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This announcement was part of Google Cloud Next ‘24. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about the next wave of innovations in Workspace, including enhancements to Gemini for Google Workspace.


What’s changing

In order to provide greater visibility into spreadsheet changes most relevant to your workflow and help enable more efficient team communication, we’re introducing conditional notifications. 

These allow you to create rules in spreadsheets that send email notifications when certain criteria are met. When a specific change is made, such as a column value change or a specific range of cell changes, you will receive an email notification with alerts of what occurred in the spreadsheet and who made the update. You also have the option to configure the notifications for others by inputting their email addresses during the notification setup. 

Email notification of changes in a spreadsheet

Who’s impacted 
End users 


Why it matters 
Conditional notifications keep you and your stakeholders up to date on recent changes within a spreadsheet. You can set rules to notify you (or others) when, for example:
  • Tasks have changed status or owner in a project tracker 
  • Certain items reach a certain number of stock in an inventory tracker 
  • A number drops below a certain value in a forecast analysis 

Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • If you own or have edit-access to a Sheet, you can set notifications when: 
      • A range of cells changes value 
      • A range of cells matches a particular condition 
    • To set conditional notifications, open your spreadsheet, go to Tools > Conditional notifications > Add rule. You can also right-click directly on a spreadsheet and select Conditional notifications. 
    • Note: The rules are assigned default names automatically. However, you can update the name of the rule by utilizing the text editor. Visit the Help Center to learn how to use conditional notifications.
Adding a rule to set up Conditional notifications in Google Sheets


Rollout pace 

Availability
Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Standard, Plus 
  • Enterprise Starter, Standard, Plus 
  • Education Plus 
  • Enterprise Essentials 

Resources 

What’s changing

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

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



Google Calendar limits edits for events from email:



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

Rollout pace

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


Gemini usage reports in the Admin console


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


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


Getting started
Rollout pace

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

What’s changing

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



Getting started

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

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

Rollout pace

Availability
  • Available for all Google Workspace customers
Resources

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



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

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


Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

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

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


Getting started 

Rollout pace
  • This feature is now available 


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

Resources 

What’s changingCurrently users can edit their documents in Google Docs or edit speaker notes in Google Slides by using their voice. Users can also turn on automatic captions to display the speakers’ words in real time while presenting in Slides. These features have previously been available using the latest version of Google Chrome only. 

Starting today, we’re expanding support for voice typing and captions features to additional browsers, such as Edge and Safari. When a user turns on voice typing or captions, the web browser controls the speech-to-text service, determines how speech is processed, and then sends text data to Google Docs and Google Slides. 


Who’s impacted 
End users 


Why it’s important 
This launch leads to more inclusive and accessible user interactions within Docs and Slides for more users. 


Additional details 
These features are available only on desktop. 


Getting started 
  • Admins: Admins can control which web browsers are supported in their domain. Certain browsers may offer browser level controls for disabling the Web Speech API. 
  • End users
    • When enabling this feature for the first time, you may see the following notice: Expanding voice typing and automatic captions to additional browsers
Rollout pace 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 
Resources 

This announcement was part of Google Cloud Next ‘24. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about the next wave of innovations in Workspace, including enhancements to Gemini for Google Workspace.


What’s changing

We’re introducing a new way to manage your communication, including emails, in Google Chat. 

After a space manager generates an email address for a space, members (or anyone in your domain with the email address) can send or forward any email to that space. This provides a great way for teams to easily triage or discuss email content with stakeholders within the space. The email will appear as a clickable card showing a snippet of the email in the designated space. 
Generate email in space settings

Generate email in space settings
Email card in the space

Email card in the space



Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 
Email integration into spaces allows you to choose the communication style that works best for your team. Once the email content is present, members can discuss content or take various actions like triaging and assigning them to different members of the space. 


Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending emails to spaces in Chat.
    • Note: existing Google Group policies are respected. For example, if you have restricted group creation in your organization, those users will also be restricted from generating emails for spaces in Chat.
  • End users: 
    • As a space manager, you can create the space’s email address by clicking the name of the space in the top left corner > Space settings > Email section > select Generate email 
    • Once the email address is created by a space manager, all space members can send/forward emails to the space 
    • To send an email to the space, include the space email address in the “to” field of your email composer (in Gmail, Outlook, etc.) 
    • Click on ‘View message’ to view the entire email message in Google Groups 
    • You can change the email address for your space by going to advanced settings. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending emails to spaces in Chat. 
Rollout pace
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers 
Resources 

What’s changing 
In this hybrid work era, we hear from customers that finding a video conferencing room to join a meeting is often difficult. With “adaptive audio,” you and your team can join Google Meet using multiple laptops in close proximity without awkward echos and audio feedback. This is a great benefit for organizations with not enough video conferencing rooms or without resources for dedicated conference room equipment. 


