Google Workspace

04.07.25. Google Workspace Gets AI Agents - Gems



Google Workspace now has its own AI agents called Gems (short for Gemini, because they run on the Gemini model). Each one can be customized to perform a specific task in Google Docs, Sheets, Drive, Slides and Gmail. For example, Google says, if you're a sales manager, you can "create a Gem that can help you find insights about a specific company, prospect or industry." Gems can be accessed in Workspace by clicking the "Ask a Gemini" button in the upper-right corner of a document. This will open a panel that contains both pre-loaded Gems and an option to "Create a Gem" (Google has a separate help document on how to do this).


2025. Google Workspace adds automation flows



Google is adding new AI features to Workspace. One of them - Workspace Flows is a tool designed to automate multistep processes such as updating spreadsheets and digging through documents for information. Flows can tap Gems, Google’s brand of custom AI-powered chatbots, to handle specialized tasks and it can also integrate with apps like Google Drive to retrieve data. You can simply describe what you need in plain language and Workspace Flows will design and build sophisticated, logic-driven flows. Google has recently eliminated additional fees for AI workspace features, though it did increase the price of Workspace plans. Also, Google Docs will soon get the ability to convert drafts into podcast-style overviews (like NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews) and revise snippets of copy.


2024. Google adds new video creation app Vids to Workspace


Google, in its usual style of sneakily revolutionizing everything while pretending it's all perfectly normal, has just rolled out Vids, a shiny new toy for its Google Workspace toolbox. It's essentially a sleek, user-friendly video-making contraption built for the grown-up world of professional presentations—because who wouldn't want their work to look like it was made by a film director? Vids lets users effortlessly craft slide presentations on a linear timeline and pluck content straight from their trusty Google Drive. But the real twist comes in the form of Gemini AI, a sort of all-knowing, invisible assistant that's happy to help with everything from writing scripts to narrating them for you and even digging through stock footage like a pro archivist. Oh and it can conjure up custom imagery too, just in case reality isn't quite enough. Right now, only a lucky few Workspace users are testing it out, but by next summer, expect your office to be buzzing with AI-powered video magic.


2023. Google’s Duet AI becomes a meeting assistant, doc summarizer, and chat companion



Google is making its generative AI-powered assistant, Duet AI, widely accessible to organizations using Google Workspace. Previously tested with numerous companies, Duet AI is gaining new functionalities, serving as a meeting assistant, a Google Chat chatbot, a document summarizer and enhancing personalization in Gmail's smart replies. Available through a no-cost trial, Duet AI enables users to generate presentations by utilizing text, charts and images from relevant content in Google Drive and Gmail. For example, a financial analyst could streamline the process of summarizing Q3 performance by instructing Duet AI to analyze Google Sheets, P&L Docs, Monthly Business Review Slides and pertinent emails from sales leads. Another use case sees Duet AI being added to Google Meet to help you look your best with studio look, studio lighting and studio sound.


2021. Google Workspace is now free for everyone



Google Workspace — the company's suite of business tools previously known as Google Suite — is now free, and available to everyone. Making the switch to Workspace will give users a more integrated experience. They'll get smart suggestions in emails, and be able to show a document in a Google Meet call with one click. Central to this new experience is Google Chat (formerly Hangouts), which is now available for everyone and can be turned on in Gmail's settings. With Chat, you'll be able to create group chat experiences, which are currently called Rooms but will be "evolved" to Spaces over the summer. Spaces will bring several new features, including in-line topic threading, presence indicators, custom statuses, expressive reactions, and a collapsible view, all of which sounds a lot like Slack, only integrated inside of Gmail. Finally, Google also launched Google Workspace Individual ($9.99), which is a new subscription option for individual small business owners. It has several premium features on top of Google Workspace, such as smart booking services, personalized email marketing, and pro video meetings.


