Google Workspace Updates: Google Drawings

More AI-powered features in Google Meet and Google Chat are coming to Google Workspace Business and Enterprise editions

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

What’s changing Earlier this year, we announced that we’re including the best of Google AI in Workspace Business and Enterprise plans without the need to purchase a separate Gemini add-on. Beginning today, additional AI-powered features are available for Business and Enterprise editions:

For Google Meet:

Generated background images: With Gemini in Meet, you can generate unique and bespoke meeting backgrounds. Meeting backgrounds can help obscure your surroundings during a meeting or they can enhance the meeting itself. Users will also benefit from our latest model upgrade for background generation, as well as additional style options, like a professional office, library, or home office to help refine their custom backgrounds.
Studio look: Gemini in Meet uses machine learning to detect and enhance (if necessary) the quality of your portrait by reducing noise and increasing sharpness, bringing you into focus so you can look your best in meetings.
Studio lighting: Using machine learning, Gemini in Meet will simulate studio-quality lighting and adjust light position and brightness in your video feed, so you're perfectly lit for your meeting. Note: Studio lighting is only available on devices that meet certain browser and processor requirements. Visit the Help Center to learn more about device requirements for studio lighting.
Studio sound: Gemini in Meet will automatically recreate and balance missing or distorted frequencies helping to make your voice come through crisp and clear. This can be especially useful when dialing in via phone or using bluetooth headsets for example.

For Google Chat:

Translate for me: Chat will automatically detect and translate over 120 languages to a user’s preferred language while keeping the original message available for review. Instead of navigating outside of Chat to translate a message, this reduces friction and improves collaboration with colleagues, partners and customers in other parts of the world.

For Google Drawings:

Background image removal: Gemini’s image background removal functionality (also available in Slides and Vids) is now available in Google Drawings.

Getting started

Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about managing access to Gemini features in Workspace services.
End users:

Background generation: When enabled by your admin, visit the Help Center to learn more about creating background images with Gemini in Google Meet.
Studio lighting and look: Visit the Help Center to learn more about improving your video experience.
Studio sound: Studio sound is automatically active for dial-in and web when noise cancellation is enabled.
Background image removal: Click an image in a drawing in Google Drawings > Edit image > Remove background. Visit the Help center to learn more about removing image backgrounds in Google Drawings, Slides & Vids.
Translate for me: Automatic translation via translate for me will be OFF by default. Turn ON the automatic translation setting at chat.google.com (web) or on your Android or iOS device by going to Settings > Automatic Translation > select the box for ‘Translate messages to your preferred language. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Automatic Translation in Chat.

Rollout pace

Custom background images, studio lighting, and studio sound in Google Meet:

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 11, 2025

Studio look in Google Meet:

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 18, 2025

Translate for me in Google Chat and background image removal in Google Drawings:

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now.

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:

Business Standard and Plus
Enterprise Standard and Plus

These features are already available to Gemini for Workspace add-on customers. Note that as of January 15, 2025, Gemini Business, Gemini Enterprise, AI Meetings & Messaging, and AI Security add-ons are no longer available for purchase. Please refer to this announcement for more details.

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - March 15, 2024

Friday, March 15, 2024

4 New updatesUnless 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.
Banner alerts for Google Drive item capacity limits in shared drives
To give users more visibility when shared drives in their domain are approaching the item capacity limit (400,000 items), we’re introducing banner alerts that identify current shared drive capacity. These banners will be visible when less than 20% capacity is left and will appear only for users who have edit access to add content to the specific shared drive. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for April 3, 2024. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits. | Learn more about item capacity limits in shared drives.
Input numbers into slider controls across Google Docs, Slides and Drawings Rapid Release domainsScheduled Release domainscropping and adjusting images.

Updated version history limits for Apps Script projectsEarlier this year, we announced that you can create and save up to 200 versions for newly created scripts. We’ve expanded this limit to all scripts. If needed, you can permanently delete multiple script versions at the same time from the project history page using the new “Bulk delete” feature. | This is available now to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. | Learn more using our developer documentation on working with Apps Script versions.

Google Meet-certified Logitech Rally Bar Huddle room kits are now available
Logitech Rally Bar Huddle room kits for Google Meet are now available for purchase. These kits are optimized for small spaces that can accommodate 3 to 5 people. The device can be used as a meeting room appliance, in USB mode connected to a meeting room PC, or connected via laptop. | This is available now to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices. | Visit Logitech’s website for more information on purchasing a room kit.

