Google Workspace Updates: Μαΐου 2024

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - May 31, 2024

Παρασκευή 31 Μαΐου 2024

1 New updateUnless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.
Interactive features now available for ultra-low latency live streams on mobile devices If you’re joining a live stream from the Google Meet Android or iOS app, you can now use interactive features such as reactions, Q&A, and polls when they’re available. Note that this update is applicable for ultra-low latency live streams only, the standard live streaming experience remains the same. | Live streaming is available for Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus customers. | Live streamed meetings can be viewed by Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus, Essentials Starter, and Essentials users. | Rollout to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains is complete.

Previous announcements

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

Introducing audit logs for these API-based actions

We added audit logs for these API-based actions to the security investigation tool and the audit and investigation tool to expand upon an admin’s ability to identify, triage, and take action on security and privacy issues in their domain. | Learn more about audit logs for these API-based actions.

Now generally available: Edit client-side encrypted Excel files in Google Sheets

Last year, we announced a beta for the ability to view and edit client-side encrypted Excel files with Google Sheets. Starting this week, we’re rolling it out in general availability for select customers. | Learn more about CSE Excel files in Sheets.

Personal information cards and Contacts sidebar will now display the organization name

Starting this week, the organization name and department will be displayed on personal information cards and in the Contacts sidebar. | Learn more about organization name displays.

Gemini for Workspace usage reports are now available in Admin console

We’ve introduced Gemini for Workspace usage reports in the Admin console. This report gives admins an overarching view of how Gemini is being used in their organization, specifically: assigned Gemini licenses, active Gemini users, and the number of users who are using Gemini over time. | Learn more about Gemini usage reports.

The Calendar API now distinguishes events created from Gmail

The Calendar API will distinguish events created from Gmail. New and existing events from Gmail that are scheduled for a future date will: 1) appear with a new event Type “fromGmail” instead of “default”, 2) include the email recipient as the organizer instead of “unknownorganizer@calendar.google.com” and 3) new “fromGmail” filters for both Events.list and Events.watch will be available. | Learn more about the Calendar API.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains:

Scheduled Release Domains:

New ways to annotate Google Docs

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

The Calendar API now distinguishes events created from Gmail

Πέμπτη 30 Μαΐου 2024

What’s changingStarting May 30, 2024, the Calendar API will distinguish events created from Gmail. New and existing events from Gmail that are scheduled for a future date will:

Appear with a new event Type “fromGmail” instead of “default”.

Include the email recipient as the organizer instead of “unknownorganizer@calendar.google.com”.

New “fromGmail” filters for both Events.list and Events.watch will be available.

In Google Calendar clients events from email may be rendered slightly differently to regular events and show a link back to the original email:

Google Calendar limits edits for events from email:

Additional details

If you’re using the Calendar API, we recommend the following to help avoid any disruptions in your applications:

Ensure that your code does not apply restricted updates to events with the type “fromGmail”.

Temporarily, updates on events with the type “fromGmail” are restricted to the properties reminders, colorId, visibility, status, and extendedProperties. Stay tuned to the Workspace updates blog for more information.
Review your code if it filters by eventType for Events.list or Events.watch. Filtering by eventType “default” will no longer return events extracted from emails.

Getting started

Developers: Use our Developer Documentation for more information about the Calendar API eventType.
End users: There is no end user action required. Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing events automatically imported from Gmail.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 30, 2024

Availability

The Google Calendar API is available to all Google Workspace customers

Resources

Gemini for Workspace usage reports are now available in Admin console

Τετάρτη 29 Μαΐου 2024

What’s changing Starting today, we’re introducing Gemini for Workspace usage reports in the Admin console. This report gives admins an overarching view of how Gemini is being used in their organization, specifically:

Assigned Gemini licenses,
Active Gemini users,
And the number of users who are using Gemini over time.

Gemini usage reports in the Admin console

These reports will help admins understand how many users are using Gemini features and make informed decisions about expanding Gemini further within their organizations. We plan to introduce more reporting features over time, such as the ability to filter these reports by Organizational Units and Groups.

Additional details

Admins can access these reports via admin console under Menu > Generative AI > Gemini reports. Visit the Help Center to learn more about reviewing Gemini usage in your organization.

Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about reviewing Gemini usage in your organization.
End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–4 days for feature visibility) starting on May 27, 2024

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons.

