In this video we build a Chat app as a Google Workspace add-on with Apps Script and extend it to other Workspace applications (Calendar, Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides).
To see this new framework in action, Pierrick Voulet from the Google Developer Relations team has released a fantastic video tutorial, ‘Build a Chat app as a Google Workspace add-on with Apps Script’.
The ‘OOO Assistant’: A Practical Demonstration
The video centres on building an ‘Out-of-Office Assistant’ that can block out the user’s Calendar for the day and set a Gmail out-of-office auto-reply. The real magic is how this Chat-based logic extends into a full Workspace Add-on, available in the sidebars of Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides. This is achieved with minimal code changes, primarily by configuring the appsscript.json manifest to include:
A homepageTrigger to display a UI card in the add-on sidebar.
universalActions that reuse the exact same functions (blockDayOut(), setAutoReply()) originally built for the Chat quick commands.
The video provides a complete overview of the process, and you can get hands-on with the shared code yourself. For more technical details, check out the official Extend Google Chat documentation.
Amit is a Google Workspace developer, the founder of Digital Inspiration, and a Google Developer Expert. He has published multiple Google Workspace Add-ons to the Workspace Marketplace and they have a combined 46 million+ installs.
Looking to create successful Google Workspace Add-ons? Chanel Greco (Google Workspace DevRel) recently interviewed Amit Agarwal (Founder, Digital Inspiration), who shared valuable insights for aspiring developers.
Amit Agarwal highlighted several critical areas for add-on development success:
Solve Real Problems with Great UX: Focus on addressing specific user needs with a clean, intuitive interface. A compelling first-run experience is key.
Build Trust with Documentation: Provide clear, comprehensive documentation and tutorials. A detailed privacy policy is crucial for user trust and smoother Google reviews. Prompt communication with Google during review is also important.
Smart Business & Future Focus: A freemium model can drive adoption. Keep an eye on future trends like AI integration to enhance your add-on.
Engage the Community: Participate in the Google Developer Community and programs like Google Developer Experts to learn and grow.
To find out more about these areas and more, check out the full interview.
I was thrilled to be invited by Chanel Greco (Google Workspace Developer Advocate) to join Vinay Vyas (Software Engineer, Google) and Steve Bazyl (Developer Program Engineer, Google) for a Developer Spotlight session recorded at Google Cloud Next ‘25.
We explored the exciting evolution of Google Workspace development, focusing on the tools and technologies shaping the future of automation and AI integration.
What We Covered:
The Rise of Flows for Workspace Automation: We kicked things off discussing the potential of Flows, a powerful new tool Google had just announced which is designed to simplify task automation in Google Workspace. We explored how developers can tap into its potential by building custom actions, including integrating with Vertex AI [01:17].
Extending Capabilities with Apps Script: Your existing Apps Script skills remain crucial! We discussed how they empower developers to extend Flows capabilities as the product evolves [02:08], offering significant opportunities within this user-centric automation tool [01:52].
Workspace as an Integrated Platform: Learn about the ongoing efforts to enhance connectivity with third-party services [02:35] and how add-ons (including Chat apps deployed as add-ons [03:32]) are key to keeping users productive within the Workspace context [02:52].
The Gemini Effect on Development: Hear our experiences with Gemini 2.5 and its significant impact on code development, particularly for Apps Script [05:29]. We discuss its impressive ability to generate substantial, high-quality code for complex tasks [06:35].
AI Agents & The Future: We explored the concept of AI Agents powered by Gemini within Google Apps Script for automating tasks using natural language and discussed the exciting prospects for deeper Gemini integration directly within Apps Script [14:41]. I checky asked Steve if there was going to be a Gemini Advanced Service for Apps Script (you’ll have to watch the video to find out the answer :).
Why Watch?
If you are interested in understanding the future direction of Google Workspace development, this discussion hopefully provides some practical perspectives and explores exciting possibilities.
There are nine updates highlighted in this month’s Google Workspace Developer News. The news that caught my eye the most relates to updates to the Google Drive API and upcoming changes to My Drive folders with restricted access.
Google Drive API: Managing Folders with Limited and Expansive Access
Google recently announced that by 2026, it will stop allowing restricted access on specific files and folders in My Drive, instead consistently managing it via the limited access folder setting. These changes will align the My Drive experience with Shared Drives, which use an expansive access model where everyone sees the same items in a folder. For developers wanting to get ahead of the curve, there are several new fields that can be used. The Google Workspace Developer News episode gives an overview of these, and there is a new Google Developers Documentation guide on Manage folders with limited and expansive access. In summary:
Restricting Folder Access: To limit access to a folder, developers can set the boolean inheritedPermissionsDisabled field on the files resource to true.
Opt-in API Behavior: Developers can also opt in to expansive access API behavior in My Drive ahead of any future mandatory enforcement by setting the enforceExpansiveAccess request parameter to true on the permissions.delete() and permissions.update() methods.
Other Updates
Here’s a brief overview of the other updates covered in the Google Workspace Developer News video:
Google Meet API Enhancements: All meeting participants can query conference data, including the conference records, the conference artifacts, and the participant records, using the Google Meet API.
Google Meet Pre-Configurations: Auto-recording, auto-transcripts, and “take notes for me” can now be pre-configured within a meeting space when created. This feature is available through the Developer Preview Program.
Google Meet Media API: The Google Meet Media API is now available through the Developer Preview Program, granting access to real-time media from Google Meet conferences.
Reports API Updates: Google Chat now supports the customerUsageReports.get() and userUsageReports.get() methods for the Reports API.
Chanel Greco is back with more exciting news for Google Workspace developers in the latest Google Workspace Developer News video. As always Chanel is able to pack in lots of detail in under 4 minutes, and if you prefer text over video here are the highlights!
