February was filled with many updates and new features that rolled out across Google Meet and Google Workspace. Key updates from last month include 🔀 native interoperability between Google Meet Hardware and Microsoft Teams Rooms, 🔊 audio summaries in Google Docs, general availability of 🗣️ speech translation in Google Meet and expanded access to advanced ✨ AI features with a new Google Workspace add-on.
Continue reading to uncover what else is new; or, jump directly to the application that interests you most.
Google Meet
At the beginning of last month, Google and Microsoft announced that they were bringing native interoperability to Google Meet Hardware and Microsoft Teams Rooms. By mid-February, you were able to start joining Microsoft Teams calls on ChromeOS-based Google Meet Hardware and joining Google Meet calls on Windows-based Microsoft Teams Rooms without requiring any third-party apps.
💡 Note: Pexip Connect is currently the only way to join Microsoft Teams calls on Android-based Google Meet Hardware and to join Google Meet calls on Android-based Microsoft Teams Rooms, offering a premium experience with enterprise-grade controls. If you would like to discuss whether you can use the native interop experience or should deploy Pexip, get in touch with us.
💬 Google Meet speech translation moved out of alpha and started becoming generally available to Google Workspace, allowing you to hear near-real-time speech-to-speech translations during a call in a voice similar to the speaker’s. Currently, you can use the feature to translate between English and 🇫🇷 French, 🇩🇪 German, 🇮🇹 Italian, 🇵🇹 Portuguese or 🇪🇸 Spanish.
In Google Meet on the 🌐 web, it’s now possible to view the 🖼️ shared content in a new window. This separates it from the main Google Meet call and allows you to move the presented content to another 🖥️ screen or to simply rearrange the windows, making it easier to see the content and participants in a way that works better for you.
Near the middle of February, Google added a new ⚙️ setting that enables you to stop newly-deployed Google Meet Hardware from being able to join calls. This can be useful during the 🧰 installation phase to ⛔ prevent unauthorised users from accessing privileged meetings.
A couple of updates to ✍️ “Take notes for me” in Google Meet began rolling out last month. Firstly, from the 🟢 green room, you’ll soon notice improved visibility of when “Take notes for me” is active and, if you have the required permission, you will have easier access to buttons to disable "Take notes for me" and transcription for the call you are about to join. Secondly, a new ⚙️ admin setting is becoming available for organisations in the ✨ Gemini Alpha programme, allowing you to automatically activate the AI note-taking feature for any meeting with three or more participants within the organisation or for individual organisational units (OU).
Google Workspace
Google Chat
Figma in 💬 Google Chat was launched in the middle of last month. With this add-on, it’ll now be easier to collaborate, reference and preview your 📂 Figma files directly within 🚀 Chat spaces. You’ll also be 🔔 notified of invitations and can ✍️ reply to comments directly within Chat, helping you to stay on top of any changes.
Gmail
Last month, Google added ✉️ Gmail’s Proofread feature to more Google Workspace plans, expanding access to a wider range of users. This feature enables Gemini to provide suggestions for refining your 📝 email drafts, offering help with ✅ spelling and grammar, 🗣️ active voice, ⚒️ sentence structure and more.
Google increased the 📂 file size limits for sending and receiving 🔗 direct attachments in Gmail. The limit for sending files is increasing from 25MB to 50MB for organisations with Workspace Enterprise Plus, meaning that you’ll be able to send ⬆️ higher resolution files, 🖼️ larger presentations and more, directly by email. This offers an alternative to uploading large files first to Google Drive. The same organisations will also be able to receive emails of up to 70MB, helping to ensure that attachments from external senders can be successfully received.
Google Drive
At the end of the month, the iOS 📽️ video player experience in Google Drive was updated to match the 📱 Android and 🌐 web experience. When watching Drive videos on your iOS device, you’ll now notice a more modernised look that's in line with Google Material Design 3 and features improved controls.
From the Chrome browser on your computer, you can now 💾 save 📃 PDF files directly to Google Drive with the 🖱️ click of a button. Every PDF saved using the new button will be automatically placed into a dedicated 📂 “Saved from Chrome” folder within Drive, allowing you to 🔎 find them all easily when you need them. From that folder, you can then 📑 reorganise, 🏷️ rename or ✏️ edit the file as needed.
Google Calendar
Around the middle of the month, Data Loss Prevention (DLP) rules for 📅 Google Calendar were introduced in beta form. Once DLP is available, you’ll be able to set rules for calendar event details such as the title, location and description, helping to prevent the accidental sharing of 🔐 sensitive information that may be contained within invitations.
Google Docs
Last month, you could begin 👂 listening to summaries of your 📄 documents in Google Docs. Generated with ✨ Gemini, 🔊📝 audio summaries allow you to quickly catch up on – or gain insights from – your documents. You’ll be able to incorporate content from 📑 multiple document tabs into your audio summary to provide you with a comprehensive overview. Just like in other Workspace apps, you can personalise the 🗣️ voice and ⏩ playback speed of the summaries to suit you.
Google Sheets
In mid-February, Google began rolling out the ability to generate 📑 data forecasts directly inside Sheets using BigQuery ML and TimesFM. The new feature allows you to predict future sales, demand or other business metrics based on your BigQuery data using a pre-trained model that doesn’t require any additional coding. You’ll be able to ✏️ customise the parameters, 🕵️ perform granular analysis and get automatically-generated 📊 charts to easily visualise the trends.
