January 2025: Google Meet and Google Workspace Update Recap

Google Meet

January saw the introduction of two interoperability updates for Google Meet Hardware. The first update will enable you to change the meeting layout whilst using Zoom and Google Meet interoperability. This means that Google Meet Hardware users can choose between gallery or speaker views in Zoom meetings, and supported Zoom Rooms devices can choose between tiled, spotlight or sidebar views in Google Meet calls. Being able to change the meeting layout gives you greater control over your viewing experience and can help you stay focused and engaged during meetings.

The second interoperability update allows you to join Zoom and Webex calls from your Logitech devices running Google Meet in appliance mode. Beginning in February, native interoperability will be supported on the full range of Logitech’s Android-based devices for Google Meet: Rally Bar, Rally Bar Mini and Rally Bar Huddle. This update means that now all Google Meet Hardware has support for Zoom and Webex interoperability, breaking down platform barriers and providing more ways to talk to people across platforms regardless of your meeting room setup.

In other Google Meet Hardware news, you can soon use Comeen and StratosMedia digital signage content as screensavers on your Google Meet Hardware devices. This means you can display custom messages, images or branding on your Google Meet devices when they’re not in use for meetings. Admins can easily set screensavers from these third-party providers directly from the Google Admin panel.

Additionally, Google Meet Hardware devices can now trust HTTPS certificates from private certificate authorities (CAs). This allows organisations to set up Q-SYS systems more easily and affordably across their larger meeting spaces, such as boardrooms, town halls and training spaces, without needing to go through the more expensive and complex process of obtaining certificates from public CAs. It lowers barriers to entry for using Q-SYS on your meeting room touch controller interface.

Google also introduced the Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN) On-Premises API in January. This enables organisations with additional security requirements to leverage the bandwidth-saving benefits of eCDN 📽 livestreaming in Google Meet whilst ensuring IP information is kept private and is not shared with Google.

Google Workspace

Gemini

In January, Google announced that ✨ Gemini ✨ features will now be integrated into Google Workspace Business and Enterprise plans without the need for a Gemini add-on. The existing Gemini add-ons – Gemini Business, Gemini Enterprise, AI Meetings & Messaging and AI Security – have been discontinued. This means that with your Workspace plan, you can leverage a range of AI-powered features to get more done across Workspace without requiring a separate add-on. Some of these features include:

• 📝 “Take notes for me” in Meet
• 🔊 Adaptive audio in Meet
• ✍ “Help me write” in Gmail and Docs
• 🖼 “Help me create an image” in Slides
• 💬 Conversation summaries from Home in Chat
• ✨ The Gemini side panel across Gmail, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides
• ➕ … and many more!

As part of this transition, you will also gain access to additional features in the Gemini app, including Workspace 🧩 extensions and 💎 Gems, along with 📓 NotebookLM Plus – an enhanced version of Google’s AI-powered research assistant.

Later in the month, the ability to ask Gemini to generate images in the side panel of Google Workspace apps, such as Gmail, Google Docs and Drive, started rolling out to more languages. This means that, in addition to English, you can write a prompt in 🇫🇷 French, 🇩🇪 German, 🇮🇹 Italian, 🇯🇵 Japanese, 🇰🇷 Korean, 🇵🇹 Portuguese or 🇪🇸 Spanish and ✨ Gemini ✨ will create several custom images that can be easily inserted into your content.

Google Drive

An improved experience was introduced to the Gemini side panel in 📂 Google Drive in January. Specifically, whilst viewing PDFs, you can now access the Gemini side panel from within the same preview window without opening a new tab. This makes it easier to switch between files and get Gemini’s help on tasks, such as summarising information, answering questions and generating new content based on your PDFs.

On the same day, admins gained the ability to prevent anyone, regardless of their file access role, from unauthorised downloading, copying or printing of sensitive Google Drive files with enhanced Information Rights Management (IRM) settings for Data Loss Prevention rules. This means admins can now apply restrictions to all file roles: 💼 owners, ✍ editors, 👀 viewers and 💬 commenters.

In addition, when working on large files that are stored locally, Drive for desktop now only uploads the parts of the file that have been edited for faster synchronisation times. This ensures that everyone with whom you’re collaborating will have access to the most up-to-date version of the file more quickly, minimising the risk of working on outdated versions.

Google Sheets

New features started rolling out to the Gemini side panel in Google Sheets to make analysing data faster and easier. Specifically, you can soon ask Gemini questions about your data and it will provide insights, including identifying trends, patterns and correlation between variables. Gemini will also be able to generate 📊 charts to help you visualise these trends, which can be inserted into your spreadsheet as static images.

Gmail

When you receive an event-related email in the Gmail 📱 mobile app, such as a 🍝 restaurant reservation, 🎟 ticket confirmation or 🦷 dentist appointment, an updated summary card will now appear above the email content with helpful information. Depending on the type of event, the card will show a summary of relevant details such as date, location, seat number and more. You can also take quick actions directly from the card, including adding the event to your 📆 Google Calendar or getting 🗺 directions to the venue.

Apps Script

Google updated its OAuth consent screen to give users more control over what data third-party apps are allowed to access. Instead of authorising all of the requested permissions to run a script, users can now choose to grant only a subset of the requested permissions.

Google Admin panel

Admins can now customise the Chrome Web Store experience for users in their organisation. Specifically, they can add branding, curate collections of approved or recommended 🧩 extensions and hide specific extension categories. This gives admins more control over what users can see and helps users quickly find and use relevant extensions.

Stay Tuned for February's Updates

We look forward to seeing the updates that February and the rest of 2025 will bring. Stay tuned for a round-up of February features here on the Gecko blog. In the meantime, keep up with the latest Google Meet and Google Workspace developments by following us on LinkedIn and subscribing to the monthly 🦎 Gecko newsletter.