Google Workspace Changes

Google Workspace introduces Business Continuity Plus edition, a full-featured 'hot' standby solution for enterprise customers with extensive data syncing capabilities.

The Google Workspace Business Continuity Plus edition is a full-featured 'hot' standby solution designed for organizations requiring a more readily available environment with extensive data syncing to minimize disruption and drive immediate adoption and productivity. In addition to active directory syncing, this edition supports data syncing across various products including email, calendar, drive, and chat. It provides extended access to Google Workspace and generative AI tools for up to 60 days per year. Google recommends a partner-based solution for implementation.

Google Workspace introduces Business Continuity edition as a disaster recovery solution for non-Google Workspace primary collaboration platforms.

The new Google Workspace Business Continuity edition serves as a robust 'cold' standby disaster recovery solution for organizations using non-Google Workspace primary collaboration platforms. It provides a secure, isolated environment to ensure leadership and critical teams can communicate and collaborate during a crisis. Key functionalities include active directory syncing for user directory availability. This edition is intended for limited use, offering access to Google Workspace and generative AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM for up to 21 days per year.

The AI function in Google Sheets is now enhanced with Google Search results for more up-to-date answers.

The AI function in Google Sheets has been enhanced to automatically ground its responses in Google Search results. This allows the AI function to access up-to-the-minute information from the web to answer user prompts. For example, users can now use the AI function to find daily box office schedules, track market sentiment for new products, or get the latest weather information directly within their spreadsheets.

Google Keep reminders now saved to Google Tasks

Reminders created in Google Keep will now be automatically saved to Google Tasks, allowing users to view and manage them across Calendar, the Tasks app, and even via the Gemini app with the Tasks extension. This change unifies the to-do management experience across various Workspace products, making Google Tasks the central solution for all reminders and tasks.

Google Meet introduces 12 new AI-powered makeup looks.

Google Meet is expanding its video touch-up feature with 12 new AI-powered studio makeup looks. These options range from professional to expressive, and the AI ensures the makeup remains seamless and natural-looking during movements like sipping coffee or touching the face, allowing users to better express their personal style during video calls.

Google Vids now supports creating and editing vertical and square videos.

Google Vids has introduced new capabilities allowing users to create and edit videos in vertical (9:16) and square (1:1) aspect ratios. These new options are in addition to the previously supported widescreen/horizontal format (16:9). The availability of these additional sizes provides users with greater flexibility to produce content tailored for various platforms such as YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok. Vertical and square templates will also be supported soon.

Google Meet live captions now support Cantonese.

Google Meet is adding support for Cantonese to its live caption feature, allowing users to view real-time text of what is being spoken in meetings. This enhancement improves accessibility and inclusion for Cantonese-speaking users by ensuring discussions, presentations, and training sessions are fully understood, regardless of hearing ability or connectivity.

Ability to set timers in Google Meet on the web.

Google Meet is introducing a new feature that allows users to set timers during web meetings. This tool, managed by hosts/co-hosts (or anyone if host controls are off), will be visible to all participants and can be paused or canceled. Timers aim to enhance meeting focus, time management, and equitable participation by providing a shared visual time reference, ultimately structuring meetings and boosting productivity.

Enhanced logging and display of Chat app usage for Google Workspace admins.

Google Workspace admins can now gain better insights into how Chat apps are utilized within their organization. This is achieved through enhanced Chat event logs, which include Chat app-related events. Admins can use these logs to identify which Chat apps are in use, in what Spaces, which apps have been added or removed, and the most popular Chat apps. This information is accessible via BigQuery log export, the Reports API, and soon, the Security Investigation Tool (SIT).

Users can now send expressive stickers in their Google Chat conversations on the web.

Google Chat on the web now allows users to send expressive stickers in their conversations, offering another way to communicate alongside emojis, GIFs, and other media. This feature is available in both the standalone Google Chat application and within the Chat tab in Gmail. There are no admin controls for this feature, and it is enabled by default for end-users. Users can access stickers via the GIF/Sticker icon in the message field. The feature is available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts.

Event organizers can now enable the Gemini-powered "Take notes for me" feature directly from Google Calendar when scheduling or preparing a meeting in Google Meet.

Google Workspace is introducing an enhancement to the Gemini-powered "Take notes for me" feature, allowing event organizers to activate it directly within Google Calendar. This integration simplifies the process of ensuring that meeting notes are automatically generated and shared in Google Meet, freeing participants to fully engage in discussions. The feature aims to provide comprehensive notes for critical meetings without requiring manual activation once the meeting starts.

Meet Quality Tool now shows viewers with 'Testing peering policy'.

The Meet Quality Tool's eCDN table will now represent viewers utilizing the 'Testing peering policy'. Previously, this table only displayed viewers per configured network when the 'Custom Rules' peering policy was in use, improving visibility for administrators using the testing policy.

Google Meet eCDN's 'Random peering policy' renamed to 'Testing peering policy'.

The 'Random peering policy' in Google Meet eCDN has been renamed to 'Testing peering policy'. This policy is intended primarily for testing purposes and is not designed for full performance in production environments.

Google Meet eCDN now supports multiple private IP addresses for matching.

Google Meet eCDN clients can now detect and use all private IP addresses configured on a device's interfaces for matching against custom rules. Previously, only a single IP (prioritizing IPv4) was used. This ensures that the first rule matching any detected private IP addresses will be applied.

Improvements to Google Meet eCDN custom rules for overlapping IP ranges.

Google Meet eCDN is updating how 'Custom Rules' peering policy works, specifically for overlapping IP ranges. The priority for blocking changes is being removed to simplify match determination, where the first matching rule (top-to-bottom) will be applied. This change affects administrators who have defined overlapping IP ranges in their custom rules.