Google continues to introduce new Cloud and Workspace features designed to help you work smarter, collaborate more effectively, and save time. Explore the latest updates, including new AI-powered capabilities and productivity enhancements that can streamline your daily work at Berkeley Lab.
Here are a few of the key features and updates, but you can check the Google Workspace blog for additional updates.
Import and create combo charts in Google Sheets
Google Sheets now makes it easier to build and work with combo charts, giving you more flexibility when visualizing complex data.
New chart options—including Clustered Column–Line, Clustered Column–Line on a Secondary Axis, and Custom Combo charts—allow you to display multiple data series with different scales and metrics in a single chart. This makes it easier to compare related data without manually adjusting or recreating your visualizations.
Google has also improved compatibility with Microsoft Excel. Previously, importing Excel files with combo charts that used a secondary axis could result in those settings being lost. With this update, Google Sheets preserves combo chart types and secondary axis configurations during import, helping ensure your charts look the way they were intended.
Collaborate More Easily with External Partners in Google Chat
Google Chat now makes it easier to collaborate with colleagues and partners outside of Berkeley Lab by supporting group conversations with external users.
Previously, external collaboration was limited to one-on-one chats or Chat spaces with external access enabled. With this update, you can create group conversations that include multiple external participants, making it simpler to coordinate projects and communicate in real time without creating a dedicated Chat space.
No additional setup is required. External participants receive an email invitation and can join the conversation once they accept. To help users easily identify conversations that include people outside the organization, group chats with external members are clearly labeled with a visible badge.
Refine Your Gmail Drafts with More Personalized AI Editing
Google has expanded Help me write in Gmail, giving you greater control over how AI refines your email drafts.
In addition to preset options like Polish, Formalize, and Shorten, you can now provide your own custom editing instructions using the prompt bar. Whether you want to add a missing detail, adjust the tone, clarify a point, or include a deadline, simply describe the change in your own words and Gmail will instantly update your draft.
You can also undo or redo edits as you refine your message, making it easier to experiment until your email says exactly what you want. The new custom refinement feature helps you create polished, personalized emails faster—without having to rewrite your draft from scratch.
Gemini Alpha is now Gemini Beta and NotebookLM is now Google Notebook
Google has renamed its Gemini Alpha program to Gemini Beta, a change intended to better reflect the maturity, scale, and quality of the features introduced during this stage of development. The update is branding only and does not affect customer configurations, data privacy protections, pricing, or existing administrative controls. Read more here.
Google has also renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook. While it remains a standalone product focused on being your premier research tool, the new name reflects how it will evolve to do more across the Google ecosystem. Read more here.
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