Google Meet and Google Workspace received a multitude of updates throughout October 2025. Some of the 🔑 key new features include ✨ Ask Gemini in Google Meet, 🗓️ "Help me schedule" in ✉️ Gmail and enhanced Gemini capabilities in Google Sheets, allowing Gemini to perform ✏️ multiple actions and understand 📊 multiple tables from a ✍️ single prompt.
Continue reading to uncover what else is new; or, jump directly to the application that interests you most.
Google Meet
At the start of last month, Google rolled out an update that makes it easier to enable ✍️ “Take notes for me” ahead of upcoming Google Meet calls directly from 📅 Google Calendar and avoids the need to go into the meeting records sub-menu to do so. This can be done either whilst you’re creating a ➕ new calendar event or ✏️ editing an existing one. Enabling “Take notes for me” in advance ensures that the Gemini feature will automatically be on during the 📞 call to capture 📝 meeting action items and 👣 next steps, relieving you from needing to remember to turn it on once the event begins. Previously, the setting could only be accessed from the meeting records page within the video call options menu – meaning it’ll now be more prominent and easier to activate.
You can now ⏱️ set timers during calls directly from the 📹 Google Meet side panel on the 🌐 web; these can help to structure meetings and manage time more effectively. If host controls are off, all participants will have the ability to 🧑💻 control, ⏸️ pause and ✖️ cancel the timers as needed, otherwise only hosts and co-hosts can.
A little later in the month, 💄 AI-powered make-up in Google Meet was introduced. This provides another option for you to be able to touch up and lightly 🖌️ augment your virtual appearance before or during a meeting to help you to feel more confident during video calls. There’s a choice of 12 different make-up looks, all of which are available on both 🌐 web and 📱 mobile and, when applied, will remain in place even as you partially obscure your face with a 🖐️ hand or ☕ coffee cup.
By the end of the month, ⌛ waiting rooms started rolling out in Google Meet. This feature allows meeting hosts to ⚙️👥 manage participants more effectively and prevent mid-meeting interruptions. With waiting rooms, hosts will be able to have participants enter a waiting room before joining the main call, ✅ permit or ❌ deny entry to participants, 🗣️ send one-way announcements and ⏪ move existing participants out of the call and back into the waiting room if needed. Waiting rooms also enable hosts to finalise preparations in the meeting – for example, making sure that slides are being presented properly– without participants showing up too early. Meanwhile, participants will have confidence that they’re in the right place.
✨ Ask Gemini in Google Meet, announced in September, started rolling out to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus, in addition to Business Plus. By referencing 💬 captions, the 📄 Gemini notes document (if enabled), 📂 files you can access and other public information, Gemini can respond to your questions mid-meeting. Gemini can 📝 summarise the conversation, 🔎 identify action items and their assignees that were discussed, 🏃 catch you up on what was missed and respond to other ✍️ direct prompts, acting as your 🧑💻 personal meeting assistant.
💡Note: Ask Gemini in Meet will be on by default and will only, at launch, support meetings in English.
Also, the ability to use ✨ Gemini to generate custom Google Meet backgrounds expanded support for 📱 Android and iOS. Now, regardless of whether you're joining your meeting via the 🌐 web or directly from your 🤳 phone, you’ll be able to generate a 🖼️ personalised meeting background on either device to project a more 💼 professional image, 🧹 maintain a tidy visual environment or 🎨 show a touch of your personality.
To help improve accessibility for a wider range of global speakers, 💬 live captions in Google Meet now support 🇨🇳 Cantonese. When Cantonese is spoken during a meeting, you’ll be able to read what’s being said in real-time on the screen.
Google Workspace
Google Chat
The integration menu in 💬 Google Chat was 🎨 redesigned to help make it even easier and quicker to access apps and perform actions within conversations. Much like a shortcut, the integration menu in Google Chat allows you to type “/” followed by a command or app name to instantly perform the desired action or begin using a Chat app. Alternatively, you can 🖱️ click the “+” button which will bring up the menu with options like 📂 attaching Google Drive files, 🔗 sending a Google Meet link and more.
