Google Workspace Updates

Implement automated compliance recording and transcripts for selected Google Meet users

2025-12-09T08:15:00.000-08:00

What’s happening

In order to help organizations, particularly those in the financial services industry, meet strict regulatory archiving requirements, today we are introducing Google Meet Compliance Recording, a new feature that can be enabled by administrators to automatically record meetings and capture transcripts for specific users or groups requiring regulatory monitoring by a registered organization. This feature helps financial firms comply with communication retention and supervision rules mandated by the SEC, FINRA, and the CFTC. It enables firms to retain, monitor, and store digital communications in the required format to adhere to specific regulations like FINRA Rule 3170 and CFTC 17 CFR 1.31. This solution can also be used for other applications, including other global Financial Services compliance regimest (MIFID, etc), and for regulatory requirements in other industries like Healthcare, Public Sector, and more. This solution is available as part of the Assured Controls add-on.

In this article, we will refer to users who benefit from the solution as “regulated users”. This can include any persons who need to be monitored to comply with regulatory requirements; registered broker/dealers, compliance officers, broader employees who communicate with the former groups, and more.


New Google Meet Compliance Recording feature

Why this matters

Meet regulatory requirements: When compliance recording is turned on for a regulated user, their Meet meetings are automatically recorded, and transcripts are captured. Both the recordings and transcripts are stored in a WORM (write once, read many) compliant Google Cloud Storage (GCS) bucket with appropriate retention policies, ensuring immutable records for regulatory archiving.
Enable collaboration features: Historically, regulated entities had to disable several valuable collaboration features in Meet (like chat and screen sharing) to comply with SEC rules. This new framework solves that by automatically creating unalterable records of the recording and transcript when a regulated user joins a call, preserving the standard Meet experience for both participants with the feature turned on or off.
User experience: All call participants will have an uninterrupted experience, with the assurance that regulated user communications are automatically archived for regulatory purposes.

How compliance recording works

Compliance recording is automatic and cannot be disabled by participants once the recording starts.

Visibility: All meeting participants will see a Compliance badge displayed when a regulated user is present. This badge cannot be turned off. A notification is also shown on the pre-meeting screen on the web and when the recording starts.
Storage and Sharing: The recordings and transcripts are not automatically shared with attendees, attached to Google Calendar events, or sent via email notifications to users. They are for compliance archiving only.
Limitations:

Users cannot access these compliance recordings; they must record the meeting themselves if they want a personal copy.
As with existing Meet recordings, compliance recordings are limited to a maximum of 8 hours, after which regulated users might be removed from the meeting.
The recording will not capture content in Breakout Rooms when regulated users join them.

Audio/Video Options: Admins can choose to record Audio only or Audio & video.

Getting started

Admins: The compliance recording setting is off by default. This setting can be applied at the organizational unit (OU) or configuration group level to target only your regulated users. This feature is tied to the license, so only users with an eligible add-on license will be subject to these measures.
End users: No action is required for end users. The recording and transcription process for compliance is automatic and transparent to the user, except for the in-meeting notification and the permanent Compliance badge.

Rollout pace

Available now

Availability

Available for users with the Google Workspace Assured Controls or Assured Controls Plus add-on license

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Set up Google Meet compliance recording

Call queuing now available for select Google Voice plans

2025-12-08T14:03:00.000-08:00

What’s happening

Google Voice is introducing call queuing for ring groups.

Currently, when all members of a ring group are busy, incoming calls are often sent to voicemail or, in some cases, disconnected by the carrier. With this update, when a caller dials a ring group, they will be automatically placed on hold in a queue to wait for the next available person.

This new feature allows administrators to customize several aspects of the caller experience, including:

Music and periodic announcements to be played while callers are on hold
A maximum number of callers allowed in the queue
A maximum time a caller can wait in the queue before being routed elsewhere
A "wrap-up time" to give agents a brief pause after a call before they receive the next one from the queue

Why it's important

This feature is designed to solve common frustrations for both businesses and their customers. With this update, you can:

Capture more calls: By placing callers in a queue instead of sending them to voicemail, businesses can significantly reduce the number of unanswered calls and ensure more inbound inquiries reach an agent.
Boost sales: For sales-focused teams, call queuing ensures that no potential lead is lost due to a busy line. For support teams, it provides a structured way to handle high call volumes, especially during peak hour
Improve customer experience: Call queuing prevents callers from being abruptly disconnected and reduces their frustration, which is particularly helpful for businesses that experience high call volumes or have customers in regions with carrier-imposed ring time limits.

Getting started

Admins: This feature can be enabled or disabled per ring group. Visit the Help Center to learn more.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) on December 8, 2025

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with the Voice Standard and Voice Premier add-ons

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Set up call queuing for a ring group

Invite external guests to Google Meet live streams or limit access for targeted internal live streaming

2025-12-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

Additional access controls for Google Meet will now let hosts decide who can view their live streams. Live streams can now reach a wider audience with added flexibility for events like town halls, webinars, and large presentations. This allows for mixed internal/external audiences and better granularity for hosting restricted internal broadcasts.

