by | Jun 24, 2024 | News
What's changing
We're pleased to announce the general availability of Gemini in the side panel of Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive. Through the side panel, Gemini can assist you with summarising, analysing, and generating content by utilising insights gathered from your emails, documents, and more-all without switching applications or tabs. The updated interface automatically summarises the content you're working on and provides contextually relevant prompts to help you get started.
Who's impacted
End users
Why you'd use it
The side panel will use Google's most capable models including the Gemini 1.5 Pro model with a longer context window and more advanced reasoning, allowing you to harness the power of Gemini directly from your most used Google Workspace apps. Here are a few examples of when you'd use it:
Docs: Gemini in Docs side panel can help you write and refine your content, summarise information, help you brainstorm, create content based off of other files, and more.
Gemini in Docs side panel
Slides: Gemini in Slides side panel can help you generate new slides, generate custom images, summarise presentations and more.
Using Gemini in Slides side panel
Sheets: Gemini in Sheets side panel can help you track and organise data. In the side panel, you can quickly create tables, generate formulas and ask how to accomplish certain tasks in Sheets.
Using Gemini in Sheets side panel
Drive: Gemini in Drive side panel can summarise one or multiple documents, get quick facts about a project, or deep dive on a topic without needing to find and click through numerous documents.
Using Gemini in Drive side panel
Additional details
We're also introducing Gemini in the Gmail side panel, which you can leverage to summarise email threads, draft an email, suggest responses to an email thread, and more. For more information, see our
announcement on the Workspace Updates blog.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.End users: You can access the Gemini in the side panel by clicking on "Ask Gemini" (spark button) in the top right corner of Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive on the web. Visit the Help Centre to learn more about collaborating with Gemini in
Google Driveas well as Google
Docs,
Sheets, and
Slides.
Rollout pace
Rapid Release domains: Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) starting on June 24, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 8, 2024
Availability
Available for Google Workspace customers with:
Gemini Business and Enterprise add-onGemini Education and Education Premium add-onGoogle One AI Premium
Resources
by | Jun 24, 2024 | News
What's changing
In addition to the
recent announcement of Gemini in the side panel of Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Drive, we're excited to introduce the general availability of Gemini in the Gmail side panel. Built to leverage Google's most capable models, including the Gemini 1.5 Pro model with a longer context window and more advanced reasoning, you can now use Gemini in Gmail on web to:
Summarise an email thread Suggest responses to an email thread Get help drafting an email Ask questions and find specific information from emails within your inbox or from your Google Drive files While Gemini in Gmail will provide proactive prompts to help you get started, you can also ask freeform questions. For example, you can ask Gemini to search your inbox for things like "What was the PO number for my agency?", "How much did the company spend on the last marketing event?", or "When is the next team meeting?". And just like that, you'll have the information you need to quickly reply without having to ever leave Gmail.
Starting today, you can also use Gemini in the Gmail mobile app on Android and iOS to analyse email threads and see a summarized view with the key highlights, just as you can with the side panel on the web. This is useful when you're on the go, especially because reading through long email threads can be time consuming and even a bit of a challenge on a smaller screen. Additional mobile features like
Contextual Smart Reply and Gmail Q&A are coming soon.
Who's impacted
End users
Why you'd use it
While Gemini in Gmail helps you view, understand and respond to email content, it also connects to other Workspace apps like Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drive. For example, let's say you're planning a company offsite and get an email from a team member asking for the hotel information so they can book a room. Now you can ask Gemini to look it up from a Google Doc that contains all the offsite details, using a simple "what is the hotel name and sales manager email listed in @Company Offsite 2024." Then you can easily insert this into your reply to get your team member the help they need.
Getting started
Rollout pace
Web:
Mobile:
Availability
Available for Google Workspace customers with:
Gemini Business and Enterprise add-on Gemini Education and Education Premium add-on Google One AI Premium
Resources
by | Jun 24, 2024 | News
What's changing
Starting today, the admin control for Google Workspace's eSignature feature is live for select Google Workspace editions. Admins can control users' ability to request signatures before eSignature rolls out to end users in the coming weeks.
