When viewing your tasks in the "tasks" tab in a Google Chat room, you can quickly navigate back to the Google Chat message where the task was created or the task creation was indicated.
Simply hover over the task on the web or select the task on mobile and then select the Chat. We hope this feature makes it easier to surface context for your tasks, and re-engage your stakeholders with updates, questions or further collaboration.
The new "View in Chat" icon within the Tasks section of a Google Chat room.
When viewing tasks on mobile, the chat icon will be in the top right hand corner.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be available by default.
When viewing your tasks in the "tasks" tab in a Google Chat room, you can quickly navigate back to the Google Chat message where the task was created or the task creation was indicated.
Simply hover over the task on the web or select the task on mobile and then select the Chat. We hope this feature makes it easier to surface context for your tasks, and re-engage your stakeholders with updates, questions or further collaboration.
The new "View in Chat" icon within the Tasks section of a Google Chat room.
When viewing tasks on mobile, the chat icon will be in the top right hand corner.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be available by default.
On the 10th anniversary of Google’s presence in Colombia, we’re investing in the future of news in the country with the launch of Google News Showcase, our new product experience and licensing program for news. Colombia is now the third country in Latin America, alongside Argentina and Brazil, to provide News Showcase for readers.
Nearly 1,000 news publications globally have signed deals for News Showcase since last year. These span more than a dozen countries, including India, Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Australia, Czechia, Japan, the U.K, Austria and Argentina, with discussions underway in a number of other countries. Over 90% of the publications signed up around the world represent local, regional or community news.
When Google came to Colombia a decade ago, the tech industry was facing an important moment of evolution in the country. Internet access and mobile penetration were increasing exponentially, marking a tipping point for Colombians. We’ve been a part of that growth ever since by partnering with the news industry, the government, industry associations, advertisers and users. With News Showcase launching in Colombia today, we’re looking forward to continuing to collaborate with the news industry over the next 10 years and more.
News Showcase is backed by our recent $1 billion global investment in news. The primary goal of News Showcase is to support news publishers that are invested in comprehensive current events journalism in the public interest by giving them a new way to curate their high-quality content on Google’s News and Discover platforms. Through News Showcase, these publishers can help connect their readers with the news that matters to them. As part of our licensing deals with publishers, we're also launching the ability for readers to access select paywall content. This feature will give people the opportunity to read more of a publisher’s content than they would otherwise have access to, while enabling publishers to incentivize more readers to become subscribers.
El Diario on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: "Google News Showcase is a great opportunity for our high-quality content and information to reach new audiences throughout the country. From El Diario we are pleased to be part of this project and committed to doing our part so that the project is a success in Colombia." - Luis Carlos Ramírez, CEO of El Diario
El Pilón on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: “By joining News Showcase we're advancing our objectives of expanding and reaching new audiences for our newspaper. In addition, this partnership helps improve our sustainability and strengthens our business" - Clara Inés Araujo, General Manager of El Pilón
La Crónica del Quindío on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: “In times of so much uncertainty, having an ally like Google with its News Showcase product means we're able to evaluate new ways to reach audiences and develop new tactics. Our audience was acquired over 30 years of serious and responsible journalism. Now with News Showcase, La Crónica opens a window to look to the future with optimism." - Sandra Macias, General Manager of La Crónica del Quindío
La Patria on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: “Being part, as a member, of the News Showcase means for Colombian media an innovative alternative to reach new audiences with quality contents and it will contribute to its sustainability and independence.” - Nicolas Restrepo, Director of La Patria
La Opinión on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: We have many expectations. We are confident that this new initiative will strengthen the strategic relationship between Google and media industry. From La Opinión, we believe that it is a great opportunity to show many more readers our journalistic work" - Estefanía Colmenares. Directora of the Opinión
El Espectador on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: "This partnership between El Espectador and Google is a great step towards recognizing the value of quality journalism and the need to ensure its sustainability in a changing environment. We are pleased to be part of the Google News Showcase project in Colombia and we are committed to continuing to produce the best news content for our audiences." - Eduardo Garces, General Manager at El Espectador
Publimetro on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: "Working hand in hand with Google Showcase provides media companies with new tools to connect with different and wider audiences, giving us the opportunity to deliver objective and truthful content that combats misinformation.” - Jose Luis Carulla, CEO Publimetro Colombia
News Showcase panels display an enhanced view of an article or articles, giving participating publishers in Colombia more ways to bring important news to readers and explain it in their own voice, along with more direct control of presentation and their branding. Readers who click on a News Showcase panel are directed to the full articles on the publisher’s website. This drives valuable traffic to news organizations and enables them to grow their businesses and their audience while deepening relationships with readers.