External live streaming: Hosts can now also invite external users outside their own domain to join live streams. External viewers join live streams with their invited Google Account.
Targeted internal live streaming: Hosts can now optionally limit in-domain access to a live stream to only specific users or groups and not the entire domain.
New "Adaptive" meeting type: A new opt-in "Adaptive" meeting type setting provides access to these new controls. Existing meetings will keep their behaviors unchanged.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users (meeting hosts): The new Adaptive meeting type is available for meetings with a live stream. Visit the Help Center to learn more about hosting a live stream.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) started on December 4, 2025
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on January 12, 2026

Availability

Available for Google Workspace editions that support live stream hosting:

Enterprise Standard and Plus
Enterprise Essentials Plus
Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning add-on

Resources

Google Help: Start or schedule a Google Meet video meeting

Meet now automatically opens picture-in-picture when screen sharing

2025-12-08T13:48:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

Google Meet now supports automatically opening picture-in-picture when starting a screen share. This will allow you to see your audience while focusing on your presentation content. This feature is an enhancement to picture-in-picture opening automatically when you switch tabs.

In addition to this change, users can now control when picture-in-picture should open automatically from the General tab in Settings. You can choose to:

Never use automatic picture-in-picture
Only use automatic picture-in-picture for tab switching
Only use automatic picture-in-picture for window and screen sharing
Always use automatic picture-in-picture

Note: Automatic picture-in-picture for tab switching requires you to grant permission in your browser once.

End users can choose when to use automatic picture-in-picture in Meet’s settings.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature is ON by default on supported devices, but users can change their preferences in the Settings menu. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using picture-in-picture with Google Meet.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Available now
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on December 15, 2025

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts

Resources

Google Help: Use picture-in-picture with Google Meet

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - December 5, 2025

2025-12-05T12:55:00.000-08:00

A summary of announcements from the last week:

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog over the last week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

Control whether users can request to join a space in Google Chat

New Google Chat Access Control Space owners and managers can now disable the "request to join" feature. Previously, users with a link to a restricted space could ask for permission to enter; with this new setting, managers can block these requests entirely, preventing users from asking to join via a link. | Learn more about controlling whether users can request to join a space in Google Chat.

Educators can now assign public notebooks in Google Classroom

Expanded NotebookLM Assignments in Google Classroom Educators can now attach public notebooks to assignments, rather than being limited to notebooks they personally create or own. This update allows teachers to easily integrate external shared resources—such as content from the OpenStax partnership—directly into their curriculum. | Learn more about assigning public notebooks in Google Classroom.

New to Gmail: share emails in Google Chat

We’re launching a new integration between Gmail and Google Chat designed to improve team collaboration and productivity. With this feature, you can easily share a conversation from your Gmail inbox to a Chat direct message or space. No need to start your chat conversation with, "Did you see the email I forwarded?" or dig through your inbox to find the message being discussed. | Learn more about sharing emails to Google Chat directly from Gmail.

Choose your preferred caption language for Meet live streams on mobile devices

Google Meet live stream viewers can select their own preferred language for translated captions on mobile devices. Individual language selection helps overcome language barriers during presentations and events, maximizing each viewer's potential to understand and engage with the content being shared. | Learn more about choosing your preferred caption language for Meet live streams on mobile devices.

Google Meet translated captions now available in Cantonese

Cantonese Support for Google Meet Translated Captions Google Meet has added Cantonese to its list of supported languages for translated captions. This allows real-time translation of Cantonese speech into other languages, significantly improving accessibility and collaboration for global teams and educational institutions operating in diverse linguistic environments. | Learn more about Cantonese support for Google Meet translated captions.

A refreshed user interface for Google Meet hardware touch controllers

In the coming weeks, we’ll roll out a streamlined user interface for the following Meet Hardware devices: Mimo Vue HD, Mimo Mist, Logitech Tap, Logitech Tap IP, and Lenovo Series One Touch controllers (with Android devices coming soon). This new experience will offer users a more efficient and intuitive way to manage their meetings. | Learn more about a refreshed user interface for Google Meet hardware touch controllers.

Seamlessly join meetings on Google Meet hardware with “Connect room”

In the coming weeks, we’ll introduce Connect room, a new way to seamlessly begin your meetings on Google Meet hardware directly from your personal device. This will be available in early preview. Connect room streamlines how you start meetings in a conference room. Instead of manually typing a meeting code, this feature uses ultrasound proximity detection to identify a nearby, available Google Meet hardware device. | Learn more about seamlessly joining meetings on Google Meet hardware with “Connect room”.

Get quick insights on your Google Drive folders with Gemini

Earlier this year, we introduced Gemini “nudges” at the top of folders in Google Drive, and we’re now making it even easier to get the context of your folders at a glance. Gemini will now proactively provide insights about the files within a folder, right at the top of the folder view. This makes it easier to quickly understand what’s inside without having to open individual files. | Learn more about getting quick insights on your Google Drive folders with Gemini.

Now available: Create AI agents to automate work with Google Workspace Studio

Today we’re introducing Google Workspace Studio: the place to create, manage, and share AI agents to automate work in Workspace—no coding required. | Learn more about creating AI agents to automate work with Google Workspace Studio.

