Category Archives: Apps Feed Blog

The feed from the Google Apps team

Google Vids is expanding its AI voiceovers with new options

What’s changing

Since bringing Google Vids—our AI-powered video creation app for work—to general availability last year, users have engaged with Gemini features in Vids like AI voiceovers. Today, we’re excited to announce that users can now choose from a wider range of AI voices for their videos with the introduction of new options: 
  • Narrator (Default) - Smooth, medium pitch 
  • Educator - Friendly, higher pitch 
  • Teacher - Clear, low pitch 
  • Persuader - Engaging, low pitch 
  • Explainer - Lively, low pitch 
  • Coach - Lively, higher pitch 
  • Motivator - Energetic, medium pitch
These high-quality voices offer more natural and expressive voiceovers that dynamically adjust pitch and tone to match your script, whether you wrote it yourself or used the Gemini-powered 'Help me create' to generate your script. 


new ai voiceover options in vids


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

Using AI voiceovers makes it easier to get started creating or updating video content in just a few clicks. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Vids in your organization.
  • End users: 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about creating scripts & voiceovers in Google Vids. 
    • You can use Vids on your computer with the two most recent versions of these browsers: 
    • You can access our always-on resources in the Google Workspace Learning Center to learn what you can do with Google Vids. 
    • Vids is available in the user's local language, but some AI features (including AI voiceovers) are currently only available in English. 
    • Note: View and collaborate access is available to anyone with a Google Workspace account, while create and copy access is available for select editions of Google Workspace customers. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus 
  • Essentials, Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus 
  • Education Plus* 
  • Customers with the Gemini Education* or Gemini Education Premium* add-on 
  • Customers with the Gemini Business* or Gemini Enterprise* add-on 
 *As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details. 

*Please refer to the following Workspace Updates Blog to learn more about Vids availability for Google Workspace for Education customers. 

Resources 



New Google Drive Inventory Reporting enhancements provide even richer insights into file permissions

What's changing

In October 2024, we introduced Google Drive Inventory Reporting, which provides admins with key metadata about the files in their Drive corpus via a BigQuery report. These reports provide admins valuable insights into how data is classified, accessed, and used, which can help identify security risks, ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, and much more. 

Beginning today, we're pleased to announce that we've enhanced Drive Inventory Reporting to include more detailed permission information for files and folders in My Drive. This means you can now access the following schema fields concerning permission details for both shared drive and My Drive files:

  • Inherited: A boolean indicating whether the permission is inherited. 
  • Permission Type: The permission type for the user. 
  • Role: The primary role for the user. 
This update builds on recent upgrades to the access experience in Drive, providing a more comprehensive and unified view of permissions across your entire Drive environment. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about Drive inventory reporting.
  • End users: There is no end user impact or action required. 

Rollout pace

Availability 

Available* for Google Workspace: 
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus 
  • Education Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Essentials Plus 
  • Cloud Identity Premium 
*Note that this availability refers to the ability to generate a report. All end users will be included in the report and are not limited to any specific Google Workspace edition. 

Resources 

Expanding SIP Link for Google Voice to new countries

What’s changing 

In October 2022, we announced the ability for Google Voice Standard and Premier customers to connect a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunk with Voice. SIP Link allows phone numbers (PSTN services) from local carriers to be used for Google Voice through a secure set of certified Session Border Controllers (SBCs), such as Audiocodes, Cisco, Oracle, and Ribbon. For more information, check out our original launch announcement.

Beginning today, we’re launching Voice to the following countries by expanding SIP Link availability: 


APAC
  • Australia
  • Hong Kong
  • Indonesia
  • Israel
  • Malaysia
  • New Zealand
  • Philippines
  • Taiwan
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam
EMEA
  • Finland
  • Norway
  • Romania
  • South Africa
LATAM
  • Peru
Customers in these countries will need to purchase the new SIP Link Standard or SIP Link Premier licenses to set up SIP Link, which they can do via their Google Workspace sales representative or through the Google Workspace Partner network. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace

Availability 

  • Available to Google SIP Link Standard and Premier customers
    • Note: Customers in countries above will need to purchase SIP Link Standard or SIP Link Premier licenses to set up SIP Link. 

