Author Archives:

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – April 3, 2026

Introducing guest accounts: Collaborate securely and communicate with non-Workspace users in Google Chat

Today, we're excited to announce the general availability of guest accounts in Google Workspace. Guest accounts empower organizations to securely collaborate with customers, partners, and vendors that are not on Google Workspace. | Learn more about how to collaborate securely and communicate with non-Workspace users in Google Chat

Ransomware detection and file restoration for Google Drive now generally available

Today, we’re excited to share these two features are generally available with significant improvements in malware detection. | Learn more about ransomware detection and file restoration for Google Drive

Download the third-party attestation for data regions

Admins have access to an independent review of Google Workspace’s data regions, not only for their compliance needs but also for their peace of mind. | Learn more about how to download the third-party attestation for data regions

An update on secondary calendar lifecycle changes and a new API

In the coming months, we’ll introduce a new endpoint in the Calendar API that will allow developers to programmatically transfer the ownership of secondary calendars. | Learn more about the update on secondary calendar lifecycle changes and a new API

Generate beautiful and editable slides with ease in Google Slides

Slide generation just got a major upgrade. Gemini can now create fully editable, brand-matched slides using dynamic layouts tailored to your specific content. To ensure visual consistency, Gemini securely analyzes your existing deck to generate designs that fit your established style. | Learn more about how to generate beautiful and editable slides with ease in Google Slides

Form creation with Gemini and more now available in more languages

You can use Help me create to enter a prompt that describes the form you want to create or a prompt that references supporting Docs, Sheets, Slides, or PDFs. | Learn more about form creation with Gemini and more now available in more languages

Upcoming change to default setting for downloading Google Meet recordings

Currently, Google Meet video recordings do not allow viewers to download or copy them by default unless the recording owner explicitly allows it. As a result, the "Ask Gemini" functionality within the Drive viewer is also disabled by default for viewers who aren’t file owners. | Learn more about the upcoming change to default setting for downloading Google Meet recordings

Enabling user-initiated purchases, starting with higher access to advanced AI features in Workspace

We’re introducing a new capability that allows end users to purchase Google Workspace add-ons directly, starting with the AI Expanded Access add-on for users in the United States and Canada with a Google Workspace Business edition. | Learn more about enabling user-initiated purchases, starting with higher access to advanced AI features in Workspace

Create and refine custom avatars in Google Vids

AI Avatars in Google Vids provide high-quality speakers preferred five times more often than those on other platforms. Now you can customize and refine these avatars to match your brand and message, with Nano Banana 2. | Learn more about how to create and refine custom avatars in Google Vids

Direct an avatar to speak and act anywhere with a consistent face and voice

Today we’re excited to announce you can now place avatars in different scenes and have them interact with objects you specify, like your newly released product or a piece of safety equipment. Their faces and voices will remain consistent as you generate different scenes. | Learn more about how to Direct an avatar to speak and act anywhere with a consistent face and voice

Record your screen directly from Chrome with the Google Vids Screen Recorder Chrome Extension

You can now quickly record your screen from any browser window using the new Google Vids Screen Recorder Chrome extension. | Learn more about how to record your screen directly from Chrome with the Google Vids Screen Recorder Chrome Extension

Export Google Vids directly to YouTube

You can now publish the videos you create in Google Vids directly to YouTube. This saves you a few steps - previously you would export the project as an MP4 file, then go to YouTube to upload the file. | Learn more about how to export Google Vids directly to YouTube

Google Meet is now available on CarPlay

We’re excited to announce Google Meet for Apple CarPlay, allowing on-the-go professionals to stay connected hands-free and join meetings safely while on the road. | Learn more about Google Meet is now available on CarPlay

The announcements above were published on the Workspace Updates blog over the last week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

Kubernetes goes AI-First: Unpacking the new AI conformance program

by Duncan Campbell, Kaslin Fields, Developer Source & Signal
& Janet Kuo, Federico Bongiovanni, Google Kubernetes Engine(GKE)

As AI workloads move from experimental notebooks into massive production environments, the industry is rallying around a new standard to ensure these workloads remain portable, reliable, and efficient.

At the heart of this shift is the launch of the Certified Kubernetes AI Conformance program.

This initiative represents a significant investment in common, accessible, industry-wide standards, ensuring that the benefits of AI-first Kubernetes are available to everyone.

How Kubernetes is Evolving for an AI-First World

Traditional Kubernetes was built for stateless, cloud-first applications. However, AI workloads introduce unique complexities that standard conformance doesn't fully cover:

  • Specific Hardware Demands: AI models require precise control over accelerators like GPUs and TPUs.
  • Networking and Latency: Inference and distributed training require low-latency networking and specialized configurations.
  • Stateful Nature: Unlike traditional web apps, AI often relies on complex, stateful data pipelines.

The AI Conformance program acts as a superset of standard Kubernetes conformance. To be AI-conformant, a platform must first pass all standard Kubernetes tests and then meet additional requirements specifically for AI.

Key Pillars of the AI Conformance Program

The Kubernetes AI Conformance program is being driven in the open via the AI Conformance program. This cross-company effort is led by industry experts Janet Kuo (Google), Mario Fahlandt (Kubermatic GmbH), Rita Zhang (Microsoft), and Yuan Tang (RedHat). This program is a collaborative effort within the open source ecosystem, involving multiple organizations and individuals. By developing this program in the open, the community ensures the standard is built on trust and directly addresses the diverse needs of the global ecosystem. The program establishes a verified set of capabilities that platforms across the industry, like Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) are already adopting.