A more modern interface for viewing PDFs, videos, images, and audio files in Google Drive on the web

Google Drive is making significant improvements to the viewing experience of third party file formats, such as PDFs, videos, images, and audio files. | Learn more about a more modern interface for viewing PDFs, videos, images, and audio files in Google Drive on the web.

BYOD on Google Meet on Chrome OS touch controller rooms

We're launching an integration with Lightware peripheral switchers, so that you and your team can bring your own devices (BYOD) to Google Meet on Chrome OS touch controller rooms. Now, you can plug your laptop into a Meet room with a single USB-C cable and easily use the room's display, speaker, microphone, and camera—along with your laptop—for video conferencing. | Learn more about BYOD on Google Meet for ChromeOS touch controller rooms.

BYOD on Google Meet on Chrome OS touch controller rooms

2025-12-05T11:23:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

We're launching an integration with Lightware peripheral switchers, so that you and your team can bring your own devices (BYOD) to Google Meet on Chrome OS touch controller rooms. Now, you can plug your laptop into a Meet room with a single USB-C cable and easily use the room's display, speaker, microphone, and camera—along with your laptop—for video conferencing. The integration is available with the following peripheral switcher devices:

Lightware Taurus UCX 4x2 HC40
Lightware Taurus UCX 4x3 HC40

Additional details

This offers the following benefits:

Seamless transition: Rooms will automatically enter BYOD mode as soon as a user connects their laptop via a certified cable, enabling immediate use of the room's display and high-quality audio and video equipment.
Meeting continuity: If a Google Meet call is already in progress, connecting a laptop will not interrupt the call or activate BYOD mode. The same cable for BYOD mode can be used during a Google Meet meeting for sharing your screen to the meeting, ensuring a unified meeting experience.
Enhanced admin control: Administrators will gain new visibility within the Google admin console, allowing them to see when BYOD mode is active in a room and preventing erroneous missing peripheral alerts when a third-party device is in control.

Getting started

Admins: Visit the Lightware website for more information.
End users: Once the integration is installed, use a USB-C cable to use the room displays, audio devices, and camera.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) started on December 1, 2025 with expected completion by December 18, 2025

Availability

Available to all Google Meet on Chrome OS devices

Resources

Lightware site: Lightware landing page for Google Meet solutions

A more modern interface for viewing PDFs, videos, images, and audio files in Google Drive on the web

2025-12-05T10:48:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

Google Drive is making significant improvements to the viewing experience of third party file formats, such as PDFs, videos, images, and audio files. With this launch, we are modernizing the interface to include:

A new left rail for PDFs which will include a table of contents (where applicable) and thumbnails for easier navigation of documents
A new file menu
A new toolbar and app bar
An option to search by transcript when looking at a video

This modernization will make it easier for Google Workspace users to navigate documents, and will be particularly useful for large documents.

New Drive Web Viewing Experience for PDFs

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be on by default. There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be on by default. You will see it when you open a supported file format in a new tab in Google Drive on the web. Use our Help Center to learn more about how to use Google Drive.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Available now
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility starting on December 11, 2025

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts

Resources

Google Help: How to use Google Drive

Now available: Create AI agents to automate work with Google Workspace Studio

2025-12-03T09:17:00.000-08:00

What’s happening

Today we’re introducing Google Workspace Studio: the place to create, manage, and share AI agents to automate work in Workspace—no coding required.

What you can do with Workspace Studio

Workspace agents built in Studio offer flexibility and intelligence beyond traditional automation.

Automate with agents: Move beyond simple, rule-based automation. Agents can reason through problems and adapt to new information, tackling complex workflows such as intelligent prioritization, support issue triage, smart approvals, content generation, and sentiment analysis.
Create agents with AI: Empower every user to build custom agents in minutes. End users can simply describe what they want to automate in plain language (e.g., "every Friday, ping me to update my tracker"), and Gemini will create it.
Work smarter with context: Agents can now help with tasks such as “Draft a weekly update for Project Cymbal”, or “What should I do today?”. They are deeply integrated with your Workspace apps (like Gmail, Drive, and Sheets). This allows agents to automatically pull relevant context from your documents, emails, and the web, enabling them to provide smarter, personalized answers and take actions based on your specific situation.
Integrate seamlessly: Automate across your entire toolset. Agents can be connected to third-party apps and platforms including Asana, Jira, Mailchimp, and Salesforce.
Extend capabilities: Create more powerful and personalized agents for your business or education institution:

Call external APIs with webhooks to connect to virtually any internal or external service (e.g., push notifications to Slack/Teams/Discord).
Build custom steps using Apps Script to integrate with proprietary internal tools, ADK agents, or models via Vertex AI.

Share and scale: Agents can be shared with a team for others to copy, similar to sharing a Google Doc. This makes it easy to scale powerful agents across your organization.
Use templates: Users can create agents with a library of zero-configuration templates for common use cases that can be shared across your organization. For example:

Get a daily summary of unread emails
Label emails with action items
Get pre-meeting briefs in chat

Additional details

Workspace customers on all eligible editions will get promotional access to higher usage limits of Workspace Studio, allowing users to further experiment with these features. Please note that usage may be subject to change to ensure a consistent and high-quality experience for all users. Additional details on per-user usage limits will be provided in a future update in January 2026.

