This official feed from the Google Workspace team provides essential information about new features and improvements for Google Workspace customers.


What’s changing 

Admins can now select “Warn” as an action when deploying context-aware access (CAA) levels. When applied, end users will see a warning message if they do not meet their admin defined conditions for accessing Google Workspace applications. They can click “See details” to see more information about why they received the warning – for example, they may be notified that their operating system is outdated and requires an update. The warning provides a useful reminder for the user to take action otherwise access could be blocked in the future. 

It’s important to note that “Warn” mode will not block users from accessing a particular app or service and they will have the option to proceed despite the warning. “Warn” mode helps educate users if they’re trying to access apps in a less secure situation and how to remediate this risk, while reducing the workload required by admins to socialize best practices. 
Example of a warning notification 


Example of what a user might see when they click “See details” 

Additional details 

  • Warning messages will be shown to users once every 48 hours if their device and session continues to not meet access levels to ensure minimizing end user friction. 
  • "Access Warning Sent” and “Access Warning Viewed by User” events can be reviewed in the CAA audit logs and in the security investigation tool for select Google Workspace customers. 

Getting started 


Admin app access level assignment flow

Rollout pace 


Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus 
  • Education Standard and Education Plus 
  • Enterprise Essentials Plus 
  • Cloud Identity Premium 

Resources 

Building upon the ability to generate images using Gemini in Google Docs on web, we’re excited to announce you can now generate images in Docs on your Android mobile device. Once you select the image, you can then save it, copy it, or insert it into a document. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Gemini in Google Docs. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Gemini in Google Docs.


Rollout Pace

Rapid and Scheduled release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 14 days for feature visibility) staring on August 8, 2025. 

Availability

Available to Business Standard and Plus; Enterprise Standard and Plus; Google AI Pro and Ultra, customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on, and anyone who previously purchased a Gemini Business or Gemini Enterprise add-on. 


What’s changing 

You can now use Gemini to craft personalized, illustrated storybooks about any topic with read-aloud narration. You can create a story by simply describing the storybook you want in a prompt (e.g. “Create a storybook for my 2 and 4 yo daughters explaining my career to them based on my uploaded resume and photo”), or by using the new pre-made Storybook Gem, and Gemini will create a unique 10-page illustrated storybook complete with custom audio narration. You can also add content like photos and other files to teach a lesson through visual storytelling, explore moments in the past, or use it as a vibrant canvas for imaginative fiction. 

 A storybook in Gemini is created with illustrations and text based on a user’s prompt. 

Additional details 

  • This feature is available in all languages and regions supported by the Gemini app. 
  • At this time, storybooks are available to users 18+. 
  • At this time, Google Workspace business and education users cannot share storybooks. However, if a user with a personal account shares a link to a storybook, Workspace users will be able to open it, but they cannot take additional actions, such as asking Gemini to refine the content. 

Getting started 


Rollout pace 

  • Web: Available now 
  • Mobile: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Starter, Standard, Plus 
  • Enterprise Starter, Standard, Plus 
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus 
  • Frontline Starter and Standard 
  • Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus 
  • Nonprofits 
Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons: 
  • Gemini Business
  • Gemini Enterprise
  • Gemini Education 
  • Gemini Education Premium 

*As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details. 

Resources 

Earlier this year, we announced that “take notes for me” will capture next steps discussed during the meeting in a new “suggested next steps” section. Powered by AI, these next steps and follow-ups will automatically be identified and organized within the meeting notes document. 

Today, we’re expanding the language availability for “suggested next steps” to include: 
  • French 
  • German 
  • Italian 
  • Japanese 
  • Korean 
  • Portuguese 
  • Spanish 
When discussing next steps, follow up items or action items, they will automatically be captured when speaking these languages. 

Rollout: 

  • Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) started in Rapid Release and Scheduled release domains on August 7, 2025

Getting Started:


Availability:

  • “Take notes for me” is available to Business Standard and Business Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; the Gemini Education and Education Premium add-on and those customers who previously purchased a Gemini Business or AI Meetings & Messages add-on.

What's Changing

We’re adding an additional data field for Google Meet log events: encryption_type, which will indicate whether standard cloud encryption or client-side encryption was used for a call endpoint. This information can also be called using the Admin Reports SDK API under the values: cloud_encryption and cse_encryption.


Example of a meeting without client-side encryption and a meeting with standard encryption. The encryption type will be captured in Meet log events going forward.