Starting today, News Showcase panels from our participating publishers in Colombia will automatically start to appear in Google News and on Discover. Readers will see panels from publishers they follow in their personalized feeds, and they might also find panels from publishers they’re less familiar with presented as suggestions in the Google News “For You” feed and inside “Newsstand,” the discovery area of Google News.
More support for the Colombian news industry
News Showcase is part of a broader set of Google’s efforts to help the news industry in Colombia thrive and builds on the work we have been doing with the Google News Initiative (GNI) through training, scholarships and funding. Some examples include digital skills training with publishers like El Tiempo, and a program with AMI, an association that represents Colombian news organizations, to promote responsible, objective and independent journalism. We've provided support for Colombian news organizations to accelerate the growth of their businesses online through the Digital Growth Program, as well as Labs like the 2020 LATAM Contributions Lab that included 5 Colombian publishers.
We all know the importance of trustworthy journalism in helping us make informed decisions that affect our lives, work and family. That’s why we have collaborated closely with a number of fact check organizations in Colombia. For example, since 2019, we’ve provided support for workshops and training on fact checking tools with RedCheq, a network of fact checkers. And we’ve worked on initiatives to promote the use of digital tools to combat misinformation, such as Verificracks.
Additionally we’ve partnered with journalism organizations such as Fundación Gabo to support innovation in newsrooms and their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Covid-19 hit all sectors of society hard, including newsrooms. We responded by funding 83 small and medium local newsrooms across Colombia in 2020 through our Journalism Emergency Relief Fund. And in the last year alone we have trained +1800 journalists with our News Lab programs.
Caracol Radio y W Radio on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: “For many years, traditional media players had set the goal to build a better relationship with Google regarding the production and distribution of content. Showcase is the first and most meaningful step in creating a more fair and mutually beneficial relationship that ultimately benefits users and audiences.” - Felipe Cabrales Urdaneta, Director General Caracol S.A.
Hoy Diario del Magdalena on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: "The arrival of the News Showcase in Colombia represents a great opportunity for the country's media, as it not only strengthens business models, but also opens a digital window to high-quality journalism and allows readers and different audiences have access to the best content ” - Ulilo Acevedo, Director of Hoy Diario del Magdalena
Q’Hubo Q'Hubo Bogotá on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: “Being part of the Google News Showcase program is a great advance for the Colombian news industry. This will help improve the direction of the newspaper in its print and digital version." - Jorge Alberto Rangel Gómez - Manager
Noticias Caracol on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: “We are very happy to participate in the Google News Showcase project in Colombia with our news brands Noticias Caracol and BLU radio. We firmly believe in the essential value for society of professional and high-quality journalism and we are sure that this new Google product will give us a very relevant window for the country's digital audiences” - Marcelo Liberini, Digital Vice President of Caracol
Semana on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: "We are pleased to be part of the News Showcase project in Colombia. We are committed to continuing to produce high-quality news content that contributes to and enriches the country's news offer” - Sandra Suarez Grupo Semana General Manager
El Nuevo Siglo on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: "Being part of the News Showcase in Colombia will allow El Nuevo Siglo not only to expand its digital frontiers but also to promote the differential, quality and well-written content that is the daily commitment to our readers." - Melany Chiari Caballero, General Manager of El Nuevo Siglo
El Colombiano on what News Showcase means for their business and readers: "The arrival of News Showcase to the country represents a great opportunity for the country's media ecosystem, as it not only strengthens its business, but also opens a digital window to high-quality journalism and allows readers to access the best content." - Ignacio Gaitán Villegas President of El Colombiano
Over the coming months we’ll continue to work with our news partners in Colombia to incorporate their feedback as we build new features for News Showcase and include more publishers in the program for the future.
