Google Workspace Changes

Occupancy counting is now available for Android-based Logitech Gen 2 room hardware, starting with the Rally Board 65, to measure meeting room usage.

Occupancy counting is now available for Android-based Logitech Gen 2 room hardware, beginning with the Rally Board 65, bringing the same capabilities previously offered on ChromeOS devices to Android hardware. Administrators can enable the feature at the domain, OU, or group level in the Google Admin console, view occupancy data, and optionally export it as a spreadsheet. The feature processes data locally on the device, does not collect personally identifiable information, and may keep the camera LED off during counting depending on hardware. Rollout for both Rapid and Scheduled Release domains begins September 28, 2026, with an extended rollout potentially exceeding 15 days; support for earlier Gen 1 devices will arrive later via a CollabOS update.

Google Docs now supports grounding AI prompts using Gemini Notebook as a context source, providing inline citations without leaving the document.

Starting September 23, 2026, users can reference their Gemini Notebook research directly in Google Docs by typing '@' in the side panel or bottom bar. Gemini will ground its output in the selected Notebook sources and add inline citations, facilitating fact‑checking while drafting. The feature is available by default for admins with Gemini for Workspace in Drive enabled and for end users with Workspace smart features turned on. It rolls out immediately to both Rapid and Scheduled Release domains for Business Standard/Plus, Enterprise Standard/Plus, Education Plus, Google AI Pro/Ultra consumers, and specified Education and AI add‑ons.

Google Sheets adds manual reordering and custom sorting to pivot tables with drag‑and‑drop, multi‑item moves, hierarchical preservation, persistent states, and improved Excel interoperability.

Google Sheets now lets users manually reorder and custom sort pivot tables directly on the grid. Users can drag and drop individual row or column headers, select multiple items for simultaneous reordering, and have nested child items move with their parents to maintain hierarchy. Custom sort arrangements persist across browser sessions, data refreshes, filtering, and layout changes. The update also enhances Microsoft Excel file compatibility: imported Excel workbooks retain their custom pivot table sort order, and exported sheets preserve that order for seamless round‑trip use.

Google Meet adds new admin and end‑user settings to enable automatic note‑taking only for meetings with three or more participants, rolling out September 29, 2026.

The update introduces a third admin option that enables automatic note‑taking for meetings with three or more people, with default ON for Business Standard and Plus and OFF for Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline Plus, and Google AI Pro for Education. End users gain a matching setting to enable note‑taking only for meetings they host with 3+ guests. Both settings take effect September 29, 2026, with an extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days) for Rapid and Scheduled Release domains.

Introduces Quick notes, a high‑level summary tab in Take notes for me that fits on one page with key action items, outcomes, and talking points.

Quick notes provides a concise, single‑page overview of meeting takeaways, highlighting the most important action items, outcomes, and talking points for fast consumption. It becomes the default tab in the Take notes for me Doc and the default summary in related emails, while a Full notes tab retains the detailed record for those who need deeper insight. No admin or end‑user settings are required; the feature rolls out immediately to Rapid and Scheduled Release domains for Business Standard/Plus, Enterprise Standard/Plus, Frontline Plus, Education Add‑ons (Google AI Pro for Education), and Consumer (Google AI Pro and Ultra).

New Confluence integration for Google Chat enables rich link previews, personal notifications, and shared page updates via the Atlassian add-on.

Google Workspace customers can now install the Atlassian add-on to bring Confluence pages directly into Google Chat conversations. The integration provides rich link previews showing page titles, summaries, and author names, personal notifications for @mentions, comment replies, or page changes, and automated updates when shared Confluence pages are modified. This allows teams to collaborate in Chat while keeping Confluence as the system of record for knowledge.

New Workday for Google Sheets add-on brings AI-powered Adaptive Planning data directly into Sheets and Slides.

Workday for Google Sheets is a new add-on available in the Google Workspace Marketplace that connects Workday Adaptive Planning directly to Google Sheets and Slides. Integrated with the AI-powered “Ask Workday” feature, it enables natural language summaries, variance analysis, automated anomaly detection, smart visualizations, and dynamic ad‑hoc reporting without manual CSV downloads, allowing financial analysts to build live reports and surface insights faster.

New manual calculation setting in Google Sheets lets users pause automatic recalculation and trigger updates on demand.