Users under the age of 18 will not be able to create agents with Gemini AI or use AI-powered steps in agents.

Getting started

Admins: Google Workspace Studio is a core service and will be on or off by default based on your organization’s release preference for new products. It can be enabled or disabled at the OU and group level. Additionally, in the coming weeks, Workspace Studio will be rolling out several new features, including enhancements for external sharing, email sending beyond your primary domain, and robust webhook support. These features will be tightly integrated with your existing trusted domains and allow list configurations, ensuring that admins will have the ability to control, monitor, and audit data flow to meet their organization's specific security and compliance standards. Granular admin controls will also be available to manage these features. More info on default settings for sharing, webhooks, and Gemini features can be found in the Admin Help center.
End users: Once available, end users can access this feature by visiting https://studio.workspace.google.com/.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Admins will see settings appear in the Admin console at the same time their end users get access to Workspace Studio; this rollout will be gradual starting December 3, 2025.
Scheduled Release domains: Admin console settings will roll out gradually starting December 3, 2025; end user access to Workspace Studio will roll out gradually starting January 5, 2026.

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

Business Starter, Standard, and Plus
Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus

Also available to:

Google AI Pro for Education
Google AI Ultra for Business

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Workspace Studio admin help
Google Help: Workspace Studio Help
Google Workspace Learning Center: Workspace Studio training and help
Google Workspace Blog: Introducing Google Workspace Studio: Automate everyday work with AI agents
Discord Channel: Google Workspace Studio Discord

Get quick insights on your Google Drive folders with Gemini

2025-12-02T13:22:00.000-08:00

What’s happening

Earlier this year, we introduced Gemini “nudges” at the top of folders in Google Drive, and we’re now making it even easier to get the context of your folders at a glance. Gemini will now proactively provide insights about the files within a folder, right at the top of the folder view. This makes it easier to quickly understand what’s inside without having to open individual files. For a more in-depth look, you can click “Explore with Gemini” to get a full summary or ask follow up questions in the Gemini side panel.

This feature is designed to help you save time and stay organized by providing at-a-glance insights into your folders. It is an evolution of the previous version of folder nudges, moving from simple suggestions to proactive, intelligent insights. This feature is currently available in English only.

Getting started

Admins: To enable this feature for your users, you can turn on the default personalization setting for smart features in the Admin console.
End users: This feature will be ON by default for end users who have smart features and personalization turned on in their Google Workspace apps. To disable, you can “collapse” the “insights by Gemini” section of a folder. You can also disable this feature by turning off smart features entirely.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Available now
Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 9, 2025

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

Business Standard and Plus
Enterprise Standard and Plus

Also available to:

Google One AI Premium
Google AI Pro for Education

Seamlessly join meetings on Google Meet hardware with “Connect room”

2025-12-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

In the coming weeks, we’ll introduce Connect room, a new way to seamlessly begin your meetings on Google Meet hardware directly from your personal device. This will be available in early preview.

Connect room streamlines how you start meetings in a conference room. Instead of manually typing a meeting code, this feature uses ultrasound proximity detection to identify a nearby, available Google Meet hardware device.

When you open the Google Meet green room on your laptop, it will automatically detect the room and present a simple option to connect to it. With a single click, the meeting starts on the room hardware, and your laptop transitions into Companion mode, getting you checked-in and ready to collaborate without missing a beat.


After clicking Connect room, your meeting is started on the room device while your laptop joins in companion mode and checks you into the room.

Google Meet updates the “Use Companion mode” to “Connect room” when it detects a nearby room to start a meeting.

This feature simplifies the meeting join experience. In particular, you can now:

Take over a booked, but empty conference room: If a conference room is reserved but unoccupied, open your meeting on your laptop, click “Connect room,” and you can immediately start your meeting on the Google Meet hardware.
Join and book an available conference room in one click: If you find an available and bookable conference room and wish to use it, simply open your meeting on your laptop, click “Connect room,” and the Google Meet hardware will instantly join the meeting, simultaneously booking the room for your use.
Join private meetings more easily: Simply open a meeting invite on your device, click “Connect room,” and instantly join the meeting directly on Google Meet hardware.
Join a meeting not listed on the conference room calendar: If you were sent a Google Meet invitation in chat or email, open your meeting on your laptop, click “Connect room,” and you can immediately start your meeting on the Google Meet hardware.

Additional details

Users on the Rapid Release track will start seeing this feature for devices enrolled in our Early Preview Rooms (EPR) program starting on December 2, 2025. We’ll share more details on the Workspace Updates blog when we begin a broader rollout.

Getting started

Admins: To preview this feature, your domain must be on the Rapid Release track and have devices enrolled in our EPR program. In addition, this feature relies on Google Meet hardware’s Proximity Detection device setting, which is ON by default. For this feature to work, you must enable Proximity Detection on your fleet's devices. In-room booking must also be enabled for Connect room to automatically book the room when joining the call.
End users: This feature will be ON by default for users on the Rapid Release track entering a room with enabled hardware. To use the feature, ensure your laptop microphone is selected in the greenroom, then simply click "Connect room" when the prompt appears. Visit the Help Center to learn more.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) to EPR rooms only starting on December 2, 2025

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices

Resources

Google Help: Use Connect room feature in Google Meet

A refreshed user interface for Google Meet hardware touch controllers

2025-12-02T12:24:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

1.Simplified access to key controls: The controls you use most frequently inside a meeting, like mute and hand raise, are now more prominent and easily accessible. This means less time spent searching for features and more time focusing on your meeting.

