Google Workspace Changes

Gemini Notebook now lets users produce Short Video Overviews—approximately 60-second videos that blend narrative explanations with educational animations—in over 80 languages. These shareable videos break down intricate formulas, diagrams, and scientific ideas into digestible content for easier learning.

Gemini Notebook's exam preparation features have been expanded to include short answer, multiple choice, and fill-in-the-blank quiz formats. Users can now converse with their notebook about their latest quiz and flashcard performance to identify focus areas, and they can customize quizzes and flashcards by adding or editing questions to suit their study needs.

Gemini Notebook now offers interactive learning overviews accessible under the Reports section. These overviews integrate summaries with studio-generated outputs such as quizzes, flashcards, and mind maps, helping users stay focused during study sessions by providing varied, engaging review formats.

Users aged 18 and over can engage in real-time voice conversations with their Gemini Notebook via the mobile app on Android and iOS, available in almost 100 languages. Responses are grounded in the user's own sources, providing step-by-step guidance, answering questions, and allowing interruptions at any point.

The Gemini Notebook mobile app now includes an audio recorder available on Android and iOS, enabling users to record lectures or personal thoughts while studying. Recordings are saved as notes directly alongside the relevant source material, facilitating easy citation and continued editing.

The update adds four new capabilities to Workspace Studio flows: custom starters that trigger flows from external applications, custom steps built with Apps Script for tailored logic, beta third‑party integrations with services such as Asana, Confluence, HubSpot, Jira, Mailchimp, QuickBooks, Salesforce, and Slack, and webhook steps to send HTTP requests to external endpoints. All features are backed by granular enterprise security controls and are rolling out to Rapid and Scheduled Release domains starting in September 2026.

Notebooks in Gemini, initially announced in April as a dedicated workspace for individual users to organize projects and conversations, is now available to students, educators, and professionals within schools and organizations. Users can upload course materials, curriculum standards, assignment rubrics, lesson templates, product information, project details, research reports, and strategy notes into a notebook to generate personalized study guides, aligned coursework, differentiated learning materials, targeted feedback, and synthesized insights. The feature integrates the Gemini app and Gemini Notebook, enabling workflows such as creating Cinematic Video Overviews from class notes and then generating study guides in the Gemini app. Administrators can control access via Gemini App and Gemini Notebook settings, and the rollout began on September 14, 2026 with a gradual rollout of up to 15 days for both Rapid and Scheduled Release domains.

Expert Intelligence integrates over 100,000 books from major publishers into Gemini Notebook, allowing users to add purchased ebooks from Google Play Books as sources. Users can ask questions about the book, generate infographics, audio overviews, quizzes, and combine the book's content with their own notes or syllabi. Admins need to enable Gemini Notebook, Google Play, and Google Books for the OU, and eligible books show a Gemini Notebook badge in Google Play Books. The feature is rolling out now to Rapid and Scheduled Release domains for all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers, and personal Google accounts with the required services enabled.

Starting September 14, 2026, the Google Meet homepage on the web displays conference room and physical meeting location details directly on upcoming meeting cards. For meetings with multiple rooms, the system prioritizes the room in the user's working location (set in Google Calendar) and highlights it. Clicking a room opens wayfinding or campus maps, while offsite addresses open Google Maps for turn‑by‑turn directions. Location details are prominently shown for meetings happening now or starting soon (<10 minutes) and appear on hover for later meetings, with an overflow button for multiple locations. No admin or end‑user settings are required; the feature uses existing building and room resources from the Admin console. Rollout is gradual over up to 15 days, beginning September 14 for Rapid Release domains and September 28 for Scheduled Release domains, and is available to all Google Workspace customers and Workspace Individual subscribers.

Starting September 16, 2026, Google Apps Script now respects data region policies set in the Admin console, ensuring that script project files, code definitions, manifest configurations, trigger metadata, key-value storage (such as Property Service and Cache Service), and runtime executions are stored and processed within the designated geographic region. This update applies to both Rapid and Scheduled Release domains and is available for Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus, and Frontline Plus editions. Non-regionalized Apps Script services will be disabled for organizations that turn on the Drive and Docs disablement toggle in data regions advanced settings.

Google Meet hardware adds a manual connection method via a 5‑character room code shown on the hardware screen. Users see a 'Connect with room code' button on the pre‑call screen, allowing them to input the code when ultrasound‑based proximity detection is unavailable or disabled. The feature is enabled by default for both Rapid and Scheduled release domains, with a gradual rollout starting September 15, 2026 (up to 15 days for full visibility), and admins can toggle it at the device level.

Starting September 15, 2026, Google is expanding AI Overviews in Gmail search to all global users on paid Workspace plans whose Gmail language is set to English. The feature, which uses Gemini to provide concise summaries and answers to natural language queries, was previously limited to US users. Admins need Gemini for Workspace in Gmail and Workspace Intelligence access enabled; end users must have smart features turned on. Rollout began on September 3 for Rapid Release domains (gradual over up to 15 days) and will start September 21 for Scheduled Release domains (full rollout within 1–3 days). Personal Google Accounts also see a gradual rollout from September 3.

Starting September 15, 2026, Gemini for Google Workspace users can interact with popular third‑party tools such as Asana, Atlassian Rovo, HubSpot, Intuit Mailchimp, Intuit QuickBooks, Monday.com, and Salesforce directly from the Gemini side panel in Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Chat. Powered by Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations, the feature lets users retrieve and act on information without switching tabs or downloading files. Admins can enable or disable connectors via the Admin console, and the rollout is available immediately for both Rapid and Scheduled Release tracks across Business, Enterprise, Consumer, Education, and other editions.

The new capability lets administrators create a single rule in the Admin console that evaluates both data sensitivity (using classification labels or DLP conditions) and audience (via trust rules criteria such as organizational units, groups, or domains). It supports three audience restriction options: block sharing with all external users, allowlist sharing only with specific users, or denylist sharing with specific users while permitting sharing with everyone else. The feature rolls out gradually over up to 15 days starting September 14, 2026 for both Rapid and Scheduled Release domains, and is available for Enterprise Standard/Plus, Education Fundamentals/Standard/Plus, Enterprise Essentials, and Frontline Standard/Plus editions.