Unless 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.

Increasing visibility into unmovable items in Google Drive

Following the recent announcement of a new beta to move folders from My Drive to shared drive, we’re launching the ability for admins to generate a CSV report with more details about unmovable items. With greater visibility into which files are impacted and unmovable, admins can then take necessary action such as request to transfer content ownership, make file copies, move content around, and more. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits, and legacy G Suite Business customers only. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for February 20, 2023. | Learn more.

Changing the POWER function in Google Sheets

The POWER function, which returns a number raised to a power, will now return a real-valued root when trying to take the odd root of a negative number. | This feature is available now for all users. | Learn more. 

New free-hand PDF annotation support in the Google Drive app on Android

You can now use your finger or a stylus to freely write annotations on a file shown in the Drive preview screen on Android devices. These annotations can be saved to the file if it is a PDF, or a PDF copy of the file can be made with the annotations saved to it. | Learn more.

If you’re using captions in Google Meet, you now have the option to include those captions in a meeting recording. Including captions in your meeting recordings can help make them more useful and accessible for meeting participants.

Note that to record a meeting, the feature must be enabled by your admin and you have to be:

• The meeting host.
• Part of the host’s organization. Note that if host management is on, you’ll need to be a meeting co-host to use this feature.
• Promoted to a co-host if you are outside the meeting hosts's organization.
• A teacher or co-teacher for meetings created through Google Classroom.

In October 2022, we announced the ability for Google Voice Standard and Premier customers to connect a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunk with Voice. SIP Link allows phone numbers (PSTN services) from local carriers to be used for Google Voice through a secure set of certified Session Border Controllers (SBCs), such as Audiocodes, Cisco, Oracle, and Ribbon. For more information, check out our original announcement.

Beginning today, we’re launching Voice to the following countries in Latin America by expanding SIP Link availability:

• Argentina
• Colombia
• Chile
• Brazil
• Mexico

Customers in these countries will need to purchase the new SIP Link Standard or SIP Link Premier licenses to set up SIP Link. 

Unless 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.

Unless 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.

Rollout update for the new Gmail user interface

Beginning today, the new Gmail user interface is rolling out for scheduled release domains, with anticipated completion by February 3, 2023. This will become the standard experience for Gmail, with no option to revert to the original UI. For more information, see our previous announcement.

Display space names when granting access to files 

When sharing a Google Drive file to a space in Google Chat, you will now see the space name and associated image if you are a member of the space. If you are not a member of the space, but would still like to share a file to that space, the space name will show as “Private Space.” 

We’ve made two improvements which will make file sharing in Google Meet even easier:

First, you can now share access to the content you’re presenting in a meeting with attendees, including everyone on the Calendar guest list, directly from Meet. While presenting, you can share the file from the floating action menu or via the suggestion in the Meet Chat.

Meeting attendees will see a notification when you’ve shared a file, and a link to the file will be automatically shared in the meeting chat.

Second, whenever you paste a link into the meeting chat, you’ll be prompted with the file access dialog — from here you can adjust access as needed and choose to attach the file to the calendar event.

Who’s impacted

End users

Why it’s important

By allowing sharing directly from Meet, you can seamlessly share presented content without having to switch into another window to grant access, which can be disruptive. This makes it easier for meeting attendees to follow along with your presentation, find and reference your material later on, and continue working on action items from the meeting.

Getting started

• Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
• End users: These updates will be available by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about presenting during a video meeting.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 25, 2022
• Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 14, 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 Admin Help: Present during a video meeting