Tag Archives: Rapid Release

Gmail Q&A: A new way of searching your inbox with Gemini on Android devices

What’s changing

A few months ago, we announced the general availability of Gemini in the side panel of Gmail, which not only allows users to summarize and suggest responses to email threads, but also includes using Gemini in Gmail on web to ask questions and find specific information from emails within your inbox or from your Google Drive files. For example, you can ask Gemini to search your inbox for things like "What was the PO number for my agency?", "How much did the company spend on the last marketing event?", or “Catch me up on the emails about quarterly planning.” 

Today, we’re excited to announce that the Gmail Q&A feature is rolling out now on Android devices and coming soon to iOS. Gmail Q&A offers similar functionality as the side panel on the web. You can ask Gemini questions about your inbox or to do things like find specific details in your emails, show you unread messages, view messages from a specific sender, or summarize emails about a topic in your inbox. 

Gmail Q&A on mobile (Android)



Who’s impacted 

End users 

Why it matters

We are excited to help users supercharge their productivity with the help of Gemini in Gmail. Users now have even more capabilities from Gemini to help users get more done during their day at their desks and now, on the go. 

Getting started

  • Admins: To access Gmail Q&A on Android, 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: Open Gemini in the Gmail app via the black Gemini star at the top right of your app or from a “summarize this email” chip. To start, Gmail Q&A can find information from your inbox. In the future, it will be able to find information from your Drive as well. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Gemini in Gmail.

Rollout pace 


Availability 

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons: 
  • Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium 
  • Google One AI Premium 

Resources 

Customize Gemini (gemini.google.com) for your specific needs with Gems

What’s changing 

At Google I/O 2024, we pre-announced Gems, custom AI experts that you can build across a variety of  topics. In a few easy steps, you can describe what you want your Gem to do and how you’d like it to respond — Gems will help complete specific goals, tasks, and workflows based on your inputs. Gems will remember the instructions you provide, and you can access them when needed to help save time on repetitive tasks or get deep expertise. Included are Premade Gems, which allow you to easily chat with an already built, topic-defined, Gem. Most premade Gems also allow you to customize them, serving as a template for creating new Gems. 

Beginning today, Gems are now available to Google Workspace customers with a Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, or Education Premium add-on.
Customize Gemini (gemini.google.com) for your specific needs with Gems

Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use them 

Gemini.google.com can help you speed up time-consuming tasks, generate fresh ideas and more. With Gems, you can further leverage the power of Gemini in a way that’s customized to your needs more efficiently by minimizing repetitive prompting. We’ve provided a few premade Gems to help you get started, like a Writing editor, Coding partner, and Learning coach, and you can build your own Gems to: 
  • Gain valuable insights: Gather targeted feedback on your new product or service from different personas or audience segments (i.e. Urbanites, Tech Enthusiast, etc.). 
  • Streamline copy editing: Get feedback and suggestions on your copy ensuring it’s clear, accurate and consistent with your desired brand, tone, and voice. 
  • Scale your marketing: Generate a prescribed set of marketing materials (emails, social media, etc.) that meet style guidelines, character limits, and more, from a single campaign brief. 
  • Stay ahead of the curve: be informed about the latest industry trends and competitive news that interest you with summaries of relevant articles, blogs, and newsletters. 
  • Elevate your instruction: Gamify your lesson plans or brainstorm creative learning experiences to boost student engagement and bring learning to life. 

Additional details 

Getting started

  • Admins: Gems will be available in Gemini (gemini.google.com) by default to all Gemini Enterprise, Business, Education and Education Premium users. There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Gems.

Rollout pace 

Availability 


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

Resources 

Google Meet provides consolidated email for all meeting artifacts

What’s changing

Currently, Google Meet sends an email for each type of meeting artifact initiated in a meeting, including meeting recordings, meeting transcripts, Gemini notes with “take notes for me,” live streams and more. Going forward, you’ll receive one email consolidating these artifacts. This not only helps reduce inbox clutter, but it will help you navigate to your meeting artifacts faster.
Google Meet provides consolidated email for all meeting artifacts

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: You’ll begin receiving these consolidated emails automatically. 