We plan to introduce Gemini reports for the Gemini Education and Gemini Premium add-ons in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to the Workspace Updates blog for more information.

Resources

Personal information cards and Contacts sidebar will now display the organization name

Τρίτη 28 Μαΐου 2024

What’s changingStarting May 28, 2024, the organization name and department will be displayed on personal information cards and in the Contacts sidebar. This information provides helpful context about the people you’re interacting with and displaying this additional information will help you learn more about who you’re collaborating with, and more.

Getting started

Admins:

Admins can populate user data via the Admin console or via the Admin SDK API with the list and update commands. You can also visit the Help Center to learn more about adding information to a user’s Directory profile.
Important note: Some customers may have set both organization name and organization department for their users, where department includes the organization name. We have notified impacted customers via email, but we recommend that you check your settings and update your users’ organization department to prevent duplicate organization names from showing. You can do this via the Admin console or via the Admin SDK API with the list and update commands.

End users: End users: You can view this information within Google Contacts (contacts.google.com), while hovering over a user, or from the Contacts sidebar.

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 28, 2024

Availability

Available for all Google Workspace customers

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Add information to a user’s Directory profile

Now generally available: Edit client-side encrypted Excel files in Google Sheets

Τρίτη 28 Μαΐου 2024

What’s changing Last year, we announced in beta the ability to view and edit client-side encrypted Excel files with Google Sheets. Starting today, we’re rolling it out in general availability for select customers.

Additional details

With this release:

You can only view and edit .xslx Excel file types — additional Excel and tabular file types are not supported.
The maximum supported file size is 100MB.
The maximum number of cells that can be opened is 10 million.

As we continue to improve Office editing in encrypted Google Sheets, you may encounter incompatibilities for certain features. Some features are not displayed and/or editable, but will be preserved in the document and viewable in Microsoft Office. Other features may be lost or altered in the latest version of the file when it is edited in Google Sheets. You will see a notification within the document if editing will cause any features to be lost or altered.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 28, 2024

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

Enterprise Plus
Education Standard and Plus

Resources

Introducing audit logs for these API-based actions

Τρίτη 28 Μαΐου 2024

What’s changingDrive log events provide admins with visibility into their organization’s user activity in Drive. Previously, download activity for files triggered by the use of Google Workspace APIs was not visible to admins as a Drive log event.
Today, we’re adding audit logs for these API-based actions to the security investigation tool and the audit and investigation tool to expand upon an admin’s ability to identify, triage, and take action on security and privacy issues in their domain.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be ON by default. No action is required, relevant events will appear in the logs automatically. Use our Help Center to learn more about Drive audit logs.

Note: Your ability to run a search depends on your Google Workspace editions, your administrative privileges, and the data source. You can run a search on all users, regardless of their Google Workspace edition.

End users: No end user impact.

Rollout pace

This feature is now available

AvailabilityAvailable for Google Workspace:

Business Starter, Standard, Plus
Enterprise Standard, Plus
Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus
Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - May 24, 2024

Παρασκευή 24 Μαΐου 2024

2 New updatesUnless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.

Expanding row limits in Connected Sheets for BigQuery

Last year, we increased the maximum number of rows of results returned from BigQuery to 50,000 for pivot tables and data extracts. This week, we’re excited to announce this has been expanded to 100,000 rows for pivot tables and 500,000 rows for extracts (with a cell limit of 5 million). This will allow you to analyze even more results in Sheets from the petabytes of data in BigQuery. | Rolling out to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains now. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about analyzing & refreshing BigQuery data in Google Sheets using Connected Sheets, Google Sheets limitations, and getting started with BigQuery data in Google Sheets.

Custom text fields are now available for eSignature in Google Docs and Google Drive

You can now input custom text fields when using eSignature. This gives you the flexibility to collect specific information as needed, including a phone number, job title, company name, and more. | Available to Google Workspace Individual users and other eligible Google Workspace customers who are on the eSignature alpha. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains now. | Learn more about sending signature requests & signing documents with eSignature.

Previous announcements

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

Filter, sort, and display your Google Meet hardware devices by product service status

You can currently filter, sort, and display your Google Meet hardware devices by whether they are online, offline, or experiencing an application load-failure. This week, we’re expanding these parameters to include whether the Calendar and Jamboard services are turned OFF. | Learn more about filtering, sorting and displaying Meet hardware devices.

