, presentation controls, the participant roster, chat panels, and your "Ask Gemini" panel. This ensures you can manage the meeting privately without displaying your browser window or personal workspace to the entire room.

Personal View (Laptop) in Room Display mode with an active presentation with speaker notes and with the Ask Gemini side panel open

Whether you’re hosting a team sync, leading a pitch, or watching a presentation, Room Display mode makes running meetings on a shared display and collaborating in hybrid environments more seamless and professional.

Note: This requires a Chromium-based browser (such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge) with Window Management permissions enabled.

Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: This feature will be available by default when a laptop running a Chromium-based browser is connected to an external display (set to Extended mode, not mirrored). Room Display mode will be highlighted as the main option to join the call when the laptop detects  a shared external display like a meeting room TV. To help us improve the feature, provide feedback via the thumbs up/down icons and the feedback link in the Personal View UI. Visit the Help Center to learn more about joining meetings with Room Display mode.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Business: Business Starter, Standard, and Plus
  • Enterprise: Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
  • Other Editions: Frontline Starter, Standard, and Plus; Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus; Nonprofits

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You can now protect your calendar from repeated calendar spam and unwanted invitations. When you block a user in Google Calendar, the current event is automatically removed and you no longer receive new calendar invitations from that person.

In addition, when you block an individual in Calendar, they’re added to your account-wide blocklist, and interactions across all supported Google products are blocked. Similarly, if the individual was blocked in another supported Google product, their Calendar invitations will now also be blocked.




This feature allows blocking invitations from users with a Google account. To block invitations from a non-Google Calendar user, use the Gmail blocking functionality. This will block all emails from them, including emails that create Calendar events.

Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more.

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

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We are introducing Admin Assist, bringing two new Gemini-powered capabilities to the Google Admin Console: the Sidepanel and Search Overviews. Designed to simplify complex administrative workflows and troubleshooting, this launch makes managing Google Workspace easier and faster. Admin Assist is available for customers with Google Workspace Business editions only.

Previously, administrators often had to toggle back and forth between different browser tabs, troubleshooting documentation, and the console to manage domain policies. With this update, we are integrating conversational AI assistance directly into your Google Workspace management surface to provide instant, contextual support.

  • Gemini-powered Sidepanel: Conveniently accessible via the One Google Bar (OGB) on most of the pages of the Admin Console. Super admins can use the sidepanel to get help with complex tasks, learn about administrative best practices, and receive interactive, step-by-step guidance.
  • Gemini-powered Search Overviews: A proactive search feature that triggers when you ask a question in the main Admin Console search bar. Admin Assist will automatically synthesize Google Workspace Help Center articles into conversational summaries, presenting you with the exact answers you need alongside direct, actionable next steps.

Whether you are looking to audit application usage or investigate configuration drifts, Admin Assist acts as your personal technical co-worker—allowing you to manage your domain securely and efficiently.

Getting started

  • Super Admins: This feature will be ON by default for Super Admins with eligible Business SKU editions (see ‘Availability’ below). It is not available to Delegated Admins.
  • End users: There is no end-user setting or impact for this feature, as these capabilities are restricted exclusively to Super Admins at the Google Admin Console.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Business: Business Starter, Standard, and Plus

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Gemini Notebook users can now copy entire notebooks, including all associated sources and studio items, if they have copy permission for that notebook. This capability allows users to build upon existing work or templates shared by others. For example, a student can copy a notebook shared by a teacher, and then add their personal study notes and generate customized practice quizzes or flashcards to that copy, or a coworker can copy a notebook with foundational information and add on additional sources to tailor it to a specific project.

When you make a copy of a notebook, several key components are copied to the new user's library. This includes sources and studio content.

A few notes:

  • Sources: Drive-based sources are only included if the user performing the copy has permission to access and copy the original Google Drive file.
  • Studio content: This includes studio artifacts like Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, Study Guides, Flashcards, Quizzes, and Slide Decks, plus artifact generation prompts and custom chat configurations. 

Personal chat history and user-generated notes are not transferred to the new notebook. Additionally, a copied notebook does not sync with the original, so any subsequent updates made by the original owner do not overwrite the copied version.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts with access to Gemini Notebook

Resources

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Useful Links

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Learn about more Google Workspace launches

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