Rollout Pace:


Availability:

Available in the audit and investigation tool for all Google Workspace customers and for select Google Workspace customers in the Security Investigation tool, as well as the Admin Reports SDK API.

What’s changing 

Last year, we introduced the ability to use Gemini in Google Drive to interact with PDFs and recently integrated this experience into Drive’s overlay file previewer.

Today, we're excited to announce that Drive now leverages a 1M token context window with large PDFs that will provide users with more helpful, comprehensive responses. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus 
  • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 
  • Google One AI Premium 

Anyone who previously purchased these add-ons will also receive this feature: 
  • Gemini Business* 
  • Gemini Enterprise* 

*As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details

Resources 

What’s changing 

We’re introducing several new features in the Gemini app designed to create a more dynamic and effective learning experience. These tools are built to help you understand complex topics more deeply, prepare for exams more efficiently, and engage with educational content in new ways. Now you can use the Gemini app to: 

  • Build a deeper understanding with Guided Learning: Instead of giving you an answer, Guided Learning walks you through subjects step-by-step, breaking down complex information and providing interactive help along the way. It’s perfect for working through the process of understanding, retaining and mastering a new topic or skill. 
  • Prepare for exams with helpful study tools: We recently announced you can create quizzes in Canvas in the Gemini app. Now, you can customize the number of questions as well as the question type - for example, multiple choice or short answer. You can also ask Gemini to instantly create flashcards and study guides based on your quiz results or other class materials, providing a simple and effective way to review key concepts and reinforce your learning. 
  • Understand information more easily with integrated visuals and YouTube videos: To make learning more engaging and effective, Gemini will now automatically integrate relevant visuals, like high-quality diagrams, images, and YouTube videos, directly into its responses to help you learn. 
Guided Learning in Gemini breaks down complex topics and provides step-by-step, interactive help

Additional details 

  • These features are available in all languages and regions supported by the Gemini app. 
  • Guided Learning and integrated visuals and YouTube videos are available to Gemini app users of all ages. Quizzes, flashcards and study guides are available to users 18+ at this time. 
  • Some features are only available on the Gemini web app (gemini.google.com) and mobile web. 
  • At this time, Google Workspace business and education users cannot share content created in Canvas, which includes quizzes, flashcards and study guides. However, if a user with a personal account shares a link to content created in Canvas, Workspace users will be able to open it, but they cannot take additional actions, such as asking Gemini to refine the content. 

Getting started 


Rollout pace 

  • Gradual rollout for all features (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on July 31, 2025. 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Starter, Standard, Plus 
  • Enterprise Starter, Standard, Plus 
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus 
  • Frontline Starter and Standard 
  • Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus 
  • Nonprofits 

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons: 
  • Gemini Business
  • Gemini Enterprise
  • Gemini Education 
  • Gemini Education Premium 
*As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details

Resources 












What’s changing 

In the coming weeks, we will introduce changes to multiple settings in Google Meet hardware admin console that will offer new capabilities and a better experience for admins. These changes will impact the following settings: 
  • Alert configuration 
  • Time zone 
  • Log upload settings & Device state reporting 
  • Scheduled reboot 
While rolling out the new changes, there will be a 2-3 week period where both the new setting and old setting will be displayed. During this time, admins will see a banner in the admin console indicating this, as well as a banner indicating your previous configuration is being migrated. 

Alert configuration: 
Alerts will be more streamlined with a separate setting for Email alerts and SMS alerts. There will be one checkbox per SMS and per email alert. Options to select alerts for missing microphone, missing default camera, and other device and peripheral issues will be displayed for both email and text message alerts. 


The existing Alerts experience 


The updated, streamlined Alerts experience 


Time zone: 
We have simplified the time zone setting so it’s more customizable. The new time zone options allow admins to use the time zone configured during setup for their devices, manually select the time zone, use the device IP address, or location to detect the time zone. Note: Devices not running on ChromeOS are not supported by this feature.


The existing Time zone experience 


The updated, streamlined Time zone experience 


Log Upload Settings & Device State Reporting: 
Currently, there are three separate settings in the Admin console which control whether error reports, metrics, and logs are uploaded for troubleshooting purposes: 
  • Report diagnostics > Send Google usage metrics and logs to improve meeting room hardware 
  • Logs and feedback > Send Google usage metrics and logs periodically and after each meeting for troubleshooting purposes 
  • Error reporting > Send error reports to Google 
Going forward, this will be controlled by one unified setting found under Google Meet Hardware > Settings > Data Sharing. This update provides a more straightforward, easy to understand experience for Admins. 