Enabling a robust and healthy landscape for news should be a shared responsibility across industries, governments and private and public interest groups. News Showcase along with our other News products and GNI programs are a clear demonstration of Google’s commitment to support quality journalism for the people of Colombia for the next decade and beyond.
This past year we’ve endured sickness, loss, increased stress and changes with sleep, diet and exercise. As a result, we’ve been forced to become stronger and more resilient. But strength has taken on a new meaning for most, and being strong in today’s world is more than what we can lift or how fast we can run. It’s also what the mind and body can handle.
As our approach to strength evolves, we’re introducing Fitbit Charge 5, our most advanced health and fitness tracker, to help keep a pulse on your fitness, stress, heart health, sleep and overall wellbeing – all in a thinner, sleek design. With a brighter, color touchscreen and up to seven days of battery life (varies with use), Charge 5 delivers the convenience features you need to focus on what’s most important.
And, with six months of Fitbit Premium included,1you’ll get deeper insights, actionable guidance and a range of more than 500 workouts, mindfulness and nutrition sessions to empower you to do what’s best for your body each day.
Sweat the smart way
With Fitbit Premium’s new Daily Readiness experience, coming soon to Charge 5, as well as Sense, Versa 3, Versa 2, Luxe and Inspire 2 devices, you can understand if your body is ready for a workout or if you should prioritize recovery instead. Each morning, you’ll receive a score based on your fitness fatigue (activity), heart rate variability (HRV) and recent sleep. You’ll also get an analysis of what impacted your score, and suggestions like a recommended target Active Zone Minutes goal, along with Premium content to help you make the best decisions for your body. Charge 5 also includes built-in GPS, 20 exercise modes, automatic exercise recognition and an estimate of your V02 max. Plus, with Premium, you can access more than 200 workouts from certified trainers and popular brands like Daily Burn, barre3, obé and new high energy workouts from LES MILLS.
Reduce your stress and relax your mind
During 2020, a record-high 40% of adults said they experienced a lot of stress. To help you better manage stress, Charge 5 is our first tracker to include an EDA sensor, which measures your body's response to stress through tiny changes in the sweat glands on your fingers. We first launched EDA last fall with Fitbit Sense and have found 70% of users reduced their heart rate during a two-minute EDA Scan session, showing these tools can help reduce stress.2
With Charge 5 you also get a Stress Management Score in the Fitbit app, so you can see each morning if you’re mentally ready to take on more challenges, or if you need to recharge. With Premium, you get access to more than 300 meditation and mindfulness sessions from brands and experts, like Ten Percent Happier and Mindful Method by Deepak Chopra to help you manage your stress. We are also announcing a partnership with Calm, the #1 App for Sleep, Meditation and Relaxation, which will soon provide Premium members with access to Calm content.3
Deep dive into your holistic health
We’re also helping you prioritize your heart health. Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is the world’s most common heart rhythm condition, and since launching the ECG app on Sense, users have taken more than four million assessments. The ECG app will be available soon on Charge 5,4 bringing a critical tool to more people at a more approachable price. Charge 5 also tracks your heart rate 24/7 and provides notifications when you are above or below your personal ranges, and while many factors can affect your heart rate, a high or low heart rate may be an indication of a heart condition that requires medical attention.
In addition to managing your heart health, Charge 5 provides a holistic view of other key wellness metrics via the Health Metrics dashboard in the Fitbit app, including breathing rate, skin temperature variation and SpO2.5 With Premium, you can also track long-term trends and personal ranges.
And because sleep is also critical to your wellbeing, you’ll continue to receive industry-leading sleep tools like daily Sleep Score, Sleep Stages and SmartWake alarms. Premium members also receive a deeper analysis and guidance to improve sleep quality.
Designed for convenience, performance and comfort
Beyond health and wellness support, Charge 5 delivers the convenience features you need. With the swipe of a finger, view your stats, make contactless payments, receive/send notifications from/to your smartphone (quick replies with Android only), and choose from 20 colorful clock faces to customize what information you want to see most.
Ten percent thinner than its predecessor, Charge 5 has an aerodynamic design and is optimized for performance and engineered for a seamless fit. With a new AMOLED color display, Charge 5 is our first tracker with an always-on display option for added convenience to see your stats or while training. The display is also two-times brighter than its predecessor making it easy to see your stats on sunny days. You can also switch up your look at any time, choosing from lightweight silicone infinity bands, breathable sport bands, plush nylon hook and loop bands. and hand-crafted premium Horween leather bands.
