Tag Archives: Rapid Release

Now generally available: use Gemini in the side panel of Workspace apps in seven additional languages

 What’s changing

Beginning today, all users* can use Gemini in the side panel of Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and Gmail,  in seven additional languages:

  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Portuguese
  • Spanish

Gemini in the side panel of Gmail in Spanish



With Gemini in the side panel of your Workspace apps, you can get help summarizing, analyzing, 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.

*Available for Workspace customers with a Gemini Business, Gemini Enterprise, Gemini Education, and Gemini Education Premium add-on.

Additional details

  • While Gemini in the side panel of Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail, is generally available in these additional languages - as we keep rolling out more Gemini alpha features in the side panel, end users with Gemini alpha features turned on may continue to see the “Alpha” badge. 
  • Image generation is not supported yet in these additional languages.
  • Gemini in the side panel of Slides is only available in English at this time.

Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: You can access the side panel by clicking on “Ask Gemini” (spark button) in the top right corner of Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail on the web. Visit the Help Center to learn more about collaborating with Gemini in Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail. Note that for accessing other Gemini for Google Workspace features that are supported in English only, you will need to set your Google Account language to English.

Rollout pace



Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with a:
  • Gemini Business or Enterprise add-on
  • Gemini Education or Education Premium add-on


Resources



View in-meeting chat messages in Google Meet live streams

What’s changing

Starting today, when you’re viewing a Google Meet live stream, you will be able to see chat messages that are sent by participants who have joined via the meeting link. This update helps ensure that information shared through Meet chat messages — like links to relevant documents, time-keeping messages, and more — are also visible to live-stream attendees, making meetings more equitable. Previously, in-call chat messages were only visible to  hosts, co-hosts, participants and viewers who were in the main meeting. Once you receive the update, you'll see a notification the next time chat messages are sent during a live stream. When you click the notification, the chat panel will open.

Chat messages viewed from a live stream



Getting started

Rollout pace

Important note: this feature will roll out at a much slower pace than usual as we approach the end of the year. We will update this post to confirm when rollout has completed for Fast and Rapid release tracks respectively.

  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 18, 2024. We anticipate that rollout will be completed sometime during the week of December 5, 2024.

  • Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on January 6, 2024. We anticipate that rollout will be completed by end of Q1 2025.

Availability

  • The following Google Workspace editions can initiate a live stream:
    • Enterprise Starter, Standard, Plus and Enterprise Essentials Plus
    • Education Plus and the Teaching & Learning upgrade
  • Anyone can view a live stream.

Resources


Data classifications labels for Gmail are now available in open beta

What’s changing

In addition to Google Drive, we’re expanding data classification labels to now include Gmail. Classification labels are used to classify and audit content according to organizational guidelines (“Sensitive”, “Confidential”, etc.) and apply policies, such as data loss prevention (DLP) rules, to protect sensitive information in email messages. Classification labels will be available when using Gmail on the web – support for Gmail on mobile devices will be introduced in the coming months.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s important

Data breaches are increasingly common and costly across all sectors, including enterprises, public sectors, and government institutions. To minimize data exfiltration and better understand the data being shared, organizations need to differentiate between various types of information and their sensitivity levels to apply data protection policies accordingly. By expanding data classification labels to Gmail, Google Workspace provides admins with a more flexible and robust system integrated with data protection capabilities to help organizations effectively categorize and protect sensitive information. 

Specifically, admins can create:

  • New classification labels or extend existing ones enabled in Drive labels for Gmail from the Label Manager. Labels can be used to  denote department names, document types, document status, and other custom categories. 

The Label Manager tool can be accessed in the Admin console  by going to Security > Access and data control


  • Data protection rules with classification label as a condition, to apply actions to a message based on its classification. For example, a message will be blocked if it’s classified as ‘Internal’ and is being sent to an external recipient.
Notification about delivery failure due to DLP policy, blocking messages labeled as ‘Confidential’ to be sent to recipients outside of the organization




  • Data protection rules to automatically apply classification labels to a message, based on its content. For example, a ‘Confidential’ label can be applied to a message if it contains sensitive financial information, such as credit card or bank account numbers.
Data protection rule with ‘Apply a label’ action. Classification label specified in the rule will be applied to a message, if message contains information matching conditions of the rule

  • DLP rules with Confidential Mode as a condition to prevent sending messages with sensitive information, if it is not encrypted (Confidential Mode is not enabled)
Data protection rule is set up to detect messages with sensitive information (credit card or passport numbers) and confidential mode disabled in order to enforce sending such info with enhanced protection measures





  • End users can view and apply Classification Labels when using Gmail on the web.
Users can apply classification labels to a message, according to the organization’s data governance policies



Additional details

  • When Data loss prevention (DLP) rules for Gmail using classification labels either as a condition or as an action, messages are scanned asynchronously. This means that the message is classified, blocked or quarantined after it leaves the sender's mailbox) and before being dispatched to the recipient. In a future release, we plan to provide synchronous support with instant notifications consistent with our synchronous support of instant DLP enforcement for Gmail.

