Google Workspace Changes

New clickable “nudges” at the top of your Drive homepage and folders.

These will continue to evolve, and can include nudges to: Learn about Gemini in Drive, Summarize a folder in Drive, Learn about a file in Drive

Starting in March 2025, admins who have Additional Services enabled for users under the age of 18 to re-review them on an annual basis.

Admins are in control of which services their users have access to, and to do so in alignment with both our terms of service and local laws and regulations that determine what services are appropriate for users under 18. Since admins manage which services their students have access to, only they can enable or disable access for their under 18 users.

Starting in March 2025, admins who have Additional Services enabled for users under the age of 18 to re-review them on an annual basis.

Admins are in control of which services their users have access to, and to do so in alignment with both our terms of service and local laws and regulations that determine what services are appropriate for users under 18. Since admins manage which services their students have access to, only they can enable or disable access for their under 18 users.

Consent re-confirmation for under 18 users accessing Additional Services will soon be required

Admins are always in control of which services their users have access to, and this gives admins an opportunity to ensure the right users have access to the right services.

Gemini in the side panel of Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and Gmail can be used in four additional languages

Greek Catalan Indonesian Malay

The Policy API is now generally available, enabling super admins to audit security settings for Calendar, Gmail, and MFA.

The Policy API has transitioned from open beta to general availability, allowing super admins to programmatically access and audit Google Workspace environment service level settings and rules. This update expands auditing capabilities to include Calendar, Gmail, and Multi-factor authentication (2-Step Verification) settings. The API streamlines security management and integrates with CISA's SCuBA project to help organizations align with secure configuration baselines using tools like ScubaGoggles.

The Policy API is now generally available with support for auditing more security features

Admins can now use the API to audit more settings, specifically: Calendar, Gmail, Multi-factor authentication settings (2-Step Verification)

Deep Research and experimental models are now available to Google Workspace users in Gemini Advanced.

Deep Research explores complex topics and presents findings in a comprehensive report, while experimental models offer multi-step reasoning and complex task capabilities.

Gemini in the side panel of Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and Gmail can be used in seventeen additional languages

Gemini in the side panel of Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and Gmail can be used in seventeen additional languages

Developers can now add client-side form field validation to Google Workspace add-ons and Google Chat app cards.

Google Workspace add-ons and Chat app developers can now implement client-side input validation to improve data accuracy and user experience. The card UI now supports required form field validation for date-time pickers, multi-select menus, drop-down menus, and text input widgets via the Action API. Additionally, the Validation API now allows for input type, format, and length limit validation for text inputs, supporting types such as text, integers, decimals, email, and emoji.

help admins better understand how security policies affect their users' access to OAuth apps

This includes settings and policies such as API controls, endpoint management configurations, domain wide delegation and more.

Admins can now use tokens in the app configurations for managed iOS apps

Tokens act as placeholders for information specific to a user or device that uses the app, such as a user's email address or their device serial number.

Gemini AI features are now included in Workspace Business and Enterprise plans.

Google is integrating its generative AI capabilities, Gemini, directly into Workspace Business and Enterprise plans, removing the need for a separate add-on. This expansion includes AI-powered writing, summarizing, and content creation tools across Gmail, Docs, Meet, Drive, Sheets, Slides, and Chat, as well as access to Gemini Advanced and NotebookLM Plus. The rollout begins for Business editions on January 15, 2025, and for Enterprise editions on January 29, 2025.

This report will now provide admins additional information about Gemini usage per app by users

We’re introducing additional usage metrics on the Gemini for Workspace reports in the Admin console. This report will now provide admins additional information about Gemini usage per app by users

limit third-party app access to specific OAuth 2.0 scopes for Google APIs

This prevents apps from gaining additional access without admin consent, even if they request new API scopes in the future. This helps ensure data access is restricted to only what admins deem necessary.