by | Jun 11, 2024 | News
What's changing
In addition to the recent announcement of
audit logs for API-based actions, we're introducing the ability for admins to see new audit logs in Google Drive for activity triggered by Gemini for Google Workspace.
For example, if Gemini for Google Workspace accesses data from a set of files in response to a user query, an 'item content accessed' event is generated for each of the accessed files in the
Drive log events. Who's impacted
Admins
Why it matters
These new audit logs offer admins greater transparency into how Gemini for Google Workspace and
Gemini apps leverage your content from Drive, providing granular visibility for security and compliance.
Gemini leverages the content of your Drive to provide more personalised responses based on your prompts. These logs focus on instances where Gemini specifically accesses Drive files on behalf of users to fulfil their requests.
Getting started
This feature is now available.
Availability
Available for Google Workspace:
Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium
Resources
Google Workspace Admin Help: About the security investigation tool Google Workspace Admin Help: About the audit and investigation tool Google Workspace Admin Help: Drive log events
by | Jun 10, 2024 | News
What's changing
We're introducing a new feature that helps you track your shared Drive files through a new email digest.
If you haven't been active on Drive for 7 days and have multiple shared files that are unviewed, we'll send you a reminder email that summarises the files. This is particularly useful if you're having a busy week or if you just got back to work after having time off.
The digest email will include information about the unviewed files that were shared with you and a link to "See more activity" on the Drive Activity page.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. End users: This feature will be ON by default and you will automatically receive emails if you haven't been active on Drive for 7 days and have multiple shared files that are unviewed. To adjust your settings for the email digest, go to your digest email > scroll to the footer > click on "unsubscribe here". You can also do this by going to
drive.google.com > Settings > Notifications > "Get summaries about recent files shared with you via the Drive digest".
Rollout pace
Available to all Google Workspace customers
Resources
by | Jun 7, 2024 | News
2 New updates
Unless 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.
Switch between edit, view and comment mode in Google Slides
We're making it easier for you to switch between different modes in Google Slides. For example, if you'd like to hide comments within a presentation or avoid accidental edits, you can switch to view mode. Choosing commenting mode hides all options associated with editing, but still allows you to read and add comments. To change your mode, navigate to the View > Mode > select a mode. | Rolling out to
Rapid Release domains now; launch to
Scheduled Release domains planned for June 20, 2024. | Available to Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about
switching view mode on Google Slides.
Scroll and zoom while presenting in Google Meet
When you're presenting in Google Meet, you can now scroll and zoom in or out on your content directly from Meet. This eliminates the need to switch between tabs, helping you focus more on delivering your presentation. | This feature is available now for all Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about
presenting during a meeting.
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.
Stay up to date on important changes in your Google Sheets
In order to provide greater visibility into spreadsheet changes most relevant to your workflow and help enable more efficient team communication, we're introducing conditional notifications. | Learn more about
conditional notifications. Request to join spaces in Google Chat
To make it even easier to more broadly share information, build communities and foster discussion across your organisation, we're introducing the ability for users to request to join a space upon receiving a link to that space. | Learn more about
joining spaces. Rollout Update: framing support for Series One Desk 27 and Board 65 devices and remote controlled devices
We recently announced several updates related to framing options on Google Hardware devices and have provided update rollout information. | Learn more about the
rollout update.
Rapid Release Domains:
Scheduled Release Domains:
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).
by | May 21, 2024 | News
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
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices
Resources
*Jamboard will no longer be on these devices starting October 1, 2024. Learn more about whiteboarding in Workspace here.
by | May 23, 2024 | News
What's changing
Currently users can edit their documents in Google Docs or edit speaker notes in Google Slides by using their voice. Users can also turn on automatic captions to display the speakers' words in real time while presenting in Slides. These features have previously been available using the latest version of Google Chrome only.
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 only available 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 Centre to learn more about
typing with your voice and
presenting slides with captions.
Rollout pace
Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts
Resources
by | May 17, 2024 | News
3 New updates
Unless 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 organisation. 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.
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 for Google Workspace feature Help me write now available in Spanish and Portuguese
Help me write, an AI-powered writing feature that helps 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.
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).
by | May 22, 2024 | News
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 organisations 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 synchronise 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 organisations, when there isn't dedicated video conferencing equipment in every room. This also gives organisations 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
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.End users: This feature will be ON by default and can be turned off by the user by going to Settings > Audio > Adaptive audio. Visit the Help Centre to learn more about
using adaptive audio in Google Meet.
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
by | May 23, 2024 | News
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 changing
We'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. End users: As a space manager, you can create the space's email address by clicking the name of the space in the top left corner > Space settings > Email section > select Generate email Once the email address is created by a space manager, all space members can send/forward emails to the space To send an email to the space, include the space email address in the "to" field of your email composer (in Gmail, Outlook, etc.) Click on 'View message' to view the entire email message in Google Groups You can change the email address for your space by going to advanced settings. Visit the Help Centre to learn more about
sending emails to spaces in Chat.
Rollout pace
Available to all Google Workspace customers
Resources
by | May 23, 2024 | News
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 helping 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 DocsCreating an agenda for an upcoming professional development session in SheetsBringing 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.
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.
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 answers based on Rice University's OpenStax educational resources. Or you can leverage Data Commons to visualise 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 answers. 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 fine-tuned models for learning, based on Gemini and grounded in educational research. See here for more information on
joining the Google for Education Pilot Programme.
by | May 23, 2024 | News
What's changing
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, which you can read more about below, are available to all users currently enrolled in the Developer Preview Programme. See here for more information on how to enroll in the Developer Preview programme.
Who's impacted
Admins and developers
Why you'd use it
In 2023, we launched the Space Management tool, which allowed admins to view all the spaces within their organisation, 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 organisation, 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 towards completion, activity in these spaces become inactive or abandoned altogether without deletion. This can result in a huge amount of clutter, making it difficult 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 organisation, it's important that they're connected to all relevant spaces, including organisation 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 organisation 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 organisations' 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 organisation'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 organisation.
We plan to introduce more functionality for managing spaces in the future - stay tuned to the Workspace Updates blog for more information.
Getting started
End users: There is no end user impact or action required.
Rollout pace
