What’s changing 

Availability 

Resources 

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 

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What’s changing 


Getting started 

Rollout pace

Availability 

Resources 

What’s changing 

When multiple objects are selected in Google Slides, resizing your selection will now scale everything proportionally and maintain visual clarity. This ensures fonts, borders, shadows, and other attributes scale seamlessly and eliminates the hassle of adjusting elements individually. 
scale everything proportionally in google slides

In addition, we’re making it easier to select specific items on slides with many overlapping objects. When hovering over an object, users will now see an outline appear, making it easier to select objects that are layered. 
select specific items on slides with many overlapping objects.


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

This update helps you spend less time getting objects to fit on a slide with proportional scaling. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: Please note these features will work while you are in edit mode in Slides, not when you are presenting them. In addition, proportional scaling will only apply to object groups and selections of multiple objects using the corner handles (side handles will still function as they do today). Additionally, an object selection can be scaled by using the format options sidebar resize controls.Visit the Help Center to learn more about inserting and arranging text, shapes, diagrams, and lines.

Rollout pace


Availability 

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

Resources 

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What’s changing 

Nudges in a Drive folder

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.

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What’s changing

Who’s impacted 

Additional details 

Why you’d use it 

What’s changing

Help me write is an AI-powered writing feature in Gmail that helps draft new email content or refine existing text. Upon selecting the Help me write button in Gmail, you can choose between the following options: 
  • Write your draft: Use your own words to describe the message you’d like to draft. Help me write also understands the context from previous messages in an email thread to craft reply drafts that are relevant to the conversation. 
  • Formalize your draft: Change the tone of your draft to be more formal. 
  • Elaborate on your draft: Add further detail to your email message to build on the draft. 
  • Shorten your draft: Decrease the length of your email draft. 

Today, we’re excited to announce that Help me write is now available across web and mobile devices in three additional languages: 
  • Italian 
  • French 
  • German 

Who’s impacted 

End users 


Additional details 

In addition to English, this feature is already available in Portuguese and Spanish. 


Why you’d use it 

Whether you’re setting up a meeting with a prospective client or reworking an intro email for a new team member, Help me write in Gmail saves you the time drafting emails and provides the right tone and style for any message occasion. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 

Web & Android: 
iOS 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Business Starter, Standard and Plus 
  • Enterprise Starter, 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 

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What’s changing

Getting started 

What’s changing

We’re excited to announce that we’re expanding the language availability for the Google Classroom mobile app on Android and iOS to the following languages:

  • Afrikaans 
  • Assamese 
  • French Canadian 
  • Icelandic 
  • Kazakh 
  • Swahili 


Additional details 

The languages above will be available on the web version of Google Classroom in the coming weeks. We will provide an update on the Workspace Updates Blog when this feature becomes generally available. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching and Learning add-on, Endpoint Education add-on 
  • Customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 

Resources 

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What’s changing

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

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 

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New updates 

There are no new updates to share this week. Please see below for a recap of published announcements.


Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

New updates 

There are no new updates to share this week. Please see below for a recap of published announcements.


Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.



Upcoming changes to how retention policies are applied to 1:1 direct messages in Google Chat 
To provide a more consistent product experience across conversation types, we are changing how retention policies are applied to 1:1 direct messages with external participants. | Learn more about retention policies for Chat. 


Available in beta: Convert your client-side encrypted documents after a Vault or Takeout export 
After a Vault or Data export (takeout), admins can now convert their exported client-side encrypted documents to Word files. | Learn more about this new beta. 


Introducing a new building block that summarizes content with Gemini in Google Docs 
An additional building block that adds an AI-generated summary to your content using Gemini in Docs is now available. By going to Insert > Building Blocks > AI Summary or typing “@” followed by “AI summary,” Gemini will provide a summary that you can instantly insert or edit alongside other document collaborators. | Learn more about building block summaries in Docs. 


Admins can now deploy Context-Aware Access for NotebookLM and NotebookLM Plus
Admins can now specify Context-Aware Access (CAA) policies when their users access NotebookLM and NotebookLM Plus. | Learn more about Context-Aware Access support for NotebookLM and NotebookLM Plus. 