Fitbit Charge 5 tracker, with deep sea sport band, showcasing an on-wrist exercise mode with progress of Active Zone Minutes logged.
The Fitbit Charge 5, seen here with a deep sea sport band, can show your daily progress toward your target Active Zone Minutes with prompts while in exercise mode.
A young man in a blue shirt goes for an outdoor run next to trees and a body of water while wearing a Fitbit Charge 5.
Fitbit Charge 5 features built-in GPS, 20 exercise modes, Active Zone Minutes and up to seven days of battery life.
Fitbit Charge 5 tracker, with the infinity band in lunar white, showing heart rate tracking on screen.
Fitbit Charge 5 can track your heart rate 24/7 and will prompt you if you go above or below your personal range while at rest.
A young woman wearing burgundy athletic clothes and a Fitbit Charge 5 tracker in a yoga pose next to a body of water.
With Fitbit Charge 5 you can use the on-wrist EDA Scan app to understand your body’s response to stress and, with a six month membership of Fitbit Premium included, you can access a range of stress management and mindfulness tools to manage your overall health.
Three young people in a line on a basketball court, wearing athletic clothes and doing plank rows with weights, while wearing Fitbit Charge 5 trackers.
The advanced health and fitness tracker Fitbit Charge 5 helps you make the most of your workouts while keeping a pulse on your stress, readiness, heart health and overall wellbeing.
Charge 5 is available for $179.95 (USD), which includes a six-month Premium membership (for new or returning customers). Beginning today, pre-order Charge 5 online at Fitbit.com and select global retailers, with worldwide availability this fall.
[1] For new and returning Premium members only. T&Cs apply. Premium content may not be available in all locales and may be in English only.
[2] Based on aggregated and anonymous global data from 10,000 Fitbit Sense users who were 18+ from Dec. 2020 - Jan. 2021.
[3] Calm content only available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, and Korean.
[4] The Fitbit ECG app will be available soon on Charge 5 in select countries. Not intended for use by people under 22 years old. See fitbit.com/ecg for additional details.
[5] The Health Metrics dashboard is not available in select markets and not intended for medical purposes.
At Fitbit, the way we think about fitness has evolved and expanded beyond mere physical strength. Today, many of us are far more eager to understand our wellness holistically, versus how many burpees we can do in a minute or comparing how much weight we can bench press. Sure, being physically strong is one depiction of strength, but this past year in particular has taught us that we need to be strong in other areas as well. Taking care of ourselves means knowing when to push ourselves to go to the next level, while also having the strength to know when to rest.
With this in mind, we will soon be launching several new features and tools in Fitbit Premium,1 along with the advanced insights and personalized, actionable guidance you already receive as a member, to help you reach your holistic health goals. When paired with any Fitbit device, including our new Charge 5, you’ll get a deeper analysis of your data to help you workout smarter, manage your stress, sleep better and eat well.
Coming soon to Premium is our new Daily Readiness Score, which will use insights from your body via your Fitbit device, including your activity, heart rate variability (HRV) and recent sleep, to help you assess when you’re ready to push yourself physically — in other words, if you should workout or prioritize recovery.2 By wearing your Fitbit device daily (including while you sleep), you’ll receive a personalized score each morning along with details on what impacted it, with suggestions like a recommended activity level and Premium content to help you make the best decisions for your body and make your workouts more efficient.
Daily Readiness is built on research that proves taking time to recover can generate stronger results in the long run versus pushing yourself all the time. Pushing yourself too hard could lead to overtraining or injury and can impact your mood, sleep, appetite and weight. Over time, the guidance you will get can help you build a smarter routine that is more in tune with your body. Daily Readiness will be available in the Fitbit app for Premium members with Fitbit Sense, Versa 3, Versa 2, Charge 5, Luxe and Inspire 2 devices.