Resources 

Integrating HubSpot with Google Chat

What’s changing

Many utilize HubSpot, an AI-powered customer platform, to perform marketing, sales, customer service, content management, operations, and commerce tasks. Today, we’re excited to introduce an integration with HubSpot that enables users to see notifications and updates from Hubspot directly in Chat. 

With this integration, users can: 
  • Receive HubSpot notifications in Chat for things like new leads, deal status updates, or changes in contact records. 
  • Improve customer response times by connecting their HubSpot inbox to spaces in Chat. 
  • More efficiently collaborate on support tickets, expedite ticket resolution, and boost customer satisfaction by connecting their help desk workspace to Chat spaces. 
  • Configure and send custom notifications to specific users and Chat spaces through HubSpot workflows, which ensures the right people are informed about any significant event. 
  • Summarize HubSpot records using Breeze Copilot directly from the notifications in Chat. 
Integrating HubSpot with Google Chat



Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why you’d use it 

This update enhances communication, productivity and efficiency for HubSpot customers that use Chat as their primary collaboration tool. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace

Availability 

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

Resources 

Transferring your personal Google Voice number to a Google Workspace business account just got easier

What’s changing 

We know it’s important for our users to continue maintaining an established phone number and ensure that this number stays associated with them as they move to a Google Workspace business account. For example, a solopreneur with a Voice number might need to carry their number with them to a Workspace domain as their business grows. 

To solve for this, we’re pleased to introduce a significantly improved experience for transferring a personal Google Voice number to a Google Workspace account. When using Google Voice on the web, you can go directly to “Account Settings” and then to the "Transfer your number to another Voice account" section. Here, you can enter the Voice number you’d like to transfer and the Google Workspace email address it should now be associated with. Once submitted, your admin can accept the transfer. 

Transferring your personal Google Voice number to a Google Workspace



Getting started 


Rollout pace


Availability 

  • Available for Google Workspace customers using Google Voice Starter, Standard or Premier 

Resources 

Google Voice now supports call delegation

What’s changing

Beginning today, admins can assign delegates to handle other users' calls. When assigned, delegates can: 
  • Answer calls on the delegator’s behalf 
  • Place calls on the delegator’s behalf, including transferring the call to the delegator once connected 
  • Transfer calls selectively to the delegator 
  • Listen to voicemail messages and view voicemail transcripts 
 This can be helpful for executives who delegate some of these tasks to colleagues. 

Google Voice now supports call delegation

Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users


Why it matters

Call delegation is a top feature request from our customers and is critical for busy professionals and their support staff to effectively manage communications. Allowing designated individuals to handle calls on behalf of executives frees up executives' time while ensuring important communications are addressed promptly, ultimately boosting productivity for both executives and their support staff. In the future, we plan to expand this feature to include the ability for delegates to access call history, voicemail history, and inbox management. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up call delegation for your organization. 
  • End users: If configured by your admin, you'll be notified via email if you have been assigned a delegate and what actions they can take on your behalf. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available for Google Workspace customers with a Google Voice Standard and Premier subscription 

Resources

Enhancing video navigation and accessibility with Google Drive video transcripts

What’s changing 

Last year, we announced that users can automatically generate captions for any video uploaded to Google Drive, improving the accessibility of videos and saving users the effort of manually creating captions. To build upon this feature and make information discovery, referencing, and productivity with video content much more efficient, we’re excited to introduce video transcripts. 


