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Blazing new trails in digital inclusion with the NDIA

Imagine a world where digital equity is viewed as a fundamental municipal obligation, standing alongside public safety, housing, and transportation. What if city and county leaders used their local knowledge to dismantle the greatest barriers to connectivity and digital literacy? Picture local governments leveraging their convening power to partner with libraries, non-profits, schools, and businesses to spark new digital opportunities. What if these pioneering communities not only earned recognition for their achievements, but also shared their strategies to inspire and uplift best practices nationwide? This is the vision of National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) Trailblazers program. For 10 years NDIA has been honoring city, state, or regional governments who have made major strides in digital inclusion. This year, GFiber proudly sponsors the NDIA Trailblazers program.


Together, the NDIA and GFiber share the goal of digital equity through sustainable, community-driven connectivity.NDIA spurs progress toward that future by helping people: 

  • Access robust broadband internet;

  • Have the devices to connect to that service; and

  • Possess the digital skills to use those devices.

Check out the most recent biennial NDIA impact report for a deep dive into the outcomes of this great program.

“Digital access is no longer optional—it is essential to quality of life, economic opportunity, and civic participation” said John Carli, the Mayor of Vacaville, California, and a past Trailblazer awardee. “Being named a Visionary Digital Inclusion Trailblazer reflects Vacaville’s commitment to ensuring every resident, regardless of circumstance, has the tools and access needed to thrive in a digital-first world. We are proud to be leading by example and building a more connected, inclusive community.” 

As the leading voice for digital equity, the Trailblazer awards program showcases how digital inclusion can be achieved—and, even better, replicated. The program also serves as an open-source knowledge base for others to learn from. The winning applications are archived in the NDIA digital library. Each year there are new examples of civic innovation to share and learn from. They can come from small government non-profit initiatives with five-person staffs to or large statehouses, and so many other organizations in-between. NDIA takes all ideas and plans into consideration, and gives these awards based on projects’ innovation and impact on community digital access, regardless of size. 

“Striving for the NDIA Trailblazer indicators has helped focus and uplift our digital inclusion efforts while providing a wealth of insights from other communities to learn from,” said Patrick McGuire, the Technology Equity Manager of South Bend, Indiana, and the leader of a Trailblazer-winning government initiative. Trailblazer indicators are the standards— like funding full time staff at a community organization and enacting public policies that promote digital inclusion—that applicants are judged by to earn their scores.

When a community comes together to solve these tough problems, we move closer to a more connected world. GFiber proudly supports the NDIA Trailblazer program, and we look forward to honoring the newest Trailblazers this year. The 2026 Trailblazers application is open and all state, local, and regional government bodies or government sponsored programs are eligible. NDIA will be accepting submissions until October 13. 

Read about GFiber’s community impact and more at www.gfiber.com/blog.


Posted by Jess George, Head of Government & Community Affairs, East Region

The Anatomy of Harness Engineering: How to Evaluate, Iterate, and Guard AI Coding Agents

While end-to-end benchmarks like SWE-bench provide broad performance scores for AI agents, they are often expensive, slow, and lack the root-cause diagnostics needed to explain exactly where an agent's logic broke down. To solve this, developers should adopt behavioral evaluations—fast, local, unit-style tests that assert on discrete intermediate actions, such as verifying specific tool calls or file modifications rather than final string equality. By building these inexpensive micro-checks alongside macro benchmarks, engineering teams can confidently iterate on system prompts and upgrade models without the risk of regressions.

Create and edit calculated fields in Google Sheets pivot tables with an improved editor

We are introducing a new, dedicated formula editor dialog for creating and editing calculated fields within pivot tables in Google Sheets. This update streamlines how you build custom formulas and derived metrics, making data analysis faster and more accurate.

Specifically, this new update introduces:

  • A dedicated formula editor dialog for creating and modifying custom calculations
  • Field selection menus to insert column names without manual typing
  • Real-time syntax and formula validation to catch errors before applying changes 

Previously, creating calculated fields in Google Sheets required entering formulas into inline sidebar cards, which involved manual typing of exact field names and lacked live error checking. With this update, calculated fields can be created and managed with greater speed and accuracy, ensuring formulas remain consistent and easy to maintain across spreadsheets.

Getting started

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts

Resources

Announcing ADK for Kotlin 1.0: Building Production-Ready AI Agents in Kotlin, Android, and Beyond

Google has officially released version 1.0 of the Agent Development Kit (ADK) for Kotlin, achieving full feature parity with the Python and Java ADK cores to enable idiomatic, multi-agent AI development. Built on Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP), the framework leverages Kotlin Symbol Processing (KSP) for zero-reflection, type-safe function calling, alongside advanced orchestration capabilities like human-in-the-loop workflows and context compaction. Additionally, the release introduces a robust suite of Android-first extensions, allowing mobile developers to integrate local models via LiteRT-LM, cloud reasoning through Firebase AI, session persistence using Room, and semantic memory powered by AppSearch.

Automatic room check-in for Google Meet available on mobile devices

In January 2026, we introduced Automatic room check-in for Google Meet available on mobile to organizations on the Rapid Release track enrolled in Early Preview Rooms. We’re excited to announce that this feature is now rolling out to all Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware. This feature simplifies the process of joining meetings for those using companion mode on a phone or tablet within a conference room. We're introducing automatic room check-in via ultrasound proximity detection. To automatically check you in, the green room uses your phone or tablet’s microphone to detect an ultrasound signal from the conference room hardware, streamlining the process and eliminating unnecessary steps. This feature is available on Android and iOS devices.