How Daily Readiness Score works
These three components are measured against your baseline, and will continue to adapt and become more personalized overtime as your fitness level changes:
Activity (fitness-fatigue):By tracking your heart rate 24/7 from your wrist, we measure the impact of daily activity on your body. Every effort counts – from running a 10K to chasing after your kids. Depending on how hard you pushed yourself recently, your activity level will fluctuate and personalize your score based on your normal exertion levels. An intense boot camp session might be a challenge for you, but a relatively easy outing for someone else. To make the most of your experience, we recommend getting at least 30 minutes of Active Zone Minutes (AZM) with activities that get your heart rate up, three times a week.
HRV:Calculated during your deep sleep, HRV is a great measure of recovery. A higher HRV is better, meaning your body can easily transition from rest to activity, and back. Sometimes stress, overexertion or onset of an illness can lower your HRV and impact your readiness to exercise.
Sleep:Poor sleep over a few nights can make you feel fatigued today, since sleep has a cumulative effect on your body. That is why we factor in your sleep over the past several nights, not just the previous night.
A high score means your body is ready for action, while a low score indicates you should prioritize recovery. We optimize our algorithm to promote fitness improvement while minimizing fatigue. Your score is also accompanied by suggestions and associated Premium content — all in one place, delivered at the start of each day, just for you.
Work out smarter
Depending on what your fitness goals are and what your body needs, as a Premium member you get access to more than 200 audio and video workouts that you can play on your phone or play to your TV at anytime, anywhere — from certified trainers and popular brands like Aaptiv, barre3,Daily Burn, obé, Physique 57andPOPSUGAR.
On days when you get a high Daily Readiness Score, we will help motivate you to seize the day with a personalized AZM target paired with suggested Premium workouts. We are adding 25 new high-energy workouts from premier global fitness brand LES MILLS to our library to provide even more options for these days. Popularized in more than 21,000 gyms around the globe, LES MILLS is synonymous with high-energy and science-backed programs that can help you maximize results, presented by some of the world’s leading instructors. Workouts like BODYPUMP, BODYATTACK, BODYCOMBAT and more will transport you into a group workout and can help you get your heart pumping to meet your daily target.
Guidance to help you manage stress
But it’s not just about being physically fit: Mental strength is a major component of overall health. Get more out of our Stress Management Score by seeing a breakdown of how your responsiveness, exertion balance and sleep patterns impact your physiological stress and overall health, along with more than 300 mindfulness sessions from wellness experts Aaptiv, Aura, Breethe, Mindful Method by Deepak Chopra and Ten Percent Happier to help you take control of your emotional and physical health.
To further support your wellness and mental health, we are also partnering with Calm, the #1 App for Sleep, Meditation and Relaxation, which will soon provide Premium members with access to 30 pieces of Calm content in seven languages.3 Charge 5 and Sense users can start an EDA Scan on-wrist simultaneously when completing a mindfulness session in the Fitbit app to see how their heart rate and electrodermal activity changes and impacted their stress responses. Plus, Calm and any mindfulness session completed in the Fitbit app will count towards your weekly mindfulness goal.
All of this content can help support you on days when you have a low Daily Readiness Score. We will guide you to rest and rejuvenate with dynamic recommendations, ranging from active recovery sessions like yoga or stretching, to rest and relaxation ideas like meditation or mindfulness from our expansive Premium content library.
As a Premium member, you will be able to use Daily Readiness along with our Stress Management and Sleep scores for a holistic look at your health and wellness each day. Daily Readiness will serve as a powerful complement, whether you’re a fitness enthusiast looking to optimize your workouts, or you need a little extra motivation to push harder and achieve your best. By taking the time to recover instead of working out hard all the time, you can enhance your fitness while reducing your risk of injury over time.
To help you understand your body’s signs of stress, your Stress Management Score will help you gauge if you can better handle stress and take on more challenges, or if you should take it easy and recharge. Meanwhile, your Sleep Score can help you better understand your sleep quality and how you might improve. Premium uplevels your Fitbit experience by helping you better understand your readiness to exercise, how your body responds to stress, and your sleep patterns, all with additional guidance and insights to help you achieve your health, fitness and wellness goals.
Daily Readiness will be available soon in 18 languages to Premium members globally with compatible devices in the Fitbit app. LES MILLS workouts are available today to all Premium users, with Calm content becoming available next month.
[1] Premium content and features may change. Content may be in English only.
[2] Daily Readiness is coming soon and requires a Fitbit Premium membership. Premium content recommendations are not available in all locales and may be in English only.