Google Meet-certified Logitech Rally Bar Huddle room kits are now available

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.

Application load failures are now captured for the Google Meet hardware devices

Admins can now see when the Google Meet app fails to load for a device. | Learn more about application load failures.

Create fully customized email campaigns using new layout editor tool

Starting this week, even more users across Google Workspace editions can now create customized email layouts using a new email layout editor that is accessible from the compose screen in Gmail or Google Drive. In the layout editor, you can create a new email layout from scratch or select from a predefined set of email templates, which include images, text elements and buttons. | Available to Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus and Workspace Individual subscribers only. | Learn more about customizable email campaigns.

Select App Access Controls can now be applied at the organizational unit

Google Workspace Admins can now configure a number of App Access Control (AAC) policies at the Organizational Unit (OU) level. | Learn more about App Access Controls.

Import data from other messaging platforms using the Google Chat API is now generally available

Google Workspace developers registered in our Workspace Developer Preview program have been able to import user data from other messaging platforms into Google Chat using the Google Chat APIs. This functionality is now generally available to all Workspace developers and admins. | Learn more about importing data using the Chat API.

Subtly enhance your appearance with portrait touch-up when using Google Meet on the web

In October 2023, we introduced portrait touch-up for Google Meet on mobile devices. We’re extending this functionality to Google Meet on the web. Portrait touch-up can be used to lightly touch up your appearance before or during a meeting, helping you feel more comfortable and confident in your appearance during video calls. | Available to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Teaching & Learning Upgrade, Google One and Google Workspace Individual subscribers only. | Learn more about subtly enhancing your appearance with portrait touch-up.

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:

New formatting sidebar in Google Docs, Slides and Sheets apps on Android Tablets (Docs and Slides only)

Scheduled Release Domains:

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

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

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - January 12, 2024

Friday, January 12, 2024

4 New updatesUnless 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.
Version history limits for Apps Script projects For all new scripts, you’ll be able to create and save up to 200 versions of your script. If needed, you can permanently delete a script version from the project history page. | This is available now to all Google Workspace customers. | Learn more using our developer documentation on working with Apps Script versions.

Share a link to a specific time in a Google Drive video We’re adding new functionality to the Drive sharing button that lets you share timestamped links to specific parts of a video. On web, simply navigate to drive.google.com > find and open a video file > play the video (you can pause the playback before performing the following steps) > select the dropdown on the “Share” button in the top-right corner > select “Copy link to this time” > send the link. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about copying a specific time in the video.

Share a link to a specific time in a Google Drive video

Introducing dropdown options on the sharing button in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and DrawingsWe’re adding a new feature that ensures a seamless sharing experience across Workspace. In Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings, you will now see a dropdown on the Share button that surfaces quick actions, such as pending access requests and the “Copy link” option. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts.

Using functions in Connected Sheets for BigQuery Today, Connected Sheets for BigQuery supports 23 Sheets functions, such as AVERAGE and XLOOKUP. However, all of these functions behave somewhat differently than their native counterparts. Thus, to help Connected Sheets users write better functions, we now display context-aware Help Center content in Sheets. The ‘formula help’ shows descriptions for Connected Sheets functions when writing a formula that would query BigQuery, and otherwise shows descriptions of native Sheets functions. | This is available now to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about the XLOOKUP function.

Previous announcementsThe announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

Updates to metrics in Google Drive Apps Reports and Reports API We’re making some updates to the Google Drive metrics in the Admin Console Apps reports and the Reports API. As a result of these improvements, admins who analyze metrics will have more reporting clarity and can better understand activity trends within their domain. | Learn more about metrics in Drive Apps Reports and Reports API.

Easily share Google Drive files to Google Calendar meeting attendees

We’re introducing the option to share any file with all meeting participants on a Google Calendar invite via the sharing dialog within a file. | Learn more about sharing Drive files to Calendar.

Google Meet is now available on Logitech Android appliances

Google Meet is now supported on Logitech’s Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini Android-based appliances for collaboration rooms and spaces of just about any size. After initial setup, admins can easily enroll, manage, and monitor these devices using the Google admin console. Google Meet on Logitech Android-based devices is supported on CollabOS v1.11 as a video conferencing provider | Learn more about Meet on Logitech Android appliances.

