GoKawiil
Tech News
Google has told schools that administrators who want to disable Gemini AI features will also lose access to Google Search within its education accounts. The company frames the move as giving schools greater control over how AI appears in their systems, but the opt-out is bundled with search functionality rather than offered separately.
Google Vids, a browser-based video editing tool launched for business and enterprise Workspace users in 2024, became available to individual users in 2026. The free app lets users start projects from scratch, templates, slideshows, uploaded footage, or AI-generated content using the Veo 3.1 model, and continues to receive regular updates from Google.
Rohit Patel, who spent eight years at Meta and most recently served as a director at Meta Superintelligence Labs, has left the company to start Ndoc, an AI-native workspace meant to replace Microsoft Office and Google Workspace. The product combines presentation, analysis, and underlying data/code into three linked views called Stage, Narrative, and Model, letting users inspect and verify the scripts behind AI-generated documents.
Google has made Gemini Notebook, formerly known as NotebookLM, available as a Connected App within the Gemini chatbot. Users can type @Gemini Notebook or use natural prompts to create, edit, and manage notebooks, add or remove sources, and pull answers from notebook content without leaving the chat. The feature is rolling out to Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers, and personal Google account users.
Anthropic has released Claude for Google Workspace in public beta for all paid Claude plans, letting users access Claude from a sidebar inside Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. The company also launched new connectors that let Claude create and edit Google files directly from within Claude itself, covering tasks like editing text, building spreadsheet formulas and charts, and generating slides matching a deck's theme.
Google has detailed Gemini Spark, an AI personal assistant first announced at its May I/O conference, that can take background 'proactive action' on tasks assigned by users. It works across Google Workspace apps including Docs, Calendar, Slides and Gmail, and draws on Personal Intelligence to tailor suggestions using data from a user's Google apps. Example uses cited include building an email style guide from past responses or setting up an internship tracker.
Nudge Security reports that employees create an average of 88 OAuth app grants each, with 31 granting access to sensitive data. These grants often persist long after they are no longer needed, posing security risks. Managing and reviewing these permissions manually is increasingly difficult for IT teams.
Anthropic has released a Google Workspace add-on that lets Claude directly edit files in Docs, Sheets, and Slides rather than requiring users to copy and paste text back and forth. The beta is available now for Claude Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise subscribers, and includes connectors that let Claude create or edit Google files from within the chat interface itself. Users can choose between an 'Ask before edits' mode requiring approval or an 'Accept all edits' mode that lets Claude work unsupervised.
Nikkei revealed that unknown hackers accessed two employee email accounts, one of which was used to send thousands of phishing emails in September. The breaches involved a Google Workspace account in July and a Microsoft 365 account in September, prompting the company to change passwords and warn staff about ongoing threats. No customer or reader data was affected in these incidents, according to Nikkei.
Google Docs offers dark mode on its mobile app but not on the web version, leaving a gap between platforms despite frequent feature updates including Gemini-powered AI tools. Users seeking a dark interface on desktop must rely on workarounds rather than a built-in setting.
Google has made generally available a feature allowing Android-based Google Meet room hardware to join Microsoft Teams calls, and Android-based Microsoft Teams Rooms to join Google Meet meetings. The rollout began October 1 and is reaching eligible Google Workspace customers within one to three days. The feature applies only to dedicated meeting-room devices running Android/AOSP, not to the Meet or Teams apps on phones or tablets.
Google published a phased schedule for replacing Gemini Gems with a new feature called Skills across Workspace and the Gemini app. Skills rollout begins October 2026, Gems move to a Settings panel by November 2026, and full removal of Gems is set for March 2027 for business/enterprise users and June 2027 for education accounts, with remaining Gems auto-migrated to draft skills.