Google Docs can now edit Markdown files, and Meet translates speech in 63 languages
Google's October Workspace Drops bring several AI changes to tools many teams use every day. Google Docs and Google Drive can now open, preview and edit Markdown (.md) files, with comments and version history. Gmail Live lets you search your inbox by voice, and Docs Live turns spoken ideas into a structured draft such as a project brief or a summary.
In Google Meet, real-time speech translation now covers 63 languages, in any combination. Each person on the call turns it on for themselves, and Meet translates the speech and captions into their preferred language. "Take notes for me" now starts with Quick notes, a one-page summary of decisions and next steps. The full notes and transcript are still in the document's tabs.
Sheets gets more too. Fill with Gemini and the AI function now cite web sources for the cells they fill, and one request can cover up to 3,000 cells. Google says the updates are rolling out to Workspace customers now.
What it means for your work
- If you write prompts or docs for AI tools: Keep them as Markdown files in Drive and edit them with your team in Docs, with no file conversion.
- For calls across languages: Try speech translation in Meet with one colleague first, and check how it handles names and numbers.
- For meeting follow-up: Read the Quick notes page right after the call, then open the full notes when a decision needs its context.
- In Sheets: Open the cited sources before you use cells that Gemini filled.
See our Google Meet review for more on Meet.