Tag Archives: Google Drive

Google Workspace apps for Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Calendar, Keep, and Tasks are now generally available for the Gemini app

What’s changing

Earlier this year, we launched Google Workspace apps (formerly known as "extensions") in Gemini in open beta. When enabled, Gemini can reference and incorporate data from these apps to generate even more informed and relevant responses, bringing Gemini’s capabilities more seamlessly into your daily workflows, helping enhance productivity. Workspace apps are available for:

  • Calendar
  • Docs
  • Drive
  • Gmail
  • Keep
  • Tasks

Beginning today, we’re pleased to announce that extensions for these apps are now generally available.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use them

When enabled, Gemini can interact with other Google apps and services to provide more contextual and relevant responses to your prompts and take certain actions across apps. For example, you can:

  • Gmail: ask what dates were proposed in the email about the team offsite.
  • Drive: find the document about the website clean-up project and summarize the proposal in a few bullet points.
  • Docs: reference a Doc that outlines your target audiences while performing customer research in parallel. 
  • Calendar: create an event based on specific details or based on the conversation with the Gemini app, find events for a specific day or date range, modify events in Calendar.
  • Tasks: add reminders and tasks, including those based on your conversations with Gemini, or view and update a list of your tasks.
  • Keep: create notes and lists, add items to an existing list, find content from your notes and lists, and reference your notes and lists in conversion with Gemini.

Additional details

  • Context aware access support:
    • Like all Google apps, context-access aware policies can be applied to the Gemini app. Note that at the moment, CAA policies can only be applied to Gemini on the web, they cannot be applied on mobile.
    • If these policies are not met, users will not be allowed to access Gemini.
    • If a user meets the Gemini app specific CAA policies, they can interact with Gemini. If a prompt requires access to Workspace data, CAA policies will determine if a user has access to the requested data. For example, if a user asks Gemini "What are my unread emails?", they will see the requested content if they have access or they’ll receive an error message.

  • If your prompt includes multiple actions that require separate apps or services, but one or more of the required services are not enabled, neither of the actions will be completed. For example, if you prompt Gemini to create an event on your calendar and a reminder for that event but the Tasks extension is not enabled, the event will not be added to your calendar and you will not get a reminder.

  • Google Workspace extensions are not available to Google Workspace users accessing Gemini as an additional Google service.

  • Google Workspace extensions are only available to users 13+.

  • All prompts, responses, or content the Gemini app gets via apps (fka extensions), is not reviewed by anyone to improve AI models, not used to train AI models, and not shared with other users or institutions.

Getting started

  • Admins: Access to Workspace apps is controlled by the new “Allow access to Workspace apps after Beta (upcoming general availability)” setting. Access is ON by default unless you previously took action on the setting leading into general availability. Visit the Help Center for more information on turning Workspace apps in Gemini on or off.

  • End users: If enabled by your admin, connecting Google Workspace allows users to summarize, get quick answers, and find information from Calendar, Keep and Tasks in addition to Gmail, Docs, and Drive directly in Gemini. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Google Workspace extensions.

Rollout pace



Availability

Available for Google Workspace:
  • Business Starter, Standard, Plus
  • Enterprise Starter, Standard, Plus
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus
  • Frontline Starter and Standard
  • Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus
  • Nonprofits

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:
  • Gemini Business*
  • Gemini Enterprise*
  • Gemini Education
  • Gemini Education Premium
*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.

Availability

Use Gemini in Drive to interact with folders in 20+ additional languages

What’s changing 

Last year, we added folder support to Gemini in the side panel of Google Drive. Today, we’re excited to announce this experience is now available in the following languages: 
  • Arabic 
  • Catalan Valencian 
  • Central Standard Swedish 
  • Common Czech 
  • Dutch 
  • Finnish 
  • French 
  • German 
  • Greek 
  • Hungarian 
  • Indonesian 
  • Italian 
  • Japanese 
  • Korean 
  • Malay 
  • Mandarin 
  • Modern Hebrew 
  • Norwegian 
  • Polish 
  • Portuguese 
  • Romanian 
  • Russian 
  • Spanish 
  • Standard Danish 
  • Thai 
  • Turkish 
  • Ukrainian 
  • Vietnamese
As a result, you can now use Gemini in Drive to answer questions like: 
  • “Summarize files in @-folder” 
  • “What is the theme of the content in @-folder” 
  • “When is the due date based on files in @-folder”

Additional details 

Gemini can only answer questions about text documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, and presentations. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: To access Gemini in the side panel of Workspace apps, users need to have smart features and personalization turned on. Admins can turn on default personalization setting for their users in the Admin console. 
  • End users: 
    • If Gemini in the side panel is closed, you can: 
      • Navigate to a folder, and click on the “Summarize this folder” button, or; 
      • Right-click on a folder in the doclist, and click on “Ask Gemini” in the context menu, or; 
      • Select a folder in a doclist, and click on “Summarize this folder” in the selection toolbar. 
    • If Gemini in side panel is already open, you can: 
      • Drag and drop a folder from the doclist into the side panel, or; 
      • @-mention a folder in the side panel’s textbox. 
    • If you are searching for a folder, you can: 
      • Click the Gemini icon next to the folder in the search dropdown box. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about collaborating with Gemini in Google Drive. 