2020. Google rebrands G Suite as Google Workspace



Google Workspace is a new name for all of Google's productivity apps, including Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Meet. According to the company, Google Workspace isn't just a new brand identity (even though that's a big part of it), but it will also offer a deeper integration between individual apps, helping "teams collaborate more effectively, frontline workers stay connected, and businesses power new digital customer experiences." Some of these integrations have already happened — remember when Google put Meet into Gmail — but more are coming soon.


2019. Google Docs gets an API for task automation



Google opened a new API for Google Docs that will allow developers to automate many of the tasks that users typically do manually in the company’s online office suite. The REST API was designed to help developers build workflow automation services for their users, build content management services and create documents in bulk. Using the API, developers can also set up processes that manipulate documents after the fact to update them, and the API also features the ability to insert, delete, move, merge and format text, insert inline images and work with lists, among other things.


2018. Google Sheets gets smart macros recording


Google has launched a major update to Google Sheets. With this update, Sheets users can now record macros. The new “record macros” feature, which sits in the Tools menu, does exactly what you think it should do. You simply start your recording, go through your usual steps and when you’re done, all it takes to repeat all those steps is to run the macro again. In the backend, Sheets actually converts your macro into Apps Script code, which also means that if you want to dive a bit deeper or make a small change, you can edit that script.


2014. Google Docs allows to edit MS Office files without conversion



Google made it possible to edit Microsoft Office files directly in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, so you can open and edit those documents in their native format using Office Compatibility Mode. No need to buy additional software or think about how to open your file. The Docs, Sheets and Slides mobile apps come with Office editing built right in, and with the Chrome extension, you can edit and share files directly from Google Drive or Gmail. Another new feature -  Suggest Edits in Docs. It lets you do just that: your team can make suggestions that you can accept or reject with a single click.


2014. Google launched standalone Docs and Spreadsheets for iOS and Android



Until now, all Google's document editors for mobile devices were available in the single app called Google Drive. Ok, they remained there, but recently Google also launched standalone apps Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets (for iOS and Android). The presentation app is coming soon, and will be called not Google Presentations, but (for a change) Slides. Maybe, you could think that thus Google wants to unlink the editors from Google Drive and let users edit files not only from Google Drive, but any other documents stored on your smartphone/tablet. But no! In the new apps you still can't open a document without uploading it to the Google Drive cloud storage. So for while there is not so much sense in these standalone apps.


2013. Google discontinues YouTube, adds revolutionary features to GMail and Google Apps


Google continues to close good services and invent stupid things. Youtube was very useful service for business. It was the primary channel for video marketing and hosted a lot of training videos. But it turned out that Youtube - was just a contest to define the best video in the history, and now when the contest is over - Youtube will be closed. In order to compensate this loss Google introduced two big updates for GMail and Google Apps. The first of them - Gmail Blue - it's the new revolutionary inbox interface that is completely blue. Blue buttons, blue icons, blue text. They say it's the interface of the 21st century (see video above). And the Google Apps adds "Levity" mode, which makes calendars, messages and documents more interesting and relaxing and increases the efficiency of team work. Video: ***


2013. Google Forms adds real-time collaboration


Google added multiuser real-time collaboration to its online forms editor Google Forms. This feature is already available in all other Google office apps: Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, Google Presentations and Google Drawings. Now, when creating a form, you can invite one or more co-workers, control who is currently helping you to build the form, what field he is editing (each user has different color), communicate in chat and comments. In general, after the recent update Google Forms turned into the world's best tool for conducting employee or customer surveys. It allows to add any any kind of fields (text, checkboxes, radio-buttons, lists, tables ...), select a template, embed form to your site, collect the entered data into a spreadsheet or view it on a graphical report.


