Getting started

Last year, we introduced Read Along in Google Classroom, a new feature that helps students build their independent reading skills by enabling teachers to assign differentiated reading content, based on Lexile® measure, grade level, or phonics skills. 

Read Along in Classroom includes access to a growing library of decodable books from Heggerty that educators can assign to practice specific decoding skills. To improve upon the current analytics dashboard experience and provide teachers with phonics-based performance insights for decodable books, we’re adding a new analysis section. 

With this update, teachers will see details about how a student or class is performing on the individual phonics skills listed in a decodable book and words that need practice. 

• Admins: 
• Existing Workspace Customers (those who signed up for Workspace for Education before July 7, 2024): Read Along in Classroom will be available to all Google Workspace for Education customers as a service that will be covered under the Workspace for Education Terms of Service. You can enable Read Along in the Admin Console for users in your domain to access this service. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Read Along on or off for users. 
• For new Workspace Customers (those who sign up for Workspace for Education on or after July 7, 2024): Read Along will be automatically enabled in the console, and all eligible users will have direct access to it. Visit the Help Center to learn how to turn Google Read Along on or off for users. 
• End users: The phonics analysis dashboard will only appear for newly created decodable book assignments. This can be accessed by clicking on the assignment name in the “Grades” section of Google Classroom. Existing assignments will keep on showing the data as earlier. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Read Along in Google Classroom. 

• Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now.

Available for Google Workspace: 

• Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning add-on 

• Google Workspace Admin Help: Turn Google Read Along on or off for users 
• Google Help: Read Along in Google Classroom

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Earlier this year, we launched the ability to configure third-party apps by select API scopes to open beta. Beginning today, this feature is now generally available. 

This update gives admins more granular control. They can limit third-party app access to specific OAuth 2.0 scopes for Google APIs, like Drive or Gmail. This prevents apps from gaining additional access without admin consent, even if they request new API scopes in the future. This helps ensure data access is restricted to only what admins deem necessary.

Getting started

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We’re excited to announce beta support for Drive for desktop on Windows 11 devices powered by Snapdragon processors. Compiled natively for ARM64, this release enables users to easily sync and store files online from Windows PCs powered by Snapdragon. 

To opt-in to the beta, download and install the beta version of Google Drive for desktop on Arm-compatible Windows 11 device powered by Snapdragon. If you wish to opt-out at any time, disconnect your account and then uninstall the application. 

• Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
• End users:
• The beta version of Google Drive for desktop can only be installed on devices running Windows 11 and requires Microsoft WebView2, which is typically included with Windows 11. If it is missing or was previously removed, our installer will recommend you download and install it. 
• Note: This is a beta version and may contain bugs. It should be used with non-production data only. Alternatively, ensure that your data is backed up separately. 
• Should you encounter any issues, please submit feedback through the application. Kindly include logs to facilitate troubleshooting and assist us in improving the application. 

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

• Google Help: Contact Google Drive support 
• Google Help: Use Google Drive for desktop

After a Vault or Data export (Takeout), admins can now convert their exported client-side encrypted spreadsheets to Excel files. This allows organizations to maintain access to and analysis of sensitive data in a portable format even after it has been exported from Google Workspace. 

Eligible Google Workspace admins can use this form to request access to the beta. We’ll share more specific instructions once you’re accepted into the beta.

Getting started

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Last year, we ​​introduced a beta that gives Google Forms creators more granular control over who can respond to their forms via sharing settings. 

Previously, form creators had two sharing options: restrict responses to users within their domain (and trusted domains) or make forms public (i.e. anyone with the URL can respond). 

With this new option, now generally available, form creators can limit response access to specific users, groups, or target audiences—similar to how file owners can restrict the sharing of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides or Sites in Drive. 

Admins, end users and developers 

This feature is useful in any scenario where you’d like to control who can respond to a form. For example, business leaders can better collect feedback from specific organizational units and prevent the form from being responded to by other teams or organization units. Similarly, teachers can use this to ensure a quiz is only accessible to select students who receive the link.

• Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
• End users: 
• Form creators must publish their form to enable responders to view the form or submit a response. 
• Form creators can see who has access to the form and share response access to specific users, groups, or target audiences. 
• Visit the Help Center to learn more about publishing & sharing your form with responders.

• Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 3, 2024 
• Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on January 6, 2025 

• Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts 
• Note: The target audiences feature mentioned above is only available for the Google Drive and Docs and Google Chat services. Supported editions for this feature on Drive, Docs & Chat include: Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus, Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus. Supported editions for this feature on Drive & Docs only include: Business Standard, Nonprofits and G Suite Business. 

• Google Help: Get started with Forms in Google Workspace 
• Google Help: Publish & share your form with responders 
• Google Help: Share your form with collaborators

Earlier this year we introduced eSignature in Google Docs for select Google Workspace customers. eSignature helps you request, track, and add signatures to official contracts, and more. 

Today, we’re pleased to announce that you can now request electronic signatures on PDF files stored in Google Drive. This capability includes custom fields, such as phone number, job title, company, etc. Expanding eSignature to include PDFs will make it even easier to request and capture signatures all without leaving Workspace.

Getting started

Rollout pace

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Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Resources

Who’s impacted

Why you’d use them

Getting started