Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - September 26, 2025

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 A summary of announcements from this week:The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.Upcoming Change to Drive Sharing PermissionsEarlier this year, we announced that we would be updating the access experience in Google Drive. With this update, we will stop allowing restricted access on specific files and folders within a shared folder, starting September 22, 2025. Limited access should instead be managed consistently via the limited access folder setting. | Learn more about the sharing permissions changes. Introducing new Gmail notification features on Android and iOS devicesWe're making it quicker and easier to manage your emails on mobile with two new features: You can now use the "Mark as Read" feature directly on your Android device to clear a notification. Also, sender avatars are now available on iOS devices. | Learn more about the new notification features. Build a deeper understanding of a topic with Learning Guide in Notebook LMWe're introducing a new “Learning Guide” option that encourages participation with probing, open-ended questions. Instead of just giving answers, it helps you break down problems step-by-step and adapts explanations to your needs, building a deeper understanding of the subject. | Learn more about Learning Guide in Notebook LM. Refine Google Chat messages with Gemini to communicate with confidence and clarityYou can now use Gemini to refine messages you’re composing within Google Chat on the web. Gemini can help you improve clarity, conciseness, and accuracy in wording, grammar, and spelling. This can be particularly useful when composing an important message to a large space or a senior stakeholder, or for users communicating in a second language. | Learn more about refining messages in Google Chat.  Generate data with AI function in Sheets now available in seven additional languagesEarlier this year, we announced AI function in Sheets. You can use the AI function to prompt Gemini to generate text, summarize information, categorize data, or analyze sentiment at scale with generated content appearing directly in the cells you choose. Now, AI function is available to users in Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, and German. | Learn more about the new languages for AI Function. AI-Powered app summaries in the AppSheet Admin consoleAdmins with an AppSheet Enterprise Plus can now ask Gemini to generate a summary of an app owned by their organization. The will enable admins to more quickly understand the purpose and capabilities of any AppSheet app. | Learn more about AI-powered app summaries. Limited promotion of expanded access to AI features in Google Vids for Education Plus and Teaching and Learning usersEarlier this year, we announced expanded access to Google Vids, bringing basic access to Google Vids to all Google Workspace for Education users. Now, we’re excited to announce the following AI features are available to users with an Education Plus or Teaching & Learning add-on license for a limited time*. | Learn more about expanded access to Vids AI features. Reporting rules are now activity rulesTo simplify the admin experience for creating rules and monitoring alerts, we are combining reporting rules with activity rules: Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Education Plus, Cloud Identity Premium, Chrome Enterprise Premium and Enterprise Standard customers will retain all the functionality of the activity rules experience and can now also create rules without thresholds. | Learn more about activity rules. Gemini in Google Sheets now provides smarter, more conversational formula generationEarlier this year, we made it easier to generate charts and insights using Gemini in Google Sheets. Building on that momentum, we’re excited to announce a significant enhancement to formula generation in Gemini for Sheets. Specifically, we've upgraded Gemini to include detailed natural language formula explanations, provide formula error explanation and self-correction, and to output multiple formula options. | Learn more about improved formula generation in Google Sheets. Create videos from your existing Google Slides presentations using Gemini in Google VidsEarlier this year, we announced the first iteration of the ability to turn existing Google Slides content into engaging videos using Google Vids. Now, we’re expanding that functionality to include Gemini-generated scripts, AI voiceovers, and background music. This makes it easier and faster to transform your existing content into a shareable, engaging video. | Learn more about creating Vids from Slides. Educators can now create and assign NotebookLM and Gems in Google ClassroomsOver the last year, we’ve brought the capabilities of Gemini to Google Classroom to support new ways of teaching and learning. A few months ago, we expanded Gemini in Classroom to help educators use AI for their common teaching tasks. Today, we’re making it possible for educators to use Google’s NotebookLM and Gems to create teacher-led AI experiences for students of all ages in Google Classroom. | Learn more about creating and assigning notebooks and Gems in Classroom. Generate stories using Gemini with Read Along in Google ClassroomStarting today, educators will be able to use Gemini to create their own stories with Read Along in Classroom, in addition to the existing ability to upload their own content into Read Along as part of the assignment creation process. Now, with the help of Gemini, educators have an enhanced ability to further customize their students’ experience and differentiate their instruction by generating content specific to students’ needs. | Learn more about generating stories using Read Along. Configure up to 20 conditional notifications per Google SheetLast year we introduced conditional notifications in Google Sheets, which allow users to create custom rules in spreadsheets that send email notifications when certain criteria are met. Now we are expanding rule limits for conditional notifications from 10 to 20 rules per spreadsheet. | Learn more about the increased conditional notifications limit. Gems in Gemini Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI™) is now rolling outWe’re excited to announce the launch of Gem integration with Gemini Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI™). This will mean that third party Learning Management Systems (LMS) Canvas by Instructure and PowerSchool Schoology Learning will be able to use Gems. | Learn more about Gems in Gemini LTI. Updates to Gmail log eventsTo support more granular incident investigations and to expand access to this critical security data, we’ve made a few changes to the Gmail Audit Logs. 1. Addition of the Gmail log events to the audit and investigation tool. 2. Addition of the Gmail log events to the AdminSDK Reports API. 3. Gemini Data Access Logging for Gmail log events.  | Learn more about updates to Gmail log events.