Google Workspace Changes

Google Chat is moving to a new web address, chat.google.com, for a faster and more reliable experience.

Google Chat is transitioning to a new web address, chat.google.com, from its previous location at mail.google.com/chat. This change aims to provide a faster and more reliable web experience without altering the user interface. Existing bookmarks and links will continue to function. Admins and developers should ensure extensions are compatible with the new address, and update URL blocklists or website-specific policies to include chat.google.com. Users may need to update Chrome extensions for Chat to ensure proper functionality. Blocking chat.google.com will break the ability to use Chat within Gmail and Google Meet.

Extending multi-party approvals (MPA) to Google Vault for sensitive actions like creating exports.

Google is extending multi-party approvals (MPA) to Google Vault to enhance security for sensitive actions. This feature requires a separate, authorized administrator to review and approve certain actions, such as creating exports, before they are executed. This helps prevent unauthorized or accidental changes, significantly reducing the risk of data exfiltration or unapproved data deletions.

Google Meet introduces automated compliance recording and transcripts for regulated users to meet strict regulatory archiving requirements.

Google Meet Compliance Recording is a new feature for administrators to automatically record meetings and capture transcripts for specific users or groups requiring regulatory monitoring. This helps financial firms comply with communication retention and supervision rules mandated by regulatory bodies like SEC, FINRA, and CFTC. The recordings and transcripts are stored in WORM compliant Google Cloud Storage, ensuring immutable records and allowing regulated entities to use collaboration features that were previously disabled due to compliance rules.

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.