Starting today, Drive users can now view and search transcripts for their videos. The transcript appears in a sidebar next to the video player and highlights the currently spoken text. This update makes it easy to find specific moments, follow along with the content, or jump directly to the part of the video you need.

video transcripts in drive

Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why it matters 

Video transcripts can improve the accessibility of media stored in Drive and enables you to easily search and navigate to key moments within your video. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • Your video must have captions to access this feature. A video with captions will have the CC button in the bottom right corner of the video player set to active (not grayed out). 
      • You can add captions to a video by right-clicking the video in Drive > selecting Manage caption tracks > generate automatic captions. You can also generate captions when the video is playing by going to the three dot menu on top right > manage captions tracks > generate automatic captions. 
    • To access video transcripts, open a video with captions in Google Drive > click the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the video to open the video settings > select “Transcript” 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning on video transcripts.

Rollout pace

  • Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 24, 2025 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 26, 2025, with expected completion by March 26, 2025

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 
    • Note: Users with personal Google accounts can upload or request automatic captions after uploading a video to Drive. 

Resources 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – February 21, 2025

1 New update

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.



Improved experience for highlighting and annotating images for AppSheet apps on Android 
We're pleased to introduce a new experience for marking up images within AppSheet apps on Android devices. Now, your users can add precise highlights and markings to images, making visual communication clearer and more effective:
  • Add geometric shapes: Draw rectangles, ellipses, and arrows to highlight key areas 
  • Include text: Add labels and descriptions directly onto the image 
  • Move and edit: Reposition shapes and text annotations with ease 
  • Zoom: Zoom in and out before and after adding drawings for added precision 
Improved experience for highlighting and annotating images for AppSheet apps on Android
This update makes it easier for users to direct attention to specific details, which is especially helpful when you need to require proof, like submitting an incident report, or submit documentation, like inventory checks. | Rollout to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains is complete. | Available to AppSheet Free, AppSheet Core and AppSheet Enterprise Plus. Google Workspace editions that include AppSheet Core can be viewed here. | Visit the AppSheet community to learn more about this feature and check out the Help Center to get instructions for allowing users to draw on images.




Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.


Workspace data loss protection (DLP) for Gmail is now generally available
A big threat organizations must prepare for is the risk of data exfiltration through unwanted and/or unauthorized means. Whether it’s small-scale, unintended sharing, or a larger breach scenario, organizations need powerful defenses to protect themselves from these risks. To that end, we’re pleased to announce that today Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is generally available in Gmail, alongside Drive and Chat. | Learn more about DLP for Gmail. 

“Take notes for me” in Google Meet now captures “next steps” 
We’re pleased to announce that “take notes for me” will capture next steps discussed during the meeting in a new “suggested next steps” section. | Learn more about “next steps”.

Scroll through live captions and translated captions in Google Meet 
We’re improving the live captions and translated captions experience in Google Meet by including the ability to scroll through the text. | Learn more about live captions and translated captions in Google Meet. 

Updating the access experience in Google Drive 
Last year, we introduced a beta that allows shared drive managers and My Drive owners to restrict folders to specific users. Today, we’re excited to announce the general availability of this feature in shared drives and My Drive, which means that users can restrict access to their My Drive folders using the two options outlined below, and by 2026, we will simplify and align the restricted access principles for My Drive and shared drives. | Learn more about access in Drive. 

Expanding data regions coverage to Google Classroom 
We previously added data regions coverage to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and this week, we’re extending data region coverage to primary user data for Google Classroom for the U.S. and E.U. data regions. | Learn more about data regions coverage in Google Classroom. 

Use Gemini in the side panel of Workspace apps in seventeen more languages 
Gemini in the side panel of Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and Gmail can be used in seventeen additional languages | Learn more about language availability. 

Updated design for Google Meet meeting controls on Android and iOS 
We are updating the location of some Google Meet meeting controls on Android and iOS devices, which are intended to organize features in a more intuitive way. | Learn more about meeting controls on mobile.