Google Meet hardware devices from Poly now support interoperability with Cisco Webex and Zoom

We’re expanding the existing interoperability between Google Meet, Cisco Webex, and Zoom to include Android-based Meet hardware devices from Poly. Specifically, these devices include: Poly Studio X30, X50, X52, and X70. | Learn more about support interoperability with Cisco Webex and Zoom.

Extending Trusted Types to Gmail

We’re excited to announce the expansion of Trusted Types to Gmail. This will provide a defense against DOM XSS and further enhances our advanced data protection controls to keep users and data safe across more of the apps they use everyday. | Learn more about Trusted Types.

Completed rollouts

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

Rapid Release Domains:

Scheduled Release Domains:

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

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

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - September 8, 2023

Friday, September 8, 2023

5 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 autocorrect to Google Chat on web

Google Chat on web will now automatically correct misspelled words, making it easier to send messages without typos. Similar to functionality in Gmail and Google Docs, the corrected words are shown with a gray underline so you know when the auto-correction has occurred. | This feature is rolling out now to all English users.

Expanding autocorrect to Google Chat on web

Expanding streamlined file organization across Google Workspace

Earlier this year, we introduced streamlined file organization with the new Google Drive location picker. As a follow up, we're expanding this updated visual experience to Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Sites and Gmail. Users will now have access to helpful suggestions when moving files, adding shortcuts to files, or creating copies of files. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains at an extended pace (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility). | Learn more about how to use Google Drive.

Updated zoom in/out capabilities across Google Docs, Slides and Drawings

We’re introducing new zoom keyboard shortcuts in Google Docs and Slides on web to help you zoom in, zoom out, or scale to 100%. Additionally, you can now smoothly zoom in or out in Slides using the trackpad or mouse wheel with a modifier key (cmd/ctrl), making it easier to control your view of Slides. | Learn more about keyboard shortcuts for Docs and Slides.

Expanded language support for captions in Google Meet

Captions in Google Meet allow you to view captions as everyone speaks during a meeting. Over the course of the next several weeks, you’ll be able to use captions in more languages:

Arabic (Arab Emirates) (Beta)

Arabic (Egypt) (Beta)

Arabic (Levant) (Beta)

Arabic (Maghrebi) (Beta)

Bengali (Bangladesh) (Beta)

Bulgarian (Bulgaria) (Beta)

Chinese (Simplified) (Beta)

Chinese, Mandarin (Traditional) (Beta)

English (UK) (Beta)

Gujarati (India) (Beta)

Hindi (Beta)

isiXhosa (South Africa) (Beta)

Kannada (India) (Beta)

Khmer (Cambodia) (Beta)

Kinyarwanda (Rwanda) (Beta)

Malayalam (India) (Beta)

Marathi (India) (Beta)

Northern Sotho (South Africa) (Beta)

Sesotho (South Africa) (Beta)

Swati (South Africa) (Beta)

Swedish (Sweden) (Beta)

Tshivenda (South Africa) (Beta)

Tswana (South Africa) (Beta)

Xitsonga (South Africa) (Beta)

Available now to all Google Workspace customers. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about using captions in Google Meet.

Dynamic groups now supports negation queries

You can now create or edit dynamic groups to use negation in membership queries. For example, you can opt to create a dynamic group that excludes all users from a particular sub organization or specific job title. There are a few limitations, however — any query using the “exists” macro and using the AND (&) operator or queries where the NOT operator is used inside of the “exists” macro will not be supported. | Rolling out to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains at gradual pace (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting September 11, 2023. | Available to Google Workspace Frontline Standard, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus and Cloud Identity Premium customers only. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about creating membership queries for dynamic groups and our Developer documentation for more information about formulating and testing a membership query.

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.

Expanding branding and customization capabilities to Google Sites

You can now easily and quickly create with high-quality, pre-designed themes for Google Sites. | Available to Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus only. | Learn more about changing how your Google Site looks.

Introducing a new ultra-low latency viewer experience for in-domain live streaming in Google Meet

We are introducing a new ultra-low latency viewing experience for video meetings that are streamed within an organization. The new experience will be available to the first ten thousand viewers — all additional viewers will have the existing experience. | Learn more about in-domain live streaming in Google Meet.

More Google Meet features for Google Workspace Individual users

If you’re a Google Workspace Individual user, you can now take advantage of several new Meet features and enhancements. We hope these updates make it easier for you to connect and collaborate with your customers and stakeholders, continuing to drive your business forward. | Learn more about features for Google Workspace Individual users.

