Similar to the functionality in Google Sheets that helps you easily convert data to dropdown chips, you can now use bulk chip conversion for people chips. If you have a column of data that includes a variety of emails, Sheets will show a “Convert to people chips” suggestion when you click into your data range. By hovering over that indicator, you can preview the suggestion and then convert your data to people chips in one click. 

In addition to the default format of display name, within the Format menu, you will now be able to update the format of your people chips to one of the following: 

• Last name, First name 
• Email address 

• Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
• End users: 
• To insert people chips on your own, type “@” followed by a name or email address. To change the format of the people chips, select a cell or cells with people chips, go to Format > Smart chips > select the desired format. 
• To turn off this feature, go to Tools > Suggestion controls > (deselect) Enable dropdown chip suggestions. 
•  Visit the Help Center to learn more about inserting smart chips in your Google Sheets. 

People Chip Formats: 

• Rapid Release domains: Available now. 
• Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 18, 2025 

• Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 6, 2025 
• Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 3, 2025 

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

Resources 

• Google Help: Insert smart chips in your Google Sheets 
• Google Workspace Updates Blog: Easily convert data to dropdown chips in Google Sheets

In June of 2024, we introduced an improved email notification experience between Google Calendar and third-party calendar services, like Outlook, via beta. Beginning today, this update is now generally available. 

Specifically, this update addresses feedback we’ve heard from our customers regarding the syncing experience from Google Calendar to third-party calendars. The syncing experience is now more reliable and gives recipients an effective way to filter out Calendar emails that may have cluttered their inbox.  

• Google Calendar will send additional emails to improve event sync accuracy when users make updates to recurring events. 
• Email notifications purely intended to sync information will display a banner in the email body with instructions on how to create inbox filters to hide similar emails, which can help to minimize clutter in recipients’ inbox.
• At scale, Outlook system administrators can use Microsoft’s Powershell to implement an email filter rule for these messages for all users.

In October 2024, we expanded our data migration services to include the ability for Admins to transfer OneDrive data to Google Drive. This functionality is now generally available. You can migrate the files of up to 100 users at a time, including the files corresponding access permissions with shared members. 

With the general availability release, we’ve also added additional settings which admins can use to: 

• Specify files to migrate within a certain date range.
• Exclude specific file formats and large files. 
• Skip uploading an identity map and allow Google to automatically map source and target users instead. 

Now that the tool is generally available, with more customization settings, you can quickly and easily migrate your data to Workspace at scale while minimizing disruption for end users. For more information, please refer to our original beta announcement.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Resources

Users can have one of the following access permissions for shared Google Calendars: 

• “See only free/busy (hide details)” 
• “See all event details” 
• “Make changes to events” 
• “Make changes and manage sharing” 

The “Make changes to events” permission enables users to create events on shared calendars, but when those events are created, the user does not know which other users the event is shared with. 

To improve upon experience and ensure users are aware of who they are sharing content with, users with the ability to “Make changes to events” can now see the members of the shared calendar, i.e. who their events are shared with. 

• Admins: As an admin, you can control how much calendar information people in your organization can share with users external to your organization. You can also set the default level of sharing for users within your organization. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting Calendar sharing options. 
• End users: On Calendars with “make changes to events” access permission, you will now see the members of calendars. You can control the access permission of other users for your Calendars only on Calendars with “make changes and manage sharing” access permissions. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sharing your calendar with someone. 
• Developers: For Calendars where a user has “make changes to events” (aka “writer”) permissions, the Acl.list and Acl.get method will newly return the members of the shared calendar and Acl.watch will notify about changes to members. 

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 4, 2025 

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

• Google Workspace Admin Help: Set Calendar sharing options 
• Google Help: Share your calendar with someone

To improve access for users with vision disabilities, we are adding several more options for how reactions in Google Meet are experienced through screen readers. You can access and adjust the settings at any time during the meeting by pressing Shift+R or from the Settings menu (Three-dot overflow button > Settings > Reactions > Accessibility). The following settings have been added for in-meeting reactions: 

• Don’t announce reactions: No announcements or sound when a reaction is received. 
• Play a sound for all reactions: Play a sound when a reaction is received. 
• Announce all reactions: Announce only the emoji when a reaction is received, for example “Thumbs up”. 
• Announce all reactions and senders: Announce the emoji and who sent the received reaction, for example “Elisa Beckett and 2 others reacted with thumbs up”. 

We hope that these new settings help you configure the experience to suit your needs.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Resources