Google Workspace Changes

Google Voice introduces call queuing for ring groups.

Google Voice is introducing call queuing for ring groups. This feature allows administrators to customize aspects like music and announcements while callers are on hold, maximum callers in the queue, maximum wait time, and a wrap-up time for agents. This update aims to reduce unanswered calls, boost sales, and improve customer experience by providing a structured way to handle high call volumes.

Google Meet introduces new live streaming access controls, enabling external guests and targeted internal viewing.

Google Meet is introducing additional access controls for live streams, allowing hosts to decide who can view them. This update enables live streams to reach a wider audience for events like town halls and webinars, supporting mixed internal/external audiences and granular control for restricted internal broadcasts. Hosts can now invite external users to join live streams with their Google Account and can also limit in-domain access to specific users or groups. These new controls are accessible via an opt-in "Adaptive" meeting type setting.

Google Drive receives a modernized interface for viewing various file formats on the web, including PDFs, videos, images, and audio.

Google Drive is significantly improving the viewing experience for third-party file formats such as PDFs, videos, images, and audio files on the web. The modernized interface includes a new left rail for PDFs with a table of contents and thumbnails for easier navigation, a new file menu, a new toolbar and app bar, and an option to search by transcript for videos. This update aims to make it easier for Google Workspace users to navigate documents, especially large ones.

Google Meet live stream viewers can now select their own preferred language for translated captions on mobile devices.

Previously, Meet live streams on mobile had a single caption language chosen by the host. With this update, viewers can independently choose and change their preferred language for translated captions during a live stream, improving understanding and engagement. This feature helps overcome language barriers during presentations and events.

Google Chat space owners and managers can now disable the 'request to join' option for their spaces, restricting access via links.

A new setting in Google Chat allows space owners and managers to control whether users can request to join a space. Previously, users could send a request to join if they received a link to a restricted space. With this update, space owners and managers can now disable the 'request to join' option, preventing users from requesting access when attempting to join a space via a link. This provides greater control over space membership.

Meet audit events for live stream viewers now include extended quality metrics.

Meet audit events for live stream viewers have been enhanced to include an extended set of quality metrics. These new metrics offer administrators deeper insights into the perceived quality of live streams by viewers, aiding in the identification of potential network configuration issues. This enhancement aims to improve the overall live streaming experience by providing actionable data for network adjustments.

Data classification labels now visible in more places across Google Drive

Google Drive will now display applied data classification labels across all web views, including Home, My Drive, Shared Drives, and search results. Previously, users had to access file details or open a file to see its classification. This enhancement provides immediate visibility of classification values while navigating Drive. The highest-ranked label with a badged list field will be displayed, with an icon indicating additional labels if present. Hovering over a label will reveal more details, and clicking it opens the Labels section in File Details.

Automatically generated captions for videos in Google Drive now available in more languages

Google Drive is expanding its automatically generated captions feature to support 27 additional languages. This update aims to make video content more accessible and inclusive for all users, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing, are in noisy environments, or speak different primary languages. It also saves time by automating caption creation and enhances video content searchability. The feature automatically detects eligible videos' languages and generates captions upon upload, respecting existing admin settings.

Preview the last unread message in Google Chat conversations directly from the left-hand menu without marking it as read.

Google Chat is introducing a new feature that allows users to preview the last unread message in conversations directly from the left-hand menu by simply hovering over a bolded conversation. This enables users to triage messages without marking them as read. When ready to engage, users can click to jump straight into the conversation or thread.

Nano Banana Pro in Google Vids enhances image generation and editing with greater precision and multi-turn prompting.

Google Vids now utilizes Nano Banana Pro to improve image generation and editing capabilities. The introduction of multi-turn prompting allows for iterative refinement of visuals, assisting users in creating custom, production-ready assets for their videos.

Nano Banana Pro integration in Google Slides for AI-powered infographic and image generation, and a 'Beautify this slide' feature.

Google Slides now features Nano Banana Pro, enabling users to generate detailed, professional infographics and realistic images through the 'Help me visualize' option. This AI is connected to Google Search's knowledge base for accurate representations. Additionally, the 'Beautify this slide' experience offers thoughtfully designed visuals based on existing slide content, which can be inserted as new slides.

New Google Meet links are now generated when changing the recurrence or start time of recurring Google Calendar events for 'This and following events'.

Previously, when users modified the start time or recurrence of recurring Google Calendar events and applied the change to 'This and following events,' the remaining events used the original Google Meet link. Moving forward, when users make such modifications, the remaining events will automatically generate a new, unique Meet link. The original event series will keep the original Meet link. This change ensures each new recurring event series gets its own distinct and secure Meet link, preventing the unintentional reuse of meeting links across separate Calendar events and enhancing meeting privacy.

New ingredients-to-video capability powered by Veo 3.1 in Google Vids to create eight-second video clips from images.

Google Vids introduces a new 'ingredients-to-video' feature, powered by Veo 3.1, enabling users to generate eight-second video clips. By selecting up to three images and providing an instructive prompt, Veo in Vids creates clips with consistent subjects, characters, and objects. This capability helps users craft cohesive stories for various purposes like brand promotions, training videos, or employee onboarding, by transforming preferred images into dynamic video content.

Users can now easily block off time on Google Calendar to work on specific tasks.

Google Calendar users can now easily block off dedicated time slots to focus on specific tasks. By selecting an empty slot on their calendar and choosing the 'task' option, users can add task details, descriptions, and customize settings like visibility and do not disturb. This new feature aims to help users work on tasks without interruptions, with the task also appearing on their task list and providing reminders until completion.

Help me create in Google Forms is now available in seven additional languages.

The 'Help me create' feature in Google Forms, which allows users to generate draft forms from prompts and referenced files using Gemini, is now available in seven additional languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, and German. This expansion allows a broader range of users to leverage AI assistance for form creation.