Google Meet adds Gemini 'next steps' that draft a follow-up email and add action items to Google Tasks

Google has added "next steps" to Google Meet: post-meeting automations that, in its words, help "transform meeting discussions into definitive actions, like drafting follow-up emails in Gmail or exporting action items to Google Tasks". It announced the feature on its Google Workspace Updates blog in a post dated 12 October 2026, and says the rollout started on 5 October.

What it does

Google says next steps are "Powered by Gemini and Workspace Studio". There are two to start with: "draft a follow-up email and add action items to Google Tasks". The post adds that "there are several more soon on the way", but does not name them.

After a meeting, Google says to look on the post-meeting screen for a section titled "Routines for this meeting", where you can turn a next step on "with one tap". Its Help Center adds that suggested next steps "vary or might not appear, depending on the content and settings of your meeting."

Who gets it

The post lists these editions:

• Business: Business Standard and Plus
• Enterprise: Enterprise Standard and Plus
• Education Add-ons: Google AI Pro for Education

The Help Center says the feature "is available for work or school Google Accounts". Google does not list personal Google Accounts.

When

For both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains, Google gives an "Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) started on October 5, 2026". It gives no completion date, so it may not have reached your organisation yet.

What admins need to know

Google says: "This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled at the domain/OU/group level via the Workspace Studio Admin settings or the Take Notes for Me setting."

On our reading, "on by default" means the option is available to users unless an admin turns it off. The Help Center describes each next step as something a user turns on themselves.

What you need as a user

Google's Help Center lists these conditions:

• Smart features in Google Workspace turned on.
• "Take notes for me" and Ask Gemini turned on during the meeting. The blog post says "Take notes for me" "must be enabled during the meeting for any next steps to appear."
• "The meeting must be part of a Google Calendar event."
• "You need to be on a computer."

The follow-up email has extra conditions. You "need to be the meeting host", "The meeting must not be part of a repeating series", and "At least one meeting participant needs to be outside of your organization".

The first time you turn on a next step, Google says you will get an email from Workspace Studio confirming it. For some next steps, such as draft emails, you will also get a notification in Google Chat when the step has been completed.

Turning it off

Next steps "cannot be edited, but they can be turned on or off", according to the Help Center. If you turn one on for a repeating meeting, it applies to all future meetings in that series. You can turn it off on the post-meeting screen, or at studio.workspace.google.com under Flows, where Google says it will be marked "system". The same Flows page shows an activity history for each next step.

Things to check before you rely on it

These points come from Google's own help page for "Take notes for me", which next steps depend on:

• Telling people. Google says to "let everyone know that you're using 'Take notes for me'", and that Meet "informs all meeting participants that notes are being taken", with a pencil icon on everyone's screen.
• Consent. Admins can require all participants to give explicit consent before features such as "Take notes for me", recording or transcription start. Google says "This setting is off by default".
• Stopping notes. Participants internal to the host's organisation can stop note-taking at any time, which Google says lets you keep "confidential or sensitive discussions" out of the summary. With host controls on, only hosts and co-hosts can.
• Accuracy. Google says "the meeting summary can be incomplete, inaccurate or not generated", for example after connectivity problems or meetings under the recommended 15 minutes.
• Languages. Notes support eight languages, and only "one language at a time".
• Where it lands. The notes document is saved in the organiser's Google Drive and follows the Meet retention policy your organisation has set.

Both Google pages describe the email step as drafting a follow-up. On our reading, that leaves the sending with you, so check the draft against the meeting before it goes to someone outside your organisation.

Google has made other changes to its Gemini tools this autumn; we covered how it starts retiring Gemini Gems in November, with work and school accounts following in 2027.

Why it matters

On our reading, this moves Meet's AI from writing up a meeting to acting on it, by putting drafts in Gmail and tasks in Google Tasks. Because it is on by default, Workspace admins in UK organisations may want to decide whether to leave it on, and whether to require participant consent for note-taking, before staff start using it.