Adaptive audio in Meet will automatically detect the presence of multiple laptops in the room and synchronize the microphones and speakers for a seamless audio experience. This allows teams to create ad-hoc meeting spaces anywhere with just their laptops where everyone can be heard clearly, without the inconvenience of crowding around a single laptop. 


Most importantly, adaptive audio gives users the flexibility to join meetings when meeting rooms are not available, meeting room hardware is not working, or for smaller organizations, when there isn't dedicated video conferencing equipment in every room. This also gives organizations the ability to use non-typical meeting spaces such as lounges, cafes, and other impromptu locations.

The microphone and speakers of each participant are used to ensure everyone can hear and be heard well.

When multiple participants are joining a meeting from the same room, “adaptive audio” is automatically activated. Google Meet notes audio is merged and participants are grouped together in the people panel. 





Getting started
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: This feature will be ON by default and can be turned off by the user by going to Settings > Audio > Adaptive audio. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using adaptive audio in Google Meet.

Rollout pace
Availability
  • Available for Google Workspace customers with the Gemini Enterprise, Gemini Business, Gemini Education, Gemini Education Premium, and the AI Meetings and Messaging add-on.


Resources

What’s changing 
You can currently filter, sort, and display your Google Meet hardware devices by whether they are online, offline, or experiencing an application load-failure. Today, we’re expanding these parameters to include whether the Calendar and Jamboard services are turned OFF. 


The connection between your Meet hardware devices and these two Google products are critical for connecting and collaborating. Allowing admins to filter for devices that match this criteria will help them identify potential gaps in hardware devices and product configurations, which they can quickly rectify. 


For example, if Calendar is turned off on a Google Meet hardware device, it will no longer show the upcoming meeting list when booked for a meeting. Having the Jamboard* service turned off means that the Desk 27 and Board 65 devices will no longer be able to launch Jamboard directly on the device. These services may have been previously turned off in error, and this new capability allows admins to correct it, making the services available again to their users. Note that Jamboard 55-inch devices are not impacted.

You can filter your devices by going to Menu > Devices > Google Meet hardware > Devices > “Device status” and then select the criteria to filter by.

Getting started

Rollout pace

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

Resources
*Jamboard will no longer be on these devices starting October 1, 2024. Learn more about whiteboarding in Workspace here.


What’s changing 
To review files in Google Drive, you currently have to open each file manually or right-click on a file and then click “Open with > Preview” from the context menu. Additionally, if you want to see what updates have been made to a file, you have to open the file and view the Activity Dashboard. 

Today, we’re introducing file hovercards in Google Drive to improve this experience and help you complete tasks faster without having to open multiple tabs. Now, when you place your cursor over a file icon in Google Drive on the web, a hovercard will appear with a thumbnail of your file and other relevant information, such as file type, file owner, who recently modified the file and when they last modified the file. 
Preview files in Google Drive with new hovercard feature


Who’s impacted 
End users 


Why you’d use it 
This new experience may help save time by enabling you to gain context on your files without having to open the information sidebar to view details and recent activity. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 

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

This announcement was part of Google I/O ‘24. Visit the Workspace Blog for more  about new ways to engage with Gemini for Workspace and the Keyword Blog for more ways to stay productive with Gemini for Google Workspace.


What’s changing

Last year, we introduced AI-powered writing features that help you quickly refine existing work or get you started with something new in Google Docs and Gmail using Gemini for Google Workspace. 

Since then, Help me write has assisted numerous users in drafting content for things like emails, blog posts, business proposals, ad copy and so much more. In fact, 70% of Enterprise users who use Help me write in Docs or Gmail end up using Gemini's suggestions. Today, we’re excited to announce this feature is now available in Spanish and Portuguese. 
Help me write in Google Docs using Portuguese
Help me write in Google Docs using Portuguese

Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important 
Users who write in Spanish and Portuguese can now benefit from AI-powered creation in their own language. 
Help me write in Gmail using Spanish

Help me write in Gmail using Spanish

Getting started 


Rollout pace 

Availability 
Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium 
  • Google One AI Premium 

Resources 

What’s changing
In the last year, we’ve made numerous improvements to Google Chat that help you stay on top of the busy flow of communication and make it easier to prioritize and find the conversations that are most important to you. However, there are some conversations where you always need to be notified, like spaces dealing with customer support or operational issues. 

For conversations that require a higher level of attention, we’re introducing a new “notify all” functionality for in-line threaded spaces. If this option is selected, you will be notified of all new messages in the space. This includes receiving notifications for all @ mentions, threads followed, and even threads that you do not follow, allowing you to stay on top of everything happening in a conversation. 