Lock files more easily in Google Drive

We’re adding the option to lock Drive files by right-clicking the file, selecting “File information”, and clicking “Lock”. Locking a file makes sure reviewers can’t change a file. Edits, comments and suggestions can't be added to locked documents. | Learn more about locking files in Drive.

Increased row limits in Connected Sheets for BigQuery We’re increasing the maximum number of rows of results returned from BigQuery for pivot tables and for data extracts. Pivot tables have been expanded to 50,000 rows (previously 30,000) and data extracts have been expanded to 50,000 rows (previously 25,000). | Learn more about Connected Sheets for BigQuery.

Completed rollouts

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

Rapid Release Domains:

Scheduled Release Domains:

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

Get more granular views of Google Slides with new zoom settings

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

Adding Trusted Types to Google Workspace

Thursday, February 23, 2023

Update

[August 2, 2023] This feature has fully rolled out Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, Jamboard, Drawings and Drive.

[April 26, 2023] We have paused rollout for this feature for Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, Jamboard, Drawings and Drive while we evaluate performance and quality. We will provide an update once rollout resumes.

What’s changingWe’re improving the client-side security of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, Jamboard, Drawings, Drive, and Calendar with Trusted Types. This will provide an extra layer of protection around Document Object Model (DOM) APIs that are used by the apps listed above or third-party extensions.
This new enforcement mode will require third-party extensions to use typed objects instead of strings when assigning values to DOM APIs, and will begin rolling out on March 23, 2023. Once Trusted Types are fully enforced, the Trusted Types directive will be present in the Content Security Policy (CSP) header:

Who’s impactedDevelopers (relying on any Chrome extensions that modify DOM APIs.)

Why it’s importantTrusted Types is a feature that further enhances our advanced data protection controls to keep users and data safe across more of the apps they use everyday.

Additional details Screen readers, braille devices, and screen magnification will not change with Trusted Types. However, we recommend admins and developers check third party extensions for Trusted Types violations. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Accessibility for Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, & Drawings.

Getting started

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

To make code Trusted Types compliant, signal to the browser that data being used within the context of these DOM APIs is trustworthy by creating a Trusted Type special object.
There are several ways to be Trusted Types compliant, such as removing the offending code, using a library, or creating a Trusted Types policy. To ensure a seamless experience for users, these techniques can be employed before Trusted Types enforcement is rolled out.
Visit the Chrome DevTools engineering blog to learn more about implementing CSP and Trusted Types debugging in Chrome DevTools.

End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 23, 2023
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on April 24, 2023

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - February 3, 2023

Friday, February 3, 2023

3 New updatesUnless otherwise indicated, the features below are fully launched or in the process of rolling out (rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete), 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), and available to all Google Workspace and G Suite customers.

In-line replies for email notifications in Google Classroom

We’re making Classroom email notifications more functional and easier to use. With in-line replies for comments, teachers and students will be able to easily stay up to date and respond to communication within Classroom. Public and private comment notifications will have the freshest information, like the latest comment threads, and you can now easily respond to comments within the email itself. This will enable teachers to quickly reply to their students without having to switch back and forth between their email and Classroom. | Rollout to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains began January 30, 2023 and is expected to be completed by February 20, 2023. | Learn more.

Expanding color options in Google Slides, Docs, Sheets and Drawings

In Google Slides, Docs, Sheets and Drawings, you can now select colors in the color palette tool by using RGBA values. In addition, you can also customize colors by using an eyedropper tool and selecting any color on your screen within the color palette. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for February 15, 2023. | Learn more.

More ways to work with BigQuery data in Google Sheets

We’re expanding your ability to access, analyze, visualize, and share billions of rows of BigQuery data from Google Sheets:

Connected Sheets users will now be able to include JSON columns from a BigQuery connection in their formulas, pivot tables, charts, extracts, and filters.
We are introducing support for 4 new Sheets functions that allow you to have a single source of truth of your data within BigQuery:

COUNTBLANK
ROWS
VLOOKUP
XLOOKUP

Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts only. Not available to legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers.

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.

Google Sheets adds powerful new functions for advanced analysis

We announced 11 additional functions that will introduce new concepts, provide you with more efficient functions, and help with more advanced analysis | Learn more.

Explore Looker data using Connected Sheets

We added the ability to interactively explore modeled data from Looker, Google Cloud’s modern business intelligence platform, using Connected Sheets. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as users with personal Google Accounts only. | Learn more.