Google Sheets introduces a manual calculation mode that enables editors of complex or data-dense spreadsheets to suspend automatic formula recalculation, batch edits, and initiate a sheet-wide update when ready. This supports uninterrupted high-volume updates, structured scenario modeling, and stabilizing volatile simulations. The feature is off by default and can be enabled via File > Settings > Calculation Settings, with no admin controls. Rollout begins September 21, 2026 for both Rapid and Scheduled Release domains, completing within up to 15 days.

Google Meet homepage now shows conference room and meeting location details, with intelligent room prioritization, wayfinding, and Google Maps integration.

Starting September 14, 2026, the Google Meet homepage on the web displays conference room and physical meeting location details directly on upcoming meeting cards. For meetings with multiple rooms, the system prioritizes the room in the user's working location (set in Google Calendar) and highlights it. Clicking a room opens wayfinding or campus maps, while offsite addresses open Google Maps for turn‑by‑turn directions. Location details are prominently shown for meetings happening now or starting soon (<10 minutes) and appear on hover for later meetings, with an overflow button for multiple locations. No admin or end‑user settings are required; the feature uses existing building and room resources from the Admin console. Rollout is gradual over up to 15 days, beginning September 14 for Rapid Release domains and September 28 for Scheduled Release domains, and is available to all Google Workspace customers and Workspace Individual subscribers.

Data regions support for Google Apps Script is now generally available, enabling admins to enforce geographic data residency for script storage and execution.

Starting September 16, 2026, Google Apps Script now respects data region policies set in the Admin console, ensuring that script project files, code definitions, manifest configurations, trigger metadata, key-value storage (such as Property Service and Cache Service), and runtime executions are stored and processed within the designated geographic region. This update applies to both Rapid and Scheduled Release domains and is available for Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus, and Frontline Plus editions. Non-regionalized Apps Script services will be disabled for organizations that turn on the Drive and Docs disablement toggle in data regions advanced settings.

Users can now connect to Google Meet hardware by entering a 5‑character room code on their personal device.

Google Meet hardware adds a manual connection method via a 5‑character room code shown on the hardware screen. Users see a 'Connect with room code' button on the pre‑call screen, allowing them to input the code when ultrasound‑based proximity detection is unavailable or disabled. The feature is enabled by default for both Rapid and Scheduled release domains, with a gradual rollout starting September 15, 2026 (up to 15 days for full visibility), and admins can toggle it at the device level.

Google Workspace admins can now set unified sharing boundaries for Google Drive that combine audience restrictions with data sensitivity controls.

The new capability lets administrators create a single rule in the Admin console that evaluates both data sensitivity (using classification labels or DLP conditions) and audience (via trust rules criteria such as organizational units, groups, or domains). It supports three audience restriction options: block sharing with all external users, allowlist sharing only with specific users, or denylist sharing with specific users while permitting sharing with everyone else. The feature rolls out gradually over up to 15 days starting September 14, 2026 for both Rapid and Scheduled Release domains, and is available for Enterprise Standard/Plus, Education Fundamentals/Standard/Plus, Enterprise Essentials, and Frontline Standard/Plus editions.

GA release of a simplified import tool for small businesses to migrate users and data from Microsoft to Google Workspace during setup.

The new feature allows admins to connect their Microsoft business account using global admin credentials, optionally exclude users or data types, and automatically import up to 10 Microsoft users along with their emails, OneDrive files, calendar events, contacts and tasks into Google Workspace. The import runs in the background after domain verification and MX activation, and is available now for both Rapid and Scheduled Release domains.

Google Sheets cell limit increased to up to 20 million cells.

Google Sheets has increased its cell limit from up to 10 million cells to up to 20 million cells, applicable to new, existing, and imported spreadsheets, including those from Excel (.xlsx) or CSV files. The change is rolling out gradually over up to 15 days for Rapid Release domains starting September 10, 2026, and for Scheduled Release domains starting September 28, 2026. No admin or end-user settings are required. A future increase to the file byte size limit for imported spreadsheets is also planned.

Introduces a dedicated formula editor dialog for creating and editing calculated fields in Google Sheets pivot tables.

Google Sheets now offers a dedicated formula editor dialog for creating and editing calculated fields within pivot tables, complete with field selection menus to insert column names without manual typing, real-time syntax and formula validation to catch errors before applying changes, and improved speed and accuracy over the previous inline sidebar method.