Rollout pace 

Availability

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus 
  • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 
  • Google One AI Premium 
Anyone who previously purchased these add-ons will also receive this feature: 
  • Gemini Business* 
  • Gemini Enterprise* 
*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.

Resources 

Start a conversation with Gemini in the side panel of Google Drive about specific files

What’s changing

Since rolling out Gemini in the side panel of Google Drive, users have been able to summarize one or multiple documents, get quick facts while viewing PDFs, create files and folders, and more. 

Most recently, we added clickable “nudges” at the top of the Drive homepage and folders to help you get started with Gemini in Drive even faster, and today we’re introducing updates that make starting a conversation with Gemini about a specific set of files easier. 

After entering your question or prompt into the side panel, click the new “Add sources” button to let Gemini know which sources to draw from to generate a response. You can also drag and drop sources into the side panel to drive your conversation. With this new functionally, you’ll have better visibility and control over sources used in your conversations with Gemini. 


Drag and drop sources into the side panel to drive your conversation

Drag and drop sources into the side panel to drive your conversation

Visibility and control over sources used in your conversations with Gemini

Visibility and control over sources used in your conversations with Gemini


Getting started 


Rollout pace 

Availability

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus 
  • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 
  • Google One AI Premium 
Anyone who previously purchased these add-ons will also receive this feature: 
  • Gemini Business* 
  • Gemini Enterprise* 
*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.

Resources 

  • Google Workspace Admin Help: Turn on or off Gmail, Chat, and Meet smart features and personalization (Region specific) 
  • Google Help: Collaborate with Gemini in Google Drive

Enhance Your Organization’s Security with Out-of-Domain File Warnings in Google Workspace

What’s changing

Today we’re launching Out-of-Domain file-level warnings, now publicly available to all Google Workspace users. Specifically, a badge will be displayed on Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files when the file is owned by or shared with someone outside of your domain. You'll also see a pop-up with more details and the option to report the externally owned file for abuse. 

An image showing a Google Doc with the word "External" displayed in a small yellow badge next to the document title. The badge has been clicked, and a pop-up window appears with more information stating that “This document is owned by someone outside your organization. Be cautious about sharing sensitive information
Image of "External" badge displayed in Google Docs


This feature helps users identify potentially risky files and avoid phishing scams when working with files shared from outside your organization.


Additional details

  • Known Limitations:
    • For externally shared content, the badge will not be displayed if any internal Google Groups have access to the document, even if these groups have external members.
    • If any service accounts have access to the document, the External badge will be displayed, even if the service account is owned internally.


Getting started

Screenshot of the Google Workspace Admin console, navigated to Sharing settings. At the bottom of the page, a new section labeled "Highlight external files" is highlighted. The checkbox is checked, and the description reads: "Mark external files shared or owned externally as “external” to flag that content may be viewable outside your organization.
 Image of the Google Workspace Admin console, Sharing settings, showing the "Highlight external files" option enabled


Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available for all Google Workspace customers, as well as Cloud Identity customers

Resources

Gemini in Drive PDF Viewer is now available in 20+ additional languages

What’s changing 

Last year, we introduced the ability to use Gemini in Google Drive to interact with PDFs and later improved upon this by integrating Gemini in the side panel of Google Drive's overlay PDF viewing experience. Today, we’re excited to announce that the ability to interact with PDFs in Google Drive’s file viewer is now available in the following languages:
  • Spanish 
  • Portuguese 
  • Japanese 
  • Korean 
  • Italian 
  • French 
  • German 
  • Mandarin
  • Dutch 
  • Malay 
  • Modern Hebrew 
  • Polish 
  • Turkish 
  • Common Czech 
  • Indonesian 
  • Central Standard Swedish 
  • Standard Danish 
  • Norwegian 
  • Vietnamese 
  • Thai 
  • Ukrainian 
  • Finnish 
  • Arabic 
  • Greek 
  • Russian 
  • Hungarian 
  • Catalan Valencian 
  • Romanian 