[3] Up to 30 pieces of Calm content available in English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish only.
Actor, producer, and musician, Will Smith, is joining the Fitbit family as our newest ambassador. As part of the strategic partnership, Fitbit and Will have teamed up to create exclusive content across social, Fitbit Premium, and the upcoming YouTube Originals docuseries, “Best Shape of My Life.”
A premium focus
To help you rebuild and redefine your routine, Fitbit and Will Smith are partnering to develop exclusive content within Fitbit Premium, which will feature a variety of health and wellness programs that focus on both physical and mental aspects of strength that define better health today. Through video sessions featuring Will and his training team, Premium members can join along this journey through workouts, mindfulness sessions and more with everything from HIIT and strength training, to yoga and meditation.
The first session, launching on September 27, is designed to set the tone for your day with an inspiring and approachable workout with Will and his trainers. Not only will this content offer a peek into Will’s own journey, but they conveniently fit into your daily routine – anytime and anywhere. The program will expand over the coming months and joins the library of more than 500 workouts and mindfulness sessions already available to Premium members.
Get in the "Best Shape of Your Life"
Over the past year, Will, like many of us, struggled with the lack of a regular routine, including his very public admission that he was in the “worst shape of (his) life.” Now as he’s rebuilding his regimen, he’s documented his personal journey and progress along the way. As a Fitbit user, Will has recently been using Charge 4 to help him get in better shape and redefine his health and wellness goals, tracking everything from his calories burned, activity and exercise, and daily steps counted.
Debuting later this fall on his YouTube Channel, the six-part YouTube Originals docuseries, "Best Shape Of My Life," produced by Westbrook Media, will chronicle Will's journey as he challenges himself to improve every aspect of his health and wellness, teaming up with special guests along the way. Throughout the series, he’ll be using Fitbit to help him as he redefines his health and wellness goals, tracking everything from his calories burned, activity and exercise, and daily steps count, while also finding more time for mindfulness and improving his sleep.
Fitbit will be featured throughout his journey, so stay tuned to learn more and keep an eye out for how he’s using all the great new holistic health tools on his new Charge 5as well.
You can join in on Will’s journey to better health with a Fitbit Premium membership, and be sure to follow Fitbit for even more behind-the-scenes looks in the coming months.
Earlier this summer we shared details about how the Google for Startups Accelerator program is expanding its support for founders from underrepresented groups. In addition to our Black Founders accelerator program, the expansion included a second year of programming specifically designed for women-led startups in North America.
We launched the inaugural Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders program in 2020, in order to address gender disparity in the startup ecosystem and provide high-quality mentorship opportunities and support for women founders. Studies showed that only 16% of small and medium sized businesses were owned by women, and that women often lack access to venture capitalist funding and accelerator programs to help launch and scale up their businesses.
This year, we have designed another great program for our women founders, and today we are thrilled to announce the 12 women-led startups joining our class of 2021. We’re also excited to share that four Canadian startups from across the country are part of this year’s cohort.
Aquacycl (Escondido, California): Aquacycl makes energy-neutral wastewater treatment a reality, offering modular on-site systems to treat high-strength organic waste streams. The BioElectrochemical Treatment Technology (BETT) is the first commercially viable microbial fuel cell, which generates direct electricity from wastewater, treating untreatable streams and reducing wastewater management costs by 20-60%.
Braze Mobility(Toronto, Ontario): Braze Mobility provides affordable navigation solutions for wheelchair users. It developed the world's first blind spot sensor system that can be attached to any wheelchair, transforming it into a smart wheelchair that automatically detects obstacles and provides alerts to the user through intuitive lights, sounds, and vibrations.
Claira(Grand Rapids, Michigan): Claira is a competency analytics engine that helps organizations understand their people and hire better.
ImagoAI(Saint Paul, Minnesota): ImagoAI’s proprietary AI solution does real-time food safety and quality testing at food manufacturing facilities and on the farms. Its solutions help companies reduce production line hold times by more than 90%, delivering consistent quality products, and reduce waste by early inspection.
Journey Foods (Austin, Texas): Journey Foods solves food science and supply chain inefficiencies with software in order to help companies feed 8 billion people better. They build enterprise technology that improves product management, ingredient intelligence, and manufacturing insights for CPG companies, grocery stores, suppliers, and manufacturers.