Beta update: Data loss prevention rules based on classification labels are now applied instantly in Gmail on the web 
Auto-classification labeling with data loss prevention (DLP) rules and actions triggered by classification labels detected in the message will now be applied instantly when using Gmail on the web. | Learn more about Data loss prevention rules based on classification labels. 


Use Gemini in the side panel of Google Slides in even more languages 
You can now use Gemini in the side panel of Google Slides, which includes the ability to generate images, in many new languages. | Learn more about using the side panel of Google Slides in even more languages. 


Gmail data loss prevention now supports “sensitive content snippets” 
We recently launched data loss prevention for Gmail and, beginning today, Admins can see “Sensitive content snippets” for Gmail messages that trigger data loss prevention rules. | Learn more about “sensitive content snippets”. 


See summaries of shared Google Docs, Slides, or Sheets files directly in Google Chat 
Users can now easily summarize Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets files shared within a Chat conversation. | Learn more about file summaries in Chat. 


Try Canvas, a new way to collaborate with the Gemini app 
You can now create, format, and refine your documents or code in Canvas, a new collaborative space in Gemini. | Learn more about Canvas. 


Use Gemini in the side panel of Google Chat in additional languages 
We’ve expanded the availability of Gemini in the side panel of Chat to the following languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Japanese, French, Korean. | Learn more about using the side panel of Google Chat in additional languages.


New features available in NotebookLM and NotebookLM Plus
In addition to NotebookLM and NotebookLM Plus becoming available as a Google Workspace core service for business customers and the recent announcement of Context-Aware Access support for NotebookLM and Notebook LM Plus, we’ve introduced new features that improve upon the NotebookLM user experience. | Learn more about new features in NotebookLM and NotebookLM Plus.


Contextual Smart Replies now available for Google Workspace Business and Enterprise editions
Earlier this year, we announced that we’re including the best of Google AI directly into Workspace Business and Enterprise plans without the need to purchase a separate Gemini add-on. In addition, we recently introduced Google Meet and Google Chat AI-powered features to Business and Enterprise editions, and today were excited to add contextual Smart Replies to the list of available features. | Learn more about Contextual Smart Replies.


Adding new capabilities to Google Vids’ ‘Help me create’
We're introducing a new ‘Help me create’ feature that automatically generates AI voiceovers for each scene of your Vid from the AI suggested scripts. | Learn more about Google Vids’ ‘Help me create’ capabilities.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.


Rapid Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 
    For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).
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    What’s changing 

    Getting started 

    Rollout pace 

    Availability 

    Resources 

    What’s changing 

    When constructing a vid, you can easily get started by using a set of generative AI capabilities. Gemini’s ‘Help me create’ can generate a fully editable first draft of your video using a prompt and content from your Google Drive. After choosing a style, Gemini pieces together your vid with suggested scenes, including recommended stock media, text, scripts per scene, and even a background music track. 


    Today, we’re introducing updates to the existing ‘Help me create’ feature. Now, Vids will automatically generate AI voiceovers for each scene of your Vid from the AI suggested scripts.


    With this update, you can: 
    • Eliminate the manual effort of recording “the perfect take” 
    • Gain easy access to a variety of voiceovers that provide you with professional-sounding video narration 
    • Save time matching voiceovers to scenes in your video with automatic audio to scene alignment 
    new ‘Help me create’ feature that automatically generates AI voiceovers for each scene of your Vid from the AI suggested scripts


    AI voiceovers are intended to save you time so you can get to a first draft faster, but you are still able to easily edit your suggested scripts and update your voiceovers in one click, or select from a variety of different AI voices with different pitches and tones to best suit your video’s purpose. 


    Getting started 

    • Admins: Vids will be ON by default and can be disabled at the organizational level. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning Vids on or off for users. 
    • End users:
      • To start, open Google Vids and choose an option to create a new video. You can create a new video or make a copy of an existing video for editing. Visit the Help Center to learn more about getting started with Google Vids. Visit the Help Center to learn more about creating scripts & voiceovers in Google Vids. 
      • You can use Vids on your computer with the two most recent versions of these browsers: 
      • You can access our always-on resources in the Google Workspace Learning Center to learn what you can do with Google Vids. 
      • Currently, Vids is available in the user’s local language, but the AI features (e.g. Help me create, read-along teleprompter) are only available in English at this time. 
      • Note: View and collaborate access is available to anyone with a Google Workspace account, while create and copy access is available for select editions of Google Workspace customers. 

