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What’s changing

Starting May 30, 2024, the Calendar API will distinguish events created from Gmail. New and existing events from Gmail that are scheduled for a future date will:

  • Appear with a new event Type “fromGmail” instead of “default”.
  • Include the email recipient as the organizer instead of “unknownorganizer@calendar.google.com”.
  • New “fromGmail” filters for both Events.list and Events.watch will be available.
In Google Calendar clients events from email may be rendered slightly differently to regular events and show a link back to the original email:



Google Calendar limits edits for events from email:



Additional details
If you’re using the Calendar API, we recommend the following to help avoid any disruptions in your applications:
  • Ensure that your code does not apply restricted updates to events with the type “fromGmail”.
    • Temporarily, updates on events with the type “fromGmail” are restricted to the properties reminders, colorId, visibility, status, and extendedProperties. Stay tuned to the Workspace updates blog for more information.
    • Review your code if it filters by eventType for Events.list or Events.watch. Filtering by eventType “default” will no longer return events extracted from emails.
Getting started

Rollout pace

What’s changing 
Starting today, we’re introducing Gemini for Workspace usage reports in the Admin console. This report gives admins an overarching view of how Gemini is being used in their organization, specifically: 
  • Assigned Gemini licenses, 
  • Active Gemini users, 
  • And the number of users who are using Gemini over time.


Gemini usage reports in the Admin console


These reports will help admins understand how many users are using Gemini features and make informed decisions about expanding Gemini further within their organizations. We plan to introduce more reporting features over time, such as the ability to filter these reports by Organizational Units and Groups.


Additional details
Admins can access these reports via admin  console under Menu > Generative AI > Gemini reports. Visit the Help Center to learn more about reviewing Gemini usage in your organization.


Getting started
Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available for Google Workspace customers with the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons.
We plan to introduce Gemini reports for the Gemini Education and Gemini Premium add-ons in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to the Workspace Updates blog for more information. 

What’s changing

Starting May 28, 2024, the organization name and department will be displayed on personal information cards and in the Contacts sidebar. This information provides helpful context about the people you’re interacting with and displaying this additional information will help you learn more about who you’re collaborating with, and more.



Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • Admins can populate user data via the Admin console or via the Admin SDK API with the list and update commands. You can also visit the Help Center to learn more about adding information to a user’s Directory profile
    • Important note: Some customers may have set both organization name and organization department for their users, where department includes the organization name. We have notified impacted customers via email, but we recommend that you check your settings and update your users’ organization department to prevent duplicate organization names from showing. You can do this via the Admin console or via the Admin SDK API with the list and update commands.

  • End users: End users: You can view this information within Google Contacts (contacts.google.com), while hovering over a user, or from the Contacts sidebar.

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available for all Google Workspace customers
Resources

What’s changing 
Last year, we announced in beta the ability to view and edit client-side encrypted Excel files with Google Sheets. Starting today, we’re rolling it out in general availability for select customers.



Additional details
With this release:
  • You can only view and edit .xslx Excel file types — additional Excel and tabular file types are not supported.
  • The maximum supported file size is 100MB.
  • The maximum number of cells that can be opened is 10 million.

As we continue to improve Office editing in encrypted Google Sheets, you may encounter incompatibilities for certain features. Some features are not displayed and/or editable, but will be preserved in the document and viewable in Microsoft Office. Other features may be lost or altered in the latest version of the file when it is edited in Google Sheets. You will see a notification within the document if editing will cause any features to be lost or altered.


Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:
  • Enterprise Plus
  • Education Standard and Plus

Resources

What’s changing
Drive log events provide admins with visibility into their organization’s user activity in Drive. Previously, download activity for files triggered by the use of Google Workspace APIs was not visible to admins as a Drive log event. 

Today, we’re adding audit logs for these API-based actions to the security investigation tool and the audit and investigation tool to expand upon an admin’s ability to identify, triage, and take action on security and privacy issues in their domain. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace
  • This feature is now available 


Availability
Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Starter, Standard, Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard, Plus 
  • Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus 
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

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.