Introducing adaptive audio in Google Meet: creating ad-hoc meeting spaces with multiple laptops

With “adaptive audio,” you and your team can join Google Meet using multiple laptops in close proximity without awkward echos and audio feedback. | Learn more about adaptive audio in Google Meet.

Send emails to spaces in Google Chat

After a space manager generates an email address for a space, members (or anyone in your domain with the email address) can send or forward any email to that space. This provides a great way for teams to easily triage or discuss email content with stakeholders within the space. The email will appear as a clickable card showing a snippet of the email in the designated space. | Learn more about sending emails to spaces.

Manage spaces at scale with new Chat API functionality

We are pleased to announce the launch for additional features of Chat API via the Developer Preview Program, enabling space management at scale on behalf of admin users. These new features are available to all users currently enrolled in the Developer Preview Program. | Learn more about new Chat API functionality.

Introducing Gemini offerings for Google Workspace for Education customers

Beginning May 23, 2024, Google for Education customers will be able to leverage new and powerful ways of working, teaching and learning with Gemini for Google Workspace with two new paid add-ons. | Learn more about Gemini Education and Gemini Education Premium add-ons.

Expanding voice typing and automatic captions to additional browsers

We’re expanding support for voice typing and captions features to additional browsers, such as Edge and Safari. When a user turns on voice typing or captions, the web browser controls the speech-to-text service, determines how speech is processed, and then sends text data to Google Docs and Google Slides. | Learn more about voice typing features in additional browsers.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains:

Scheduled Release Domains:

Use annotations to enhance your presentations in Google Meet

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

Paused rollouts

We have paused the rollout for this feature while we evaluate performance and quality. We will provide an update with new rollout information as soon as possible.

Set the default camera framing option for Google Meet hardware devices, and other framing updates

For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

Expanding voice typing and automatic captions to additional browsers

Πέμπτη 23 Μαΐου 2024

What’s changingusing their voiceautomatic captions
Starting today, we’re expanding support for voice typing and captions features to additional browsers, such as Edge and Safari. When a user turns on voice typing or captions, the web browser controls the speech-to-text service, determines how speech is processed, and then sends text data to Google Docs and Google Slides.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why it’s important

This launch leads to more inclusive and accessible user interactions within Docs and Slides for more users.

Additional details

These features are available only on desktop.

Getting started

Admins: Admins can control which web browsers are supported in their domain. Certain browsers may offer browser level controls for disabling the Web Speech API.
End users:

When enabling this feature for the first time, you may see the following notice:

Visit the Help Center to learn more about typing with your voice and presenting slides with captions.

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: Type with your voice
Google Help: Present slides with captions

Introducing Gemini offerings for Google Workspace for Education customers

Πέμπτη 23 Μαΐου 2024

What’s changing Beginning May 23, 2024, Google for Education customers will be able to leverage new and powerful ways of working, teaching and learning with Gemini for Google Workspace with two new paid add-ons:

Gemini Education is a lower price offering best suited to help education institutions get started with generative AI in Workspace, with a monthly usage limit.

Gemini Education will be available as an add-on for Google Workspace for Education: Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus.

Gemini Education Premium: includes everything in Gemini Education, plus more advanced features like AI-powered note taking and summaries in Meet, AI-enhanced data loss prevention and more coming soon. This add-on provides full access and usage of generative AI tools in Workspace.

Gemini Education Premium will be available as an add-on for Google Workspace for Education: Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus.

Note that Gemini for Google Workspace features are only available in English, Spanish and Portuguese* for education users over the age of 18.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why it’s important

Gemini for Google Workspace provides access to our most capable generative AI models widely available across Workspace apps, like Docs, Gmail, Slides, and more. Inside and outside the classroom, you can use Gemini to help transform your work by:

Turning a blank page into a lesson plan template or a grant proposal in Docs
Creating an agenda for an upcoming professional development session in Sheets
Bringing presentations to life or illustrate a topic by creating original images in Slides, and more.

With both add-ons, you’ll also be able to chat with Gemini (gemini.google.com) safely and securely with enterprise-grade data protection. Gemini.google.com can help you speed up time-consuming tasks, like conducting research about IT security best practices to creating an alumni outreach plan. It can also help you generate fresh ideas and make learning more personal for your students, like re-leveling content or creating class exercises or assignments based on their interests.

Check out The Keyword blog for even more information about how we’re bringing Gemini to Google Workspace for Education.

