If you’re seeing a new icon in the top-right corner of Google Drive this morning, it’s for Google Workspace Flows.
Workspace Flows —flows.workspace.google.com — is a tool that can automate “multi-step processes using AI that can actually research, analyze, and generate content for you.” The idea is to “automate your everyday, routine tasks across Google Workspace services with the help of Gemini.”
Similar to Gemini, you create agents (previously called Gems) and “describe what you need in plain language.” Google will then “design and build sophisticated, logic-driven flows” on your behalf. Workspace Flows can also refer to files in your Google Drive for context.
Like other macros or automations, Flows “start based on an event or schedule” — like receiving an email — and “then do a set of actions automatically.” Agents have three components:
- Starter: This is the event or schedule that starts your agent. For example, when you get an email message from specific people, or every Monday at 9 am.
- Steps: These are the actions that the agent does after it starts. Most agents have several steps. For example, ask Gemini to extract action items, draft a reply, or add content to a document.
- Variables: Each step has variables, which are dynamic placeholders for information that you can use in later steps. For example, Gemini’s response to your prompt, the sender of the message that started the agent, a form response, and more.
The example use cases so far are more for businesses, like:
…see how Workspace Flows uses a custom Gem to handle a customer support request in the demo below. Flows reviews the incoming form, figures out the core issue, researches potential solutions, drafts a helpful reply, and flags it for the support team to review and send. It’s about streamlining entire processes, not just single steps.
Others involve:
- Checking if marketing copy fits your brand voice
- Reviewing policy documents before approving a request
- Sorting customer support tickets
Workspace Flows was first teased at I/O 2024, but got a full announcement this April at Cloud Next 2025 with an alpha available for enterprise customers. (As such, it slightly predates the Google “Flow” video editing tool announced a month later.)
Some Google Drive users (including personal and Workspace accounts) are now seeing the Flows icon between Settings and Gemini/app launcher. Tapping opens a side panel with a warning that “Something went wrong and Flows didn’t load.”
Its appearance today is presumably a bug, with the side panel pushed out to more users before it’s broadly available. It remains to be seen if or how Workspace Flows will come to consumer accounts in the future.
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