Google to give enterprises control over beta Workspace feature rollouts

July 3, 2025 Yanac

Google is adding a new feature that allows system administrators to control when users try out beta features in Workspace.

The features in Workspace typically pop up silently within menus and interfaces, but some companies might want a slower rollout. “As an administrator, you can choose whether your users can try out early general availability Google features or wait until after they’re released by selecting a release track,” Google said in a support document.

There are two paces at which the beta features can be rolled out. A “Rapid Release” track will make new features available to users immediately. A “Scheduled Release” track allows enterprises to roll out new features at a gradual pace.

The latter will be available starting July 15.

“Your users get new features at least one week after they’re released to Rapid Release domains,” Google said. “This gives you more time to prepare your organization for changes.”

Google isn’t alone in tweaking how updates are rolled out. Microsoft, for instance, has also made changes to how Microsoft 365 support updates are done. The company is encouraging enterprises to adopt more frequent software updates.

Microsoft and Google are rapidly pushing out new generative AI (genAI) features for their productivity suites. Microsoft has close to 1,000 new M365 features under development, with most involving Copilot. For its part, Google maintains a weekly feature release calendar, with most of the new features based on Google’s Gemini AI model.

The companies are hoping to get users on to genAI features quickly and collect feedback from them to develop more functionality and automation tools in the productivity suites.

Google this week also made Gemini available in Google Docs on Android devices in more than 20 languages. The company also released its genAI video tool called Vids to Workspace for Education customers.