Migrate data from Microsoft Teams channels to Google Chat spaces using CloudM
Building on last year’s announcement of the general availability for Chat APIs to import data from messaging platforms to Google Chat, we’re excited to introduce a new migration solution from a Workspace partner, CloudM. | Learn more about migrating data to Chat.

The Policy API is now generally available with support for auditing more security features
We recently introduced the Policy API in open beta, letting super admins programmatically access information regarding how their Google Workspace environment service level settings and rules are configured. Beginning today, the Policy API is now generally available with more functionality. | Learn more about the Policy API.

“Take notes for me” in Google Meet now captures citations to transcripts
Recently, we announced that next steps will automatically be captured when using “take notes for me” in Google Meet. Building upon that momentum, your meeting notes document will now include citations, or timestamps, which correlate to the exact point in the meeting transcript that references the summarized notes. | Learn more about Meet citations to transcripts. 

Gemini Deep Research and most experimental models now available to Google Workspace users in Gemini Advanced
We’re pleased to announce the launch of Deep Research and most experimental models to Google Workspace users with access to Gemini Advanced. | Learn more about Deep Research.

New Chat Usage Analytics Updates for Admins and Developers
Starting today, customerUsageReports.get and userUsageReports.get for Google Chat are available via the Admin SDK Reports API for customers to use in their own customized dashboards and reporting tools. This gives admins more ways to analyze Chat usage data. | Learn more about Chat Usage Analytics updates.


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.


Rapid Release Domains: 
Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

    For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).       

    New Chat Usage Analytics Updates for Admins and Developers

    What’s changing 

    In December 2024, we introduced new, detailed usage reports for Google Chat. These reports help admins better understand how their teams are using Chat, allowing them to analyze engagement, drive adoption, configure safety features, and more. These reports aggregate data at the group and organization level, to provide relevant insights for Workspace admins while protecting individual privacy. 

    Starting today, customerUsageReports.get and userUsageReports.get for Google Chat are available via the Admin SDK Reports API for customers to use in their own customized dashboards and reporting tools. This gives admins more ways to analyze Chat usage data.


    Please refer to the table below to learn about the metrics available to you:

    Category

    Variations

    # of messages sent by users of the organization

    Total number of messages

    Messages sent by conversation type (direct message, group chat, space)

    Messages sent by type (regular, voice, video, huddle)

    Messages sent with or without attachment

    Messages sent to conversations that contain or do not contain external users.

    # of spaces owned by organization

    Number of active spaces

    Number of spaces created

    # of active users in your organization by level of activity

    Number of engaged users (read at least one conversation or sent messages or reactions)


    Number of communicator users (sent at least one message or reaction)

    # of actions by specific users*

    Number of messages and reactions sent


    Number of attachments uploaded


    Number of spaces created


    Number of conversations read

    Most metrics are available for periods of 1, 7, and 28 days.
    *Available for 28 days only

    Additional details

    We’ve also added four new fields and one additional event available in Chat Audit Logs and surfaced in the Security Investigation Tool. In addition to providing even more context on Chat usage, admins can leverage these additional data points in their own custom reporting.


    The fields are:
    Conversation ownership indicates whether the conversation, where a specific Chat event occurs, is owned by the organization or by an external entity. These possible values include:
    • Internally owned: conversation is owned by the admin’s organization
    • Externally owned: conversation is owned by an external entity

    Conversation type indicates the type of conversation where the event occurs:
    • User-to-user direct message
    • User-to-app direct message
    • Group chat
    • Space

    Message type indicates type of the message in Message sent and Message edited events:
    • Regular message
    • Voice message
    • Video message
    • Huddle

    Attachment status indicates whether the message was sent with an attachment (image or file):
    • Has attachment
    • No attachment

    Additionally, we’ve added a new event, “Conversation Read”. Every time a user opens a conversation and reads one or more unread messages, an event will be logged.