Google also added the ability to send 🐼 stickers within Google Chat spaces on the 🌐 web. Similar to 😀 emoji, 🎬 GIFs and 🖼️ other media-based content that are already available, stickers provide an alternative way for you to express 🥳 emotion, 👀 add visual interest and 🤪 show your personality in conversations more easily than with just text.
The ✨ Gemini feature that enables you to generate 📝 summaries of shared 📂 Google Docs, Slides or Sheets files directly within Google Chat conversations was enhanced to support Google Chat on📱 mobile. This provides you with a quick overview of the 📁 files’ contents whilst on the go and without having to open the file first, just like the 🌐 web experience.
Gmail
To help make 🗓️ scheduling meetings easier, Google introduced the ✨ Gemini-powered “Help me schedule” feature in Gmail. It will automatically 🕵️ detect when you’re trying to schedule a time to meet with someone via email. It will then check your availability in 📅 Google Calendar and suggest meeting times based on your schedule and the 📝 email's context. The options will then be inserted into your reply as interactive 🔗 links, enabling the recipient to select a suitable time and a calendar invitation to be automatically generated.
💡Note: at launch, “Help me schedule” will only support scheduling between two individuals, not groups.
Gmail's client-side encryption (CSE) now allows you to send end-to-end 🔐 encrypted emails to any recipient, regardless of their email provider, if you are on Workspace Enterprise Plus with the Assured Controls add-on. Recipients can access the messages through a guest account, making the process easier whilst maintaining 🛡️ privacy and 🔑 security.
Google Docs
When prompting ✨ Gemini in the side panel of Google Docs, Gemini will now automatically 🔎 find and create a list of all of the 🔗 linked sources in a document, meaning that you no longer have to manually upload files one at a time when wanting ✍️ writing assistance. This allows you to quickly and easily instruct Gemini to use only the information from those 📑 sources when generating output, ensuring Gemini's response is grounded in the exact context you need and trust.
💡 Note: you’ll still be able to upload other sources to your Gemini prompt in addition to those linked in your document.
Google Sheets
The 🤖 AI Function in Google Sheets now integrates directly with Google Search, allowing Gemini to automatically answer your in-cell ✍️ prompts with up-to-date 🌐 web information. This means that, in addition to 💬 generating text, 📝 summarising information and 📑 categorising data, you can use the AI function to 📈 track market changes, get real-time ⛅ weather reports and more.
There were also a couple of new enhancements to Gemini in Google Sheets that let Gemini perform more actions from a single prompt. Firstly, to help you save time, ✨ Gemini in Sheets can now complete multiple actions at once. This means that, instead of sending your instructions one at a time and waiting for each execution, Gemini will now parse complex requests that require multiple steps; this enables you to use Gemini to perform simultaneous 🖌️ formatting requests, combined 🔬 analytical and structural changes, complex ⚒️ structure updates and 👷 bulk structural edits.
Secondly, towards the end of the month, Gemini became able to understand and analyse data from multiple tables simultaneously. Now, you’ll be able to leverage Gemini to generate 🔢 formulae that reference more than one table, 📊 analyse data and create charts that incorporate data from multiple tables and apply ✏️ changes to several tables at once using a single prompt. You’ll also be able to focus Gemini’s analysis by 🖱️ selecting specific sections within tables, allowing Gemini to analyse only the required data range.
To enhance collaboration within 🔐 client-side encrypted (CSE) Google Docs, Sheets and Slides files, Google began rolling out the ability to react to 💬 comments and 📝 content within these CSE files with 😃 emoji. Emoji reactions provide a quick and easy way to give 👍 feedback, 🎉 express emotion or ✅ acknowledge a collaborator; you’ll be able to add, resolve, delete and re-open emoji reactions just like you can with non-CSE files.
If you use Connected Sheets pivot tables to 📈 analyse your BigQuery data in Google Sheets, you’ll now be able to import up to 200,000 rows of data, double the previous limit. This allows for more comprehensive analysis of larger datasets within a single pivot table. You’ll also be able to create pre-configured extracts of the granular data behind any aggregated value by 🖱️ clicking on the pivot table cell.