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers. Note that your Google Workspace edition will determine which meeting features are available to you.
  • “Take notes for me” requires one of the following Gemini for Google Workspace add-ons:
    • Gemini Enterprise 
    • Gemini Education Premium
    • AI Meetings & Messaging

Resources 

“Take notes for me” in Google Meet is now available

What’s changing

Today, we’re pleased to announce that “take notes for me” will begin rolling out to Google Meet for select Google Workspace customers. “Take notes for me” is an AI-powered feature in Google Meet that automatically takes notes, allowing you to focus on discussion, collaboration, and presentation during your meetings. After the meeting, the notes document is attached to the calendar event where participants internal to your organization can access them. At launch, this feature will be available when using Google Meet on a computer or laptop, and meetings must be conducted in spoken English.

Select the pencil icon in the top right corner of the screen to start taking meeting notes.

All meeting participants will see a blue pencil icon on their screen and a notification that notes are being taken. They can click on the pencil to see the meeting notes taken so far.

After the meeting ends, the meeting organizer and whoever turned on the feature will receive an email with a link to the generated meeting notes document. The notes document will also be attached to the calendar event, where internal meeting participants can access it.


Who’s impacted

Admins and end users


Why you’d use it 

It can be challenging to stay on top of and engaged with meeting discussions while also trying to keep a record of the meeting and subsequent follow-ups. This is where “take notes for me” can help. When turned on, the feature will do the following:

  • Automatically capture meeting notes in Google Docs and save it to the Google Drive of the meeting owner.
  • Catch you up during the meeting with “summary so far” if you join late.
  • Send an email with a link to the recap after the meeting. This email goes to the meeting organizer and whoever turned on the feature. 

This will help you be more present and engaged during your meetings, while still ensuring important information is captured for record-keeping and follow-up. If users also turn on meeting recordings and transcripts, those will be linked within the notes document.


Additional details

Notes documents will be stored in the meeting owner’s drive folder and will follow the Meet retention policy that your organization has configured. If you are currently testing this feature in Workspace Labs and Alpha, your experience will change from respecting the Drive retention policy to respecting the Meet retention policy. 


Getting started

  • Admins: Take notes for me will be ON by default and can be configured at the OU and Group level. Visit the Help Center to learn more about allowing Google Meet AI to take notes for my users.
    Apps > Google Workspace > Google Meet > Gemini Settings > Gemini AI note-takingApps > Google Workspace > Google Meet > Gemini Settings > Gemini AI note-taking

Rollout pace

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with these add-ons:
  • Gemini Enterprise 
  • Gemini Education Premium
  • AI Meetings & Messaging



Upload additional types of documents to Gemini (gemini.google.com) for insights and analysis

What’s changing 

Beginning today, Google Workspace users with a Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education or Education Premium license can now upload a variety of files from Google Drive or locally from your device into Gemini (gemini.google.com): 
  • Document and text files, such as TXT, DOC, DOCX, PDF, RTF, DOT, DOTX, HWP, HWPX and Google Docs 
  • Data Files, such as XLS, XLSX, CSV, TSV and Google Sheets 
Gemini can use uploaded files to gain context and analyze your content. In turn, this can help enhance your understanding, research, and writing through summarization of complex subject matter, identification of trends and insights, and recommendations for improving writing and document organization. Uploading a document can also help give you more personalized and relevant responses. 
Gemini document uploads


Additional details 

  • At this time, Context-Aware Access (CAA) for files uploaded from Google Drive isn’t supported. Context-Aware Access gives you control over which apps a user can access based on their context, such as whether their device complies with your IT policy. Learn more about Context-Aware Access.
  • Uploading files from Google Drive honors access control settings for files within Drive, meaning users can only upload files that they own or have been shared with them. 
  • File upload is not available to Google Workspace users accessing Gemini as an additional Google service.
  • Users with a Gemini for Google Workspace license who access Gemini as a core service are subject to the Google Workspace Terms of Service or Google Workspace for Education Terms of Service (for education institutions). When users use Gemini as a core service, their chats and uploaded files won't be reviewed by human reviews or otherwise used to improve generative AI models. 