The existing Log Upload Settings & Device State Reporting 


The updated Log Upload Settings & Device State Reporting 



Since we’re consolidating three separate settings into one, your previous selections will determine the default ON/OFF state for the new setting: 
  • If you have ANY of the three original settings disabled, the new unified setting will be OFF by default. 
  • If you have ALL three of the original settings enabled, the new unified setting will be ON by default. 
Additionally, the device state reporting will now be enabled for all Google Meet Hardware customers. Device state reporting provides essential insights for Google Meet hardware admins to actively manage GMH deployments, including device health, network connectivity to facilitate troubleshooting, proactive maintenance, and informed decision-making. 

Scheduled Reboot: 
Currently, you can set reboots to occur at a frequency (between 1-7 days). Soon, you'll be able to select specific days of the week for reboots. This change will make scheduled reboots happen more predictably. 


The existing Scheduled Reboot 


The Updated Scheduled Reboot 


We recommend that you review your settings to make sure you know when your devices will reboot. If you take no action on your reboot settings, they will be migrated as follows: 



Reboot Frequency
(Old Setting)
      Day
      (New Setting)
1     Daily
2, 3, 4, 5, 6     Monday, Thursday
7     Monday

Additional details 

Audit logs for all of the new simplified settings outlined in this post can be found under “Change application setting”. Legacy settings will continue to generate audit logs under the “Chromebox for meetings Device Setting Change” event until they are removed from the user interface. 

Getting started 


Rollout pace 

  • Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting August 21, 2025 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices

Resources 

What’s changing

To simplify the process of joining meetings for those using companion mode on laptops within a conference room, we're introducing automatic room check-in via ultrasound proximity detection. To automatically check you in, the green room uses your laptop’s microphone to detect an ultrasound signal from the conference room hardware, streamlining the process and eliminating unnecessary steps.



The "Use Companion mode" button is highlighted, prompting the user to click it to join the call.

Who’s impacted

  • Admins and end users

Why it’s important

To simplify joining meetings from a conference room and prevent disruptive audio feedback, Google Meet now intelligently guides you to the best joining option.

Meet intelligently knows when you are in a room using an ultrasonic signal, and highlights the “Use Companion mode” button before you even join the call. This wayfinding feature helps ensure a seamless, echo-free start to your meeting. When you join using the highlighted Companion mode button, you will also be automatically checked into the correct room. 

Additional Details

  • Improving Room Check-in from Greenroom: Today, when at least one Google Meet hardware device is on the call and the user clicks on “Use companion mode,” Meet will present an option to check-in to the room. Room Check-in by proximity will replace this experience.
  • Platform & Browser: Only supported on Meet web (meet.google.com) for Chrome. 
  • Supported pages: Proximity detection is limited to a call's greenroom and a brief period after joining companion mode
  • Unsupported pages: Proximity detection will not function on g.co/present or g.co/companion. However, it will detect once the user joins companion mode for a brief period after joining.
  • Google Meet hardware peripherals: We have tested and verified functionality only with certified peripheral devices. While other devices might work, they are not officially supported and we cannot guarantee their performance. 

Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • A “Proximity Detection” device setting will be available in the Admin console to better support needs of each organization. Admins have granular controls to enable or disable proximity detection on specific Google Meet hardware devices.
    • Proximity Detection is on by default. This feature will be automatically enabled on all Google Meet hardware devices. If you need to change this setting:

  • End users: 
    • The Companion mode entry point will be highlighted in the greenroom when the proximity detection signal is detected. 
    • After joining a meeting in Companion mode, the user will be automatically checked into the room. If you have dynamic tiles enabled you will also be prompted to use Face Match to identify your face so your Dynamic tile shows your name instead of the room name.
    • Proximity check-in not working? See the help documentation for troubleshooting tips. You can still check in manually after joining the call.

The companion mode entry point is highlighted to inform the user that the meeting room for this call has been detected.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices

Resources

What’s changing 

We are expanding support for the NotebookLM for Google Workspace for Education users of all ages.

NotebookLM is covered under the Google Workspace for Education Terms of Service for all Workspace for Education users. Those terms include enterprise-grade data protections, so your data is not reviewed by anyone or otherwise used to train AI models. 

Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 

Why you’d use it 

NotebookLM is an AI-powered thinking partner that helps you understand anything. It accelerates learning and knowledge sharing, with AI grounded on the documents that matters most to you. Educators and students can add their lesson plans, education standards, lecture notes and/or course readings to get real-time summaries, guided lesson plans, discussion questions, quizzes and more. They can also generate audio overviews to take learning on the go and make content more accessible, digestible and engaging.   

Additional details 

NotebookLM is available in 180+ regions where Gemini API is available and currently supports 35+ languages. Users can only upload sources from Workspace that they have permission to access. Furthermore, they can control who has access to their notebooks and set more granular permissions within each. Notebooks can only be shared within your organization. 

NotebookLM also supports compliance with industry regulations like FERPA and COPPA.

Getting started 

  • Admins: As a Core Workspace Service, NotebookLM is enabled by default for Workspace for Education institutions. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning NotebookLM on or off for users.
  • End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about NotebookLM

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available for Google Workspace:
    • Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus

Resources 

What’s changing 

We recently announced that Gemini Audit logs could be accessed through the Reporting API (Admin SDK), the security investigation tool and the audit investigation tool.

Admins can export Gemini Audit logs to BigQuery Export for further analysis of user activity when interacting with Gemini across Workspace apps.



Getting started 

  • Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about reporting logs and BigQuery.
  • End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

Rollout pace 

Availability 

Exporting logs to BigQuery is available for Google Workspace:
  • Frontline Standard and Plus
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus
  • Education Standard and Plus
  • Enterprise Essentials Plus

Resources 

What’s changing 

To better support Google Workspace customers operating in multi-platform environments, interoperability between Google Chat and Microsoft Teams is now available through NextPlane OpenHub.

This solution enables real-time, cross-platform messaging and collaboration, allowing Chat and Teams users to communicate using their preferred platform. Users are not locked into a single platform as they can now switch between Chat and Teams at will, ensuring flexibility and continuity across collaboration environments. Please refer to this link for a full list of supported features, in addition to details on NextPlane’s:
  • Support for data residency, compliance requirements and business continuity 
  • Commitment to minimizing operational complexity
  • Optimization for Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
  • Usage-based licensing model

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers. Note that separate NextPlane licensing is required to enable interoperability.

Resources 

What’s changing 

Previously available as part of the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program, we're excited to announce that the ability for developers to build Google Chat apps using the Workspace add-on framework is now generally available.

The Workspace add-ons framework makes it possible to build and maintain one app that works across multiple Workspace apps including Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and Chat. This reduces complexity and improves the experience for developers, system admins, and end-users. 



In Chat, Workspace add-ons can provide helpful features, such as:
  • Previewing links from Chat messages and taking action without leaving the conversation.
  • Automating tasks across Google Workspace applications.
  • Receiving  alerts or notifications from linked external services.
  • Combining external data from 3rd party apps and services with your data from Gmail, Chat, and Calendar. 
Chat app interacting with Calendar and Gmail data


Additional details 

Lucid, developers of Lucidchart, Lucidspark, and Lucidscale, recently updated their existing Workspace Add-ons to now support Chat. These integrations with Google Chat enable link previews, quick search, and access management all within Chat.

See more details on the Lucidchart, Lucidspark, and Lucidscale integrations here.

Soon, other partners, including Asana, Confluence, Figma, HubSpot, Miro, Polly, ServiceNow, Trello, 1Password, and more will be releasing Chat apps built on the Workspace add-ons framework.

Upcoming ServiceNow integration with Chat


Upcoming Figma integration with Chat

Upcoming Miro integration with Chat

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Chat apps are available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts
  • Developing Chat apps is available to all Google Workspace customers

Resources 

What’s changing 

We’re introducing several changes to make the act of training custom AI models for data classification in Google Drive more efficient:
  • Multi-model Support: When AI classification first launched, the product supported training a single model for a single label field.  Now, customers can train up to five unique models.  Common use cases for multiple models are:
    • Models for different labels
    • Models for different fields of a single label
    • Multiple models for the same label & field combination, with different training datasets curated for separate audiences 



  • On-demand Training: Training AI classification models can be an interactive process.  With the former version of the product, the models would train on a predefined schedule.  Now, the administrator can decide when to train the model, initiating the training process on demand – enabling organizations to move at their own pace! 
  • Refreshed UI: We’ve redesigned the AI classification experience from the ground up with a new onboarding flow and model details page.  With the redesigned UI, Workspace Administrators will now see richer insights into the status of model training, metrics on their training data, model recall scores, and a history of their model versions. 