The options within notification settings are being updated to: “All”, “Main conversations”, “For you”, and “None” so that you can better tailor your notifications preferences for in-line threaded spaces. 


Get notifications for all messages in a Google Chat space


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: To update your notification settings in a space, click the three dots (more options) next to the space name > Notification settings > select an option for notifications. Or you can click the space header > Notifications > select an option for notifications. Visit the Help Center to learn more about customizing notifications for a space with in-line threading. 
Rollout pace 
Web: 
  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 10, 2024 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 4, 2024 
Android: 
iOS: 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and Workspace Individual Subscribers 
Resources 

What’s changing 
We’re now including breakout room attendance as part of attendance reporting in Google Meet. Attendance reports help meeting organizers keep track of who attended their meetings and for how long, which can be challenging during larger meetings or while presenting. This becomes more complicated when using breakout rooms to divide meeting participants into smaller groups. Adding breakout room attendance makes for a more comprehensive report and reduces the burden on meeting hosts to track breakout room attendance manually.


Getting started
  • Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about letting organizers get reports on meeting attendance.
  • End users: When enabled by your admin, attendance reports will automatically be sent to the meeting host. Attendance reports for breakout rooms will be in their own tab in the spreadsheet. Visit the Help Center to learn more about attendance tracking
Rollout pace

Availability
Available to Google Workspace
  • Essentials
  • Business Plus
  • Enterprise Starter, Essentials, Standard, and Plus
  • Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade

Resources

This announcement was part of Google Cloud Next ‘24. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about the next wave of innovations in Workspace, including enhancements to Gemini for Google Workspace.


What’s changing

We know it can be time consuming to perform repetitive tasks like updating data in a spreadsheet. In addition, maintaining the structure and format of the data can be difficult when there are multiple people updating the document.

To help solve for this, we’re excited to announce tables in Google Sheets. With tables, you can simplify and accelerate spreadsheet building by bringing format and structure to unorganized ranges. By selecting your data range and going to Format > Convert to table, Sheets now does the heavy lifting to format and organize data with a polished design including column types, filters, color coding, dropdown menus and more. 
Convert to table in Google Sheets
Here’s how using tables reduces the time you would usually spend manually formatting data: 
  • Auto-applied formatting: When you convert your data to a table, Sheets automatically applies formatting to polish your data so that all inputs are properly aligned, reducing the need for manual changes. You can further customize your table by changing colors, readjusting the row height, and more. 
  • Column types: For each column, you can set the appropriate column type (e.g., date, currency, dropdown), and your table will make sure all entered data has the right formatting based on the column type. Data entered that does not align with a set column type will result in a warning. 
  • Unified menu: Above the table, you will see a menu option to manage table-level settings (e.g., adjust table range) and take action (e.g., create a filter view for your table). 
  • Table references: Table references are a special way to refer to a table or parts of a table in a formula. When you convert your data to a table, Sheets provides a name for the table and each column header. When you reference table elements by name, the references update whenever you add or remove data from the table. For example: Instead of explicit cell references: =COUNTIF(B2:B10, “P0”), you can use table references: =COUNTIF(Task_tracker[Priority], “P0”). 
When you are using tables, you’ll also have access to our new type of view, group by, where you can aggregate your data into groups based on a selected column. For instance, you can decide to group all data at the same priority level in one place, as shown below.
Group by view in Tables in Google Sheets
We’re also introducing pre-built tables that you can populate with common data types for everyday tasks like project management, inventory management, event planning and more. Now with pre-built tables, you never have to build a spreadsheet from scratch again. 
Pre-built tables in Sheets
Who’s impacted
End users 


Why it matters 
Tables will transform the way teams organize their data, simplify data creation, and reduce the repetitive tasks needed to format, input, and update data. They also allow teams to confidently share data widely while maintaining its integrity and consistency. 

Tables are well suited for tracking and organizing information such as project tracking, event planning, and inventory management. 

Getting started 
Rollout pace 
  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 8, 2024, with expected completion by June 13, 2024
  • Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 13, 2024 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 
Resources 

What’s changing
In March, we introduced the ability to insert preset dropdown chips that are configured for common use cases like priority or review statuses in Google Sheets. Today, we’re adding a new feature that helps you quickly convert ranges of data into dropdown chips in bulk. 

If you have a column of data that includes a variety of data values (e.g., different project statuses like on track, paused, completed), Sheets will show a “Convert to dropdown chips” suggestion when you click into your data range. By hovering over that indicator, you can preview the suggestion and then convert to dropdown chips in one click. 
Easily convert data to dropdown chips in Google Sheets


Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • To insert dropdown chips on your own, type “@” followed by “dropdown”.
      To turn off this feature, go to Tools > Suggestion controls > (deselect) Enable dropdown chip suggestions. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about inserting smart chips in your Google Sheets.