Additional details

Coming soon to Gemini for Google Workspace for Education:

Further data protections

To further our robust privacy commitments, in the future educators and students 18 years and older will have added data protection when accessing Gemini at gemini.google.com with their school accounts, free of charge. This added protection ensures that your data is not reviewed by anyone to improve our models, is not used to train artificial intelligence models, or shared with other users or institutions. These protections will be applicable to our free Gemini experience for Workspace for Education customers and will be available in 40+ languages.

If you use gemini.google.com with a Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium license, it is covered by the Google Workspace for Education terms of service. If you use gemini.google.com with an education account without a Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium license, it is covered under the Google Terms of Service, the Generative AI Additional Terms of Service, and the Gemini Apps Privacy Notice.

OpenStax and Data Commons extensions

Soon, you’ll be able to use Gemini in combination with OpenStax and Data Commons, along with guided practice quizzes to help people learn more confidently and with trusted sources. For example you can ask OpenStax to discuss the scientific significance of solar eclipses” to pull in accurate, trustworthy responses based on Rice University’s OpenStax educational resources. Or you can leverage Data Commons to visualize data about complex topics like climate change, jobs, economics, and more. You’ll also be able to work through guided practice quizzes and receive conversational feedback on each of your responses. We’ll provide more information on The Keyword and the Workspace Updates blog when this functionality becomes available.

Piloting Gemini in Classroom

We're also piloting Gemini in Classroom with new lesson planning features that are informed by LearnLM, our new family of models fine-tuned for learning, based on Gemini and grounded in educational research. See here for more information on joining the Google for Education Pilot Program.

Getting started

Admins:

Learn more about available pricing and discounts for the Gemini Education add-ons or contact your existing Google Workspace for Education reseller or a Google for Education sales specialist.

Note that Education customers who have already purchased Gemini Enterprise will have the choice to transition to either Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium.

Visit The Keyword blog to read more about how we’re bringing Gemini to Google Workspace for Education.

Rollout pace

The Gemini Education and Gemini Education Premium add-ons will be available beginning May 23, 2024

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Gemini for Google Workspace add-ons
The Keyword: Bringing Gemini to Google Workspace for Education
Google Workspace Updates Blog: Introducing Gemini for Google Workspace, plus more AI offerings to better meet your business needs

*Spanish and Portuguese currently have a limited feature set — learn more.

Manage spaces at scale with new Chat API functionality

Πέμπτη 23 Μαΐου 2024

What’s changingWe are pleased to announce the launch for additional features of Chat API via the Developer Preview Program, enabling space management at scale on behalf of admin users. These new features, which you can read more about down below, are available to all users currently enrolled in the Developer Preview Program. See here for more information on how to enroll in the Developer Preview program.Who’s impactedAdmins and developersWhy you’d use itIn 2023, we launched the Space Management tool, which allowed admins to view all the spaces within their organization, understand the activity within those spaces, and perform essential actions like deleting a space or assigning space managers. While finding the tool helpful, admins expressed a desire for more robust tools to perform these tasks faster and at scale, for example, with the help of APIs. Admins can now use the Chat API to find information and manage their spaces in bulk— specifically they’ll be able to:

Audit spaces: Admins can pull a list of all spaces in their organization, which includes detailed information about space settings and metadata like member counts, history setting status, the ability to invite external guests, and more. The list will be exported to a CSV file for further analysis and audit.

Delete inactive spaces in bulk: It’s common to create spaces for projects and initiatives that are only relevant for a specific period of time. As these projects move toward completion, activity in these spaces become inactive or abandoned altogether without deletion. This can result in a huge amount of clutter, making it for end users to navigate and search for relevant spaces, and for admins, making it difficult to audit and take action when managing your spaces. You can now easily detect and delete all inactive or unused spaces, or create an automated cleanup task with the help of Chat API.

However, there are some cases where less active spaces should not be deleted, such as spaces dedicated to quarterly or annual events. In these situations, admins can use the new API functionality to identify space managers so they can reach out and confirm whether a space should be deleted.

User onboarding and offboarding: When a new user joins an organization, it’s important that they’re connected to all relevant spaces, including organization wide spaces or spaces based on specific departments or job roles. Admins can use this functionality to automatically add users to relevant spaces based on specific attributes like their department, role, location, and more.