Completed rollouts

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

Rapid Release Domains:

Scheduled Release Domains:

The new Gmail user interface is becoming the standard experience
[Weekly Recap] Easily share files in Google Meet chat on web
View speaker notes while presenting Google Slides in Google Meet

Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains:

[Weekly Recap] Display space names when granting access to files

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

Enhanced menus in Google Slides and Drawings improves findability of key features

Monday, October 17, 2022

What’s changing We’re updating the menus in Google Slides and Google Drawings to make it easier to locate the most commonly-used features. In this update you’ll notice:

Shortened menus for better navigation
Reorganization for more intuitive feature location
Prominent icons for faster recognition

This new design improves findability of key features, making it quicker and easier to use Slides and Drawings.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be ON by default and cannot be disabled. Use the menus as you would regularly. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Google Slides.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Help: How to use Google Slides

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - August 19, 2022

Friday, August 19, 2022

New updates
There are no new updates to share this week. Please see below for a recap of published announcements.

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.

Improved quality and performance for Google Meet effects on the web Background effects are now more accurate for Google Meet users on the web. This allows you to experience more accurate background blur, background replace, and immersive background and styles. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus customers, and Workspace Individual users on eligible devices in eligible countries (Northern America, Europe, Northern Africa, Central Asia, Southeastern Asia). Visit the Help Center to learn more about availability. | Learn more.
More control over accessibility preferences in Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings You’re now able to set preferences for Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings individually, rather than having the same accessibility settings apply across these products. | Learn more.
Updated user interface for managing email quarantines In the coming weeks, you will see a new user interface when using the email quarantine tool. This brings the email quarantine experience inline with other tools in the Admin console, making it more intuitive to navigate and use. | Learn more.
See how much noise is being removed during Google Meet video calls Google Meet can now remove background noises such as typing, construction sounds, or background chatter. | Available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Workspace Individual customers only. | Learn more.
Conveniently connect site visitors with social channels in new Sites Site editors can now insert stylized social media links into pages within their site, enabling you to more conveniently connect site visitors with additional information and content on your social channels. | Learn more.
Enhancements to the “Frame people” feature on Google Meet hardware devices We’ve introduced two enhancements on Google Meet hardware devices for the “Frame people” feature:

The “Frame people” feature is now more easily discoverable and can be accessed in a meeting from the touch panel in fewer steps.
A solution to a recent bug impacting the auto framing capability for some Google Meet hardware devices. The auto framing functionality has been restored to impacted devices with improved reliability and performance.

Available to all supported Google Meet hardware devices that have not yet reached their auto-update expiration date. | Learn more.
New color categorization in Calendar to better understand how you’re spending your time You can now categorize your time by naming and assigning a corresponding color label to an event within Time Insights in Calendar. | Available to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus and Nonprofits customers only. | Learn more.
Easily assign Tasks from Google Docs In Google Docs, you can now assign a checklist item to yourself or a colleague that will then show up in the assignee’s Tasks list. | Learn more.

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

More control over accessibility preferences in Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings

Monday, August 15, 2022

Quick summaryOver the years, we’ve launched features to support our ongoing accessibility efforts to ensure our products work well for everyone. For users of screen readers, braille devices, screen magnifiers, and more, we're improving the ability to adjust your accessibility preferences for Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings separately.
Rather than having the same accessibility settings apply across these products, you’re now able to set preferences for each product individually. We expect this change to make it easier to ensure accessibility settings are personalized to best meet each user’s needs.

Accessibility settings can now be personalized for Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: In your document, spreadsheet, slide deck, or drawing, navigate to Tools > Accessibility > select your preferred settings. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Accessibility.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: Google Workspace admin guide to accessibility
Google Help: Accessibility for Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, & Drawings
Google Help: Use a braille display with Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, & Drawings

Roadmap

This feature was listed as an upcoming release.

Embed linked Google Forms charts into Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Drawings

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Quick summary You can now embed linked response charts from Google Forms into a Google Doc, Google Slides presentation, or a Google Drawing. When new form responses are received, anyone with the proper permissions can refresh an embedded chart by simply clicking the "Update" button. This eliminates the need to re-copy the chart from the form. This feature is useful for sharing real-time responses to polls or surveys and for incorporating Forms responses data into presentations or reports.