Spreadsheet Class Gets a Boost:
The Apps Script Spreadsheet class has received a handy new method: getSheetById(). This allows developers to directly fetch a sheet within a spreadsheet using its unique ID, simplifying sheet management within scripts.
Transparency for Calendar Events:
Developers can now control the transparency of Google Calendar events programmatically. The new functionality allows setting an event as TRANSPARENT (showing the calendar as Available during that time) or OPAQUE (showing the calendar as Busy). This granular control enhances calendar integration and automation possibilities.
Deprecation Notice:
While new features are welcomed, it’s also important to note deprecations. The getUrl() method for CellImage, CellImageBuilder, and OverGridImage classes within the Apps Script Spreadsheet service is now deprecated. This change reflects the fact that an image’s source URL isn’t consistently accessible regardless of the image insertion method.
Workspace Policy API Goes GA:
A significant announcement for Workspace administrators is the general availability of the Workspace Policy API. This API enables programmatic access to over 60 Google Workspace Admin settings, making auditing and monitoring the Workspace environment more efficient.
Open-Source Drive Picker on NPM:
The Google Drive Picker web component has been published to NPM, making it easier for developers to integrate the Google Picker API into their web applications. This open-source component, designed as a reusable custom HTML element, simplifies the process of adding Google Drive file selection capabilities to web projects.
Chat App Enhancements:
For developers working with Google Chat, there are several exciting updates, primarily available through the Developer Preview Program. These include:
Quick Commands: Users can interact with Chat apps more quickly and efficiently using quick commands, which invoke the app directly without requiring slash commands or additional input.
AppCommandPayload for Slash Commands: Chat apps built as Google Workspace Add-ons now utilize AppCommandPayload instead of MessagePayload for handling slash and quick commands.
Carousel Support: Chat apps can incorporate carousels to display scrollable collections of items, further enhancing the user experience.
Announcement Space Management: Developers can programmatically create announcement spaces and manage space permission settings using the Chat API with App Authentication.
Expanded UI Widget Library: More Google Workspace Add-on UI widgets are now available for Chat apps, providing developers with a richer set of tools for creating interactive experiences.
Stay Up-to-Date:
To learn more and explore these features in detail, visit the Google Workspace Developers YouTube channel and check the video description for links to relevant documentation.
Chanel Greco is back with Episode 12 of the Google Workspace Developer News. An exciting update is that Google Sheets now supports smart chips for link previews to third-party resources. This now allows developers to create Google Workspace Add-ons that can pull information from their app directly into Sheets.
Other updates include:
The Chat API can now create announcement spaces and read/update space permissions.
New widgets for card-based Chat app interfaces are generally available.
Chat API Space & Membership management with App Authentication is available for Developer Preview Program members.
The Chat API can manage custom emoji when enabled for a Workspace organization.
The Meet Add-ons SDK can now retrieve the meetingCode property of an ongoing meeting.
More details including links to the documentation are included in the YouTube description.
A slightly shorter Google Workspace Developer News episode this month from Chanel Greco (Google Workspace, DevRel). New features for developers include using the Google Docs API or Apps Script to create and organize documents with tabs. Google Meet Add-ons now have the ability to end collaborations programmatically. Google Chat apps have expanded card interface features, such as Material Design buttons and ChipList widgets.
Lastly, developers are encouraged to use Cloud Client Libraries when calling Chat API for improved efficiency. You can find out more about all these updates by following the source link.
I’m continually blown away by how much information Google Developer Advocate Chanel Greco squeezes into the Google Workspace Developer News video updates. It’s also great to see the continued development of features and services Workspace developers can use. This video covers a number of updates including:
Using the Tasks API to manage tasks assigned from Google Docs or Chat spaces.
The general availability of multiselect menus and columns for Google Workspace Add-ons.
Using the Chat API to make a Google Chat space discoverable to specific users within an organization by creating target audiences.
Authenticating Chat app requests using Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, or an App URL ID Token.
Importing spaces from other messaging platforms and allowing external users to join them.
The Google Drive API now supports the drive.meet.readonly scope.
Google Workspace admins can restrict which URLs Apps Scripts and Sheets can source external content from.
The video description includes all the related documentation links to find out more.
Episode 5: Welcome to the Google Workspace Developer News! Find out what’s new on the Google Workspace Platform.
Here are the latest Google Workspace developer updates compiled by Chanel Greco. The standout feature is the integration of Google’s Dialogflow CX (a powerful natural language understanding platform) with the Google Chat API. This lets developers build chat apps that truly converse with users. Access is currently available through the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program.
The video spotlights more exciting updates to the Google Chat API. Interactive widgets (like thumbs up/down icons) can now be placed at the bottom of messages, boosting user interaction. Additionally, the formattedText field supports bulleted list markup, making it easier for apps to organize information.
Finally, Google Apps Script gets a boost too! The new LinkPreview Class in the Card Service grants control over link titles, visuals, and how they’re displayed within smart chips.
Click the source link for a deeper dive into these updates and find helpful resources in the video description!
Episode 4: Welcome to the fourth edition of the Google Workspace Developer News! Find out what’s new on the Google Workspace Platform.
Another great summary of Google Workspace Developer News put together by Chanel Greco from the Google Workspace DevRel team. The update includes information on:
Google Meet API and Google Workspace Events API now generally available: These APIs enable developers to programmatically create and manage meetings, and subscribe to meeting events.
Google Chat apps now support Google Apps Script’s Card Service: Developers can now use Card Service to build user interfaces for Chat apps.
Subscribe to Google Calendar changes: you can now get push notifications for a specific calendar events, such as working location, focus time, or out-of-office events