2. Intuitively organized features:

In-meeting experience: If you need to access more advanced features, like camera controls or the meeting layout, you can now find them conveniently under the “More actions” menu. This keeps the main interface clean and uncluttered while ensuring less frequently used features are still accessible when you need them.
Pre-call experience: A refreshed pre-call meeting design prominently features the option to enter a meeting code or nickname, and includes a clear drop-down menu for joining Webex or Zoom meetings, streamlining your connection process.

3. A familiar interface: The touch controller UI will look and feel more similar to the Google Meet UI on the web, making your transition more intuitive.


New touch controller in-meeting experience

Getting started

Admins: The new experience will be ON by default. There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This new experience will be ON by default for eligible Meet Hardware devices in your meeting rooms.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 1, 2025

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices

Resources

Google Help: Try the new Google Meet Hardware touch controller UI

Google Meet translated captions now available in Cantonese

2025-12-02T08:01:00.000-08:00

What’s happening

We are enhancing the translated captions feature in Google Meet by adding support for Cantonese. This update makes it easier for users to communicate and collaborate across different languages.

For your end users, this means that if a meeting attendee is speaking in Cantonese, or another supported language, Meet can now display real-time translated captions to the language of their choice. This is particularly helpful in large, global organizations or educational institutions where participants may speak different primary languages. Adding Cantonese support ensures smoother communication, better meeting accessibility, and more inclusive participation for teams working in diverse linguistic environments.

This feature allows teams to connect and collaborate more easily, ensuring all voices are heard and understood regardless of location or native language.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about translated captions in Meet.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now

Availability

This feature is available for the following Google Workspace editions:

Business Standard
Business Plus
Enterprise Standard
Enterprise Plus
Google AI Pro for Education

Resources

Google Help: Use Translated Captions in Google Meet

Choose your preferred caption language for Meet live streams on mobile devices

2025-12-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

Previously, Meet live streams were broadcast to mobile devices with a single target language set for captions, selected by the host when starting the live stream. Now, viewers independently select their own preferred language for translated captions and can also change this setting while watching the live stream.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: End users can turn translated captions on or off and select their preferred language. Visit the Help Center to learn more about translated captions.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 28, 2025

Availability

All Google Workspace customers can select their preferred language for captions. Only users with eligible licenses can host live streams.

Resources

Google Help: Use translated captions in Google Meet

New to Gmail: share emails in Google Chat

2025-12-02T07:20:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

Starting from a Gmail thread, you can initiate a chat with the existing email recipients, a subset, or a new group. The email is automatically forwarded and recipients can open it directly from a link in Chat.

This enables you to switch to Chat for active discussion while preserving the connection to the original message. Two-way linking helps ensure that everyone has the full context they need for a productive discussion and reduces the need to jump between tabs.

This feature is helpful in common scenarios such as:

Resolving an issue in real time instead of going back and forth over email
Chatting about an email with a subset of the original group before responding
Discussing a customer email with coworkers
Signal boosting an announcement by company leadership
Sharing meetings notes and action items

Sharing an email in Google Chat

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. Organizations must have both Gmail and Chat enabled for the feature to appear.
End users: This feature will be on by default for users who have Chat enabled in Gmail, available on desktop at launch and on mobile soon (currently available in limited testing on mobile for selected users). Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to share in Chat from Gmail.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on December 2, 2025
Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 9, 2025

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

Business Starter, Standard, and Plus
Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
Frontline Starter, Standard, Plus
Nonprofits

We plan to bring this feature to Education customers in the coming months. Please stay tuned to the Workspace Updates blog for an update on availability.

Resources

Google Help: Share in Chat from Gmail

Educators can now assign public notebooks in Google Classroom

2025-12-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

We recently introduced the ability for educators to create and assign NotebookLM in Google Classroom. Now, teachers can attach public notebooks to assignments, in addition to the notebooks they create or own.

This update significantly expands the access to educational content available to educators and students. Educators can now easily integrate publicly shared learning materials — including notebooks available from our partnership with OpenStax.

Getting started

Admins: Educators and students must be in a group or OU with NotebookLM set to On. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning NotebookLM on or off for users.
End users: This feature will be available by default if NotebookLM is enabled by your admin. Use our Help Center to learn more about using NotebookLM in Classroom: Create Assignments with NotebookLM & Gems in Google Classroom

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 1, 2025

Availability

Available for Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus

Resources

Google Help: Create and assign NotebookLM & Gems in Google Classroom
Google Help: Use public notebooks and featured notebooks in NotebookLM

Control whether users can request to join a space in Google Chat

2025-12-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

We are introducing a new setting in Google Chat that allows space owners and managers to control whether users can request to join a space.

