Chrome Beta for Desktop Update

The Beta channel has been updated to 147.0.7727.15 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

Introducing: Ads DevCast

A new podcast for the ads technical community

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Ads DevCast, a new bi-weekly vodcast and podcast series brought to you by Google’s Advertising and Measurement Developer Relations team.

Hosted by Developer Relations Engineer Cory Liseno, this show is dedicated to deep dives into our latest technical updates, insights from the engineers building our tools, and expert discussions on products like Google Ads, Google Analytics, Display & Video 360, Meridian, and more.

While you might already be familiar with the Ads Decoded podcast — where Ginny Marvin does a fantastic job bridging the gap for marketing teams on campaign strategy — Ads DevCast is built specifically for builders and developers.

You can tune in on our Google Ads Developers YouTube channel or find the podcast on Google Ads Developers in YouTube Music.

Episode 1: MCPs, Agents, and Ads. Oh My!

In our premiere episode, we explore the "agentic shift" currently reshaping the advertising landscape. We’re seeing a world where agents, not just humans, are becoming primary consumers of our APIs. To help you stay ahead, we’ve released several tools designed to make your integrations smarter, faster, and more accessible.

Getting Smarter with MCP Servers

One of the covered topics is Model Context Protocol (MCP), and how it allows your agents like Gemini CLI to securely access your data.

We’ve recently released open source, self-hosted MCP servers for the Google Ads API and Google Analytics API. These tools allow you to ask natural language questions directly to your agent, such as:

  • "What are my active campaigns?"
  • "Which properties had the highest traffic yesterday?"
  • "What are my top-selling products over the last month?"

The real magic happens when you combine this data with generative power. In the episode, we discuss how you can use the Analytics MCP to not only pull reports but then ask Gemini to generate a data-justified marketing plan based on those specific results.

Moving Faster with the Developer Assistant

Technical speed is another major focus. To reduce the time spent digging through documentation, we’ve launched the Google Ads API Developer Assistant. This Gemini CLI extension allows you to use natural language to generate, debug, and even test-run integration code.

In one real-world test, we used the assistant to solve a complex reporting issue regarding policy disapprovals. What would normally take days of back-and-forth with email support was resolved by the assistant in minutes, providing the exact GAQL query needed to get the job done.

Improving Accessibility

AI tooling is also changing who can interact with our technical systems. We’re seeing a shift from the "Ads Developer Community" to a broader "Ads Technical Community." Marketing power users are now leveraging MCP servers to perform real-time data operations without waiting for a full development lifecycle. This frees up engineering teams to focus on high-impact "blue sky" projects while giving marketers the agility they need.

We want to hear from you

This show is a pilot, and your feedback is important so we can tailor our content to what is most useful for you. Please take a moment to fill out our Episode 1 Survey and let us know what topics you want us to cover next.

Be sure to also join our Discord Community where you can join the conversation with Googlers and fellow developers.

Thanks for tuning in! We'll see you in two weeks for Episode 2.

Cory Liseno
Google’s Advertising and Measurement Developer Relations team

Introducing the new Meetings section in Google Chat

We’re introducing a dedicated Meetings section in Google Chat—a new way to organize your conversation list and keep your meeting conversations in one place.

Previously, meeting conversations lived in your direct messages, often making it difficult to find specific project discussions or meeting notes.

You can now group all past and future meeting chats into a single, dedicated section in your conversation list. Once a meeting concludes, the meeting conversation (if used) seamlessly moves into this section, providing a persistent home for ongoing follow-ups.

When the feature becomes available, users may see a promotional in-app banner or tooltip highlighting the new Meetings section and inviting them to enable it to better organize their conversation list.

Image depicts a user selecting "Try it" from the promotional prompt to initiate the new Meetings section

Once created, the new Meetings section appears as a distinct category in the conversation list, located under Direct Messages and Spaces. It acts as a smart folder that automatically aggregates any continuous meeting conversation in one place. This section can be moved, deleted, or reordered at any time.

Image depicts the newly created Meeting section under Direct Messages and Spaces in the conversation list

Key benefits include:

  • Organization: Keeps all meeting related conversations in one place.
  • Discoverability: Easily find details from a meeting days after the call has ended.
  • Control: This is an optional feature. You decide where the section sits in your conversation list, and you can move individual meeting threads to any custom section you’ve created.

Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: This feature is off by default and requires user opt-in. To activate this feature, users must go to the three-dot overflow menu found on any section of their conversation list. From the resulting dropdown, they should choose "Create a meeting section" and then click "Create." Once enabled, the section will appear in the conversation list  beneath Direct Messages and Spaces, and can be moved or removed at any time. Visit the Help Center to learn more.
Image depicts a user going to the 3 dot overflow to manually create the meeting section.

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources

Upcoming changes to Lookalike user lists in the Google Ads API, starting April 30, 2026

Google Ads is committed to providing a reliable and efficient environment for all advertisers. To ensure that our systems remain stable and that resources are allocated fairly, we are introducing a uniqueness check for Lookalike user lists that prevents the creation of duplicate lists. These changes primarily impact Demand Gen campaigns and will begin to be enforced starting on April 30, 2026.

A Lookalike user list is considered a duplicate if it shares all of the following attributes with an existing list:

  • Seed lists: The underlying source audiences used to build the Lookalike.
  • Expansion level: The degree of similarity to the seed lists.
  • Country targeting: The geographical reach of the Lookalike list.

If an advertiser attempts to create a duplicate list after April 30, 2026, the Google Ads API will return the error code DUPLICATE_LOOKALIKE for v24 and beyond. For earlier versions, the error will be RESOURCE_ALREADY_EXISTS.

What this means for you

For the majority of advertisers, these changes will go unnoticed, as most current usage falls well within these new boundaries. However, to ensure a smooth transition, we recommend the following:

  • Reuse audiences: Instead of creating a new, identical Lookalike list, verify if an existing one with the same configuration can be reused in your campaigns.
  • Update error handling: If you use the Google Ads API, ensure your integrations are prepared to handle the new error starting on April 30, 2026: v24 will return the DUPLICATE_LOOKALIKE error code and all previous versions will return RESOURCE_ALREADY_EXISTS.

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