Note that:
    • If the message is blocked as a result of the classification label applied to it, the sender will get a bounce back message.
    • If the message is automatically labeled by a DLP rule, the sender will not see the label reflected in the sent message. The recipient will see the automatically applied label the same way as any other classification label applied manually by the sender.

  • Only Badged options list and Multiple Options list (Single select) field types are supported in Gmail. If classification labels are enabled for usage in both Gmail and Drive, and it contains fields that are not supported in Gmail, such as date or persona, Gmail users will see the label only with fields of the supported types.

Getting started

  • Admins: 
  • End users: If configured by your admin, you’ll see the “Classification” option when composing a new messaging or replying to an existing message — when you open the menu, you can select labels relevant to your message. We'll share the end user Help Center article on Monday, November 3, 2024.

Rollout pace


Availability

  • The Label Manager and manual classification is available to Google Workspace:
    • Frontline Starter and Standard
    • Business Standard and Plus
    • Enterprise Standard and Plus
    • Education Standard and Education Plus
    • Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus

  • Data loss prevention rules with labels as a condition or labels as an action are available to:
    • Enterprise Standard and Plus
    • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade
    • Frontline Standard
    • Cloud Identity Premium (in combination with a Workspace Edition eligible for Gmail)

Resources






Gemini in the side panel of Google Chat is now available

What’s changing

For the last few months, users with the Gemini for Google Workspace add-ons and Gemini Education add-ons have used Gemini in the side panel of Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive to assist them with summarizing, analyzing, and generating content through insights gathered from their emails, documents, and more. Earlier this month, Gemini add-on subscribers began using Gemini in Google Chat for summaries of unread conversations in the home view. 

Today, we’re expanding Gemini in Chat to help users collaborate more effectively in their spaces, group messages and direct messages. With Gemini in the side panel of Chat, you can: 
  • Summarize a space or conversation. Examples include asking Gemini the following: 
    • "Summarize this conversation."
    • "What are the key takeaways in this conversation?” 
    • After an initial summary is generated, you can ask for a longer summary, "Give me a detailed summary of [topic] discussed in this space." 
  • Generate a list of action items from that space or conversation, such as: 
    • "What are the action items in this conversation?” 
    • “Are there any action items for me in this conversation?" 
    • “Summarize [person's] action items in this space” 
  • Answer specific questions about that space or conversation by asking: 
    • “What did [person] say about the timeline extension in this space?” 
    • “What’s the decision on the project discussed in this conversation?" 
gemini in the side panel of chat

Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

Gemini in the side panel of Chat enables you to better collaborate with your team by helping you quickly catch up on missed conversations, capture action items, or search for key details that are easy to miss in a fast-moving space. 


Additional details 

At this time, Gemini in the side panel of Chat can summarize and analyze messages in the conversation that you are currently viewing. It will not summarize or analyze context across your entire Chat conversation history, your Gmail inbox or your Drive files. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

Available for Google Workspace customers with a: 
  • Gemini Business and Enterprise add-on 
  • Gemini Education and Education Premium add-on 

Resources 

Context Aware Access insights and recommendations are now generally available

What’s changing

We’re making it easier to apply context-aware access (CAA) policies with new insights and recommendations. We’ll proactively surface potential security gaps and suggest pre-built CAA levels which admins can deploy to remediate the security gaps. These insights will be surfaced to customers, if they have not deployed any CAA policies to their users. When you deploy a recommendation, it will first be placed in Monitor Mode, so you can understand how the policy will block user access over time, and can be reviewed in the CAA audit logs. 

With this release, we’ve also added the ability for admins to customize the recommendations as they see fit before they’re applied broadly. Additionally, we’ll send primary admins an email on a quarterly basis with insights and actionable recommendations.




Who’s impacted

Admins

Why it’s important

Using Context-Aware Access, admins can set up different access levels based on a user’s identity and the context of the request (location, device security status, IP address). This can help provide granular access controls without the need for a VPN, and give users access to Google Workspace resources based on organizational policies. Insights and recommendations help admins improve the cybersecurity posture of their organization by proactively identifying areas that need attention, significantly reducing the need for admins to identify these risks themselves. For example, if we detect devices with outdated operating system versions  accessing corporate Workspace data, we can surface this as an Insight & pair it with a recommendation to block such devices from accessing Workspace data with a few clicks.

Getting started

  • End users: There is no end user impact or action required.

Rollout pace

Availability

Available to Google Workspace
  • Enterprise Standard and Plus
  • Education Standard and Plus
  • Enterprise Essentials Plus
  • Also available to Cloud Identity Premium customers

Resources

New density setting in Google Chat

What’s changing 

To give users more control over how they see information in Google Chat, we’re introducing a new setting that allows you to control the visual density of screen elements. Choose between “Comfortable” or “Compact” on chat.google.com. 

  • Comfortable mode, the default setting, reflects Chat’s modernized design, in line with Google Material Design 3, and clearly differentiates message bubbles.
  • Compact mode is for users who prefer to see more information at a time with less scrolling. With this option, you’ll notice: 
    • Message bubbles that are aligned in the same direction for both sender and recipient 
    • Wider message bubbles 
    • Padding in the left bar, conversation list, and home. 
density settings in Chat

Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • To modify density settings, go to chat.google.com > Settings > Density > Compact. Users can revert this to the default at any time by going to chat.google.com > Settings > Density > Comfortable. 
    • Those who use Compact density setting in Gmail will also see Chat in Gmail in compact mode. Users can adjust their Gmail and Chat-in-Gmail density settings by going to Gmail > Settings > Density. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Compact mode in Google Chat.

Rollout pace 

Availability 

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

Resources 

Google Classroom now supports exporting missing and excused grades to select Student Information Systems (SIS)

What’s changing

Last year, we introduced the ability for teachers to mark an assignment for a particular student as “excused” instead of giving it a 0-100 score. We also added the ability to manually mark an assignment as “missing” or “complete” and automatically add a default draft score. 

These updates give teachers even more flexibility when it comes to grading for assignments and classwork, and today we’re excited to announce that teachers can include missing and excused grades when exporting grades to their Student Information Systems (SIS). 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace:
  • Education Plus and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

Refine emails faster with updates to the “Polish” shortcut in Gmail

What’s changing

In August, we announced Help me write and Refine my draft shortcuts on mobile devices. Today, we’re excited to expand the Help me write shortcut to web and introduce a Polish shortcut on web and mobile that helps you refine emails even faster. 

  • On web, the Help me write shortcut will now appear in the body of the email when an email draft is empty. The Polish shortcut will appear for drafts with 12+ words, and pressing the shortcut text or typing Ctrl+H will automatically show a polished email output. 
polish shortcut Gmail on web

  • On mobile, the Help me write shortcut will continue to appear in the body of the email when an email draft is empty. The Polish shortcut will now appear for drafts with 12+ words. Swiping on the shortcut text will automatically show a polished email output. From there, users can tap a refinement chip (Formalize, Elaborate or Shorten) to edit the draft in place. 

polish shortcut on mobile
Getting started 


Rollout pace 

Web: 
Android & iOS: 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace customers with: 
  • Gemini Business and Enterprise add-on 
  • Gemini Education and Education Premium add-on
  • Google One AI Premium 

Resources


Introducing a new look and feel for Google Calendar on the web

What’s changing

Starting today, you’ll notice a refreshed user interface in Google Calendar that is in line with Google Material Design 3 and includes: 
  • Controls (like buttons, dialogs, and sidebars) that are more modern and accessible
  • Interface typography that uses Google’s custom-designed and highly-legible typefaces 
  • Iconography that is legible and crisp, with a fresh feel 
We’re also introducing the ability to toggle between light mode, dark mode or device default theme options. This will provide you with a more comfortable, customizable viewing experience and can also reduce battery usage. 

Calendar on web in light mode
Calendar on web in light mode
Calendar on web in dark mode
Calendar on web in dark mode


Additional details

These updates are applicable across the entire calendar web experience, including the task list view. When using the tasks.google.com URL, you will be redirected to the refreshed user interface and have the ability to choose between light or dark mode. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • To turn on dark mode in Calendar, go to the settings icon in the top right corner > Appearance > select Light, Dark or Device default. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Dark theme in Calendar. 
    • Given this launch is a visual refresh to Google Calendar, it may impact the experience of installed Chrome extensions that are active when using Google Calendar. As a result, these extensions might not work as expected. We recommend contacting the developers of those extensions to report any potential issues. 

Rollout pace 

  • Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on October 23, 2024 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 2, 2024 

Availability 

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

Resources 

A smoother, more modern video player in Google Drive

What’s changing 

Starting today, you'll notice a new look and feel, and enhanced functionality for the video player within Google Drive that makes it easier and more enjoyable to watch your videos. More specifically, this update includes: 
  • A modernized look with cleaner lines, intuitive controls, and a less cluttered viewing experience, all in line with Google Material Design 3.
  • Improved controls for fast forward and rewind buttons that give you more control over playback. In addition, it is now easier to adjust playback speed and manage captions. 
  • Consistency across Workspace through similar video experiences in Google Drive and Google Vids, the upcoming video editor. 
new video player in Google Drive


Getting started 

Rollout pace

Availability

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

Resources