To configure this setting, go to Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > eSignature in the Admin console. Admins can manage eSignature access at the Organisational Unit (OU) level or the Group level, as shown below:
The eSignature control in the Admin console
Why you'd use it
Admins can manage access to eSignature in advance of the feature rollout to end users so only the appropriate groups will have the ability to request eSignatures. Note: the admin control does not restrict users from providing eSignatures via the feature.
Additional details
eSignature for Google Docs is rolling out to end users soon
In the coming weeks, we will roll out eSignature for Google Docs to end users on select Google Workspace editions. eSignature offers a variety of features to help you streamline requesting and capturing signatures, helping you stay organised and keep your work moving along. Specifically, you can:
Request eSignatures, including signatures from more than one user and from non-Gmail users.View the status of pending signatures and find completed contracts.Keep contract templates to initiate multiple eSignature requests.View an audit trail of completed contracts,Use custom text fields to request additional information from signers, such as job titles, email addresses and more. Sign contracts from both mobile devices and PCs.
Getting started
Admins: This feature will be ON by default and can be configured at the OU and Group level. Visit the Help Centre to learn more about
turning eSignature on or off for your users.End users: Visit the Help Centre to learn more about
sending signature requests & sign documents with eSignature.
Rollout pace
Admin setting
End user availability
Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 8, 2024
Availability
Available to Google WorkspaceBusiness Standard and PlusEnterprise Starter, Standard and PlusEnterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus Education Plus customers
eSignature is already available for Google Workspace individual subscribers.
by | Jun 24, 2024 | News
What's changing
In 2022we made it easy to seamlessly access popular Education Technology tools directly in Google Classroom. We partnered with 20+ EdTech companies, including
Kahoot!,
Pear Deck,
IXL,
ReadWorks, and
Nearpod, to build Google Classroom add-ons. These new integrations let educators and students easily find, use, and grade great content in their favourite EdTech tools without having to navigate to external websites and apps.
Today, we're excited to make Classroom add-ons generally available to all developers. Now, developers can build an add-on to allow teachers to do the following within Classroom:
Discover and attach content to coursework
Preview content from student perspective
Review student responses to activities
Save time with automatic grading of student responses
Admins, end users, and developers
Why it's important
Add-ons complement other Classroom API features and let educators and students experience content without having to leave Google Classroom. In addition, Classroom add-ons show up directly in Google Classroom as well as on the Google Workspace Marketplace, which is the hub for administrators to manage tools across all of their Google products.
Getting started
Rollout pace
This feature is now available
Availability
Available for Google Workspace:
Education Plus and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade
Resources
by | Jun 25, 2024 | News
What's changing
Going forward, all Learning Interoperability Tools, including Assignments LTI™, and Google Drive LTI™, will be consolidated into a single category: Google Workspace LTI™. There are no functionality changes with this update, but you will notice the following:
Assignments will be renamed to Google Workspace LTI™ in the Admin console and Google Workspace LTI™ in the Google Cloud console All LTI tools managed in the Admin console with the Google Workspace LTI™ service The Google Assignments Help Centre will be rebranded to Google Workspace LTI™. The community forum will remain the same.
Getting started
Admins: You'll notice these updates automatically. Visit the Help Centre to
learn more about Google Workspace LTI™End users: There is no end user impact or action required.
Rollout pace
Available now.
Availability
Available for Google Workspace:
Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade
Resources
by | Jun 25, 2024 | News
What's changing
Currently, Google Workspace admins can turn Collab on for their users, allowing them to access the free version of Colab. Beginning today, we're pleased to announce the Colab Pro and Colab Pro+ standalone subscriptions for Google Workspace customers:
Colab Pro offers 100 compute units that grant access to additional powerful GPUs, memory, features, and productivity enhancements enabled with AI assistance.Colab Pro+ gives you all the benefits of Colab Pro like productivity enhancements enabled with AI assistance, plus an additional 400 compute units for a total of 500 per month that grant access to additional powerful GPUs, along with background execution for our longest-running sessions.
Who's impacted
Admins and end users
Why it's important
Colab provides access to Google's powerful computational resources, which can be used to train machine learning models and perform other data-intensive tasks - all from your web browser. It can be used for a variety of data science and machine learning tasks, including:
Exploratory data analysisDeveloping with the Gemini APIMachine learning model developmentNatural language processing such as text classification and sentiment analysisImage processing such as object detection and image classification.