2012. Google Docs - on its way to offline



Some day Google Docs will fully support offline access on all computers and mobile devices. But apparently, it will be no earlier than in two years. Because Google likes to delight users with more happy news about the motion of Google Docs to offline. At a recent Google I/O conference the company proudly announced that Google Docs now works Offline! What does it mean this time? The service really now works Offline - but only in the Chrome browser. And to make it work you need to ... install Google Drive app for Chrome. Those readers that are following our news may say that about a year ago we already reported that Google Docs work offline in Chrome. But then it was about viewing documents, and this time - you can edit docs and even post comments. The changes will be synchronized with the online account once the internet connection appears. And for now you can only edit text documents and spreadsheets. Editing presentations will be obviously the next big news.


2012. Google Docs for Android adds real-time collaborative editing


Google continues to improve its office suite and it's not trying to race with MS Office for the rich functionality, but improves what it does best - collaboration tools and mobile access. Today the new version of Google Docs for Android has appeared and it allows to collaboratively edit documents on smartphones and tablets in real-time. As usual, each user is assigned a certain color, so you can see who's editing text at the moment and where he is now. In addition, the new version improves the user interface features - zoom, copy/paste and adds new formatting tools: bold text, lists, font color. The good news is that all of these new features will work in older Android versions - up to version 2.1


2012. Video: Google Docs vs SkyDrive


Microsoft continues to troll Google services with funny videos. At this time, they take on Google Docs. According to the scenario a group of young co-workers wants to creat a document and starts working on it in Google Docs. Naive guys don't know that Google Docs are only suitable for simple tasks and drawing a planetary system in Google Docs - is impossible. But it's possible in Microsoft SkyDrive. Even not in the Skidrive itself (it also can't do such complicated formatting) but in the desktop MS Office, that can edit the document simultaneously with the online SkyDrive editor. Note that Microsoft has removed the title Windows Live Office, which was used from the start to refer the online office, and now is using SkyDrive (that formerly was used to refer only the file storage).


2011. General Motors moves to Google Apps



According to the latest insider information, GM is already about to move from their current collaboration system Lotus Notes to Google Apps. It's about 100 thousand seats. At first this information appeared earlier this month - when the Wall Street Journal reported that Google and General Motors signed a preliminary agreement according to which GM will test Google Apps and Google has to meet some additional requirements. But GM haven't made the official statement yet. If all goes well, then Google will update its personal record on the SaaS project size. So far, the largest Google Apps customer is Valeo - 30 thousand users. And of course, it's a big victory for the SaaS market. But it's not clear yet what additional requirements GM presented to Google. Won't Google transform the service in favor of big business and make it less usable for small business?


2011. Google Apps Mail gets read receipts



Google Apps for Business gets a new interesting feature - the read (i.e. open) notification. It works this way: you send a message and if you don't receive the reply for a long time, you can open the message and check whether the recepient has read it or not. The notification can be enabled by Google Apps account admin for all users and works only for internal communications (within the domain). Thus, you can make internal collaboration more strict and possibly more effective. Because employee, that sends an important task via email can control its reception and if necessary can call the recipient and ask to check the mail.


2011. Google Docs gets Comments 2.0



"Great documents come from great discussions" - this idea inspired Google developers and they have created the new cool commenting system. At the moment it's available in Google Docs, but we hope that soon it will appear also in other Google services (Sites, Groups, Reader, Buzz ...). We can't say that it is something revolutionary but the developers took the best from Facebook, Twitter, somewhere else and created quite nice and convenient commenting system. First of all, it can be used as a context chat - in the right column near the document. Comments appear in real time and can be used to communicate with colleagues while editing the document. ***


2010. Google Docs gets OCR and Google Chrome - PDF reader



Google adds new office tools for working with documents. First is text recognition (OCR) in Google Docs - it can recognize text on images and PDF-files. Besides English, it supports French, Italian, German, Spanish. Second is the plug-in for viewing PDF files in the Google Chrome browser (you can add it on the page chrome: / / plugins). Thus, Google consistently continues its friendship with Adobe (after adding the default Flash support in Chrome).


2009. Google Apps Connector for Blackberry Enterprise Server



Since Google decided that Apps ***