Google Workspace review: week of September 25, 2026

Two announcements stand out in the week of September 25, 2026 for organizations that administer Google Workspace. The Admin console gains temporary administrator roles, a genuine security gain available on every edition. And the new Meet “Take notes for me” settings take effect on September 29, a default-behavior change every admin should verify. The rest of the week mixes useful Sheets refinements, Gemini building blocks and third-party integrations.

Temporary administrator roles in the console

Temporary administrator roles let you assign a role to a user, group or service account for a defined period, with automatic revocation at expiry. A super admin picks a predefined duration such as 30 days or a custom date. The feature is available to all Google Workspace customers, with no premium edition required, which is rare and welcome. This is the first setting we would enable, because it removes the permanent privileges granted “for a project” and then never withdrawn. The primary admin account stays excluded, which makes sense. The announcement complements our essential Admin console settings, where we already recommended limiting super admins.

The Meet “Take notes for me” settings take effect September 29

Since September 29, 2026, the new Meet settings add a third option: enable automatic note-taking only for meetings with three or more people. The point to watch is the default behavior, ON for Business Standard and Business Plus, OFF for Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Frontline Plus. A small company on Business Standard can therefore see note-taking switch on with no action of its own, with privacy and consent implications you should not ignore. End users also get an equivalent setting for their own meetings. Check the real state in the console before someone is surprised by a summary generated without their knowledge.

IMAP email import during setup

Email import from any IMAP server reaches general availability: an admin connects an IMAP server with an address and password, then the import runs in the background during setup. Google lists Hostinger, Zoho, Yahoo and iCloud among the compatible sources. The limit matters: this version imports one user at a time, which reserves it for very small switchovers or pilot migrations, not a full enterprise migration. For a real switchover project, this stays a complement, not a substitute, for a proper migration plan such as the one in our step-by-step migration guide.

Manual calculation in Google Sheets

Manual calculation lets you pause automatic recalculation, batch your edits, then trigger a full update when you are ready. Google aims it at dense sheets with extensive formula networks, scenario modeling and volatile functions such as random generators or live timestamps. For most spreadsheets, nothing changes and automatic calculation stays the right setting. Teams that handle large financial models, however, gain real comfort by avoiding intermediate recalculations on every paste. A late parity with Excel, but useful where it serves.

Reorder and custom sort pivot tables

Sheets now lets you drag, drop and manually sort rows and columns in a pivot table, instead of only ascending or descending alphanumeric order. The custom arrangement survives sessions, data refreshes and filters. The concrete value lies mostly in Excel interoperability: custom sort orders are preserved on both import and export, whereas they were lost before. For anyone exchanging workbooks with Excel users, that is one less friction. There is no admin control; the feature reaches users directly.

Three time zones in Google Calendar web

Google Calendar web now displays up to three time zones side by side, a primary, a secondary and a new tertiary, with custom labels on the grid and in the Find a Time scheduler. This is a niche but well-targeted improvement for executive assistants and project managers who coordinate teams spread across regions. Moving from two to three zones revolutionizes nothing, but removes one more mental conversion. With no admin control, it arrives on the web on its own.

Quick notes in “Take notes for me”

Quick notes become the default tab of the document generated by Take notes for me: a single-page summary limited to decisions, action items and key points, also featured at the top of the summary emails. The Full notes tab keeps the complete detail for those who want to dig in. Google positions this view for executive profiles who want the essentials without reading the full record. There is no dedicated admin control beyond the existing Take notes for me settings, which points back to the default-activation caution above. A presentation refinement, not a change of substance.

Ground Google Docs prompts on a Gemini Notebook

Google Docs can now use a Gemini Notebook as a context source: by typing “@” in the side panel, you reference an existing notebook and Gemini grounds its output on those sources, with inline citations. It is the logical extension of the grounding approach we described for Google Workspace Studio automation and Gemini in Workspace. Availability is clear: Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, Education Plus, with Gemini for Workspace in Drive enabled. For teams that already structured their sources in a notebook, this is the expected bridge between research and drafting.

Gemini study notebooks on Workspace accounts

Study notebooks, which turn Gemini into a learning space with personalized lessons and progress quizzes, reach school and work accounts, provided the admin enables the Gemini app and Gemini Notebook. The natural target stays education and internal training, where grounding on course materials makes sense. For an organization that does no structured training, the interest is marginal. It is a relevant addition for schools and training teams, dispensable elsewhere.

Confluence for Google Chat

The Confluence integration in Google Chat, part of the Atlassian add-on, brings rich link previews, mention and comment notifications, and change alerts for shared pages directly into Chat. It targets teams that keep Atlassian as their knowledge system of record while collaborating on Chat. The admin installs the add-on, but each user needs a Confluence account. Useful if you already live in Confluence, of no interest otherwise, filed with the other ecosystem bridges.

Occupancy counting on Logitech room hardware for Meet

Occupancy counting reaches Android-based Logitech Gen 2 room hardware, starting with the Rally Board 65, with data reviewable and exportable in the console. Processing is local on the device and Google states no personally identifiable information is collected. The feature is off by default and enables at the domain, organizational unit or group level. It interests organizations that optimize their rooms and real estate, a large-estate topic more than a small-office one. Support for Gen 1 devices is planned next year through a CollabOS update.

Workday for Google Sheets

The Workday for Google Sheets add-on connects Workday Adaptive Planning to Sheets and Slides, with natural-language summaries, anomaly detection and ad-hoc reports wired to the “Ask Workday” feature. The value is real, but strictly limited to organizations already running Workday Adaptive Planning, a large-organization profile. For everyone else, this add-on is moot. Worth noting only if Workday is part of your finance stack.

Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash in Google Vids

Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash in Vids improves video scene extension with better character and audio consistency, adds precise duration control and 1080p generation or upscaling, rolling out since September 23, 2026. Availability is broad, from Business Starter to Enterprise Plus. AI video generation stays a marginal use for most organizations, more marketing than daily productivity. A welcome step for those already producing videos in Vids, incidental for the rest.

Import PowerPoint to client-side encrypted Slides (beta)

Converting PowerPoint files to client-side encrypted Slides enters beta: .pptx files are encrypted on the client before import, then converted to high-fidelity encrypted Slides, through the CSE Office Interop beta program. Availability is narrow, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Plus, Frontline Plus, Assured Controls and Assured Controls Plus, on sign-up to the program. It concerns only organizations bound by client-side encryption requirements, a regulated or sovereign context. Useful and expected for them, off-topic for others, and in beta anyway.

Read also

• Google Workspace Backup: why and how to back up your cloud data
• Google API Keys and Gemini: Audit Your Exposure with gcloud
• Google Workspace: keep your data in Europe with data regions

Do your admins grant access “for a project” and never remove it? The new time-limited roles and the default-on Meet settings deserve a review of your console. Book a call to take stock.