We know that many Colab users are also Google Workspace users, especially those within educational institutions. Colab Pro and Colab Pro+ can help enhance their work and research with more compute units, faster GPUs, more memory and more.
Further, these offerings can help admins efficiently subscribe an entire team or organisation to Colab, thereby minimising the friction associated with setting up individual accounts for each user. By managing subscriptions at the group level, organisations can more effectively support collaborative workflows and ensure that all team members have access to the resources they need.
Getting started
Admins:
Access to the Admin console is required to initiate purchase. To purchase Workspace Colab Pro or Colab Pro+, go to Billing > Get more services > More products. Visit the Help Centre to learn more about how to assign licences to users after purchaseas well as available Google Workspace subscriptions.For Google Workspace for Education K-12 customers: The access control for Colab is OFF by default and requires Admins to enable this control if they want users in their domain to access Google Colab. Before turning access to Colab ON, Admins are required to obtain parental consent for <18 users because Colab is included as an Additional Service. Consent can be requested with this
notice template.
End users: Colab is OFF by default and can be enabled by your Admin. Note that if you have purchased Colab's "Pay As You Go" offering for yourself, you can continue using it in addition with Colab Pro and Pro+.
Rollout pace
Gradually rolling out over the coming months to all customers
Availability
Colab Pro and Colab Pro+ are standalone subscriptions available to all Google Workspace customers with a
verified domain.
by | Jun 25, 2024 | News
What's changing
We recently
announced several new features for the Google Chat API that enable admins to manage spaces at scale. These features include the ability to audit spaces, delete inactive spaces in bulk, and more.
Today, we're pleased to announce more space management capabilities, which include the ability to:
Look up details about specific space.Update space details, including the name of a space, space description, and space guidelines. Verify user's membership status in a specific space. Upgrade a role from space member to space manager.
These features are available now through our Developer Preview Programme - see here for more information on how to enroll in the Developer Preview programme.
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 authorise using administrator privilege. End users: There is no end user impact or action required.
Rollout pace
New features for the Google Chat API scoped to admin users are available to participants of Google Workspace Developer Preview Programme.
Resources
by | Jun 25, 2024 | News
What's changing
Last year, we introduced grading periods, an option that allows administrators and teachers to define and apply grading periods segmented from the entire school year to their Google Classroom assignments.
Create, modify, and delete grading periods on courses Read grading periods on courses Reference and set/read grading periods on
CourseWork resourcesApply grading period settings to existing coursework items
Who's impacted
Developers
Why you'd use it
The new grading periods endpoints allow developers to create, modify, and read grading periods in Classroom on behalf of administrators and teachers.
Getting started
Admins: The Classroom API provides a RESTful interface for you to manage courses and rosters in Google Classroom. Learn more about the
Classroom API overview. Developers: To use the grading periods API, developers can apply for access through our
Google Workspace Developer Preview Programme. Application developers can use the Classroom API to integrate their apps with Classroom. These apps need to use OAuth 2.0 to request permission to view classes and rosters from teachers.
Admins can restrict whether teachers and students in their domain can authorise apps to access their Google Classroom data. All API and Classroom share button integrations should follow the
Classroom brand guidelines. Rollout pace
Availability
Available for Google Workspace:
Education Plus
Resources
by | Jun 26, 2024 | News
What's changing
We
recently announced the latest advancements in Sheets, including that we've doubled the speed of calculation in Google Sheets on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. This update can improve the speed of actions like formulas, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and more, regardless of your file size.
Who's impacted
End users
Why it matters
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. End users: Visit the Help Centre to learn more about
Google Sheets.
Rollout pace
This feature is available now for all users.
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts
Resources
by | Jun 26, 2024 | News
What's changing
Shortly after introducing
announcements in Google Chat last year, we increased the number of users you can add to a space from
8,000 to 50,000. To provide greater flexibility and inclusiveness for larger organisations, we're excited to announce that starting today, spaces can now have up to 500,000 members.
Who's impacted
End users
Why it's important
Companies can now create org-wide spaces to announce news and updates to their employees, helping ensure broader reachability and measurability of their communications.
Additional details
We've introduced features to enhance membership management, which is particularly important now with larger spaces in Google Chat. Some examples include:
Getting started
Rollout pace
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers
Resources