Nyquist Data(Palo Alto, California): Nyquist Data helps companies around the world access critical data and insights, which maximizes efficiency, resources, and results for innovation.
Paperstack(Toronto, Ontario): Paperstack is an all-in-one platform that helps self-employed individuals with incorporation, bookkeeping, and taxes.
Pocketnest (Ann Arbor, Michigan): Pocketnest is a comprehensive financial planning tool targeting genX and millennials. The company licenses its software to financial institutions and employers, helping them connect with a younger audience and grow their business. Based on psychology, behavioral science and coaching, it leads users through all ten themes of personal finances, resulting in actionable items and recommendations customized for each user.
SAFETYDOCS Global (Vancouver, British Columbia): SAFETYDOCS Global is a document management solutions platform that streamlines and automates permitting and licensing documentation workflows.
Schoolytics(Washington, DC): Schoolytics, the Student Data Platform, enables schools to connect disparate student datasets, including the student information system (SIS), learning management systems (LMS), and assessments, to transform data into meaningful insights and action. Its web-based tool supports data-driven decision making through real-time analytics and reporting.
Tengiva(Montreal, Quebec): Tengiva is the first digital platform enabling real-time supply chain in the textile industry by optimizing the typical months-long procurement process into a single-click operation.
ThisWay (Austin, Texas): ThisWay matches all people to all jobs, fairly and without bias. The web platform accurately delivers qualified talent, while increasing diversity and inclusion so ROI is optimized.
Starting on September 27, the 10-week intensive virtual program will bring the best of Google's programs, products, people and technology to help these businesses reach their goals. Participating startups receive deep mentorship on technical challenges and machine learning, as well as connections to relevant teams across Google. The startups will also receive nontechnical programming to help address some of the unique barriers faced by women founders in the startup ecosystem.
We are excited to welcome these 12 women-led businesses to our Google for Startups Accelerator community, and look forward to working with them this fall!
Posted by Ashley Francisco,Head of Startup Developer Ecosystems, Google Canada
At Google, safety is core to everything we do. We design our products to ensure that they are secure by default and private by design, and you’re in control of your information. We are privileged that hundreds of millions of Indians place their trust in Google products.
In India, we have been working towards making the internet helpful for over a billion people through a deeper understanding of our users’ needs under our Next Billion Users initiative, and launching many India-first features and products. After the outbreak of COVID-19, the internet's role in our everyday lives has become all the more central. With more and more Indians turning to the internet for their day-to-day needs, we recognise our responsibility to ensure that they’re protected from an evolving range of online risks — from phishing to financial fraud to misinformation. We also know that new users in particular are vulnerable to threats from bad actors.
Today, we are underlining our commitment to protect users against this multidimensional challenge — and make the internet safer for everyone.
Ramping up our trust & safety efforts in India
To protect our users and products at the scale at which we operate, everyday 24x7, we continuously invest in both people and technology to make the internet safer. With over 20,000 people spread across the world, our Trust and Safety teams are dedicated to identifying, fighting, and preventing online harms. This includes everything from researching emerging abuse trends, to developing policies and standards that make clear what is acceptable on our platforms, to building the technology that enables enforcement of those policies at scale, including compliance with local laws and regulations in every country we operate in. Just in the last year, we’ve invested over $1 billion on our content moderation systems and processes, and we continue to invest in this area.
In India, we have significantly increased the resources dedicated to these teams, adding product policy analysts, security specialists, and user trust experts, and expanded our efforts to provide coverage in more than 10 vernacular Indian languages, enabling our central teams to benefit from the local nuance and inputs. This increased focus will help us to tackle misinformation, fraud, threats to child safety, violent extremism, phishing attacks, and malware, among other abuse areas.
A collaborative approach for a safer internet
We recognise that the work of building a safer internet needs the leadership of the larger internet industry that is driving India’s digital economy. These challenges cannot be overcome by one or two players alone, and there is a need to step up our collective efforts as an industry. We are committed to sharing our tools and the institutional knowledge and capabilities we’ve developed over the years to contribute to this joint responsibility. We will be working with leading industry organisations to help train developers and startups in these capabilities, build communal solutions to shared safety challenges, and innovate on open-source tools so we can better protect Indians online.
