Welcome to this month’s recap of Google updates that are available now, or will be available shortly, within Google Workspace in Glow accounts.
What’s new?
Google Meet adds more screen reader options for in-meeting reactions
To improve access for users with vision disabilities, Google are adding several more options for how reactions in Google Meet are experienced through screen readers. You can access and adjust the settings at any time during the meeting by pressing Shift+R or from the Settings menu (Three-dot overflow button > Settings > Reactions > Accessibility). The following settings have been added for in-meeting reactions:
- Don’t announce reactions: No announcements or sound when a reaction is received.
- Play a sound for all reactions: Play a sound when a reaction is received.
- Announce all reactions: Announce only the emoji when a reaction is received, for example “Thumbs up”.
- Announce all reactions and senders: Announce the emoji and who sent the received reaction, for example “Elisa Beckett and 2 others reacted with thumbs up”.
Release date: extended rollout from 3 February 2025
Visit the following Google links for more information:
Easily convert data to people chips and update chip format in Google Sheets
Similar to the functionality in Google Sheets that helps you easily convert data to dropdown chips, you can now use bulk chip conversion for people chips. If you have a column of data that includes a variety of emails, Sheets will show a “Convert to people chips” suggestion when you click into your data range. By hovering over that indicator, you can preview the suggestion and then convert your data to people chips in one click.
In addition to the default format of display name, within the Format menu, you will now be able to update the format of your people chips to one of the following:
- Last name, First name
- Email address
Release date: gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on 3 March 2025
Visit the following links for more information:
Improving the cover images experience in Google Docs
Last year, Google made it easier to personalise and differentiate documents with full-bleed cover images that extend from one edge of your document to the other. Since then, many users have added cover images to help set the tone for a document, and today Google are announcing the following updates:
In addition to the “Choose from stock photos” and “Upload from computer”, insertion options, users can now add images via:
- Searching the web
- Uploading from Drive
- Importing from Google Photos
- Pasting a URL
The addition of 100+ new stock images to provide users with more options. The stock image gallery will also include filtering options for categories like art, food, and abstract.
Release date: extended rollout from 11 February 2025
Visit the following Google link for more information:
Additional improvements to everyday actions in Google Sheets
To improve the ability for users with screen readers and other assistive technology to read and navigate PDFs, Google is adding more structural and accessibility tagging in PDFs exported from Google Docs. This will improve tagging for paragraphs, headings, hyperlinks, image alt text, and lists.
Release date: this is now a live feature
Visit the Help Centre to learn more about using Google Docs with a screen reader.