Who’s impacted 

  • Admins

Why it matters 

  • Powered by privacy-preserving AI models that can be uniquely trained on specific customer needs, AI classification automatically identifies, classifies, and labels files in Google Drive. This helps organizations standardize data classification and achieve labeling consistency at scale. Labels can then be used to trigger rules on files that can and cannot be shared through data loss prevention (DLP) controls, lifecycle management policies, as well as audit and reporting use cases. These latest enhancements give admins the flexibility to train models when they need to and for the specific and dynamic needs of their organization.

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace:
  • Enterprise Plus
  • Frontline Plus
  • Gemini Education Premium add-on
Anyone who previously purchased these add-ons will also receive this feature: 
  • Gemini Enterprise*
  • AI Security*
*As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details.

Resources 

What’s changing 

Since introducing Audio Overviews last year, NotebookLM users have created podcast-like, detailed summaries of key topics from their uploaded sources. To build upon this functionality and provide users with a more educational and visual experience, we’re excited to introduce Video Overviews.

Users can now turn documents, slides, charts and more into engaging explainer videos that are narrated by an AI voice. Video Overviews are expertly-crafted visual walkthroughs of the content you provide, pulling in images, diagrams, quotes, and numbers from your source material. Similar to Audio Overviews, you’ll also have the option to customize your Video Overview by specifying topics to focus on, indicating your learning goals, describing the target audience, and much more. At this time, Video Overviews are only available to users over the age of 18. 

We’re also introducing upgrades to the Studio panel where you would create things such as audio overviews and notes in NotebookLM, which includes multiple audio overviews and content sharing. Specifically, users can now:
  • Generate multiple Audio Overviews in a single notebook. This means you can now create versions in different languages from the same source material, or generate a set of Audio Overviews that each focus on different subsections of your sources.
  • Generate shareable links for content like Audio Overviews and Video Overviews, which cannot be shared outside of your domain. 


Additional details

  • Video Overviews are now rolling out to all users in English, with support for more languages coming soon. 
  • Only users with access to your Notebook can view content you share via a shareable link.

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about Video Overviews and NotebookLM.

Rollout pace 

  • This has already started to roll out targeting 100% the week of August 4, 2025. 

Availability 

Resources 

What’s changing 

Recently, we’ve made updates to the Google Meet Hardware audit logs experience. As we continue to make adjustments and remove references to outdated products (ie Chromebox), we are moving audit logs for certain settings from Event > Chromebox for meetings device setting change to Event >
  • Change Application Setting 
  • Create Application Setting 
  • Delete Application Setting  
The Application Setting events




Specifically, these settings are:

Device Settings:  

  • Release channel
  • Display power saving
  • Home screen
  • Call phones

Alerts:  

  • Alert recipients
Example log details for Event > Change Application Setting

Additional details 

Starting August 7, 2025, audit logs will begin to be found under (Change/Create/Delete) Application setting. While we make these updates, there will be a brief period of time where events for these settings will be logged under Chromebox for meetings device setting change and Change application setting (or Create/Delete). Starting August 28, 2025, these audit logs will no longer appear under Chromebox for meetings device setting change.

Getting started 

  • Admins: You’ll notice these changes automatically. 
  • End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • This change impacts all Google Workspace customers with Meet hardware devices

Resources 

What’s changing

Announced last month, Gemini for Education provides default access to our premium AI models, and now comes with significantly higher limits than what consumers get at no cost, plus enterprise-grade data protection and an admin-managed experience as a core Workspace service. Students of all ages and educators can use Gemini for Education with higher limits to Gemini 2.5 Pro, free of charge. Thanks to LearnLM, 2.5 Pro is the world’s leading model for learning, making it especially helpful in academic settings. 

Students of all ages and educators can use 2.5 Pro to: 

  • Prepare for exams with personalized practice quizzes

  • Break down complex topics step by step

  • Brainstorm and research ideas and get feedback on writing

  • Re-level texts and assignments

  • Increase student engagement by adjusting content to fit their interests


Additional details

  • Gemini 2.5 Pro is available to Gemini app users of all ages, with varying levels of access depending on subscription. Visit the Help Center to understand model availability. 

Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for Gemini 2.5 Pro. The model is available in the Gemini app by default.
  • End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to use Gemini 2.5 Pro and other Gemini app models, like Gemini 2.5 Flash, and Veo 3 Fast (preview). 

Availability

Gemini for Education is available for Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Standard and Plus customers. 

Resources