While still in alpha and limited to select users, Google Workspace Flow could dramatically reshape how we automate work across Gmail, Docs, Chat, and other Workspace apps. Learn what do we know so far and how is it different from Zenphi — a dedicated workflow automation solution for Google Workspace users.
Table of Contents
First Things First
What Is Google's Flows?
At its core, Google Workspace Flow (also known as Google’s Flows) is a visual automation builder designed to bring AI agents into your everyday work processes. Think of it as Google’s answer to workflow automation tools like Zapier or Make—but built natively for the Google Workspace ecosystem.
Here’s what sets it apart:
- No-code interface: Google Flows allows users to create automations with clicks, not code.
- AI agents in the loop: this is probably the easiest way to plug in Gemini (Google's AI) to help you with simpe repetitive tasks.
- Native integration with Google Workspace: sure enough, Google Workspace Flows connect Gmail, Sheets, Forms, Docs, Chat, Meets — all Google Workspace products. Integrations with some third-party tools like Jira, HubSpot, and Asana are also, apparently, available. At least, those three were explicitely mentioned at the Google Gloud Next 2025 where Google Flows were presented.
Will Google Flows be Free or Paid?
No pricing details have been shared. It could be bundled into Gemini for Workspace, or it might follow a separate model.
Can You Try Google Flows Now?
As of the end of 2025, Google Workspace Flows is currently in alpha and requires sign-up via a QR code shown at the Google Next 2025 conference to designated visitors. It is also open to verified Google Cloud Partners. Therefore, you can only use it if you’re part of the alpha program or sign up for early access using the code.
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Key Features Of Google Flows (From the Google Cloud Next-2025 Demo)
Looking at the product, it’s clear that Google Workspace Flows are being designed with the following core features in mind:
What Can You Do With Google Flows
In general, from “Product Quality Analyst” to “Customer Service Assistant,” Google Workspace Flow is clearly aiming to simplify the creation of autonomous AI agents that would be integrated natively in Google Workspace environment.
In the keynote demo, Google used Workspace Flows to bring to the public several very specific use cases.
1. Customer Success: Feedback Priorotization
One of the key Google Flow use cases shown at Cloud Next 2025 involves streamlining customer feedback handling.
Here’s how it works:
- Step 1: Document that defines prioritization logic. The user creates a simple Google Doc that outlines the company’s ground rules for prioritizing customer issues. For example: broken items = high priority, delayed shipping = medium, minor complaints = low. This document becomes the reference point for all future evaluations.
- Step 2: Feedback collection via Google Form. When a customer submits feedback (say, about a faulty product), the form captures their message, contact info, and any other relevant details.
- Step 3: Gemini is brought in to analyze and prioritize. Google Flow then sends the form response to Gemini, with a prompt to: Review the feedback, apply the rules from the prioritization doc, generate a short summary of the issue and determine the priority level (high, medium, or low).
- Step 4: Push the summary to the customer service team in Chat. Once analyzed, the summarized feedback and its priority tag are automatically posted to a designated Google Chat space,
Please refer to the video above to see the details.
2. Draft Personalized Email Replies With an AI Agent
This use case builds on the previous one. A company can take it further by creating an autonomous AI agent that analyzes customer feedback and provides instructions on how to fix the issue directly in the email response.
3. Tracking Specific Emails
The third use case, highlighted by the Google team, was about tracking emails from a specific person and getting notified whenever they arrive. What’s interesting here is that Google suggests skipping the entire process of manually building a workflow in Flows. Instead, you can simply describe what you want in natural language using Gemini, and it will build the workflow for you in the background—without you even seeing it—then seamlessly execute the task.
Active Tests of The Product in Alpha
In November-December 2025, we conducted several tests with Flow, trying its capabilities mostly around document-centric workflow — can it generate documents, can it route them for approval. These are our tests results.
Test 1: Automating Document Approvals
Approvals are one of the most frequently used workflows in business environments. How helpful Flow can be for automating document approvals? We tested this by asking both Gemini to build the following workflow:
- When a Google Form is submitted with a document link,
- Send it to the submitter’s manager for approval,
- Once approved, forward to Marketing for a second approval,
- Once all approvals are complete,
- Move the file to an “Approved” folder in Drive,
- Log approval details in a Sheet, and
- Notify the requester by Gmail.
As you can see in the video, Gemini generated the workflow backbone: a Form trigger, data extraction, and email notifications. However, the test revealed that Google Flow couldn’t :
- Identify a manager automatically (no Google Directory integration)
- Route approvals conditionally (no multi-step approval logic),
- Or move the file once approved.