Dynamic Resource Allocation (DRA)

DRA is the cornerstone of the new standard. It shifts resource allocation from simple accelerator quantity to fine-grained hardware control via attributes. For data scientists, this means they can now request specific hardware based on characteristics such as memory capacity or specialized capabilities, ensuring the environment perfectly matches the model's needs.

All-or-Nothing Scheduling

Distributed training jobs often face "deadlocks" where some pods start while others wait for resources, wasting expensive GPU time. AI Conformance mandates support for solutions like Kueue, allowing developers to ensure a job only begins when all required resources are available, improving cluster efficiency.

Intelligent Autoscaling for AI Workloads

Conformant clusters must support Horizontal Pod Autoscaling (HPA) based on custom AI metrics, such as GPU or TPU utilization, rather than just standard CPU/memory. This allows clusters to scale up for heavy inference demand and scale down to save costs when idle.

Standardized Observability for High Performance

To manage AI at scale, you need deep visibility. The program requires platforms to expose rich accelerator performance metrics directly, enabling teams to monitor inference latency, throughput, and hardware health in a standardized way.

What's Next?

The launch of AI Conformance is just the beginning. As we head further into 2026, the community is adding automated testing for certification and expanding the standard to include more advanced inference patterns and stricter security requirements.

The ultimate goal? Making "AI-readiness" an inherent, invisible part of the Kubernetes standard.

To get involved and help shape the future of AI on Kubernetes, consider joining AI Conformance in Open Source Kubernetes. We welcome diverse perspectives, as your expertise and feedback are crucial to building a robust and inclusive standard for all.

Supporting Google Account username change in your app

Google has updated its account settings to allow U.S. users to change their @gmail.com usernames while keeping all existing account data and inboxes intact. For developers, this means that while old email addresses will remain active as aliases, apps that rely solely on email addresses for identification may face issues with account duplication or lost access. To ensure a seamless user experience, Google recommends migrating to the "subject ID" as the primary user identifier and allowing users to manually update their contact information within app settings.

Bring state-of-the-art agentic skills to the edge with Gemma 4

Google DeepMind has launched Gemma 4, a family of state-of-the-art open models designed to enable multi-step planning and autonomous agentic workflows directly on-device. The release includes the Google AI Edge Gallery for experimenting with "Agent Skills" and the LiteRT-LM library, which offers a significant speed boost and structured output for developers. Available under an Apache 2.0 license, Gemma 4 supports over 140 languages and is compatible with a wide range of hardware, including mobile devices, desktops, and IoT platforms like Raspberry Pi.

Chrome Dev for Desktop Update

The Dev channel has been updated to 148.0.7766.3 for Windows, Mac and Linux.

A partial list of changes is available in the Git log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how. 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.

Chrome Release Team
Google Chrome

Google Meet is now available on CarPlay

We’re excited to announce Google Meet for Apple CarPlay, allowing on-the-go professionals to stay connected hands-free and join meetings safely while on the road.

With this update, users can now access Google Meet directly from their car's dashboard. This feature is designed to provide a seamless transition from your mobile iOS device to your vehicle, ensuring you never miss an important discussion. Whether you are commuting or traveling between appointments, you can now join meetings with a single tap, view your upcoming schedule, and participate in audio-only calls to maintain focus on driving.

Please note that when you join a meeting, your camera is turned off and you won’t see the incoming video content. You will hear the audio from the meeting and have audio input access from your microphone.

Android Auto users can expect a version of Meet for Android Auto soon.

Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: This feature will be ON by default for users with the Google Meet app installed on their iPhone. To use it, simply connect your iPhone to a CarPlay-compatible vehicle. Visit the Help Center to learn more.

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

Export Google Vids directly to YouTube

You can now publish the videos you create in Google Vids directly to YouTube. This saves you a few steps - previously you would export the project as an MP4 file, then go to YouTube to upload the file.

Whether you are creating marketing videos, training materials, or educational content, this feature reduces manual effort and simplifies the publishing process.

To maintain security and provide creative control, all exported videos are initially set to Private. You can review the content in YouTube Studio before choosing to set the visibility to Public or Unlisted.

Use the new option in the File menu to export your video directly to YouTube.

Getting started

  • Admins: This feature will be available by default to organizations with both YouTube and Google Vids enabled. The feature will not be visible in domains where YouTube is disabled, or “Strict” or “Moderate” restricted modes are enforced. Access to YouTube can be controlled at the domain/OU/group level. Visit the Help Center to learn more
  • End users: Try the feature in Google Vids today. Visit the Help Center to learn more about exporting your vids.

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

Record your screen directly from Chrome with the Google Vids Screen Recorder Chrome Extension

You can now quickly record your screen from any browser window using the new Google Vids Screen Recorder Chrome extension. Instead of having to open Google Vids to access recording functionality, you can now initiate a recording with a single click right from the Chrome extensions toolbar.

This is available at no additional cost to Google Workspace customers and anyone with a personal Google account.

Whether you are capturing a quick walkthrough, a bug report, or a presentation, this extension simplifies the creation process by allowing you to record from any tab without interrupting your workflow. You can record videos up to 30 minutes in length, making it easy to capture thorough walkthroughs or deep dives. Once your recording is complete, you can preview it and then seamlessly open it in Vids to edit and share like any other video.

Quickly record your screen from any browser window

Getting started

  • Admins: This feature will be available by default if your organization has Google Vids enabled. To facilitate a smoother rollout, admins can force-install the extension and auto-pin it to the Chrome extensions toolbar for their users via the Admin console.
  • End users: If your admin hasn’t already installed the extension for you, navigate to the Chrome Web Store to add the extension to your browser. If your admin has not pinned it for you, we recommend pinning the extension to your toolbar for the fastest access.

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources