Starting today, we’re making it easier to view your Google Slides presentation controls on your computer while presenting to an audience using a connected external monitor or projector.
Multi-monitor support enables presenters to see Presentation View components, such as speaker notes and the timer, on one display, while displaying the slides presentation on an external monitor.
Who’s impacted
End users
Why it matters
This updated experience helps you present with greater confidence and gives you more control when managing multiple presentation displays.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: You can enable this feature by using “Presentation display options”. Visit the Help Center to learn more about presenting slides with other monitors.
Rollout pace
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 16, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 30, 2024
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts
Developers can create apps for the Google Workspace Marketplace that automate tasks, integrate Google Workspace with third-party products, and enhance communication and collaboration.
To improve upon the publishing experience, we’re excited to announce that developers can now make changes to their app listing, save them as a draft, and send the draft version to review. This will allow developers to preview changes and share drafts with specific users to help with validation before publishing a listing.
Who’s impacted
Developers
Why you’d use it
This update allows developers to test and preview their Google Workspace Marketplace app listing prior to publishing, which enables feedback collection and ultimately makes updating an app listing much easier.
Additional details
While changes are under review in the draft state, the original app listing remains available on the Google Workspace Marketplace.
We’re pleased to announce that beginning today, the Meet Add-ons SDK is now generally available for the web. This SDK allows developers to iframe their app into Meet, and lets meeting participants interact with the app’s content directly inside the Meet canvas.
Who’s impacted
Admins, end users, and developers
Why it matters
The Add-ons SDK expands Meet’s existing platform capabilities, providing the opportunity for developers to build interactive and collaborative experiences for their users in Google Meet which they can find and install from the Google Workspace Marketplace. These experiences allow for users to launch, install, and engage with the app’s content during their meetings, all without ever leaving Google Meet. Examples of already built add-ons include whiteboarding experiences with Figjam, Lucidspark and Miro; note taking experiences with Read Notetaker; and also polling and surveying experiences via Polly.
Add-ons can be displayed in two ways during a meeting:
The main stage allows apps to be the focal point of a meeting experience, unlocking the opportunity for add-on users to supercharge collaboration while in a meeting.
The side panel allows users to do actions such as share data, take surveys, or update records and notes while keeping the meeting and the discussion with other participants the focal point of this experience.
Additional details
The Google Workspace Marketplace automatically respects any controls that have been configured by admins, including whether their users can download and install add-ons. Additionally, all apps on the Marketplace have been reviewed and approved by the Google Marketplace team before they’re published.
Getting started
Admins: The availability of Google Meet Add-ons in meetings can be controlled through the Google Meet Admin Controls. Visit the Help Center to learn more about admin controls for Add-ons.
Developers: Our Developer Documentation has more information about using the Meet Add-Ons SDK.
Meeting hosts can control the availability of add-ons during meetings by going to Host Controls (lock icon) > Meeting Activities > Let contributors share add-on activities. Refer to this announcement on the Workspace Updates blog for more information.
When Google Cloud Directory Sync (GCDS) attempts to create new users, it may encounter unmanaged accounts that conflict with the accounts it’s attempting to create. In these instances, GCDS will now comply with the conflicting accounts management settings specified in the Admin console. This update helps reduce the time spent migrating user accounts to business accounts, helping to accelerate the adoption of Google Workspace and Google Cloud. Visit the Help Center for specific information on how GCDS will handle conflicting accounts based on your configured settings.
Getting started
Admins:
Google Cloud Directory Sync will automatically respect your existing Admin console settings for handling conflicting unmanaged accounts. We do not recommend turning this feature off in GCDS, rather you should configure these settings as you see fit in the Admin console. Visit the Help Center to learn more about handling conflicting unmanaged accounts with Google Cloud Directory Sync, as well as unmanaged accounts in general.
End users: Depending on your admin configuration:
You’ll be invited to transfer your account — if accepted, your admin will have the ability to manage your account.
If you do not accept the request, your admin may replace your unmanaged account with a managed one. In that case, you’ll receive a new @gmail.com address and retain your content in this unmanaged, personal Google account.
Earlier this year, we improved upon the file management experience in Google Chat spaces by creating the Shared tab, a central place to manage all conversation-related artifacts including files, links and media. Today, we’re excited to announce that the Shared tab is now available in 1:1 direct messages and group messages, enabling easier collaboration across all conversation types.
Who’s impacted
End users
Why you’d use it
The Shared tab provides a centralized and visible method to access shared content shared within a conversation.
Additional details
Using the new sort drop-down, you can narrow down the list of documents displayed based on category (file, link, media) or date shared.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: At the top of a Google Chat message, you will see the following tabs: Chat and Shared. Upon clicking Shared, you will see three sections: Files, Links and Media. Visit the Help Center to learn more about sending & sharing files in Google Chat messages.
Rollout pace
Web:
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 10, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 23, 2024
We’re incorporating additional data in Gemini reports to help our customers gain a deeper understanding of Gemini usage and adoption across their organizations.
Gemini reports now include user and app level Gemini usage and adoption data based on the last 28 days of usage. These insights can help admins identify power users in their organization, whom they can tap into for practical use cases and best practices, which can then be shared broadly with other users to drive adoption. Identifying users with lower adoption rates is equally important and can provide helpful context for creating training, change management programs and materials, and more.
From Menu > Generative AI > Gemini Reports > User-led usage you can track active Gemini usage days and how that usage is spread across various apps. You can also export this information for further analysis.
As of August 22, usage of gemini.google.com is now captured in the org-level usage portion of the report under the “Chat with Gemini” label, as well as in the new user-level usage reports. Including gemini.google.com usage and adoption information provides a more complete picture of how users are interacting with all Gemini tools across Workspace.
Gemini.google.com adoption data can be found under the “Chat with Gemini” label. Data reported as of August 9, 2024
Note: Gemini reports are denoted as 'beta' as we continue to optimize reporting functionality based on customer feedback. These are subject to the "Pre-General Availability Offerings Terms" section of the Google Workspace Service Specific Terms"
To help our customers continue to understand and measure the carbon intensity of their cloud computing, we have partnered with Electricity Maps to provide hourly emissions data within the Carbon Footprint report. Since we launched the Google Workspace Carbon Footprint report at Cloud Next 2023, we have continued our collaboration with Electricity Maps to further help users understand their emissions. Directly within the Admin console, admins can track the carbon footprint and emissions of using Google Workspace, down to specific tools such as Google Meet, Gmail, Google Docs, and more.
We’ve also added a new admin role for accessing Carbon Footprint reports. Previously, only Workspace admins with reporting privileges had access to the carbon footprint dashboard. However, we know our customers have specialists, such as a dedicated Sustainability team, who rely on this information to inform their work. Now, admins can grant access to the Workspace Carbon Footprint report to select users by creating a custom role.
Who’s impacted
Admins
Why it’s important
Cloud computing has immense significance for powering global business operations and innovation. But, in a world facing the accelerating impacts of climate change, it is increasingly important to keep an eye on its environmental impact. The dynamic and global nature of cloud computing creates challenges for precisely measuring its emissions and requires granular data that captures the carbon emissions of electricity at every hour in locations around the world. Partnering with Electricity Maps gives our customers a way to monitor their cloud emissions over time by product — giving IT teams and developers the high quality metrics they need to monitor, improve, and reduce their carbon emissions.
Electricity Maps gathers real-time and historical power generation and power exchange data from multiple sources around the globe, calculating the hourly consumption mix available on the grid and its carbon intensity. Electricity Maps follows a highly granular approach, combined with a transparent and scientific methodology and a strict collective vetting process of their open-source community. This guarantees high-quality and trustworthy data that aligns with Google’s ambition for a realistic and science-backed perspective on climate impact. For maximum transparency, emissions can be viewed on either location-based or market-based Scope 2 accounting standards. Location-based emissions show the emissions linked to the actual electricity used for the operations, whereas the market-based emissions represent emissions from the purchased electricity, including Google’s annual renewable energy purchases. More information about the methodology behind Google’s Workspace and Cloud Carbon Footprints can be found here.