Test 2: Automating Document Generation
Another test we conducted was aimed to check Google Flow’s document generation capabilities. Here’s a scenario we tested:
- When a Google Form is submitted,
- Create a proposal document from a Docs template,
- Merge dynamic fields like name, date, and client,
- Save it as a PDF in the correct Drive folder, and
- Notify the requester by Gmail.
As you can see from the video, Gemini built a starting flow but couldn’t generate documents from templates — it only allowed creating blank Docs.
While it could insert dynamic data from the Form submission and send the resulting file link by email, it didn’t support PDF conversion or structured Drive organization.
In short: good for quick drafts, but not for professional or compliant documents.
Test 3: Automating Document Analysis And AI-Powered Document Generation
For the third test, we chose an AI-powered document generation — assuming that Gemini being the heart and brain of the Flows, would handle this nicely. Besides, whenever somebody needs to leverage and AI-powered document workflow automation within Zenphi, they always use Gemini-based models — and they do the job amazingly well.
This is a scenario we tested:
- Track upload of a spreadsheet into a folder
- As soon as it's uploaded - analyse data from the spreadsheet,
- Summarize data and create a report for the Sales team that would highlight red flags, underscore opportunities, and what to pay attention to.
- Email the report to Sales
As you can see from the video, Google Flow built the right skeleton — trigger, extract, summarize, email — but couldn’t access the Drive file during execution. Even with the correct folder and permissions, the agent couldn’t pull the data, so the report wasn’t generated.
What If I Need A More Elaborate Workflow?
From what we’ve seen so far, Google Workspace Flows shines when it comes to simple, lightweight automation: send a message when a form is submitted, notify me if my manager emails me, prioritize feedback using Gemini, and so on.
But what if you need something more advanced?
Google’s own answer to this question is: use Apps Script. In fact, during the Google Next’25 demo, they showed how you can connect custom logic and AI models to Google Flows via Apps Script add-ons.
Here’s an example use case they highlighted:
- A company connects Google Workspace Flow with Jira using a native integration. Before a Jira issue is created, a custom AI model is used to rewrite raw developer notes. The prompt goes like this:
- You are a knowledgeable developer giving feedback to an engineering team about an upcoming API. Given the following raw notes, rewrite them to be clear, constructive, and actionable. The notes may express frustration and use colorful or harsh language. Rewrite them into more business-safe language while still making it clear that the issue is significant
- The model is added via an Apps Script extension and then invoked from within the Google Flow.
- Step 4: Push the summary to the customer service team in Chat. Once analyzed, the summarized feedback and its priority tag are automatically posted to a designated Google Chat space,
This setup is powerful — but it requires writing and maintaining code in Apps Script. And as soon as you want to build more logic, error handling, branching paths, or multi-step processes, it gets even more technical.
Zenphi vs Google Flows
As Zenphi continues to lead the way in workflow automation for Google Workspace users, and remains the #1 Google Flow alternative. However, it’s only natural that the recent announcement of Google Workspace Flows raises an important question:
What’s the difference between Zenphi and Google Workspace Flows?
At first glance, both platforms help automate tasks across Gmail, Sheets, Drive, and Forms. But dig a little deeper, and the differences become clear—especially when it comes to scale, flexibility, and execution context.
For example:
- Google Workspace Flows runs automation only in the context of the current user, which is great for personal productivity but limiting for company-wide operations.
- Zenphi, on the other hand, lets you run workflows under any user or service account, ensuring consistent execution and access across departments and systems—crucial for enterprise use cases.
- And while Google Flow offers a simplified, Zapier-like builder, Zenphi provides advanced flow control, including state-based logic, parallel execution, branching, error handling, and more.
Here’s a breakdown of how the two platforms stack up:
When You Need More Than Just a Flow
Google Workspace Flows represents an exciting step forward in Google’s automation journey. Its tight integration with Gemini and focus on individual productivity tasks make it a promising tool—especially for Workspace power users who want to automate personal workflows without switching platforms.
However, for teams and organizations looking to automate entire processes across departments, building a document management system, automating workflows in human resources, automating IT operations and streamlining user lifecycle management in Google Workspace, Google Flows may not be enough—at least not yet.
That’s where Zenphi stands apart.
More questions are answered in the Zenphi & Google Workspace Flows: Frequently Asked Questions
Need Google Workspace Workflows Now?
Zenphi allows you to build flows using all native Google Workspace capabilities, including Gemini — and more. Book a call with our automation experts to see Zenphi Google Workspace-based flows in action.
