Google Updates Recap: December 2024
2025 is just around the corner. 2024 has brought a great number of features and improvements, and we’re anticipating some even greater and deeper improvements in 2025. We hope everyone has a great holiday season!
Table of contents
- Google Calendar & Tasks
- Google Chat
- Google Drive & Docs Editors
- Apply black & white filter to Google Drive scans on Android devices
- A smoother, more modern video player in Google Drive
- Easily respond to comments and access requests without leaving Google Chat with the auto-installed Google Drive Chat app
- Google Slides
- Google Vids
Google Calendar & Tasks
View Tasks lists on the Google Calendar Android app
Last year, Google Tasks received a full-screen view in Google Calendar. Now, you can access your Google Tasks lists on the Google Calendar app on Android devices as well.
Feature Availability: This feature is now available.
Google Chat
Reducing noise from unfollowed threads in Google Chat
Threads you do not follow in Google Chat will no longer appear in bold text and at the top of your conversation lists to provide a more focused experience on the threads that matter to you.
For more information about following or unfollowing threads, visit: Use threads in Chat spaces – Follow or unfollow a thread.
Feature Availability: This feature is now available.
Google Drive & Docs Editors
Apply black & white filter to Google Drive scans on Android devices
On your Android device, when scanning a document using the Google Drive app, you can now select a black & white filter to make the important elements on the document stand out clearly against the background.
For more information about scanning documents using the Google Drive app, visit: Scan files as PDFs with your mobile device – Android – Google Workspace Learning Center.
Feature Availability: This feature is now available on the Google Drive app for Android.
A smoother, more modern video player in Google Drive
Google Drive now has an improved and modernized video player for playing video files. Some specific changes include:
- A modernized look with cleaner lines, intuitive controls, and a less cluttered viewing experience, all in line with Google Material Design 3.
- Improved controls for fast forward and rewind buttons that give you more control over playback. In addition, it is now easier to adjust playback speed and manage captions.
- Consistency across Workspace through similar video experiences in Google Drive and Google Vids.
For more information and playing and storing video files in Drive, visit: Store & play video in Google Drive.
Feature Availability: This feature is now available.
Easily respond to comments and access requests without leaving Google Chat with the auto-installed Google Drive Chat app
The Google Drive app for Google Chat is now automatically installed for all, making it easier to receive notifications. This app allows you to:
- Reply to or resolve comments in Docs, Sheets and Slides, which includes the ability to mention your colleagues easily while replying.
- Choose the appropriate access level (e.g. viewer, commenter, editor) for share requests.
- See when you’ve been mentioned in Docs, Sheets or Slides using Chat’s “Mentions” shortcut.
- Easily block a sender or report abuse from the Drive Chat app’s notifications when they come from a user outside of your organization.
While this new app will be automatically installed, you can easily manage notifications, mute or uninstall the app at any time by going to the three dot overflow menu.
Feature Availability: This feature is currently rolling out and is anticipated to be available on or before January 15, 2025.You can access this feature right away by installing the Google Drive app in Google Chat by following the instructions here: Use the Google Drive app for Google Chat.
Google Slides
Introducing a refreshed library of high-quality Google Slides templates that elevate your presentations
A new selection of Google Slides templates are now available to aid you in creating a professional.presentation. Some examples include:
- Sales pitches, product roadmaps and strategic plans templates for business users.
- Lesson plans, book reports and project reports templates for education users.
- Milestone celebrations, workshop facilitation and team game templates for anyone looking to build collaborative teams.
Reminder: Though these templates are available, university-approved branding should be used where appropriate, especially in public- or external-facing presentations.
To access these templates, you can select the new Templates button in the Slides toolbar or by going to Insert → Templates.
Feature Availability: This feature is now available.
Google Vids
Google Vids is now available!
In our November 2024 features update post, we discussed the arrival of Google Vids, a new video editor and generator powered by Google’s AI, Gemini.
Google Vids is now rolling out widely to VCU. There are several ways to get started:
- From Google Drive, click New, then Google Vids
- Go to https://vids.google.com for the main Google Vids hub
- Go to https://vids.new to instantly start a new Google Vids file
If you’re not seeing this feature yet, it may take a few additional days to become accessible.
For more information about Google Vids, see our previous blog post linked above and visit Google’s help page: What you can do with Google Vids – Google Workspace Learning Center.