Google Workspace Changes

Thumbnail previews now appear when hovering over a video's progress bar in Google Drive, allowing quick navigation.

Starting July 22, 2025, when hovering over a newly uploaded video’s progress bar in Google Drive, users will see a thumbnail preview that enables quick viewing and navigation to specific parts of the video. This enhancement aims to improve productivity and the overall video viewing experience within Google Drive by allowing users to easily find specific moments in their videos. This feature is only available for newly uploaded videos.

Gemini's AI capabilities are now available within Google Docs on iOS devices, allowing users to understand, summarize, and query documents on mobile.

Google Workspace users can now access Gemini's AI features directly within the Google Docs app on iOS devices (iOS 16+), supporting over 20 languages. This integration enables users to quickly get summaries of long documents, ask specific questions about content, and draft initial plans. While features like "Help me write" and image generation are not yet available on mobile, this update enhances on-the-go productivity by allowing users to interact with documents more effectively without switching applications. It is available for various Google Workspace Business and Enterprise plans, as well as those with Gemini Education or Gemini Business/Enterprise add-ons.

Users can now link Google Calendar appointment booking pages directly when composing emails in Gmail.

Google is making it easier to share your availability by allowing users to insert Google Calendar appointment booking pages directly into email drafts in Gmail. By clicking the Calendar icon, users can select an existing booking page or create a new one to embed. This feature aims to streamline scheduling, reduce back-and-forth communication, and is particularly useful when arranging meetings with external contacts whose calendars are not visible.

Migration of files from Microsoft SharePoint Online to Google Drive is now generally available via the New Data Migration service.

The functionality to migrate files from Microsoft SharePoint Online to Google Drive, previously in open beta, is now generally available through the New Data Migration service. This service allows admins to transfer data from SharePoint Online sites, including document libraries, folders, files, and associated permissions, facilitating a smooth transition to Google Workspace. The migration process supports up to 100 SharePoint Online sites at a time to Shared Drives, provides comprehensive reporting, and offers delta updates for newly added or modified files.

The Workspace Updates Blog is launching a new look and feel with a refreshed user interface and improved navigation.

The official Workspace Updates Blog is set to launch a completely refreshed user experience on Monday, July 14. This update will align the blog's interface with other official Google channels, offering a more modern and consistent look. Key improvements include a compact layout for quicker scanning of multiple posts, easier navigation through product tags categorized at the top, and quick links to other resources like the Release Calendar. Additionally, the blog will feature auto-translation for over 100 languages via Google Translate from the footer, with all updates also accessible on mobile.

Google Vids introduces a new "balance sound" feature to automatically level audio across videos and apply audio ducking to background music.

Building on a pre-announcement from May, Google Vids now allows users to automatically adjust sound levels across their video and audio clips. This new "balance sound" feature also includes audio ducking for background music, which intelligently lowers the music volume when another audio or video clip's sound begins playing. This enhancement simplifies the process of achieving consistent and professional-sounding audio in video productions.

Google Drive for Desktop has received a refreshed user interface to centralize file management and display important information.

Google has introduced significant improvements to Google Drive for desktop, featuring a refreshed user interface. This update aims to provide desktop users with a single, centralized location to easily manage all their Drive files. The new view will display crucial information, including sync activity, notifications, and shared files, offering a more streamlined and efficient file management experience.

Google Calendar now supports sharing any calendar you own or have permission to share directly from Android devices.

Previously, the functionality to share Google Calendars was exclusively available on the web. This week, Google is extending this capability to Android devices, allowing users to share any calendar they own or have permission to share with other users and groups directly from their mobile device. The sharing settings available on the web, including the ability to share a calendar with individuals, a domain, or the entire public, are now mirrored on Android.

Introducing Lucidchart and Lucidspark apps in Google Chat for improved collaboration and document access.

Lucidchart and Lucidspark, third-party add-ons for diagramming and virtual whiteboarding, are now integrated directly into Google Chat. This integration allows users to get immediate previews of Lucidspark and Lucidchart links shared in Chat conversations and use the “/lucidsearch” command to find and share Lucid documents instantly, enhancing team alignment by bringing visual context into conversations.

Google Sites search now includes content from embedded files like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and PDFs.

Google Sites' search functionality has been enhanced to include content from embedded files, such as Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and PDFs. Previously, search only covered text directly on pages. This update provides a more comprehensive and efficient search experience, allowing users to find information more easily whether it's directly on a page or within an embedded document.

Expanded Information Rights Management (IRM) controls for Google Drive, allowing file owners and shared drive managers to restrict printing, copying, and downloading for editors.

Google Drive's Information Rights Management (IRM) feature, which prevents downloading, copying, and printing of documents, has been enhanced. Previously, IRM controls could be applied by individual file owners only for viewers and commenters, and by admins for editors. Now, individual file owners and shared drive managers can also apply these printing, copying, and downloading restrictions to users with edit permissions, giving more granular control over sensitive content. Editors and owners can still edit the document, but content copying and pasting is limited to within the document itself.

Google Meet "Take notes for me" now offers granular sharing controls for meeting hosts.

Google Meet has introduced new sharing controls for the "Take notes for me" feature, allowing meeting hosts and co-hosts to specify the recipients of the meeting notes. Users can now choose to send notes to all invited guests, only invited guests within their organization, or exclusively to hosts and co-hosts. The default setting is "Invited guests in your organization." Once configured, this sharing preference will apply to the specific meeting and any recurring meetings in that series, providing greater flexibility in managing sensitive meeting information.

Google Meet "Take notes for me" email notifications now include meeting summaries and suggested next steps.

The email notifications generated by the "Take notes for me" feature in Google Meet have been enhanced. These emails will now provide a summary of the meeting and "suggested next steps" in addition to the direct link to the notes document. This aims to give meeting invitees a quick and helpful overview of the meeting's key takeaways in a single place, improving the utility of automated meeting notes.

Google Drive Events API is now available in Developer Public Preview, enabling real-time notifications for Drive item changes.

The Google Drive Events API is now integrated with the Workspace Events API and is available in Developer Public Preview. This enables third-party developers to create subscriptions on Drive items and receive real-time notifications via Cloud Pub/Sub when those resources change. This offers a more reliable and feature-rich way of receiving events compared to existing watch methods, supporting events such as files being added, moved, edited, trashed, or when an access proposal is created or resolved.

Gems are now available directly in the side panel of Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail.

Gems, custom AI experts from the Gemini app, are now integrated into the side panel of Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Google Drive, and Gmail. This allows users to leverage custom or pre-made AI tools, such as copywriting or sales interaction Gems, without switching applications, minimizing repetitive prompting and enhancing efficiency within their Workspace environment.