Ray 2.55 introduces official, first-class support for Google Cloud TPUs, enabling developers to run distributed Python workloads on Google's accelerators using the familiar Ray task-and-actor APIs. To handle the strict networking requirement of keeping multi-host TPU "slices" together over their Inter-Chip Interconnect (ICI), the KubeRay Operator on GKE automatically provisions and labels the underlying hardware layout. Ray Core utilizes these labels via its slice_placement_group() primitive to atomically reserve complete slices, allowing developers to deploy jobs through KubeRay, Ray Train, or Ray Serve simply by declaring a hardware topology (like "4x4") without writing custom placement code.

Launching a side business? Use Gemini to design your side hustle, conduct market research and automate logistics.

Google Sheets now offers enhanced support for combo charts, providing a more seamless experience when creating multi-series visualizations. Users can create new “Combo” chart types, enabling complex dataset visualization with different scales and metrics without requiring manual re-plotting. These include:

What is changing?

On August 31, 2026, we are aligning Shopping campaigns with Performance Max for Retail campaigns by enabling Local Inventory Ads (LIA) by default. Previously, developers and advertisers had to explicitly set the enable_local field to true within a campaign's ShoppingSetting in order to serve products in their LIA feed.

With this change, the Campaign.ShoppingSetting.enable_local field will no longer have any effect on Shopping campaigns. The Google Ads API backend will automatically override this value to true for all Shopping campaigns, effectively turning on the "Local products" setting behind the scenes.

What you need to do

For v25.1 and future versions, you’ll need to update your code to avoid setting enable_local to false, otherwise you will see a ContextError.OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CONTEXT error. For any versions prior to v25.1, no immediate code changes are required, and any requests to mutate the enable_local field for a Shopping campaign will treat the value as true.

If you previously relied on setting enable_local to false to prevent local offers from serving in specific Shopping campaigns, you should instead use the CampaignCriterionService to add a listing scope with product_channel set to ONLINE, or use the "Inventory filter" section in the campaign settings UI to filter out local inventory and silo budgets by channel (Online vs. Local).

Note that this change only applies to Shopping campaigns. The enable_local field will continue to function as before for other supported campaign types, such as Performance Max and Demand Gen.

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.

 - Dora Sun - Google Ads API Team

Posted by Wei Wang, Engineering Manager, Android BeTo

User privacy and transparency are core to the Android experience. To better align with these principles, we are updating the default behavior of the Nearby Connections API regarding how it interacts with device radios.

What is changing?

Previously, the Nearby Connections API could automatically toggle Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios ON to facilitate connections without explicit user intervention. Moving forward, the API will no longer automatically enable these radios for 1P and 3P applications.

What this means for developers

If your app relies on Nearby Connections, you will need to update your implementation to account for these changes:

• Manual Radio Management: You must ensure that the necessary radios (Wi-Fi or Bluetooth) are enabled before initiating Nearby Connections tasks.
• User Notification: If the required radios are disabled, your app must now inform the user and request that they enable them manually. The API will no longer programmatically turn them on for you.

Timing

These changes are scheduled to take effect in late 2026. We recommend reviewing your connection workflows now to ensure a seamless transition for your users.

Google Credential Provider for Windows (GCPW) now supports FIDO2-compliant physical security keys as a second factor for authentication

Google Credential Provider for Windows (GCPW) has been updated to support FIDO2-compliant physical security keys as a second factor for authentication. This update helps organizations improve their security posture by enabling administrators to enforce 2-Step Verification (2SV) using hardware security keys at the Windows login screen. | Learn more.

Improvement to in-room problem reporting for Google Meet hardware

Maintaining an enterprise-grade video conferencing environment requires visibility into the health of its devices. We're introducing new ways to see Google Meet hardware user-reported feedback directly in the Admin console. | Learn more.

New refinement capabilities allow custom editing with Help me write in Gmail

Users can now edit and revise their email drafts in Gmail via the prompt bar, using custom refine instructions in Help me write. Previously the refines were limited to preset options like Polish, Formalize, and Shorten. | Learn more.

Now available: group conversations with external collaborators in Google Chat

For many teams, it’s essential to be able to work in real-time with partners from outside your organization. We’re improving external collaboration in Google Chat by making it possible to create group conversations that include external users. | Learn more.

NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook

We’re renaming NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook. While it remains a standalone product focused on being your premier research tool, the new name reflects how it will evolve to do more across the Google ecosystem. | Learn more.

