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Now generally available: Bulk import using client-side encryption and the Drive API

Previously available in beta, client-side encryption (CSE) customers can now conduct bulk migrations of sensitive files from both cloud and on-premises data sources. This process ensures confidential content is wrapped with customer-managed keys before it's imported into Google Workspace. Using this tooling, CSE customers can decommission their legacy third-party storage while ensuring the CSE model is in place throughout the document lifecycle. The API is highly configurable, we share a generalized sample code to make deployment simple, but customers can further customize it depending on their needs.

Getting started

  • Admins: This feature will be ON by default for customers. Admins or authorized users will need to call the Drive API to leverage the feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more.
  • End users: There is no end-user setting in Drive for this feature.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Enterprise: Enterprise Plus
  • Education: Education Standard and Plus
  • Other Editions: Frontline Plus

Resources

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New Data Retention Policy for Google Ads starting June 1, 2026

Starting June 1, 2026, Google Ads and related measurement APIs will transition to a 37-month data retention policy for granular performance statistics (daily, hourly, and weekly). High-level data (monthly, quarterly, and yearly) will continue to be available for 11 years.

API Impact Next Steps
Google Ads API and Google Ads scripts Starting June 1, 2026, queries that request granular segments (such as segments.date, segments.week) for ranges older than 37 months from the current date will return a DateRangeError.INVALID_DATE error. Future API versions will return DateRangeError.REQUESTED_DATE_GRANULARITY_NOT_SUPPORTED error. To retrieve data older than 37 months, you must update your queries to use segments.month, segments.quarter, or segments.year. Unsegmented queries for historical data must align perfectly with calendar month boundaries (1st to last day of month) to succeed. Please review your applications and make updates. If you require granular historical data beyond 37 months, we recommend exporting it prior to the June 1, 2026 deadline.

If you have any questions, you can contact us on our Google Ads API support channel or Google Ads scripts support channel.

Google Analytics Data API The Google Analytics Data API will truncate affected metrics to the latest 36-month window if the dimension "date" is also used in the report. Affected metrics include Advertiser Ad Cost, Clicks, and Impressions. Only reports with all of affected metrics, 37-months or older, and including the dimension "date" are impacted. Date-equivalent dimensions like "Day of week" and "day" are also impacted. Review your data stitching logic to account for this truncation.
DV360 API and CM360 API These APIs currently maintain a 24-month retention period, which remains unchanged. No impact.
BigQuery Data Transfer Service Starting June 1, 2026, the BigQuery Data Transfer Service for Google Ads and BigQuery Data Transfer Service for Search Ads 360 connectors will stop populating data for backfill runs with dates older than 37 months from the current date. Data transferred and stored in BigQuery will remain in the tables with no impact.

Starting June 1, 2026, BigQuery Data Transfer Service for Google Analytics 4 connector will stop populating data for backfill runs with dates older than 37 months from the current date. Data transferred and stored in BigQuery will remain in the tables, but if a transfer is manually triggered for a report date 37-months or older, the data of the date in BigQuery table will be overwritten by empty value.

If you want to keep historical data beyond 37 months in BigQuery, we recommend starting backfilling runs early so that they can complete before June 1, 2026.

If you have any questions or want to discuss this post, please reach out to us on our “Google Advertising and Measurement Community” Discord server.

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Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – May 1, 2026

Move from conversation to creation with file generation in Gemini

Gemini can now transform your ideas, using conversational prompts, directly into thoughtfully formatted files, such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, PDFs and more, directly in your chats with Gemini. | Learn more about how to move from conversation to creation with file generation in Gemini.

Students can now create personal class notebooks with NotebookLM in Google Classroom

With this launch, we’re allowing students in higher education who are 18 years of age and older to create their own notebooks for courses in Google Classroom. | Learn more about students creating personal class notebooks with NotebookLM.

Workspace audit logs: New functionality and expanded event fields in the Admin console

We're releasing several enhancements to deepen the security investigation capabilities of the Workspace audit log, including expanded fields across many data sources. | Learn more about new functionality and expanded event fields in the Admin console.

New ways to customize AI-generated meeting notes

We are giving users more control over "Take notes for me" in Google Meet with new customization options and an improved Decisions section. | Learn more about new ways to customize AI-generated meeting notes.

New: Agent tools and security updates for Google Workspace developers

We're opening the Workspace MCP server to public developer preview and introducing a standardized tiering model for all agent tools inclusive of our APIs in Workspace. | Learn more about agent tools and security updates for Google Workspace developers.

Google Takeout Transfer now supports Google Photos for Education users

We’re expanding Google Takeout Transfer to include Google Photos, allowing users to migrate their memories from their school or university-issued Google account to a personal Google account. | Learn more about Google Takeout Transfer support for Google Photos.

The announcements above were published on the Workspace Updates blog over the last week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.
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Google Takeout Transfer now supports Google Photos for Education users

When users graduate or leave an organization, they can preserve their academic work by using Google Takeout Transfer to take their Google Drive and Gmail content with them. We’re now expanding Google Takeout Transfer to include Google Photos, allowing users to migrate their memories from their school or university-issued Google account to a personal Google account.

This is the first step in providing a clear migration path for Photos data, ensuring that creative work and personal history stays with individuals long after they leave an organization. When users navigate to takeout.google.com/transfer they will soon see an option to include Photos content. Note that users will need to have sufficient storage in their personal account to complete the transfer.

A browser window showing the third step ("Transfer your content" screen) within Google Takeout migration process. The screen displays three product toggles - Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos - all switched to the "on" position, indicating they are selected for transfer. Under the Google Photos section, the detailed text specifies "Photos, videos & albums you own". A banner at the bottom offers a Google AI plan to help the user secure more storage for the transfer, and a blue "Start Transfer" button is visible at the bottom left.

Users leaving your organization can now use Google Takeout to seamlessly copy and transfer their Google Photos content - including photos, videos, and albums - alongside their Drive and Gmail data to a personal Google account.

Later this year, we will introduce new Photos management and bulk-deletion capabilities in the admin console. These tools will provide better visibility into which users have migrated their data and allow you to proactively manage Photos content to help your institution free up critical pooled Drive storage. 

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Education: Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus

Resources

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New: Agent tools and security updates for Google Workspace developers

At Cloud Next ‘26, we announced a new suite of agent tools for Google Workspace, including a Workspace MCP server, command line interface (CLI), and remote MCP integrations. 

Today, we are opening the Workspace MCP server to public developer preview. As AI agents become a central part of how we work, they need a standardized way to access the right context and tools. The Workspace MCP server provides that bridge, allowing AI agents to safely tap into the richness of Workspace capabilities.

Workspace MCP server: Now in public developer preview

The Workspace MCP server allows developers to access a suite of dedicated tools to power agents interacting with Workspace data:

  • Gmail MCP: Profile access, drafting, searching, and read/write capabilities.
  • Drive MCP: File fetching, permissions management, listing, and uploading.
  • Calendar MCP: Finding available times and managing events.
  • Chat MCP: Finding conversations, searching messages, and reading/sending replies.
  • People dictionary MCP: Managing user contacts and accessing profile information.

Empower agents with a secure ecosystem

As these agents scale, we are committed to maintaining a healthy ecosystem by addressing the unique risks associated with large-scale agentic actions, such as API abuse and unintended large-scale data egress. To foster innovation while managing the potential impact of high-volume data access, we are introducing a standardized tiering model for all agent tools inclusive of our APIs in Workspace.

This model is designed to manage agent workflows at scale, providing a structure as application impact increases The framework is intended to maintain the agility of developers:

  • Empowering the community: We expect less than 1% of active Workspace developers will need to move beyond our standard usage tiers. This means the vast majority of our developer community can continue to build and innovate without friction.
  • Scalability with confidence: For those developers and agents that grow to serve millions of users, the model provides a clear, predictable path to scale safely, ensuring the performance and data integrity that enterprise customers expect.

Getting started

Rollout pace

  • Workspace MCP server: Gradual rollout starting May 1, 2026
  • Workspace API and MCP tiering: Updated usage quotas for new projects only will roll out starting May 1, 2026. We'll notify owners of existing projects at least 60 days before any changes go into effect to ensure a smooth transition.

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and developers

Resources

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Building with Gemini Embedding 2: Agentic multimodal RAG and beyond

Google has announced the general availability of Gemini Embedding 2, a unified model that maps text, images, video, audio, and documents into a single semantic space. This model allows developers to process interleaved multimodal inputs in a single request, significantly improving performance for tasks like agentic RAG, visual search, and content moderation. By supporting over 100 languages and offering features like task-specific prefixes and Matryoshka dimensionality reduction, the model provides a highly efficient and accurate foundation for building complex AI agents.