What you need to know
- Google’s massive August Workspace drop provides updates that aim to get users caught up to speed quicker with better insights.
- Chat grabs a “summarize this file” feature, which supports multiple types, including Microsoft Office files, while Meet hosts get to choose who gets post-meeting notes.
- NotebookLM picks up Video Overviews, an AI-generated video that’s fully narrated with imagery and more, based on your content.
- Google Vids picks up Veo 3 for image-to-video generation capabilities, while the Vids Editor arrives for all consumers at no cost.
Google’s Workspace suite of apps is picking up a huge update late in August that’s focusing on delivering better information and getting users up to speed faster.
The company’s extensive update blog post details everything users will find in Workspace late this month. Insights and getting up to speed are the name of the game this month, and that’s all starting with Google Chat and Meet. Where would Google’s updates be without Gemini‘s intelligence, which is reportedly bringing summarization capabilities to the two apps.
The post highlights Gemini’s ability to summarize files attached to texts in Chat, like PDFs, Microsoft Office files, text files, and more. Soon, you should notice a “summarize this file” button beneath content sent by others in Chat. Additionally, Meet’s “Take Notes with Gemini” gets a new option that lets the host decide who gets a summary of the conversation after it’s over.
AI-powered insights are getting a boost in Docs and Forms. For the latter, Gemini can now “summarize form responses” for the creator. The company states its AI will take into account the form’s title, description, question, and responses for comprehensive “major themes and takeaways” using response data.
Users on Android and iOS are finally receiving AI-generated in Docs.
NotebookLM’s Video Overviews
NotebookLM, Google’s intelligent note-taking companion for studying, picked up video overviews. The post states users can use their documents, slides, and charts, funnel them into the app’s AI, which will turn them into a narrated video with imagery and more. Google says users can customize and guide NotebookLM, similar to its audio overviews with AI narrators.
Users can tell the AI what the purpose of the video is and who it’s for, and what they’re most interested in learning about from the content they provided.
Joining this update is a revamp to the NotebookLM Studio panel. This lets users upload multiple audio overviews to a single notebook.
Filling out PDFs digitally just got a whole lot easier with Gemini, too. Google states its latest update in Drive lets users “directly fill out and save PDFs with digital form fields in Drive.”
Google Vids says hello to Gen AI
Veo 3, Google’s latest image-to-video generation model, is arriving in Vids. Through this, like in other apps, such as the Gemini app, users in Vids can create eight-second clips based on a photo they’ve uploaded. Users can lean on photography shots, stock photography, and their prompts to create the right video for their needs.
AI Avatars were highlighted in May, around the time of I/O 2025, and those are also getting a small update. Now, creators in Vids can create a script, pick the right avatar, and let that AI creation deliver their message. If you’re delivering the message yourself, Google states its “automatic transcript trim” can help you shave away filler words, weird pauses, and more with just a few clicks.
Google announced that its Vids editor is available now “to all consumers” at no cost.
While these two updates for Vids are arriving in “general availability,” Google is just too excited, as it “pre-announces” a new upcoming feature. Soon, the post states creators will have access to “sizing formats,” creating videos in portrait, landscape, and square formats.
Additionally, if you’re just getting started with Vids and you’re unsure where to begin, Google’s new YouTube series, “Vids on Vids,” is there with instructional content to get you going.