Gemini
At the start of the month, Gemini in Chrome became generally available to Google Workspace users on Mac, Windows and iOS. Once activated, the ✨ AI browsing assistant will continue to reference the current browser tab until you deactivate sharing. You can enable sharing to Gemini for your current 🌐 browser tab and up to 10 additional tabs. By sharing your browser tabs with Gemini, you can 🕵️ ask page-related questions, 🔑 extract key insights, 🗣️ engage in two-way conversations with Gemini Live and more.
💡 Note: at launch, Gemini in Chrome will be available only in the 🇺🇸 US and in English.
To help you differentiate between your 🧑 personal and 💼 professional Gemini accounts, when using the Gemini app your organisation’s logo will now appear beside your profile picture. Only 🧑💻 admins will be able to upload the logo; if no logo is uploaded, the text “WORK” or “EDU” will be displayed in its place.
💡Note: logos displayed in the Gemini app will be the same across the whole organisation and will only be visible within your organisation and on the web.
At the end of the month, LaTeX rendering and PDF export capabilities were improved within the Gemini app. You can now generate 📄 PDFs, ✏️ edit formulae and copy the 💬 unrendered LaTeX code. These updates make it easier for those in 📚 academic, 🔬 scientific and 🧑💻 technical fields to create professional-looking documents that include complex formatting.
In order to help make it easier and quicker to create presentations, you’ll now be able to generate 🖼️ presentations directly within the Gemini app using either a ✍️ text prompt or an 🔗 uploaded source. By using 🎨 Canvas in the app, Gemini will automatically create multiple slides based on your chosen topic and include images and a theme. You can then download and use the Gemini-generated presentation as-is or you can further ✏️ edit it (including with 👥 collaborators) in Google Slides.
Google Keep
All existing and future Keep files that include a 🕑 deadline reminder are now automatically saved to Google Tasks, allowing you to manage all of your Google Workspace to-do items from one app. In addition to accessing 🔔 Google Keep reminders through Keep, this update enables you to now 👀 see, ✏️ edit and ✅ complete them from 📅 Google Calendar and ✔️ Google Tasks as well as reference them in the ✨ Gemini app via the Tasks extension.
Google Vids
Additional aspect ratio options are now offered in Google Vids. Previously, creating content in Vids was limited to the standard ↔️ widescreen (16:9) ratio; as of last month, you can also create videos in ↕️ vertical (9:16) and 🔲 square (1:1) formats. With this, you can now create content that's in the ideal format for platforms like YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok. There will soon also be new templates to support these new layouts.
Google Admin Panel
To provide admins more transparency into when Google accesses Gemini App data, Google extended the 📑 Access Transparency, 🧑💻 Access Management and ✅ Access Approvals controls to now cover Gemini app data. Access Transparency will log which data is accessed by Google staff; Access Management can limit which staff have access; and Access Approvals let admins set a requirement for Google to need approval for support-related data access.
Google Chat event logs were expanded to add more 💬 Chat app-related events to help admins gain more 🔎 insight into Chat app usage. This means that, within the logs, admins can now see which apps have been added to what spaces, which apps have been removed and by whom and which of the apps are the most frequently used by people within their organisation. You can access these 📑 logs via BigQuery log export, the Reports API and soon the Security Investigation Tool (SIT).
New 🧑💻 admin controls were implemented for people with the Google AI Ultra for Business add-on. Previously, a monthly 🪙 AI credit limit of 25,000 credits per user was in place. Starting from 1st November, admins can enable users to surpass this limit with an invoice generated at the end of each month to cover additional usage. This update ensures users have continuous access to essential ✨ AI tools, removing concerns about reaching credit limits before their work is completed.
💡 Note: admins can turn the Credit overages setting on or off by OU or group as well as set a maximum limit on how much users are allowed to exceed the limit.
Lastly, some 📑 admin audit log events have been updated to enhance their 💎 clarity and 🕵️ accuracy. These changes will impact various events including 🔐 Account Security, ✉️ Gmail and 📂 Google Drive settings. Updates include modifications to event names, event types and the volume of the affected log events. Consequently, some legacy events may become redundant.
Catch up on September’s updates
Do you want to see what happened in September? You can catch up on all of the updates across Google Meet and Google Workspace in our September 2025 recap.
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