Google is in the middle of unveiling some pretty nifty features tied to the company’s AI and cloud initiatives at its Cloud Next event (which started on April 22nd and runs through the 24th).
Among those exciting announcements are a host of updates set to arrive on Google Workspace apps (Google Meet, Google Drive, Google Sheets, etc.) in the near future and the introduction of Workspace Intelligence. The one that stuck out to most (in our humble opinion) is Google Meet’s AI note-taking feature now having the ability to transcribe and summarize in-person meetings.
Here’s how that upcoming AI-powered Google Meet feature works.
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Taking notes for in-person meetings with the power of Gemini
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
In an official announcement, the company said more than 110 million users have already tried the “Take Notes for Me” feature in Google Meet.
Previously, the tool focused on virtual meetings, automatically transcribing and summarizing conversations held through Meet. Now, Google is expanding that capability to in-person meetings as well. During a face-to-face meeting, users can tap “Take Notes for Me” from the Google Meet home screen on mobile or desktop, allowing Google Gemini to capture the conversation, generate notes and save them directly into a Google Docs file.
The new feature supports spoken conversations in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, though it can only process one language at a time.
Right now, in-person AI note-taking is available on Android devices first, with support for Apple devices and the web coming soon. Access is limited to eligible Google Workspace subscribers on Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus plans. Because the feature is currently part of Google’s alpha program, workplace administrators may need to enable access before employees can use it.
Google also announced several other upcoming Workspace upgrades, including:
- The ability to create and share custom, interactive visualizations like dashboards, heat maps, kanban boards, etc., in the new Sheets canvas.
- Set up “skills” in Workspace Studio to handle a myriad of tasks, such as automating invoice reviews.
- Add branding elements to custom avatars, such as a company logo or backdrop.
- Feature avatars in videos that have been converted from a presentation.
- With the Gemini Enterprise app, being able to schedule Google Calendar meetings and create, view, and edit Docs and Slides directly from the app’s canvas mode.
- Auto-web browsing capabilities in Chrome Enterprise for US Workspace customers.
- A Workspace MCP Server (currently available in preview only) that lets developers integrate Workspace into other AI apps and agents.
- AI agent governance controls, which include an AI control center, agent management, and Workspace Studio controls.
- The option to lock data processing and storage to the US and EU.
- Better company/organization migrating features with the data import feature.
- Upgraded interoperability features, such as redlining in Docs, the AI-powered Office macro converter and Office file editing in Gmail.
Bottom line
Being able to sit in on in-person meetings and have Gemini turn all of its most important action points into an easily readable Google Doc sounds extremely useful.
It also sounds like a godsend for more interpersonal moments (we’re guessing most folks would like to have their AI-note taker jot down everything you, your partner and your wedding planner went over in preparation for the big day).
This Google Meet upgrade will come in handy for all sorts of digital and in-person situations that need to be recorded for future reference.
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