Conversely, it’s also important to ensure users are removed from spaces when they leave an organization or change roles. Admins can quickly identify all spaces where an outgoing user is a member of and remove them from spaces that are no longer relevant to them.

Audit external members: To monitor and control access to organizations' data, admins can conduct an audit of membership for a specific user or group of users. Admins can use the Google Chat API to generate a list of all space members — this information, combined with a query to the People API, can assist in identifying a space’s external members. As a result, admins may choose to remove specific users from organization's conversations. This can be done on a space-by-space basis using the API directly or with the help of your own scripts, adjusted to the unique process in your organization.

We plan to introduce more functionality for managing spaces in the future — stay tuned to the Workspace Updates blog for more information.

Getting started

Admins and developers:

If you are part of the Google Workspace Developer Preview, you will get these features by default. Otherwise, you must apply for access using this form.
Use our Developer Documentation to learn how to authenticate and authorize using administrator privilege.

End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

Rollout pace

These features are available now through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program

Availability

New features for the Google Chat API scoped to admin users are available to participants of Google Workspace Developer Preview Program.

Resources

Send emails to spaces in Google Chat

Τετάρτη 22 Μαΐου 2024

This announcement was part of Google Cloud Next ‘24. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about the next wave of innovations in Workspace, including enhancements to Gemini for Google Workspace.

What’s changingWe’re introducing a new way to manage your communication, including emails, in Google Chat.
After a space manager generates an email address for a space, members (or anyone in your domain with the email address) can send or forward any email to that space. This provides a great way for teams to easily triage or discuss email content with stakeholders within the space. The email will appear as a clickable card showing a snippet of the email in the designated space.

Generate email in space settings

Email card in the space

Who’s impacted

End users

Why you’d use it

Email integration into spaces allows you to choose the communication style that works best for your team. Once the email content is present, members can discuss content or take various actions like triaging and assigning them to different members of the space.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending emails to spaces in Chat.

Note: existing Google Group policies are respected. For example, if you have restricted group creation in your organization, those users will also be restricted from generating emails for spaces in Chat.

End users:

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers

Resources

Google Help: Email a space in Google Chat

Introducing adaptive audio in Google Meet: creating ad-hoc meeting spaces with multiple laptops

Τετάρτη 22 Μαΐου 2024

What’s changing In this hybrid work era, we hear from customers that finding a video conferencing room to join a meeting is often difficult. With “adaptive audio,” you and your team can join Google Meet using multiple laptops in close proximity without awkward echos and audio feedback. This is a great benefit for organizations with not enough video conferencing rooms or without resources for dedicated conference room equipment.

Adaptive audio in Meet will automatically detect the presence of multiple laptops in the room and synchronize the microphones and speakers for a seamless audio experience. This allows teams to create ad-hoc meeting spaces anywhere with just their laptops where everyone can be heard clearly, without the inconvenience of crowding around a single laptop.

Most importantly, adaptive audio gives users the flexibility to join meetings when meeting rooms are not available, meeting room hardware is not working, or for smaller organizations, when there isn't dedicated video conferencing equipment in every room. This also gives organizations the ability to use non-typical meeting spaces such as lounges, cafes, and other impromptu locations.

The microphone and speakers of each participant are used to ensure everyone can hear and be heard well.

When multiple participants are joining a meeting from the same room, “adaptive audio” is automatically activated. Google Meet notes audio is merged and participants are grouped together in the people panel.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with the Gemini Enterprise, Gemini Business, Gemini Education, Gemini Education Premium, and the AI Meetings and Messaging add-on.

Resources

Google Help: Use Adaptive Audio

Filter, sort, and display your Google Meet hardware devices by product service status

Τρίτη 21 Μαΐου 2024

What’s changing You can currently filter, sort, and display your Google Meet hardware devices by whether they are online, offline, or experiencing an application load-failure. Today, we’re expanding these parameters to include whether the Calendar and Jamboard services are turned OFF.

The connection between your Meet hardware devices and these two Google products are critical for connecting and collaborating. Allowing admins to filter for devices that match this criteria will help them identify potential gaps in hardware devices and product configurations, which they can quickly rectify.

For example, if Calendar is turned off on a Google Meet hardware device, it will no longer show the upcoming meeting list when booked for a meeting. Having the Jamboard* service turned off means that the Desk 27 and Board 65 devices will no longer be able to launch Jamboard directly on the device. These services may have been previously turned off in error, and this new capability allows admins to correct it, making the services available again to their users. Note that Jamboard 55-inch devices are not impacted.

