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Tech News
Google has extended its 'Take notes for me' feature in Meet with a new 'Quick notes' function that generates a one-page, high-level summary of a meeting with bullet points and checklists. The summary appears on the main tab of the auto-generated Google Doc, while full detailed notes remain available on a separate tab, and the same summary is emailed to participants.
A Wonder Tools newsletter roundup highlights 20 Google Docs capabilities that many regular users overlook, including voice typing, instant translation, smart chips, and AI-assisted proofreading. The piece frames these as practical productivity boosts hidden within a tool most people already use daily.
Instructors at the University of Baltimore's writing program are moving away from surveillance-style tracking of student edits in Google Docs toward assignments that deliberately incorporate generative AI. Using the university's BoodleBox platform, faculty built chatbots with personas like the 'Confrontational Parent' for students to debate in simulated scenarios, such as a mock school board meeting on book bans. New assignments now require transcripts of chatbot conversations, handwritten outlines, and video reflections alongside traditional writing.
Google has launched Gmail Live, Docs Live, and Keep Live, letting users speak naturally to search emails, draft documents, and organize notes instead of typing. Gmail Live can pull answers from across multiple emails in a conversational back-and-forth, Docs Live builds structured documents from spoken ideas while pulling context from Gmail, Drive, Chat and the web, and Keep Live turns rambling thoughts into organized notes and lists. The features are rolling out now to eligible Google AI subscribers, with Workspace availability expected soon.
Google has begun rolling out Gmail Live, Docs Live, and Keep Live, conversational AI tools that let users speak to these apps to find information, draft documents, or take notes. Users can ask Gmail Live to surface details buried in email threads, have Docs Live turn spoken descriptions into structured documents, and dictate notes naturally to Keep Live. The features, first shown at Google I/O in May, are now live globally in English on mobile, with availability varying by subscription tier and platform.
Google has introduced a new feature in Google Vids called 'Docs to Video,' which lets users convert PDFs, Google Docs, and Word files into narrated video summaries. The tool generates a script from the document's content, adds AI voiceover, and pairs it with AI-generated images and backgrounds, with options to edit the script or change the narrator's voice.
Google announced that Pics, its AI-powered image generation and design tool first revealed in May, is now widely available rather than limited to select testers. Access requires a Google AI Pro or Ultra plan, an AI Pro for Education subscription, or select Workspace Business and Enterprise tiers.
Google introduced Google Pics, a new design tool for Workspace users that combines Gemini with its Nano Banana image model to generate and edit 'professional-grade' visuals. It launches as both a standalone app and an integration inside Docs and Slides, with Drive support coming soon, letting users select objects or text within images and edit them via prompts.