Rollout pace 
  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on May 7, 2024, with expected completion by June 24, 2024
  • Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 24, 2024 

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

What’s changingTo ensure customers with Google Meet hardware devices have sufficient notice about canceled or expired device subscriptions, we’re adding notifications in the Admin console. Depending on your subscription details and timeline, you will see: 

  • A warning banner in the Google Meet hardware section of Admin console when your Google Meet hardware subscription has expired and suspension is imminent. It will include the suspension date. 

  • A warning banner in the Google Meet hardware section of Admin console when your Google Meet hardware subscription has been suspended. 

Meet hardware subscription has been suspended.
  • An on-device suspension warning. 
    • The on-device warning will be ON by default and will begin to appear for customers with imminent suspensions starting May 29, 2024. 
    • To turn the on-device warning OFF, go to Admin console > Google Meet hardware > Settings > On-device suspension warning > Prevent devices from displaying on-screen suspension warnings. 
    • If this box is checked, devices will not display an on-device warning during the 3-day period prior to subscription suspension. 
On-device suspension warning in GMh admin console

On-device suspension warning in GMh Admin Console 

Who’s impacted 
Admins and end users



Why it’s important 
These notifications ensure admins are aware of potential subscription and/or functionality changes for the Google Meet hardware devices in their domain. 



Additional details 
The ‘Provisioning Status’ column and filter will be removed from the Device list page. 



Getting started 
  • Admins: For each Google Meet hardware device you purchase, you also purchase and assign a software license to that device. Licenses allow your device to work with the Google Meet service and gain access to device management tools in the Google Admin console. Visit the Help Center to learn more about licensing.
  • End users: If a on-device suspension warning occurs, people in the room will see a warning when the device is 3 days away from suspension. 
On-device suspension warning on GMh device

On-device suspension warning on GMh device

Rollout pace

Availability 
  • This update impacts all Google Workspace customers with Meet hardware devices. 

Resources 





What’s changing 
Using context-aware access, you now have the option to automatically block access to Google Workspace data from compromised Android and iOS devices. A device may be counted as compromised if certain unusual events are detected, including devices that are jailbroken, bypassing of security controls, modification of restricted settings, and more.

Creating a new rule to block compromised mobile devices


Blocking message for compromised iOS and Android devices






Getting started

Rollout pace
  • Block access to Google Workspace data: available immediately for both Android and iOS.
  • Remediation message: available immediately for Android, available on May 9, 2024 for iOS. 

Availability
Available to Google Workspace
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus
  • Education Standard and Plus
  • Frontline Standard
  • Enterprise Essentials Plus
  • Cloud Identity Premium

What’s changing

We’re simplifying how users turn on 2-Step Verification (2SV), which will streamline the process, and make it easier for admins to enforce 2SV policies in their organizations.  

Here are some of the important changes with this change:

  • Users may add “second step methods” (such as Google Authenticator, or a hardware security key) before turning on 2SV. This is particularly helpful for organizations using Google Authenticator (or other equivalent time-based one-time password (TOTP) apps). Previously, users had to enable 2SV with a phone number before being able to add Authenticator.

  • Users with hardware security keys will have two options to add them to their account on the “Passkeys and security keys” page:
    • ‘Use security key”: this registers a FIDO1 credential on the security key even if the key itself is FIDO2 capable.
    • ‘Create passkey and follow instructions to “use another device”: this registers a FIDO2 credential on the security key, and will require users to use the key’s PIN for local verification (this creates a passkey on the security key).
    • Note: users will continue to be asked for their password along with their passkey if the admin policy for “Allow users to skip passwords at sign-in by using passkeys” remains turned OFF (this is the default configuration).

  • If an enrolled 2SV user turns 2SV OFF from their account settings, their enrolled second steps (such as backup codes, Google Authenticator, or second factor phone) are not automatically removed from their account. Before this change all second factors would be removed when the user turned 2SV off. Note: When an administrator turns off 2SV for a user from the Admin console or via the Admin SDK, the second factors will be removed as before, to ensure user off-boarding workflows remain unaffected
Getting started
Rollout pace

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

Resources

What’s changing 
We’ve added the option to hide non-video tiles, so that users can avoid clutter on their screen if they are interested to only see the participants with their videos on. This option can help reduce screen clutter and focus on video-enabled participants, meanwhile users with their videos off can be shown on screen if they speak. Note that this feature, same as other layouts options, is only specific to your meeting view and does not impact what other participants see or set for their layouts during the meeting.


To hide non-video tiles, go to Settings > Change layout > Hide tiles without video.


Getting started

Rollout pace

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

Resources