Automatic check-in on Android, Right: on iOS

Additional details

  • Minimum Android build required:
    • Meet: 367.0 (Android Settings > Apps > Meet > [App Info > Version])
    • Gmail: 2026.06.29. (Android Settings > Apps > Gmail > [App Info > Version])
  • Minimum iOS build required:
    • Meet: 374.0. (Meet > Settings -> About, terms, and privacy > Version)
    • Gmail:  6.0.260824. (Settings > About Gmail > Version)

Getting started

  • Admins: Automatic check-in is on by default and can be enabled or disabled at the room level. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning proximity detection on or off.
  • End users: The Companion mode entry point will be highlighted in the greenroom when the proximity detection signal is detected. After joining a meeting in Companion mode, the user will be automatically checked into the room. If proximity check-in isn’t working, visit the Help Center for troubleshooting tips. Users can still check in manually after joining the call.

Rollout pace

Android

iOS

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, and Workspace Individual subscribers with Google Meet hardware.

Resources

Chrome for Android Update

Hello Everyone! We've just released Chrome 154 (154.0.8037.21) for Android to a small percentage of users. It'll become available on Google Play over the next few days. You can find more details about early Stable releases here.

This release includes stability and performance improvements. You can see a full list of the changes in the Git log. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug.

Krishna Govind
Google Chrome

Early Stable Update for Desktop

 The Stable channel has been updated to 154.0.8037.17/.18 for Windows. Mac is coming shortly , as part of our early stable release to a small percentage of users. A full list of changes in this build is available in the log.

You can find more details about early Stable releases here.

Interested in switching release channels?  Find out how here. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.


Srinivas Sista

Google Chrome

Create content, schedule events, and coordinate tasks across Workspace regardless of what app you are in

Completing a single task shouldn't mean breaking your focus or switching apps. To keep you in the flow of work, Gemini can tackle complex tasks behind the scenes, working as an intelligent orchestrator across Workspace using the power of Workspace Intelligence. You can prompt Gemini to help from wherever you are working, including Google Chat, Drive, Docs, Slides, and Gmail*.

Before, you had to prompt within each individual app to get personalized AI help. For example, generating a personalized document with Gemini required being in Docs while building AI-powered spreadsheets required being in Sheets. Now, for example, with richer AI integrations across Workspace apps, Gemini can help you drive your work forward faster by creating personalized and formatted docs or beautifully designed slides without leaving Gmail. This functionality also will soon power the flows you build in Workspace Studio.

Now you can use Gemini across your Workspace apps to:

  • Create content: Generate formatted Google Docs, structured Sheets, or stylized Slides in the background, saved securely to your Drive.
    • Example prompts:
      • When in Gmail (via the side panel) to create a doc: “Create a strategy brief for this project with goals, milestones and next steps.“
      • When in Gmail (via the side panel) to create a spreadsheet: "Create a tracker for this project in a new spreadsheet"
      • When in Docs (via the side panel) to create a deck: "Turn this proposal into an easy to read slide deck for my director using @presentation as a style reference.”
      • When in Chat (via Ask Gemini in Chat) to create a document: "Create a deck outlining Project Zebra with the latest updates"
      • When in Drive (via Ask Gemini in Drive) to create a document: "Create a customer insights deck from project Zebra using my project files including sheets, reports, and emails”
  • Conduct deep research: Synthesize complex data scattered across large folders or long threads into a summary report, complete with clear source attributions.
    • Example prompts:
      • When in Docs (via the side panel): “Can you do deep research to see how this blog post compares to other content we have drafted internally and what competitors have published externally?”
  • Draft and send emails: Compose detailed emails based on meeting notes or active documents, open as a draft in Gmail or send it directly from the Workspace app you are in.
    • Example prompts:
      • When in Docs (via the side panel): “Send an email to my sales team for their review and feedback"
  • Schedule your meetings: Find open times, schedule meetings, or resolve calendar conflicts when communicating with your teams without switching to your calendar.
    • Example prompts:
      • When in Chat (via Ask Gemini in Chat): “Schedule some time for me to discuss next steps with product around launch timelines for our new customer support tool“
  • Keep track of your to-dos: Instantly log a reminder or create a to-do list, mapping them straight into Google Tasks.
      • When in Slides (via the side panel): “Based on the presented strategy, can you remind me to follow up with the Marketing team next week to see how the social campaign went?”



Build branded decks without having to leave Docs

Enterprise security and compliance controls are built-in:

  • Data confidentiality: Your data is not reviewed by humans or used to train Gemini models.
  • Granular permissions: Gemini respects the authenticated user’s existing access permissions and sharing policies. If the user cannot access a document, neither can Gemini.
  • Human-in-the-Loop controls: For actions involving external communication or calendar commitments, such as sending emails or scheduling meetings, Gemini presents an interactive preview card, allowing users to review, edit, and confirm before execution.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Business: Standard and Plus
  • Enterprise: Standard and Plus
  • Consumer: Google AI Pro (with the exception of scheduling functionality) and Google AI Ultra
  • Other Editions: Frontline Plus (only for scheduling functionality)
  • Education Add-ons: Google AI Pro for Education
  • Other Add-ons: AI Expanded Access

Note: Usage of advanced AI features across Workspace apps is subject to usage limits. At launch, this feature will be supported in English only. Support for more languages will be added in the future.

Resources