Previously, if someone received a link to a space that required permission for them to join, they could send a request to space owners and managers. With this new feature, space owners and managers can now further restrict access by disabling the "request to join" option. If users try to access a space via a link, they will no longer be able to request to join.


New permissions control in the space settings menu

‘No access’ message for users without permission

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: Go to space settings and flip the toggle under “Allow requests to join.”

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on December 1, 2025
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on January 7, 2025

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts

Resources

Google Help: Manage space settings

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - November 28, 2025

2025-11-28T06:13:00.000-08:00

A summary of announcements from the last week:

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog over the last week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

Granular OAuth consent in web apps and Google Workspace add-ons

Earlier this year, we launched an improved version of the OAuth consent screen to the Apps Script IDE and unpublished web apps and Google Workspace add-ons that allows users to specify which individual scopes they would like to authorize for that script. For example, if a script requests access to a user’s Google Sheets and Forms files, and the user only intends to use the script with Sheets files, they can decide to only allow access to their spreadsheets and not their forms. | Learn more about Granular OAuth consent in web apps and Google Workspace add-ons.

Data classification labels visible in more places across Google Drive

Beginning today, a Drive item’s applied data classification values will appear across all views on Drive on the web, including Home, My Drive, Shared Drives, and Drive search results. Previously, users needed to either navigate to Details or open the file to know a Drive item’s classification state. Now, users will immediately see the applied classification values when navigating throughout the Drive product. | Learn more about the expanded visibility of data classification labels across Google Drive.

Automatically generated captions for videos in Google Drive now available in more languages

We are expanding automatic video captions in Google Drive to support 27 new languages. This update improves accessibility for all users—including those who are hard of hearing or speak different languages—while saving time by eliminating manual caption creation and enhancing video searchability. | Learn more about new language support for automatically generated captions in Google Drive.

Fine-tune your network for Meet live streaming with extended quality metrics

Meet audit events logged for live stream viewers now contain an extended set of quality metrics. These metrics can help admins understand their viewers' perceived quality when participating in live streams. The quality metrics can be used to identify potential network configuration adjustments that can improve the live streaming experience. | Learn more about fine-tuning your network for Meet live streaming with extended quality metrics.

Fine-tune your network for Meet live streaming with extended quality metrics

2025-11-26T07:14:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

The audit events contain quality metrics about both direct media delivery from Google's servers and peer-assisted media delivery when eCDN is used.

Some examples of the new quality metric fields

Getting started

Admins: Access audit events for Meet through the Admin SDK.

Rollout pace

Available now

Availability

Audit events are logged for live stream viewers of all Google Workspace customers. Hosting live streams is available to organizers with an eligible Workspace license, including:

Enterprise Standard and Plus
Enterprise Essentials Plus
Education Plus and Teaching and Learning add-on

Resources

Automatically generated captions for videos in Google Drive now available in more languages

2025-11-25T07:40:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

Last year, we announced the ability to automatically generate captions for English-language videos in Google Drive. Today, we’re expanding this feature to support 27 additional languages.

This update makes video content stored in Drive more accessible, inclusive, and easier to understand for all users, especially those who are deaf or hard of hearing, are in a noisy environment, or speak a different primary language. Automatically generated captions also save time by eliminating the need for manual caption creation and make it easier to search for video content.

When an eligible user uploads a video to Drive, this feature will automatically detect if the video is in one of the supported languages and generate captions for it.

The new languages supported are:

Arabic
Czech
Dutch
Filipino
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Malay
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Vietnamese

Support for Chinese is coming soon.

Getting started

Admins: This feature expansion will be ON by default for all eligible organizations and will respect your existing settings for automatically-generated captions. No new admin control is being added. You can control this feature for your organization at the domain, OU, or group level. Admins can choose to:

Have captions generated automatically when a user uploads a video (default)
Turn on the feature, but require users to request captions for each video
Disable automatically-generated captions entirely

End users: For end users at organizations where automatic generation on upload is enabled, captions in these new languages will be generated automatically upon video upload. No action is required. End users who need to request captions (including users with personal Google accounts) can generate captions by doing the following: right-click the video > Manage caption tracks > Add new caption tracks. Visit the Help Center to learn more about automatically generated captions.

Rollout pace

Available now

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning automatically-generated captions for videos in Drive on or off.

Data classification labels visible in more places across Google Drive

2025-11-25T07:28:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

For any particular item, the highest ranked label with a badged list field will display the applied option. For items with more than one label applied, an additional label count icon will appear next to the badged value displaying the number of additional labels applied to the item. For items where only data classification labels without badged lists are applied, the Label name of the highest rank classification label will appear next to the file title with a non-colored badge treatment. It’s important to note that only options from badged lists will display within Workspace surfaces; a label without a badged list will display the label name.

Hovering over either the badged label value or the additional count icon will display additional applied labels in a tooltip. Clicking a label value will immediately open the Labels section of File Details.

Getting started

Admins:

If you've been using classification labels, there are no changes to your experience beyond improved end user visibility of applied labels.
There is no admin control for this feature; however, you are able to adjust whether a label contains a badged option list and specify a color scheme within the Label Manager.

End users: No action needed. Labels will start to appear on Drive items across all supported views.