Embedding a form chart
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 viewing and managing form responses.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 1, 2022

Availability

Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers Available to users with personal Google Accounts

Resources

Google Workspace Admin Help: View and Manage Form responses.

Smart Compose now available in comments for Google Slides, Sheets, and Drawings

Monday, August 2, 2021

Quick launch summaryLast year, we announced Smart Compose in Google Docs, a feature that helps you compose high-quality content faster and more easily. Smart Compose saves you time by cutting back on repetitive writing, reducing the chance of spelling and grammatical errors, and suggesting relevant contextual phrases.
Now, Smart Compose is available in comments for Google Slides, Sheets, and Drawings.

Image of Smart Compose offering a suggestion in a comment

Smart Compose offering a suggestion in a comment.

Getting started

Admins: This feature can be controlled via Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Features and Applications > Smart Compose. Visit the Admin Help Center to learn more about turning Smart Compose on or off for users in Google Docs.

End users: This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled by going to Tools > Preferences and unchecking “Show Smart Compose Suggestions.” When enabled, you’ll automatically see Smart Compose suggestions. To accept a suggestion you like, press “tab” or press the right arrow key. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Smart Compose in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings.

Rollout pace

This feature is available now for all users.

Availability

Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Frontline, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Nonprofits, Cloud Identity Free, Cloud Identity Premium

Resources

Changes to Google Workspace storage policies timeline

Monday, April 5, 2021

Update[January 13, 2022]: We have extended the previously announced timeframe for the Google Workspace storage policy changes. Beginning May 2, 2022, any newly created Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files will count toward storage. See below for more information.
What’s changingWe’re extending the previously announced timeframe for upcoming changes to the Google Workspace storage policy. The updated timeline is:

June 1, 2021: High-quality photos will count towards Drive quota beginning June 1, 2021. There is no change to this timeline.
May 2, 2022: Any newly created Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files will count toward storage. Existing files within these products will not count toward storage, unless they’re modified on or after May 2, 2022. Read more in our Help Center.

Note that there are no changes to the previously announced dates for personal Google accounts.
Who’s impactedAdmins and end users. Storage limits differ across Google Workspace and G Suite editions, but we estimate that the majority of users will not be affected by these changes. See “Getting Started” below for more information on determining storage usage across your organization.
Why it’s importantPeople are uploading more content than ever before—in fact, more than 4.3 million GB are added across Gmail, Drive, and Photos every day. These changes to our storage policy are necessary to provide our users with a great experience and to keep pace with the growing demand.

We recently announced changes to the pooled storage policy for Workspace for Education customers. As a part of these updates, to empower Google Workspace admins to adapt to this model and optimize their storage, we will provide new admin tools to identify and manage how storage is used and allocated before the policy goes into effect. We’ve decided to delay the count of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files count toward storage quotas until that tooling is in place.
Getting started

Admins: Check out the Apps usage user report (see General > Photos and Drive sections) for a comprehensive look at storage usage across your organization. To understand how much storage you’re allocated on your current plan, see the Usage and support section of the Help Center for Business editions, Enterprise editions, Education editions, and G Suite editions. If you’re not sure which edition you’re using, visit the Billing page in the Admin console.
End users: Visit the Help Center to learn how to manage files in your Google Account storage.

Rollout paceHigh-quality photos

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: These policies will go into effect on June 1, 2021

Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: These policies will go into effect on May 2, 2022

Availability

These changes will apply to all customers with Google Workspace and G Suite licenses.

Resources

Useful Links

Join the official community for Google Workspace administrators

In the Google Cloud Community, connect with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like yourself. Participate in product discussions, check out the Community Articles, and learn tips and tricks that will make your work and life easier. Be the first to know what's happening with Google Workspace.

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Learn about more Google Workspace launches

On the “What’s new in Google Workspace?” Help Center page, learn about new products and features launching in Google Workspace, including smaller changes that haven’t been announced on the Google Workspace Updates blog.

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Updates

More AI-powered features in Google Meet and Google Chat are coming to Google Workspace Business and Enterprise editions

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - March 15, 2024

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - January 12, 2024

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - September 8, 2023

Adding Trusted Types to Google Workspace

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - February 3, 2023

Enhanced menus in Google Slides and Drawings improves findability of key features

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - August 19, 2022

More control over accessibility preferences in Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings

Embed linked Google Forms charts into Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Drawings

Smart Compose now available in comments for Google Slides, Sheets, and Drawings

Changes to Google Workspace storage policies timeline

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