Investing in user awareness and education in Indian languages
We also know that safety information helps people understand and avoid online harm. The Google Safety Centre serves as a single destination dedicated to educating and empowering our users on the importance of digital safety. As many people in India use the internet in their regional language, we are launching the new and updated Google Safety Centre in eight languages starting with Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu, with three more Indian languages set to roll out by the end of the year.
On this platform, users can discover helpful resources and easy tips, and identify the digital habits that are right for them and their families, all in the language of their choice. With the ‘My Activity’ hub in the Safety Centre, they can review, control, or delete the activity saved to their Google accounts. This section received more than 1 billion visits by Indian users in the first half of 2021 alone, and we hope this refreshed Safety Center will help millions more.
As part of this effort, we’ve also launched a user education campaign in multiple languages, to bring attention to common threats like phishing, malware, and fraud.
Raising our commitment to ensure children’s safety online
While our policies don’t allow kids under 13 to create a standard Google account, we’ve worked hard to design enriching product experiences for them — as well as for older teens and their families. We are aware that kids and teens are spending more time online, and parents, educators, child safety and privacy experts, and policy makers are rightfully concerned about how to keep them safe. We share these concerns and we have announced a series of new policies in response.
We are also committed to matching these efforts with digital safety resources for parents and children. So starting today, we are excited to launch our global Be Internet Awesome program in India, a resource that is designed and crafted by digital safety experts to help children, families, and educators learn about staying safe online. Available in English and Hindi first, then soon in other Indian languages, Be Internet Awesome is a great resource for kids, parents, and teachers to learn about safe and healthy internet habits.
It includes a highly visual, interactive experience called ‘Interland’, where children can learn the fundamentals of online safety and participate in a series of fun, challenging games. They’ll learn how to safeguard valuable information, one-up cyber bullies, and spot what’s real and what’s fake. We’re also keen for children to explore Be Internet Awesome through avenues they’re already familiar with, and so we are delighted to announce our partnership with popular Indian comic book publishers, Amar Chitra Katha, who will help kids discover these critical internet safety lessons through their favourite characters, in eight Indian languages.
A safer and trusted app experience for our users
Affordable smartphones can unlock online opportunities for millions more Indians. But these devices have to be underpinned by a bedrock of privacy, security, and transparency. We have stepped up our efforts to deliver a privacy-first experience with Android 12 with a new privacy dashboard that gives people a clear timeline view of apps that have accessed their location, microphone, and camera in the last 24 hours — so they can better understand and control what data apps use.
At the same time, we’re taking steps to identify and respond to concerns around specific app categories more quickly. For example, we recently announced clarifications around the policies on personal loan apps, including new requirements that will help safeguard users, while enabling legitimate developers to operate and flourish. And we have significantly expanded our Google Play support teams in India, enabling us to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of our partners and users — including around online safety. The bottom line is this: when we solve for our users, we also solve for our developers.
We have no doubt that what we do in India will also shape the future of a Safer Internet for everyone.
Building a safer internet for everyone is not one more thing to do, it is the one thing to do — together.
Posted by Sanjay Gupta, Country Manager & Vice President, Google India, and Kristie Canegallo, Vice President, Trust & Safety, Google
In 2017, we introduced Smart Reply in Gmail to save you time by suggesting quick responses to your messages. Now, Smart Reply in Google Docs saves you time replying to comments in Docs by suggesting relevant replies.
Smart Reply suggestions appear below the reply box on comment threads in English. You can choose a suggested reply or write your own. Smart Reply joins Smart compose and spelling autocorrect announced in January 2021 to help you compose comments in Docs quickly and with confidence.
Smart Reply can help saves you time replying to comments in Docs by suggesting relevant replies
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be ON by default To turn it off, go to Tools > Preferences > Show Smart Reply suggestions. If turned on, click on a comment thread in Google Docs, and Smart Reply will suggest responses if available. It may not present suggestions in all cases, and the comment thread must be in English. Simply click on a suggestion to use it, once you click, you can send it as-is or edit it before sending. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Smart Reply in Google Docs, and replying to comments in Google Docs.
Rollout pace
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 24, 2021
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 4 days for feature visibility) starting on September 13, 2021.
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. Also available to users with personal Google Accounts