Easily control the emotions and pacing of AI avatars and AI voiceovers in Google Vids

Users can now easily steer voiceover and avatar speaking in Google Vids by typing content within brackets like “[excitedly]”. | Learn more.

Expanded language support for Gemini in Google Docs

We are now expanding support for these features to 11 more languages, including Mandarin, Dutch, Malay, Hebrew, Polish, Turkish, Czech, Indonesian, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. These new additions join our previously supported languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, French, Korean, German, and Italian. | Learn more.

Generate higher quality AI video clips and edit any video with Gemini Omni in Vids

Users now have access to Gemini Omni directly within Google Vids. Omni provides higher quality video generation with significant improvements over previous models. Additionally, Omni’s world understanding unlocks simple video edits so you can ask Omni to tweak the video you have to get the video you need. | Learn more.

Cast yourself in AI video clips using your personal avatar with Gemini Omni in Vids

Users now have access to Gemini Omni directly within Google Vids. With Gemini Omni, you can create videos using your personal avatar to scale your presence without the studio time. Use a secure verification process to capture your likeness and then select it as a character in Omni generations within Vids. | Learn more.

New Google Meet 'Take notes for me' settings for admins and end users

To help users remember to capture notes for meetings when it’s most valuable, we’re updating the admin and end user settings that let them pre-configure AI note-taking for Google Meet. | Learn more.

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

When asked to describe the impact of gFiber’s partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Pocatello and Chubbuck in one word, Executive Director Mona Mannan said: "opportunity."

"GFiber is not just funding programming for the kids, it’s actually giving the program the opportunity that these kids and these families wouldn't usually have. [It's] investing in the future of people in Pocatello... we're removing barriers." — Mona Mannan

For local families, this partnership is more than just a summertime activity; it is a dedicated educational space for skill building. Each summer, the Club has provided youth with a safe environment while their parents are at work but, instead of sitting with tablets these elementary students are diving into real-world concepts. From designing electricity boards, building miniature robotics, lava lamps, and planning pathways for toy cars - this STEM curriculum is designed to stimulate screen-free, hands-on critical thinking. 

"There are hardly any screens, outside of movie day which happens every few weeks," Mannan explained. "It’s all hands-on learning. We want them working with their hands, building, working together in groups, and staying active daily so they don't experience summer learning loss." Summer learning loss refers to knowledge or skills that fade when children are not mentally engaged on a regular basis like they are while at school. At the Boys and Girls Club of Pocatello and Chubbuck, this screen-free intention around learning is to motivate students to build their ideas offline and take their learning into the real world to see what actually works to improve their favorite experiments. Through GFiber’s support the learning experiences happen outside of the Club too, with field trips to Zoo Idaho focusing on biology and the bowling alley for a fun lesson on mass and force.  

The enrichment doesn’t stop when summer ends either, The Boys and Girls Club transitions into an after-school program that follows the District 25 calendar. Students receive homework support during "Power Hour," participate in a brand new expanded music program, and connect with community mentors from the fire department, police department, and Idaho State University student volunteers. The Club also utilizes trauma-informed care training to ensure staff can deeply support children from all backgrounds. This is made possible through strong community alliances and gFiber’s $10,000 annual contribution to the Club. Every dollar donated goes straight back into local operation, programming, and scholarships.

There is an alignment between GFiber’s mission and the Club’s goal of helping youth reach their full potential, as both organizations are dedicated to building a brighter, more connected future. For Mannan, the relationship is built on mutual respect and shared energy, personified by GFiber’s area representative Alberto Garcia, who initiated the partnership. "This has been amazing support for us to grow our program," Mannan shared. "You guys are really an important part of this community."

The Dev channel has been updated to 152.0.7953.3 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

On World Emoji Day, go behind the scenes of Noto 3D to learn how we redesigned thousands of emoji for modern communication.

Conductor has evolved from a Gemini CLI extension into a portable plugin, bringing conversational Spec-Driven Development (SDD) to ecosystems like Antigravity CLI and Claude. Rather than relying on strict command sequences, developers can now chat naturally with their AI assistant while it dynamically manages persistent markdown artifacts (like spec.md and plan.md) in the background. This update eliminates workflow friction while ensuring your repository remains a version-controlled, single source of truth for your project's architecture and state across different AI tools.