Additional details
More about Google's sustainability commitments
In 2020, we set a goal to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy—every hour of every day on every grid where we operate—by 2030. We continue to make product and operational improvements to reduce environmental impact and we're sharing technology, methods, and funding to enable organizations around the world to transition to more carbon-free and sustainable systems — see here for more information about our sustainability commitments.
Google uses the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the global standard for carbon accounting to generate the Workspace Carbon Footprint reports. We recommend that admins familiarize themselves with the GHG terminology — you can find more information in our Help Center or the video below.
Getting started
Admins: You can find your Carbon Footprint report in the Admin console under Reporting > Carbon footprint. Visit the Help Center to learn more about the Workspace Carbon Footprint.
Last year, we introduced a new homepage view in Google Drive that makes it faster and easier for you to find files that matter most. That update included personalized file and folder suggestions with machine learning algorithms that can help you get started quickly.
Starting today, you will see a combined, unified view for file and folder suggestions on the Drive homepage that leverages machine learning to help you find and organize your most relevant content faster and intuitively. More specifically, you’ll notice:
Combined file and folder suggestions: Drive's homepage shows suggested files and folders, intelligently chosen based on recent activity, sharing patterns, and connected Google Calendar events.
Seamless navigation and organization: You can easily switch between viewing additional files or folders, or organize content directly from Home.
Enhanced search filters: Search chips allow you to quickly start a search by by file type, people, modification date, and location modification date, location, and people.
Getting started
Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users:
Up to 6 suggested folders will show at the top of the homepage view of Drive and you can click the “View more” option to see up to 12 total folders.
Up to 10 suggested files will show underneath the suggested folders in the collapsed state and up to 30 suggested files will show if you click the “View more” option.
You may not see the “View more” option if you do not have additional file or folder suggestions.
The homepage view of Drive will be ON by default and can be opted-out by the user. If a user chooses to opt-out, their default page will be My Drive. To opt-out, go to the Settings icon in top right corner > Settings > Start page and select My Drive.
Rollout pace
Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 5, 2024
Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on September 25, 2024
Availability
Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts
Starting today, you can access additional information on topics directly in Gemini’s (gemini.google.com) responses to your prompts. Specifically, you’ll see links to related content in responses to fact-seeking prompts — you can click the arrow chips to dive deeper into the topic. If you have a Gemini for Workspace license and Google Workspace extensions in Gemini are enabled, Gemini will also now include inline links to relevant emails referenced in responses where the Gmail extension is used.
Including this information offers another easy way to dig deeper into Gemini’s responses. You can also use Gemini’s double-check feature to verify responses by using Google Search to highlight which statements are corroborated or contradicted on the web.
Additional details
At this time, this feature is limited to English prompts only.
This feature is available in most countries where Gemini (gemini.google.com) is available
End users: You’ll automatically see related content where applicable in Gemini’s responses. If you have a Gemini for Workspace license and your admin has enabled Google Workspace extensions, you may see related content from email for prompts that use the Gemini extension. Refer to the Gemini Apps FAQ for more detail.
Available to any Google Workspace users with access to gemini.google.com.
Users with a Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium add-on license will see Gmail citations if Google Workspace extensions in Gemini are enabled by their admin.
Earlier this year, we brought Gemini for Google Workspace to education communities with two new paid add-ons. At that time, we announced that educators and students 18 years and older who did not have a Gemini Education license would soon get added data protection when using Gemini (gemini.google.com) as an Additional Service with their school accounts. Coming soon, we will have Gemini as an Additional Service with these added data protections available to teen students as well.
Beginning today, that added data protection is now available — free of charge. With added data protection, the data you share is only used for responses to your prompts and is not used to improve Gemini or other generative AI models. Added data protection is available to Google Workspace for Education users in every language and country where they can access Gemini.
If you use gemini.google.com with a school account without a Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium license, it is covered under the Google Terms of Service as an Additional Service. This is available to users 18 years and older.
