Google Workspace Changes

Admins can now choose to wait for device inactivity before rebooting Google Meet hardware.

Google Meet hardware devices can now be rebooted by administrators with more flexibility. A new "Reboot when idle" option allows administrators to queue a reboot to occur only when all user activity has ceased, avoiding interruptions to ongoing meetings or device usage. Previously, only an immediate reboot was possible, requiring careful timing. This enhancement provides two reboot options: "Reboot when the device becomes idle" and "Reboot now, even if the device is in use."

Users can now forward messages in Google Chat.

Google Chat is introducing a new feature that allows users to forward messages directly within conversations, eliminating the need for manual workarounds like copying and pasting. This enhances team collaboration by simplifying sharing, preserving context with original sender and attachments, and improving visibility by allowing messages from threads to be moved to the main stream. While there are some limitations regarding forwarding between internal and external organizational conversations, a reminder for sensitive information will appear when forwarding from DMs or group DMs.

Google Chat introduces the ability to forward messages across different conversations.

Google Chat is introducing a new feature that allows users to forward messages between direct messages and spaces, eliminating the need for copying and pasting or using screenshots. Forwarded messages preserve the original sender, source, and attachments, and can be moved from threads into the main conversation stream. While there are restrictions on forwarding between internal and external organizations, users can forward messages from external conversations to internal ones. A security reminder appears when forwarding from DMs to protect sensitive information.

All secondary calendars owned by a user will be automatically displayed in their Google Calendar list.

Following previous improvements in secondary calendar management, all secondary calendars owned by a user will now be consistently displayed in their Google Calendar list, visible in Calendar settings. This change ensures owners have direct access to manage settings, sharing permissions, and the lifecycle of these calendars. Users can still pin calendars to their main view, delete them, or transfer ownership. A recommendation is to limit ownership to a maximum of 100 calendars per user, with gradual addition for those exceeding this. Users of Apple Calendar may need to manually sync.

Owned secondary calendars are now automatically added to the user's calendar list.

Google Calendar is updating to ensure that all secondary calendars owned by a user are consistently displayed in their calendar list within the settings page. This change provides owners with direct access to manage settings, sharing permissions, and the lifecycle of the calendars they are responsible for. To maintain stability, Google recommends a limit of 100 owned calendars per user. Users integrating with Apple Calendar may need to manually enable synchronization for these calendars.

Users can now edit password-protected Microsoft Office files directly within Google Drive using Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Google Workspace now allows users to edit password-protected Microsoft Office files directly in Google Drive, utilizing Docs, Sheets, and Slides. When opening a protected file in Drive, users will be prompted to enter the password with the option to 'View' or 'Edit'. Selecting 'Edit' opens the file for editing in Docs/Sheets/Slides and removes the password. This enhancement improves interoperability between Workspace and Microsoft, eliminating the need for third-party applications to remove passwords or edit protected Microsoft files.

SecOps data connector is now available for Google Workspace for Education Plus and Standard.

Google is expanding the availability of the SecOps data connector to customers using Google Workspace for Education Plus and Education Standard. This feature allows organizations to seamlessly forward activity logs from Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and other Workspace services into the Google SecOps platform to enhance threat detection, streamline incident response, and maintain compliance archives.

Edit password-protected Microsoft Office files directly in Google Drive.

Google Drive now supports the editing of password-protected Microsoft Office files directly within Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. When opening a protected file, users are prompted for the password and can choose to either preview the document in read-only mode or select 'Edit', which removes the password and opens the file for editing in the corresponding Google Workspace application.

Google Vids now supports portrait-sized clips via Ingredients to Video in Veo 3.1.

Google Vids has updated its 'Ingredients to Video' capability using Veo 3.1 to support the generation of portrait-sized video clips. These improvements include faster pacing, more engaging shots, realistic audio, and better consistency for objects, characters, and backgrounds, making it easier for users to create immersive content for social media channels using reference images and prompts.

Automatic room check-in for Google Meet on mobile devices using ultrasound proximity detection.

Google Meet is introducing automatic room check-in for Android and iOS devices using ultrasound proximity detection. When a user is in a conference room, the app detects an ultrasonic signal from the hardware and highlights the 'Use Companion mode' button in the green room. Joining via this button automatically checks the user into the correct room, simplifying the process and preventing audio feedback.

Improvements to Veo 3.1 in Google Vids now support generating portrait-sized video clips with faster pace and engaging shots.

Google Vids, with improvements to Veo 3.1, now allows users to generate portrait-sized video clips. This enhancement provides faster-paced, more engaging shots, realistic audio, and maintains consistency of objects, characters, and backgrounds. This feature is particularly useful for customers creating immersive video content for marketing, announcements, and explainer videos, enabling easy resizing for social media sharing.

Automatic room check-in for Google Meet on mobile using ultrasound proximity detection.

Google Meet introduces automatic room check-in for companion mode on mobile devices using ultrasound proximity detection. This feature simplifies joining meetings in conference rooms by intelligently guiding users to the best joining option and automatically checking them into the correct room, preventing disruptive audio feedback.

Google Forms now supports automatically stopping response collection based on date/time or response count.

Google Forms is introducing an enhancement that provides creators with more control over response management. This new feature enables form owners and editors to specify a closing date and time, or a maximum number of responses, after which the form will automatically cease accepting new submissions. This eliminates the need for manual closure, streamlining data collection for various form types, including registrations, event planning, and research.

Google Forms now allows creators to automatically stop accepting responses based on a specific date, time, or response count.

Google Forms is introducing a feature that enables form owners and editors to set a close date and time or a maximum number of responses to automatically stop the form from accepting new submissions. This streamlines the closure process for registration, event planning, and research forms, removing the need for manual intervention.

New toggle for 'Take notes for me' to start automatically for meeting hosts.

Google Meet is introducing a new toggle that allows meeting hosts to choose whether the 'Take notes for me' feature starts automatically whenever they host a meeting. This setting is OFF by default, and users can manage it via their Google Meet settings. Additionally, administrators have the ability to enable or disable AI note-taking for their end users.