You can filter your devices by going to Menu > Devices > Google Meet hardware > Devices > “Device status” and then select the criteria to filter by.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 21, 2024

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Use filters to show devices that meet specific criteria

*Jamboard will no longer be on these devices starting October 1, 2024. Learn more about whiteboarding in Workspace here.

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - May 17, 2024

Παρασκευή 17 Μαΐου 2024

3 New updatesUnless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.
Expanding Google Drive admin settings to additional Google Workspace editions We’re expanding the following admin settings to Google Workspace Cloud Identity Free, Cloud Identity Premium and Essentials Starter editions:

Disable Drive Offline
Disable Add-ons
Disable SDK and Drive for Desktop Back-up & Sync
Set Sharing settings including Trusted Domains

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 20, 204. | Available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline Starter, Frontline Standard, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, Cloud Identity Free, Cloud Identity Premium and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more about managing external sharing for your organization.

View recent shares in the Google Drive Activity page Google Drive’s Activity page shows pending access requests, recent comments, and approvals for files, allowing you to quickly view recent activity and take action, all in one place. Starting this week, we are adding recent file shares in the Drive Activity page, which includes who shared a file and when the file was shared. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains now. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and Google Workspace Individual subscribers. | Learn more about Activity in Drive.

View recent shares in the Google Drive Activity page

Hover to preview videos in Google Drive We’re introducing a new feature that lets you quickly preview videos in Drive in List mode by simply hovering your mouse over their thumbnail. Upon hovering, the video will start to play automatically and clicking on the video will open it in full-screen. While the video is in preview mode, you can turn captions and the sound on or off using the icons in the top right corner. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for June 4, 2024. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about viewing & reordering your files and folders.

Previous announcements

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

Gemini (gemini.google.com) is now available to Google Workspace users in more territories and languages

Gemini (gemini.google.com) is now available in more than 35 languages. | Learn more about additional languages for Gemini.

Gemini for Google Workspace feature Help me write now available in Spanish and Portuguese

Help me write, an AI-powered writing features that help you quickly refine existing work or get you started with something new in Google Docs and Gmail using Gemini for Google Workspace, is now available in Spanish and Portuguese. | Learn more about Help me write in additional languages.

Preview files in Google Drive with new hovercard feature

We’re introducing file hovercards in Google Drive to improve this experience and help you complete tasks faster without having to open multiple tabs. Now, when you place your cursor over a file icon in Google Drive on the web, a hovercard will appear with a thumbnail of your file and other relevant information, such as file type, file owner, who recently modified the file and when they last modified the file. | Learn more about hovercards in Drive.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

Gemini (gemini.google.com) is now available to Google Workspace users in more territories and languages

For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).

Preview files in Google Drive with new hovercard feature

Πέμπτη 16 Μαΐου 2024

Update

[July 2, 2024] Rollout to Rapid and Scheduled release domains is now complete.

[July 1, 2024] We have updated the rollout information for this feature. See the Rollout section below for more details.

What’s changingTo review files in Google Drive, you currently have to open each file manually or right-click on a file and then click “Open with > Preview” from the context menu. Additionally, if you want to see what updates have been made to a file, you have to open the file and view the Activity Dashboard.
Today, we’re introducing file hovercards in Google Drive to improve this experience and help you complete tasks faster without having to open multiple tabs. Now, when you place your cursor over a file icon in Google Drive on the web, a hovercard will appear with a thumbnail of your file and other relevant information, such as file type, file owner, who recently modified the file and when they last modified the file.

Preview files in Google Drive with new hovercard feature

Who’s impacted End users

Why you’d use it This new experience may help save time by enabling you to gain context on your files without having to open the information sidebar to view details and recent activity.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 16, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 30, 2024

Availability

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

Resources

Google Help: View & reorder your files and folders

Gemini for Google Workspace feature Help me write now available in Spanish and Portuguese

Πέμπτη 16 Μαΐου 2024

This announcement was part of Google I/O ‘24. Visit the Workspace Blog for more about new ways to engage with Gemini for Workspace and the Keyword Blog for more ways to stay productive with Gemini for Google Workspace.