Then, towards the end of the month, two new functions were added to Sheets, =SHEET and =SHEETS. These functions allow you to perform calculations based on the ⚒️ structure of your spreadsheet. The =SHEET function returns the tab number of a specified sheet name or reference whereas =SHEETS returns the total number of tabs in the entire spreadsheet. Both functions are dynamic and will update if you add, delete or reorder your tabs.
Google Forms
Google then expanded ✨ Gemini’s capabilities within 📋 Google Forms, adding a new 🖱️ “See theme percentages” option that will allow you to generate quantitative data about the different themes present in your ✍️ text responses using the AI Function in Sheets. When prompted, Gemini will 🕵️ analyse and 📑 categorise all of the written responses into different themes and display the percentage and count for each theme automatically in 📊 tables and charts within a new Google Sheets file.
Gemini
As of last month, you can now generate custom 30-second 🎶 soundtracks using Lyria 3 in the Gemini app. You’ll be able to create your desired soundtrack using a combination of ✍️ text prompts and 🖼️ referenced images. You can use the feature to create soundtracks in 🏴 English, 🇫🇷 French, 🇩🇪 German, 🇮🇳 Hindi, 🇯🇵 Japanese, 🇰🇷 Korean, 🇵🇹 Portuguese and 🇪🇸 Spanish.
Google Chat was integrated into the Gemini app during the last week of February as a data source within the app. This means that, when ✍️ prompted, Gemini can cross-reference your Chat conversations to help you 🔎 retrieve specific project details, 📝 summarise missed discussions, ⌛ track projects and more.
Gemini in Chrome was added to Chromebook Plus devices in the 🇺🇲 United States for both Google Workspace users and personal accounts. This means that more users can now leverage the AI browser assistant, sharing browser tabs with Gemini to 🕵️ ask page-related questions, 🔑 extract key insights, have 💬 conversations with 🎙️ Gemini Live and more.
The Gemini app's 🖼️ image generation model was updated to 🍌 Nano Banana 2. The new model incorporates advanced features previously exclusive to Nano Banana Pro, at faster speeds. In addition, Nano Banana 2 offers improved subject consistency for 🧟 characters and objects, more 🕵️ precise adherence to complex instructions and a 👀 visual fidelity upgrade with vibrant lighting, richer textures and sharper details.
Google also announced that Gemini conversation history will soon be available directly within the side panel of Google Workspace apps such as 📄 Docs, 📈 Sheets and 🗃️ Drive. The history will be stored per-application, keeping your Docs conversations separate from your Sheets conversations. Starting last month, 🧑💻 admins could configure the deletion history controls in preparation for the rollout in March. Options include letting users manually delete their own history or setting a retention period for auto-deletion.
Google Vids
The 📜 read-along teleprompter, ✂️ transcript trim and 💬 styled captions features in 📹 Google Vids began rolling out to all users last month. They were previously only available to select users. Enhanced access to advanced features makes it easier for everyone to create more engaging videos.
At the end of the month, new 🧑 2D and 3D cartoon-styled avatars were added to Vids, allowing you to create a more diverse range of videos that can have a lighter tone or be more appealing to a younger audience in education spaces. On the same day, Google began rolling out an update that meant that 🤖 AI avatars and 🗣️ AI voiceovers will be supported in seven additional languages. This enables you to create videos with these features in 🇫🇷 French, 🇩🇪 German, 🇪🇸 Spanish and more.
Google also announced that, starting in March, the maximum length for any 📹 Vids project, 🔴 recordings and 📥 imported media clips will be increasing. Once rolled out, you’ll be able to create 30-minute video projects, record up to 30 minutes of video or audio directly within Vids and import up to 95-minute (4GB) media clips for ✏️ editing.
Google Groups
Last month, an option was introduced to grant members in a group more ✏️ editing control in Google Groups. Previously, only owners and managers had permission to make changes to group details. Soon, members of a group can be given ✅ permission to edit the group’s name or description without needing to be promoted to a manager role. Meanwhile, all group members will now be able to 👀 view the group’s settings page.
To enhance 🔐data protection, Google announced that, later in the year, Google Groups set to “Internal” will no longer be able to include anyone outside of your organisation. Groups that currently have external guests with the ⚙️ setting for “Allow members outside your organisation” disabled will be automatically updated and reclassified as “External” to help prevent any access issues. To help keep the group secure, new external guests can then only be added to the group by 🧑💻 admins.
💡 Note: Google recommends that you check your settings prior to the update as the new classifications could mean that you experience some script errors if groups were created with APIs.
Google Workspace add-on
A new AI Expanded Access add-on was launched at the start of the month. It provides you with higher usage limits for advanced AI features across Google Workspace apps, compared with what’s available as part of Workspace plans, including the 🖼️ image generation model 🍌 Nano Banana Pro, the 📹 video generation model Veo 3.1, ✨ Gemini 3 Pro and more. The AI Ultra Access add-on (formerly called Google AI Ultra for Business) is also available if you require even higher usage limits.
Google Admin Panel
In mid-February, Google added 📊 new metrics to the Gemini reports located in the admin panel. These reports now offer 🧑💻 admins insights into how users are adopting and utilising Gemini features within Google Workspace. With access to both organisation-level and user-level reports, admins can understand the different ways Gemini is being used within the business. The reports include usage data categorised by 👥 active users, 💼 Workspace apps and ✨ specific features.
Catch up on January’s updates
Do you want to see what happened in January? You can catch up on all of the updates across Google Meet and Google Workspace in our January 2026 recap.
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