    Rollout pace 


    Availability 

    Available for Google Workspace: 
    • Business Standard and Plus 
    • Enterprise Standard and Plus 
    • Essentials, Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus 
    • Education Plus 
    • Customers with a Gemini Business*, Enterprise*, Education or Education Premium 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 

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    What’s changing


    Who’s impacted 

    Why you’d use it 

    Getting started 

    What’s changing

    Earlier this year, we announced that we’re including the best of Google AI directly into Workspace Business and Enterprise plans without the need to purchase a separate Gemini add-on. In addition, we recently introduced Google Meet and Google Chat AI-powered features to Business and Enterprise editions, and today were excited to add contextual Smart Replies to the list of available features. 

    If you’re short on time or need help finding the right words, Gemini can analyze the context of an email and offer more detailed responses to fully capture the intent of your message. After initiating an email reply, users will see a few response options at the bottom of their screen that take the full content of the email thread into consideration. Hover over each response to get a quick preview of the text, select the one that feels right for the situation, and edit it as you see fit or send the response immediately. 

    Contextual Smart Replies now available for Google Workspace Business and Enterprise editions



    Who’s impacted 

    End users 


    Why you’d use it 

    The contextual Smart Reply feature saves time and makes replying to emails more efficient. 

    Getting started 


    Rollout pace 


    Availability 

    Available for Google Workspace: 
    • Business Starter, Standard, and Plus 
    • Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus 
    These features are already available to Gemini for Workspace add-on customers. Note that as of January 15, 2025, Gemini Business, Gemini Enterprise, AI Meetings & Messaging, and AI Security add-ons are no longer available for purchase. Please refer to this announcement for more details.

    Resources 

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    What’s changing 

    Additional details 

    Getting started 

    Availability 

    What’s changing 

    In addition to NotebookLM and NotebookLM Plus becoming available as a Google Workspace core service for business customers and the recent announcement of Context-Aware Access support for NotebookLM and Notebook LM Plus, we’re excited to introduce new features that improve upon the NotebookLM user experience: 
    • A new interactive Mind Map lets users navigate complex topics in their notebooks, explore new connections  and gain a deeper understanding of their materials. For example, a biology student working on their thesis about Coral Reef Ecosystem Decline might upload research papers and see a mind map of "Ocean Acidification," "Rising Sea Temperatures," "Pollution," and "Overfishing."
    • A new output language selector allows users to choose the output language for generated text within NotebookLM. This means study guides, briefing documents, and chat responses will be generated in any selected  language, making it easier than ever to understand and share work. 

    Who’s impacted 

    Admins and end users (18+) 


    Additional details 

    NotebookLM and NotebookLM Plus are available in 180+ regions where Gemini API is available and currently supports 35+ languages. For Audio Overviews, while you can upload sources from all supported languages, the spoken audio is currently only available in English. 


    Your uploads, queries and the model's responses are not used to train models and are not reviewed by human reviewers or otherwise used for product improvement without permission. Your data remains your data and any files uploaded, queries and responses are not shared outside your organization’s trust boundary. 

    Users can only upload sources from Workspace that they have permission to access. Furthermore, they can control who has access to their notebooks and set more granular permissions within each. 


    Getting started 

    Rollout pace 


    Availability 

    These features are available to NotebookLM and NotebookLM Plus users. 

    NotebookLM is available as a core service for Google Workspace: 
    • Business Starter 
    • Frontline Starter and Standard 
    • Essentials Starter, Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus 
    • Nonprofits 
    NotebookLM is available as an additional service for Google Workspace: 
    • Education Fundamentals, Standard and Plus 
    NotebookLM Plus is available as a core service for Google Workspace: 
    • Business Standard and Plus 
    • Enterprise Standard and Plus 
    NotebookLM Plus is available as an additional service for Google Workspace for Education customers with these add-ons:
    • Gemini Education
    • Gemini Education Premium
    Anyone who previously purchased these add-ons will also receive NotebookLM Plus as a core service: 
    • 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 
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