Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – June 21, 2024

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.

Now generally available: Build AppSheet automations using Google Forms 
AppSheet helps users automate manual workflows by integrating with data sources like Google Drive, Chat and Sheets, and earlier this year we announced its integration with Google Forms in beta. This week, we’re excited to announce this is now generally available. | Roll out to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Available to Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade, Frontline Starter, Frontline Standard, AppSheet Starter, AppSheet Core, AppSheet Enterprise Standard, and AppSheet Enterprise Plus customers only. | Learn more about AppSheet’s integration with Google Forms and building your first app and automation using Google Forms. 
The ability to add and remove Google Groups as space members using the Google Chat API is now generally available 
Last year, we announced the ability to create spaces, memberships, group chats, and more using the Google Chat API. This week, we’re excited to introduce the option for developers to add and remove Google Groups as space members using the Google Chat API. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about accessing Chat APIs through the Google Chat API. 
Comments and action items in client-side encrypted Google Docs is now generally available 
You can now collaborate with others on client-side encrypted Google Docs to add, edit, reply, filter, or delete comments. You can also assign action items to yourself or others. This functionality was previously available in open beta — see our original announcement for complete details. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for July 2, 2024. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers. | Learn more about working with encrypted files in Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides.

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.

Insert images into practice sets in Google Classroom 
Teachers can now import images, like graphs, charts or photos, into practice sets using files from Google Drive or directly from their computer. | Learn more about inserting images into practice sets. 
Help your students learn to read with Read Along in Classroom 
We’re introducing Read Along in Google Classroom, a new feature that helps students build their independent reading skills by enabling teachers to assign differentiated reading activities, based on Lexile® measure, grade level, or phonics skills. | Learn more about Read Along in Google Classroom. 
External users can now securely collaborate on client-side encrypted files 
We’re expanding visitor sharing, a feature that provides secure, pincode-based collaboration over sensitive data with people, to include client-side encrypted files. This allows users to securely collaborate with external partners on sensitive Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides files, while maintaining the confidentiality of the information with the granular control of encryption keys, identity verification and user permissions. | Learn more about visitor sharing. 
Create interactive YouTube assignments in Google Classroom more quickly and efficiently, with the help of AI 
We’re introducing AI-suggested questions that educators can easily attach to a video based on its content when creating interactive YouTube assignments in Google Classroom. | Learn more about YouTube assignments in Classroom.
Google Meet adds 52 new languages to translated captions and 11 more languages for closed captions 
For all Google Workspace customers and users with personal accounts, we’ve expanded support for closed captioning. In addition, for Gemini for Google Workspace customers, we are adding 52 languages to translated captions with full language support. | Learn more about translated captions and closed captions. 
Improved syncing experience between Google Calendar and third-party calendars 
We’re pleased to introduce an improved email notification experience for those who are using third-party calendar services—like Outlook—to collaborate with Google Calendar users. | Learn more about the improved syncing experience on Calendar.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains: 
Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 
Updates regarding the transition from spaces organized by topic to in-line threading in Google ChatSet the default camera framing option for Google Meet hardware devices, and other framing updates (This includes framing support on whiteboards (Series One Desk 27 and Board 65) and remote controlled only Google Meet hardware devices and small adjustments to how camera framing settings appear on hardware devices only)Request to join spaces in Google Chat (mobile only)Google Classroom now supports grade category and co-teacher imports from SIS partnersHelp your students learn to read with Read Along in ClassroomCreate interactive YouTube assignments in Google Classroom more quickly and efficiently, with the help of AIGoogle Meet adds 52 new languages to translated captions and 11 more languages for closed captions (Live captions language expansion only)

For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).   

Gemini in the side panel of Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Drive is rolling out now

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 summarizing, analyzing, and generating content by utilizing insights gathered from your emails, documents, and more—all without switching applications or tabs. The updated interface automatically summarizes 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, summarize 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, summarize presentations and more. 

Using Gemini in Slides side panel

Sheets: Gemini in Sheets side panel can help you track and organize 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 summarize 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 summarize 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 Center to learn more about collaborating with Gemini in Google Drive, as well as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) starting on June 24, 2024Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 8, 2024

Gemini in the side panel of Gmail is rolling out now

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: 
Summarize 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 analyze 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 

Admins: To access Gemini in the side panel of Workspace apps, users need to have smart features and personalization turned on. Admins can turn on default personalization setting for their users in the Admin console. End users: On web, you can access Gemini in the Gmail side panel by clicking on “Ask Gemini” (star button) in the top right corner of Gmail. Visit the Help Center to learn more about collaborating with Gemini in Gmail. On mobile, you can access Gemini by tapping on the “summarize this email” chip in an email thread. 

Rollout pace 

Web: 
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 
Mobile: 
Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 24, 2024

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 

Manage access to eSignature in Google Workspace

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 Organizational 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 organized 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 Center to learn more about turning eSignature on or off for your users.End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending signature requests & sign documents with eSignature.

Rollout pace

Admin setting
Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) June 24, 2024
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. 

Google Classroom add-ons now generally available to Google Workspace developers

What’s changing

In 2022, we 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 favorite 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 

Who’s impacted 

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 on the Google Workspace Marketplace, which is the hub for administrators to manage tools across all of their Google products. 

Getting started 

Admins: District admins must enable access to add-ons in order for educators to use these features. Visit the Help Center to learn more about installation instructions for setting up the add-ons feature and individual add-ons for a domain, OU, or group. Once you’ve set up add-ons, your district can use this professional development kit, which includes a presentation and lesson plan, to train educators on how to get started with add-ons. Developers:
All developers can now build a Classroom add-on. Learn how to get started using the Developer Documentation here. Educators: Browse the Google Workspace Marketplace or Google for Education App Hub to find and install add-ons that you can install for yourself. Once you or an administrator has installed an add-on, you will see an “add-ons” module when creating Announcements, Assignments, or Materials. Select one of the listed providers to launch their add-on. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using add-ons in Classroom. 

Rollout pace 

This feature is now available 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
Education Plus and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

Bringing our Learning Interoperability Tools under one umbrella: Google Workspace LTI™

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 Center 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 Center 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

Introducing Colab Pro and Colab Pro+ for Google Workspace

 What’s changing

Currently, Google Workspace admins can turn Colab 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:

Collab 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 organization to Colab, thereby minimizing the friction associated with setting up individual accounts for each user. By managing subscriptions at the group level, organizations 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 Center to learn more about how to assign licenses to users after purchase, as 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+. 

Additional admin space management capabilities in Google Chat API are now available

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 Program — see here for more information on how to enroll in the Developer Preview program

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 authorize using administrator privilege. End users: There is no end user impact or action required. 

Rollout pace 

This feature is available now through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program 

Availability

New features for the Google Chat API scoped to admin users are available to participants of Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. 

Resources 

Grading periods API for Google Classroom is now available in Developer Preview

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. 
Today, we’re excited to announce grading period endpoints and capabilities in the Classroom API, available through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program. Specifically, developers can now: 
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 allows 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 Program. 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 authorize apps to access their Google Classroom data. All API and Classroom share button integrations should follow the Classroom brand guidelines. 

Rollout pace 

This is available now through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
Education Plus 

Resources 

Improving calculation speed in Google Sheets

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 matter 

Whether you’re a small business owner analyzing revenue, a finance leader managing millions of values, or a brand manager reviewing the latest orders of a product line, seeing changes in your data reflected quickly is important. This update helps to make that possible by improving calculation speed in Sheets on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. 

Getting started 

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. End users: Visit the Help Center 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