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

New to Google Meet: Continue your conversations in Google Chat
GStarting November 10, your Google Meet in-meeting messages will be powered by and available in Google Chat. That means the meaningful feedback that was messaged during the meeting, or key resources and links that were shared are now easily accessible to meeting attendees after the meeting, in a shared Google Chat conversation. | Learn more about continuing conversations between Chat and Meet. 

Controls for restricting conversation creation in Google Chat available to more organizations
We are expanding an existing Google Chat feature to more Workspace customers. This feature gives administrators the ability to limit who can create new conversations in Google Chat. When this setting is applied to users (through an organizational unit or a Google Group), those users will be prevented from initiating new conversations, or adding new members to existing conversations. | Learn more about the new Google Chat controls. 

Updated Chat header helps you navigate chat more quickly and easily
We are introducing a redesigned Google Chat conversation header on the web. The new header offers a simpler, more consistent layout that makes key tools easier to find and use. It includes a side panel where users can access shared content and manage tasks without leaving the conversation view. | Learn more about the new header in Google Chat. 

Set sharing expirations on files and folders in shared drives
We previously introduced the option to set expirations on files that reside in shared drives using the Google Drive API. Today, we are bringing the ability to set expiring access for files and folders in shared drives directly from the sharing dialog. This highly-requested feature brings the ease and security of My Drive access controls into your collaborative shared drives. | Learn more about expiring access in shared drives. 

Bringing inline threading to direct messages in Google Chat
We’re excited to announce that inline threading is rolling out for direct messages (DMs) and group direct messages (gDMs) in Google Chat. This has been a highly requested feature, and we're pleased to deliver it as part of our effort to simplify the Chat experience and address top user feedback about conversation consistency. | Learn more about threading in Chat DMs. 

Gemini Deep Research now integrates with your Workspace content
We’re expanding the capabilities of Gemini’s Deep Research feature by integrating it with your Google Workspace apps. This update allows Deep Research to seamlessly gather information from your content in Gmail, Chat, and Drive - including Slides, Sheets and Docs files - in addition to the web, to create a more comprehensive and personalized report. | Learn more about using Deep Research with your Workspace content. 

Use a wider range of emoji reactions in Google Meet
Google Meet users now have access to the full emoji library for reactions in Google Meet. Reactions let users engage with the content in a meeting, share meaningful feedback or praise, and celebrate company culture all through emoji. | Learn more about additional emoji reactions in Meet. 
Read More

What’s changing 

Google Meet users now have access to the full emoji library for reactions in Google Meet. Reactions let users engage with the content in a meeting, share meaningful feedback or praise, and celebrate company culture all through emoji. 


A user sending Emoji reactions “Heart on fire” and “Party face” from the extended set 

Getting started 


Limitations 

  • Meet Rooms hardware will not have the extended Emoji selections available but will be able to receive and display reactions from the extended Emoji set. The currently existing options will remain available to send reactions. Joining the Meet call with companion mode from your personal device will enable you to send reactions from the extended Emoji set. 
  • Live stream viewers will not have the extended Emoji selections available but will be able to receive and display reactions from the extended Emoji set. The current existing options will remain available to send reactions. 
  • On iOS devices, the capability to send reactions from the extended set will be added at a later point in time. On the initial rollout, iOS users will be able to see reactions from the extended set sent by those on compatible platforms. 
  • Organizational custom Emojis are not supported. 

Rollout pace 

Admin controls 


End user feature availability 


Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 

  • Business Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus 

Resources 

Read More

What’s changing

We’re expanding the capabilities of Gemini’s Deep Research feature by integrating it with your Google Workspace apps. This update allows Deep Research to seamlessly gather information from your content in Gmail, Chat, and Drive - including Slides, Sheets and Docs files - in addition to the web, to create a more comprehensive and personalized report.

Previously, users had to manually upload individual files from Drive to supplement their Deep Research. Now, Deep Research can pull securely from your Workspace content, including emails and even chats, informing reports with relevant context.


This update helps end users, including students, educators and those in small businesses, to do their best work by making research more efficient and context-aware. Your users can now integrate information directly from:

  • Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and PDFs in Drive, including non-Google files
  • Context from emails in Gmail
  • Information from Chat messages
Example use cases for end users:

  • Business planning: Users can ask Deep Research to kickstart analysis for a new product using team documents, build out a competitor report referencing internal strategy memos and communications, or help onboard onto a new project quickly after analyzing documents, emails, and chat history.
  • Project catch-up: Get quickly caught up on an in-progress project by asking, "Catch me up on my <some project you have docs, chats, emails about. e.g., my remodeling project>. What are some decisions I need to make, and for each, can you research potential options".
  • Academic research: Students and faculty can ask Deep Research to review their existing notes and research papers on a topic and combine that with web research to pull together an insightful report that includes insights from their own documents.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

  • Business Starter, Standard, Plus
  • Enterprise Starter, Standard, Plus
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus
  • Frontline Starter and Standard
  • Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus
  • Nonprofits
Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:

  • Gemini Business*
  • Gemini Enterprise*
  • Google AI Pro for Education
*As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details. 

Resources

Read More

What’s changing

We’re excited to announce that inline threading is rolling out for direct messages (DMs) and group direct messages (gDMs) in Google Chat. This has been a highly requested feature, and we're pleased to deliver it as part of our effort to simplify the Chat experience and address top user feedback about conversation consistency.

Until now, inline threading was only available in spaces. With this update, you can now reply in-thread to any message in a direct conversation, just as you do in a space. This helps to keep conversations organized, allowing you and your colleagues to follow specific topics and avoid cluttering the main chat stream.

Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. This feature will be ON by default as it rolls out.

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

Read More

What’s changing

We previously introduced the option to set expirations on files that reside in shared drives using the Google Drive API. Today, we are bringing the ability to set expiring access for files and folders in shared drives directly from the sharing dialog. This highly-requested feature brings the ease and security of My Drive access controls into your collaborative shared drives.

File expirations

You can now set expirations when sharing files in a shared drive. This lets you add an expiration date right in the sharing dialog for temporary collaborators, ensuring access is automatically revoked and eliminating the need for manual cleanup.
Add expiration while sharing files in shared drives.

Add expiration while sharing files in shared drives.

Folder expirations

For shared drive folders, you can now apply an expiration date specifically to the Viewer role. This setting is easily accessible in the folder's sharing dialog, helping you automatically remove read-only access when a collaborator's temporary need is finished.
Add expiration for Viewer role while sharing folders in shared drives.

Consistent expiration behavior in My Drive

We're standardizing access expiration for files and folders in My Drive. The experience is now consistent with shared drives, making it more predictable for you to know when access will expire.

Old behavior: If you granted someone temporary Editor access to a file inside a parent folder they could only view, they would lose all access to the file once their Editor permission expired.

New behavior: When their temporary Editor access expires, their permission will revert to the access they have on the parent folder (in this case, Viewer). They will not lose access to the file completely.

Editor access expires, and reverts to Viewer access (user has Viewer access on the parent folder).
Editor access expires, and reverts to Viewer access (user has Viewer access on the parent folder).

Getting started

You can only set sharing expirations on Web and Android phones. Expirations cannot be set on iOS devices in My Drive or shared drives.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to Google Workspace:

  • Business Starter, Standard, Plus
  • Enterprise Starter, Standard, Plus
  • Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus
  • Education Standard, Plus
  • Nonprofits
  • Frontline Starter, Standard, Plus
Also available to:
  • Google One AI Premium 
  • Google AI Pro and Ultra
  • Gemini Business, Enterprise*
*As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details. 

Resources


Read More

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