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability

Available for Google Workspace customers with 
  • Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium add-on 

Resources 

Reply to emails in Gmail faster on Android devices

What’s changing 

We’re making it easier to respond to emails in the Gmail app on your Android device with a new quick reply experience. 

Previously, there were only options to Reply, Reply all or Forward a message when in the conversation view of an email on your Gmail app. Upon selecting one of those options, you’d be directed to a full screen compose view to send your reply. 

Starting today, you can reply to emails directly from the bottom of the conversation, without opening a new screen, making it easier to reference the email you’re replying to. We know this new option is best for quick, lightweight responses, so for longer, more formal responses, you can simply expand the text box to access more formatting options. 

respond to emails in the Gmail app on your Android device with a new quick reply experience



Additional details 

This feature will be available on iOS devices later this year. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: Using the Gmail app on your Android device, open an email > click into the text box at the bottom > type your reply > tap the send icon. Clicking the “Expand to full screen” icon allows you to switch to the full screen compose view. Visit the Help Center to learn more about replying to messages in Gmail.

Rollout pace 

Workspace Customers: 

Users with personal Google accounts and Workspace Individual Subscribers: 
  • This feature is available now. 

Availability

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

Resources 

Business Starter customers will soon have access to shared drives

What’s changing

Last year, we announced that we’re updating the storage model in Business Starter from per-user storage to pooled storage. Today, we’re excited to share that organizations with Business Starter will officially have access to shared drives starting mid-September. 


With this change, Business Starter users will be able to create shared drives and add members, files, and folders. Please note that certain admin-level and security controls—like the ability to control access to the items in a shared drive—will not be included in the fundamental version of shared drives for Business Starter. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important 

Part of empowering our customers to do their best work means reducing the friction around file sharing and collaboration. Shared drives are a key tool for collaboration—users can store, search, and access their team's files instantly. Additionally, they offer benefits such as: 
  • Easy discoverability: Less time spent requesting access to files and searching for relevant documents with all of your team’s files in one place. 
  • Files are forever: All content stays put — even when collaborators or team members leave, your content won’t. 
  • Easy collaboration: Every member of a shared drive can explore and collaborate in the same files. You can also add users outside your team or organization. 
  • Accessible anywhere: Regardless of location or device, you can always access the files you need most.

Additional details

When shared drives are made available to Business Starter customers, all users will be able to create shared drives by default. If this default behavior is undesired, admins can update their settings before Business Starter users gain access to the feature starting on September 23, 2024. To restrict this, go to the Admin console > Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Sharing settings > Shared drive creation > turn on “Prevent users in [domain] from creating new shared drives.” 


Getting started 

  • Admins: 
    • When shared drives are available to Business Starter, admins can use the Admin console to: 
      • Add and remove members 
      • Change access level of members 
      • Restrict moving content externally 
    • The following features aren't available for shared drives in Business Starter: 
      • Admins cannot set default settings
      • Business Starter users cannot change settings 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn how to set up shared drives for your organization and then allow users to create shared drives. If you need more storage for your organization, consider purchasing additional pooled storage or upgrading your Google Workspace edition to a plan with more storage.
      • Note: Resold customers should contact their reseller to purchase more storage or upgrade their edition. 
  • End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about shared drives.

Rollout pace 

Admin setting: 
Shared drives enabled by default: 

Availability 

  • This update impacts Google Workspace Business Starter customers. 

Resources 

Picture-in-picture in Google Meet will now open automatically when switching tabs

What’s changing 

Have you ever lost your video screen after switching to another tab? Google Meet’s picture-in-picture feature helps to solve that problem, but now we’ve made it even easier. Picture-in-picture mode will now automatically trigger when you switch tabs during a meeting. Previously, you had to manually turn on this feature during a meeting. This simple, yet impactful update, will help ensure your meeting stays visible and accessible if you need to switch tabs to take notes, view meeting related documents, and more. Note that picture-in-picture is only available with Google Chrome on a computer.
Picture-in-picture in Google Meet will now open automatically when switching tabs

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: You can turn this feature off from your Google Chrome settings. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using picture-in-picture with Google Meet.
You can turn this feature on and off by selecting the “View site information” icon in the Chrome URL bar and turning “Automatic picture-in-picture” off.
You can turn this feature on and off by selecting the “View site information” icon in the Chrome URL bar and turning “Automatic picture-in-picture” off.