What’s changing

Last year
Since then, Help me write has assisted numerous users in drafting content for things like emails, blog posts, business proposals, ad copy and so much more. In fact, 70% of Enterprise users who use Help me write in Docs or Gmail end up using Gemini's suggestions. Today, we’re excited to announce this feature is now available in Spanish and Portuguese.

Help me write in Google Docs using Portuguese

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s important

Users who write in Spanish and Portuguese can now benefit from AI-powered creation in their own language.

Help me write in Gmail using Spanish

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be ON by default and there is no admin control for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Gemini for Google Workspace.
End users:

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 16, 2024

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium
Google One AI Premium

Resources

Gemini (gemini.google.com) is now available to Google Workspace users in more territories and languages

Τρίτη 14 Μαΐου 2024

What’s changing

Earlier this year, we announced that Google Workspace customers with a Gemini Enterprise or Business add-on now have access to chat with Gemini at gemini.google.com.

Starting today, we’re pleased to announce that Gemini (gemini.google.com) is now available in more than 35 languages:

Arabic
Bulgarian
Chinese (Simplified / Traditional)
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Estonian
Farsi
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hungarian
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Latvian
Lithuanian
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Swahili
Swedish
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Vietnamese

And is now available to Gemini Enterprise and Business users in the following locales:

France and French Territories
Hong Kong

Additional details

Bringing Gemini to Google Workspace for Education

On May 16, 2024, we announced two Gemini add-ons for our education customers: Gemini Education and Gemini Education Premium, which will be available beginning May 23, 2024. Visit the Keyword blog for more information on how we’re bringing Gemini to Google Workspace for Education.

Expanding “Help me write” to Spanish and Portuguese

Also announced today at I/O, the Gemini for Google Workspace “Help me write” feature is now available in Spanish and Portuguese. This AI-powered writing feature helps you quickly refine existing work or get you started with something new. For more information, check out this post on the Workspace Updates blog.

Getting started

Admins: New languages will be available in Gemini (gemini.google.com) by default to all Gemini Enterprise and Business users. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Gemini (gemini.google.com) on or off for your users, or about Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Business in general.
End users: To use Gemini (gemini.google.com) in any of the above languages, simply enter your prompts using one of these languages.

Rollout pace

Available immediately.

Availability

Gemini Enterprise is available as an add-on for Google Workspace:

Business Standard and Plus
Enterprise Standard and Plus
Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus
Frontline Starter and Standard
Enterprise Essentials and Essentials Plus
Nonprofits

Gemini Business is available as an add-on for Google Workspace:

Business Starter, Standard and Plus
Enterprise Starter, Standard and Plus
Frontline Starter and Standard
Essentials Starter
Enterprise Essentials and Essentials Plus
Nonprofits

Note that Gemini for Google Workspace features are only available for users over the age of 18.

Resources

Workspace Blog: New ways to engage with Gemini for Workspace

The Keyword: 3 new ways to stay productive with Gemini for Google Workspace 

Workspace Blog: Enterprise-grade Gemini is now available for teams of all sizes with Google Workspace

The Keyword: The next chapter of our Gemini era

Workspace Blog: How we're protecting your Google Workspace data in the era of generative AI

Google Workspace Admin Help: Gemini for Google Workspace 

Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

In the Google Cloud Community, connect with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like yourself. Participate in product discussions, check out the Community Articles, and learn tips and tricks that will make your work and life easier. Be the first to know what's happening with Google Workspace.

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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.

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Updates

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - May 31, 2024

The Calendar API now distinguishes events created from Gmail

Gemini for Workspace usage reports are now available in Admin console

Personal information cards and Contacts sidebar will now display the organization name

Now generally available: Edit client-side encrypted Excel files in Google Sheets

Introducing audit logs for these API-based actions

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - May 24, 2024

Expanding voice typing and automatic captions to additional browsers

Introducing Gemini offerings for Google Workspace for Education customers

Manage spaces at scale with new Chat API functionality

Send emails to spaces in Google Chat

Introducing adaptive audio in Google Meet: creating ad-hoc meeting spaces with multiple laptops

Filter, sort, and display your Google Meet hardware devices by product service status

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - May 17, 2024

Preview files in Google Drive with new hovercard feature

Gemini for Google Workspace feature Help me write now available in Spanish and Portuguese

Gemini (gemini.google.com) is now available to Google Workspace users in more territories and languages

Filter by product

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Subscribe by feed

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Localized Google Workspace Updates

Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

Learn about more Google Workspace launches