Rollout pace

Available now

Availability

Data classification labels in Drive are available to Google Workspace:

Frontline Starter and Standard
Business Standard and Plus
Enterprise Standard and Plus
Education Standard and Education Plus
Nonprofits
Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus

Resources

Granular OAuth consent in web apps and Google Workspace add-ons

2025-11-24T05:44:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

This screenshot shows the new OAuth consent screen, which lets the user provide consent for a subset of the requested OAuth scopes.

We’re excited to announce that this more granular OAuth consent screen will be expanding to an additional Apps Script execution type. Soon, published web apps and Google Workspace add-ons powered by Apps Script will also present users with this more granular consent screen when requesting an OAuth grant. This will allow users to provide partial OAuth consent when authorizing new applications built on these platforms. A reminder that this also includes reconsenting to applications when OAuth grants expire.

Additional details

To prepare for the release of this new consent flow, we suggest that web apps and Google Workspace add-ons developers refer to the ScriptApp and AuthorizationInfo classes. These allow Apps Script developers to programmatically interact with the scopes granted for a script. This allows developers to put in such safeguards as short-circuiting a script execution if not all scopes are granted. For more information, refer to the developer documentation. To test these changes, please see the documentation on testing web apps and Google Workspace add-ons.

Getting Started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
Developers and end users:

This new consent screen will only be used for new OAuth scope grants. Pre-existing scope grants will not be affected, so no action is required by users on scripts they’ve already authorized.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 7, 2026

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers and Workspace Individual subscribers

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - November 21, 2025

2025-11-21T13:22:00.000-08:00

A summary of announcements from the last week:

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog over the last week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

Block off time to work on a task in Calendar

Users can now easily block off time on their calendar to work on a specific task. On your calendar, select an empty slot > click task. From here, you can add the relevant task and description, and customize details like visibility and do not disturb settings. | Learn more about blocking off time to work on a task in Calendar.

Use Veo 3.1 ingredients-to-video to create clips from images in Google Vids

Create eight-second video clips in Google Vids using the new ingredients-to-video capability powered by Veo 3.1. Simply upload up to three images and write a prompt to generate content that maintains consistent subjects and characters. This feature allows you to tell a cohesive story for projects like brand promotions or training videos using your specific imagery as the foundation. | Learn more about Learn more about using Veo 3.1 ingredients-to-video to create clips from images in Google Vids.

Introducing Gemini 3 Pro for Gemini app

We’re bringing our most intelligent model, Gemini 3, to the Gemini app for Google Workspace customers. This update brings state-of-the-art reasoning to your most complex problems, setting a new bar for AI model performance and delivering a more powerful and helpful experience. | Learn more about Gemini 3 Pro for Gemini app.

Single-sign on with custom OpenID Connect profiles now generally available

Single-sign on with custom OpenID Connect profiles is now generally available. With this capability, admins have the option to set up a custom OpenID Connect (OIDC) profile for single sign-on (SSO) with Google as their service provider. | Learn more about Single Sign-On with custom OpenID Connect profiles.

Gemini in Google Classroom is expanding to students in higher education

Earlier this year, we launched Gemini in Google Classroom to help educators save time on planning and create more engaging lessons. In the coming weeks, we’re expanding Gemini in Classroom to students in higher education who are 18 years of age and older to help them study and learn. | Learn more about Gemini in Google Classroom expanding to students in higher education.

New Google Meet links when changing recurrence or start time of recurring Calendar events

To create a more consistent and secure meeting experience, we're changing what happens when you edit recurring Google Calendar events. Previously, when users modified the start time or recurrence of recurring events and applied the change to "This and following events," the remaining events used the original Google Meet link. | Learn more about Google Meet link updates when changing recurring Calendar events.

Introducing Nano Banana Pro in Slides, Vids, Gemini app, and NotebookLM

We’re excited to introduce Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image), our new state-of-the-art image generation and editing model. Starting today, Nano Banana Pro is rolling out to Google Workspace customers in Google Slides, Vids, the Gemini app, and NotebookLM. | Learn more about Nano Banana Pro in Slides, Vids, Gemini app, and NotebookLM.

Collaborate seamlessly across Google Workspace and Egnyte

Egnyte’s enhanced Google Workspace integration is now generally available to all customers. With this update, users can now securely locate, open, edit, and manage their Google Workspace files in Egnyte’s web UI, mobile app, and desktop client. | Learn more about seamless collaboration across Google Workspace and Egnyte.

Preview unread Google Chat messages from the left-hand menu

We’re excited to introduce a new way to triage your messages. Now, you can preview the last unread message in conversations directly from the left-hand menu, without marking it as read. Simply hover over a bolded conversation to peek at the message. When you are ready to engage, click to jump straight into the conversation or thread and take action. | Learn more about previewing unread Google Chat messages.

Preview unread Google Chat messages from the left-hand menu

2025-11-21T07:59:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

We’re excited to introduce a new way to triage your messages. Now, you can preview the last unread message in conversations directly from the left-hand menu, without marking it as read.