Rollout pace 


Availability

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

Resources

Google Meet increases ultra-low latency live streaming support to 100,000 viewers in distributed audiences

What’s changing

For select Google Workspace editions*, we’re pleased to announce that the Google Meet ultra-low latency viewing experience for live streamed meetings will now support up to 100,000 viewers. This gives organizations the flexibility to reach a wider audience with improved user experience at lower bandwidth consumption. In order to receive the ultra-low latency experience, no more than 25,000 viewers can be connected to a single regional data center at a time. 


Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important 

Live streaming is a critical tool for large audiences, such as town-halls or keynote events. Increasing support for the low-latency live streaming experience from 25,000 viewers to 100,000 users helps our customers reach a wider audience, while their users benefit from several functional and quality improvements, such as:

  • A virtually lag-free experience
  • Significantly increased speaker video resolution (up to 720p per speaker)
  • Shared content and presentations shown up to 2880x1800
  • Improved automatic camera cuts that focus on the most relevant speakers & content 
  • Audience interaction through emoji reactions, polls and Q&A, and more.


Additional details

Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN) for Google Meet
If large groups of your audience are connecting from a single network location or a shared gateway, you may benefit from using eCDN for Meet to get full media quality with substantial network bandwidth savings. For more information on eCDN, see this post on the Workspace Updates blog and visit our Help Center.    


Viewers can now join ultra-low latency live streams from Google Meet room hardware
The Google Meet ultra-low latency viewing experience for live streamed meetings is now available also from Google Meet room hardware. Live streaming is a critical tool for large audiences, such as town-halls or keynote events. Support for room hardware means that users can join and watch live streams together in smaller or larger groups. To view a live stream via Google Meet hardware, invite the room to a view-only calendar event granted that your host has allowed guests to modify events. When the event is about to start, the live stream will be visible with its name as an upcoming event in the room agenda. Join the live stream by tapping it on the touch screen.


Meeting hosts and meeting organizers can invite rooms directly in view-only calendar events — visit the Help Center to learn more about live streaming a video meeting. If the calendar event is locked for editing, individual users can also duplicate the event and create their own view-only copy with the rooms they want to add as viewing locations. Visit the Help Center to learn more about viewing a live stream.


Getting started

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Enterprise Essentials Plus customers*

*Note: The ultra-low latency live streaming experience is rolling out at a slower pace for some customers. Once you receive the experience, you’ll be able to take advantage of these updates.


Resources


Refine emails faster with updates to Help me write in Gmail

What’s changing 

Building upon our popular Help me write feature in Gmail and the recent launch of the summarization feature in the Gmail mobile app, we’re excited to introduce two new Gemini in Gmail updates to help you draft emails even faster: 
  • A new option for Help me write that polishes emails drafts on web and mobile devices 
  • Help me write and Refine my draft shortcuts on Android and iOS devices 
When using Gemini to refine emails, users can choose from the following options: Formalize, Elaborate and Shorten. We recently added the Polish option to web and mobile, which can effortlessly refine your emails, saving you time. For example, if you enter rough notes into a draft, Gemini can turn the content into a completely formal draft, ready for you to review in one click. 
polish draft using Gemini in Gmail

On mobile, when an email draft is empty, the “Help me write” shortcut now appears in the body of the email and when selected, it will open the full Help me write experience. When 12+ words are present in an email draft, the ​​“Refine my draft” shortcut will be shown below the email content to indicate that there are options available to Polish, Formalize, Elaborate, or Shorten your draft, or Write a new draft. The menu can be triggered simply by swiping right on “Refine my draft”. 

refine my email draft on Gmail using Gemini

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

  • The option for Help me write to polish email drafts is available now on web, Android and iOS. 
  • The Help me write and Refine my draft shortcuts are available now on Android and 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