As a result, you can now use Gemini in Drive in even more languages to do things like: 
  • Admins: To access Gemini in the side panel of Workspace apps, users need to have smart features and personalization turned on. Admins can turn on default personalization setting for their users in the Admin console. 
  • End users: 
    • To access this feature, double-click on a PDF from the Google Drive file list and click on "Ask Gemini" (star button) in the top right corner. 
    • Note: When Gemini initially launched in Workspace, PDFs viewed in Drive opened in a new browser tab to allow interaction with the Gemini side panel. With this update, the default behavior will open a file in the overlay file previewer. If you prefer for PDFs to open in a new tab by default, you can update your PDF opening default behavior in your Drive settings. If you previously set a preferred PDF opening default behavior in your Drive setting, your default open behavior will remain the same. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Gemini in Drive to work with PDFs. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

Available to Google Workspace: 
  • Business Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus 
  • Google One AI Premium 
  • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 
Anyone who previously purchased these add-ons will also receive this feature: 
  • Gemini Business* 
  • Gemini Enterprise* 
*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.


Resources 

Get started with Gemini in Google Drive quickly with new “nudges”

What’s changing 

You can use Gemini in the side panel of Google Drive to summarize one or multiple documents, get quick facts about a project, interact with PDFs, have focused conversations about a specific Drive folder, create files and folders and more. 

To help you get started with Gemini in Drive even faster, you’ll notice the following clickable “nudges” at the top of your Drive homepage and folders. These will continue to evolve, and can include nudges to: 
  • Learn about Gemini in Drive 
  • Summarize a folder in Drive 
  • Learn about a file in Drive

nudges in drive home

Nudges in Drive home
nudges in drive folder
Nudges in a Drive folder



Getting started

Rollout pace 

Availability

Available for Google Workspace:
  • Business Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus 
  • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 
  • Google One AI Premium 
Anyone who previously purchased these add-ons will also receive this feature: 
  • Gemini Business* 
  • Gemini Enterprise* 
*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.

The ability to run Google Drive on Arm-compatible Windows PCs is now generally available

What’s changing

Last year, we introduced a new beta that supports running Google Drive on Arm-compatible Windows PCs, and today we’re excited to announce this is now generally available. 


Compiled for ARM64, this release enables users to easily sync and store files online from Windows PCs powered by Snapdragon processors. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • This feature is only available on devices running Windows 11 and Microsoft WebView2, which is typically included with Windows 11. If it is missing or was previously removed, our installer will ask to install it for you (as long as you have an internet connection). Visit the Help Center to learn about system requirements & browsers. 
    • Note: Existing beta users will automatically be updated to the stable version. If you did not participate in the open beta, download and install Google Drive for desktop on a Arm-compatible Windows 11 devices. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Use Gemini in the side panel of Workspace apps in four more languages

What’s changing

Beginning today, Gemini in the side panel of Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and Gmail can be used in four additional languages: 
  • Greek 
  • Catalan 
  • Indonesian 
  • Malay 

With Gemini in the side panel of your Workspace apps, you can get help summarizing, brainstorming, and generating content by utilizing insights gathered from your emails, documents, and more—all without switching applications or tabs. Check out our original announcements for Gemini in the side panel of Docs, Sheets, and Drive, and Gmail for even more information. Image generation is supported in these languages as well. 


Additional details 

  • Users may see the “Alpha” badge as we bring more features into Gemini in the side panel of Google Workspace.
  • Image generation of people is not supported in these additional languages at this time.

Getting started 


Rollout pace


Availability 

Gemini in the side panel of Docs, Sheets, Drive is available to Google Workspace: 
  • Business Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus 
  • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 
  • Customers with the Gemini Business or Gemini Enterprise add-on* 
Gemini in the side panel of Gmail is available to Google Workspace:
  • Business Starter, Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Starter, Standard and 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.

Resources 

Create files and folders using Gemini in the side panel of Google Drive

What’s changing 

Since rolling out Gemini in the side panel of Google Drive, users have been able to summarize one or multiple documents, get quick facts about a project, interact with the Gemini side panel while viewing PDFs, and we most recently added folder support. 

Today, we’re excited to expand Gemini in Drive capabilities by introducing the ability to create new Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and folders in your Drive. As part of this update, we’re introducing support for two new types of prompts using Gemini in the side panel.
  • “Create a new folder” (with or without specifying what to name it) 
  • “Create a new Google Doc, Sheet or Slide” (with or without specifying what to name it) 
create new Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and folders in your Drive using Gemini


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

This new capability will help you streamline your file and folder creation journeys without needing to leave the side panel to create new Docs, Sheets, Slides and folders. By typing in one of the supported prompts, Gemini will create the new, titled file or folder and provide you with a link. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus 
  • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 
  • Google One AI Premium 
Anyone who previously purchased these add-ons will also receive this feature: 
  • Gemini Business* 
  • Gemini Enterprise* 
*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.

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