Expanding row limits in Connected Sheets for BigQuery 
Last year, we increased the maximum number of rows of results returned from BigQuery to 50,000 for pivot tables and data extracts. This week, we’re excited to announce this has been expanded to 100,000 rows for pivot tables and 500,000 rows for extracts (with a cell limit of 5 million). This will allow you to analyze even more results in Sheets from the petabytes of data in BigQuery. | Rolling out to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains now. | Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more about analyzing & refreshing BigQuery data in Google Sheets using Connected Sheets, Google Sheets limitations, and getting started with BigQuery data in Google Sheets.

Custom text fields are now available for eSignature in Google Docs and Google Drive 
You can now input custom text fields when using eSignature. This gives you the flexibility to collect specific information as needed, including a phone number, job title, company name, and more. | Available to Google Workspace Individual users and other eligible Google Workspace customers who are on the eSignature alpha. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains and Scheduled Release domains now. | Learn more about sending signature requests & signing documents with eSignature.




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.


Filter, sort, and display your Google Meet hardware devices by product service status 
You can currently filter, sort, and display your Google Meet hardware devices by whether they are online, offline, or experiencing an application load-failure. This week, we’re expanding these parameters to include whether the Calendar and Jamboard services are turned OFF. | Learn more about filtering, sorting and displaying Meet hardware devices. 

Introducing adaptive audio in Google Meet: creating ad-hoc meeting spaces with multiple laptops 
With “adaptive audio,” you and your team can join Google Meet using multiple laptops in close proximity without awkward echos and audio feedback. | Learn more about adaptive audio in Google Meet. 

Send emails to spaces 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. | Learn more about sending emails to spaces. 

Manage spaces at scale with new Chat API functionality 
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 are available to all users currently enrolled in the Developer Preview Program. | Learn more about new Chat API functionality. 

Introducing Gemini offerings for Google Workspace for Education customers 
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. | Learn more about Gemini Education and Gemini Education Premium add-ons.

Expanding voice typing and automatic captions to additional browsers 
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. | Learn more about voice typing features in additional browsers.



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: 

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

What’s changingCurrently 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 available only 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: Expanding voice typing and automatic captions to additional browsers
Rollout pace 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 
Resources 

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 help 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 Docs
  • Creating an agenda for an upcoming professional development session in Sheets
  • Bringing 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.


Check out The Keyword blog for even more information about how we’re bringing Gemini to Google Workspace for Education


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.


As a reminder, gemini.google.com is covered under your Google Workspace for Education Terms of Service*. Check out the Workspace Blog for more information about how we’re protecting your Google Workspace data in the era of Generative AI.


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 responses based on Rice University’s OpenStax educational resources. Or you can leverage Data Commons to visualize 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 responses. 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 models fine-tuned for learning, based on Gemini and grounded in educational research. See here for more information on joining the Google for Education Pilot Program.


Getting started
Rollout pace
  • The Gemini Education and Gemini Education Premium add-ons will be available beginning May 23, 2024

Resources

*Spanish and Portuguese currently have a limited feature set — learn more.
*See here for more information on the terms of service if you’re using gemini.google.com with a personal Google account.

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 down below, are available to all users currently enrolled in the Developer Preview Program. See here for more information on how to enroll in the Developer Preview program.

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 organization, 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 organization, 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 toward completion, activity in these spaces become inactive or abandoned altogether without deletion. This can result in a huge amount of clutter, making it 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 organization, it’s important that they’re connected to all relevant spaces, including organization 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 organization 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 organizations' 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 organization'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 organization.

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

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

Generate email in space settings
Email card in the space

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. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending emails to spaces in Chat.
    • Note: existing Google Group policies are respected. For example, if you have restricted group creation in your organization, those users will also be restricted from generating emails for spaces in Chat.
  • 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 Center to learn more about sending emails to spaces in Chat. 
Rollout pace
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers 
Resources