    Getting started



    Rollout pace


    Availability

    • New Chat usage metrics in Report API  are available for all Google Workspace customers.
    • The security investigation tool is available for Google Workspace
      • Enterprise Standard and Plus
      • Education Standard and Plus
      • Enterprise Essentials Plus
      • Frontline Standard
      • And Cloud Identity Premium customers

    Gemini Deep Research and most experimental models now available to Google Workspace users in Gemini Advanced

    What’s changing 

    We’re pleased to announce the launch of Deep Research and most experimental models to Google Workspace users with access to Gemini Advanced. Deep Research explores complex topics on your behalf and presents its findings in a comprehensive, easy-to-read report. Deep Research brings hours of research to your fingertips in mere minutes – some examples of how you can use Deep Research for your business or education institution include: 
    • Industry research: Deep Research can help you understand emerging trends in industries, such as sustainable battery technology, to inform your clean tech market analysis. 
    • Competitive research: Deep Research can quickly gather analyses of local competitors and recommend a suitable location for where to set up your small business. 
    • Customer research: Deep Research can help a salesperson prepare to meet a prospective client by creating a report on their products or services, management team and competitive environment. 
    • Educational research: Deep Research can help educators with grant writing, lesson planning, class projects, or presentations by creating a report on just about any topic based on analyzing hundreds of relevant articles and websites.
    Using Deep Research to catch up on the latest industry trends before a meeting with a prospective customer




    After you enter your prompt, you can review the proposed multi-step research plan and revise it as needed. Deep Research will then begin analyzing relevant information from across the web on your behalf, continuously refining its analysis as it learns. Once complete, a comprehensive report of the key findings is generated, which you can export to Google Docs and share with your colleagues. It’s neatly organized with links to the original sources, connecting you to relevant websites and organizations you might not have found otherwise so you can easily dive deeper to learn more. You can also ask follow up questions or refine the report further. 


    Who’s impacted

    End users


    Why you’d use it

    Thorough research can take a lot of time between planning, searching, browsing, analyzing, and reporting. It can be tedious work and often difficult to even know where to start. Deep Research can save hours of work by browsing the web on your behalf, analyzing information in real-time, and developing comprehensive research reports in minutes to get you up to speed on just about anything.


    Additional details

    • Currently, Deep Research is available in Gemini Advanced on the web, starting in English. Support for Deep Research in the Gemini mobile app will come at a later date. We’ll share more information via the Workspace Updates blog when available. 
    • Along with this update, you can now choose from several models depending on what version of the Gemini app you have:
    ModelGemini AdvancedGemini AppBest for
    2.0 Flash (previously available) ✓✓Everyday tasks, like brainstorming and copy writing.
    2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental✓✓
    Multi-step reasoning, like project planning.
    Note: this is an experimental model
    2.0 Pro Experimental✓

    Complex tasks. 

    Note: this is an experimental model

    1.5 Pro with Deep Research✓
    		Get in-depth answers for questions like industry research, competitive research, customer research, and educational research.

    Note: The 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental with apps model is not currently available in Gemini when using a work or school Google account.

    Getting started

    • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
    • End users: To get started, toggle the model drop-down to “1.5 Pro with Deep Research” and enter your research question. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using the Gemini web app for in-depth research.
    Click on the toggle to open the model drop-down menu


    Rollout pace


    Availability

    Access to 1.5 Pro with Deep Research and 2.0 Pro Experimental is available for Google Workspace:
    • Business Standard and Plus
    • Enterprise Standard and Plus
    • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on
    • Customers who previously purchased a Gemini Business* and Gemini Enterprise* add-on

    Access to 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental is available to the Google Workspace editions and add-ons listed above as well as:
    • Business Starter
    • Enterprise Starter
    • Frontline Starter and Standard
    • Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus
    • Google Workspace for Nonprofits
    • Education Standard and Plus

    *As of January 15, 2025, we’re no longer offering the Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise add-ons for sale. Please refer to this announcement for more details.