Simply hover over a bolded conversation to peek at the message. When you are ready to engage, click to jump straight into the conversation or thread and take action.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. This feature will be ON by default as it rolls out.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting November 21, 2025, with expected completion by mid-December 2025

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts

Resources

Google Help: Navigate Google Chat

Collaborate seamlessly across Google Workspace and Egnyte

2025-11-20T09:53:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

This latest update delivers a faster, more intuitive, and more collaborative experience for users who rely on both Egnyte and Google Workspace in their daily workflows, including:

Dual file storage – Files are securely stored in both Egnyte and Google Drive, providing flexibility for users and IT teams while maintaining Egnyte’s data governance and access controls
Egnyte add-ons for Google Workspace – Share Egnyte files directly from Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for faster, more integrated collaboration without switching between apps
Smart canvas and Gemini access – Leverage Google Workspace’s smart canvas capabilities and Gemini features within Egnyte’s updated integration for a more dynamic, interactive editing experience
Additional Improvements – Backend optimizations to enhance overall performance, usability, and reliability

Getting started

Admins:

The Egnyte Workspace add-on to control file sharing must be enabled by Workspace admins for their domains in the Google Workspace Marketplace Settings menu.
Egnyte admins must also enable the integration for their domains via “Egnyte Apps & Integration Settings” in the Egnyte Settings menu. Visit the Egnyte Help Center to learn more.

End users: There is no end user setting for this integration. Visit the Egnyte for Google Workspace Landing Page to learn more.

Rollout pace

This integration is available now. New users of the integration will see the upgraded experience by default. Existing users will be migrated to the new version in a phased manner but can contact Egnyte support to migrate sooner.

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

Business Starter, Standard, and Plus
Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus
Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus
Nonprofits
Frontline Starter, Standard, Plus

Resources

Egnyte Helpdesk: Egnyte for Google Workspace
Landing Page: Egnyte for Google Workspace

Introducing Nano Banana Pro in Slides, Vids, Gemini app, and NotebookLM

2025-11-20T07:01:00.000-08:00

What’s changing

Google Slides:

“Help me visualize” in Slides now uses Nano Banana Pro to help anyone create stunning infographics, images, and slides. We also added an all-new experience, “Beautify this slide”, to help people create thoughtfully designed visuals—based on the content of an existing slide—that can be used as individual slides. Here’s what’s coming:

Infographic: Generate detailed, professional infographics directly in Slides, all with just a simple prompt. Nano Banana Pro is connected to Google Search’s vast knowledge base, meaning it does an incredible job at representing real-world objects and places, all while taking into account the details you describe in your prompt.
Images: The same experience you know, now using Nano Banana Pro. Create stunning, realistic images that help add value to any slide deck.
Beautify this slide: In just a click, “Beautify this slide” turns your ideas into a compelling visual with more accurate, legible text while modeling the look and feel of the overall deck. Like what you see? Simply select “insert as new slide” and the visual will be added directly into your deck as an individual slide.

Beautify your slides with Nano Banana Pro in Slides

NotebookLM:

With Nano Banana Pro in NotebookLM, you can now visualize key insights from your sources as high-quality infographics. This allows you to distill complex information and relationships into a single, high-impact visual that makes your data easier to digest. You can also create complete and polished slide decks directly from your sources and share them as a PDF. See it in action.

Google Vids:

In Google Vids, Nano Banana Pro allows you to generate and edit images with greater precision. With new multi-turn prompting, you can refine your visuals iteratively, helping you create custom, production-ready assets to include in your videos.

Gemini app:

Generate high-quality, sophisticated visuals that help bring your creative ideas to life in the Gemini app. Simply select “Create images” and “Thinking” from the model drop down menu to access Nano Banana Pro.

Note: Workspace customers will get promotional access to higher usage limits of Nano Banana Pro in these apps for at least 60 days, allowing users to experiment with these features. Per-user usage limits will apply afterward; we’ll provide more information in a future update prior to any changes. At this time, image generation and editing is only available to users over the age of 18.

Developers and business teams can also access Nano Banana Pro on Vertex AI, and soon in Gemini Enterprise. Learn more.

Getting started

Admins: There are no admin controls for this feature.
End users: Visit the Help Center for more information on generating images in Gemini, NotebookLM, Slides, and Vids.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 20, 2025

Availability

Nano Banana Pro in Google Slides, Google Vids, the Gemini app, and NotebookLM is available for:

Google Workspace Business Standard and Plus
Google Workspace Enterprise Standard and Plus
Google AI Pro and AI Ultra
Google AI Ultra for Business
Google AI Pro for Education

Nano Banana Pro in the Gemini app and NotebookLM is also available for Google Workspace:

Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus
Business Starter
Enterprise Starter
Nonprofits
Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus
Frontline Starter, Standard, Plus

Nano Banana Pro in Google Vids is also available for Google Workspace:

Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus
Business Starter *
Enterprise Starter *
Nonprofits *
Education Plus and Teaching and Learning add-on*

*For a limited time, at least through May 31, 2026, these plans can access generative AI features in Vids. Learn about Google Vids availability.

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Turn the Gemini app on or off for users
Google Workspace Admin Help: Turn NotebookLM on or off for users
Google Workspace Admin Help: Manage access to Gemini features in Workspace services
Google Workspace Admin Help: Turn Vids on or off for users