GCP Release Notes: March 25, 2026

AlloyDB for PostgreSQL

Feature

Database server compatibility with PostgreSQL version 18 is now generally available (GA):

• You can create AlloyDB clusters with PostgreSQL 18 compatibility.
• You can upgrade existing AlloyDB clusters running PostgreSQL major versions 14, 15, 16, or 17 to PostgreSQL major version 18 with one click.
• You can use Database Migration Service to migrate databases to AlloyDB.

Change

When no major version is specified, AlloyDB for PostgreSQL now defaults to PostgreSQL major version 17 for new clusters.

Feature

The following AlloyDB AI features are available in Preview:

• You can now use the ai.hybrid_search() function, which fuses results from each search type into a single list using the Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF) algorithm. For more information, see Run hybrid vector similarity search.

• AlloyDB supports the rum extension for complex full-text search operations. The rum extension extends standard GIN indexes by storing positional information directly in the index. This enables faster phrase searches and relevance ranking without needing to access the table data. For more information, see Create and manage a RUM index.

BigQuery

Announcement

The Gemini for Google Cloud API (cloudaicompanion.googleapis.com) is now enabled for existing BigQuery projects in the European jurisdiction.

Feature

You can now use the BigQuery Migration Service MCP server to perform SQL translation tasks, including translating SQL queries into GoogleSQL syntax, generating DDL statements from SQL input queries, and getting explanations of SQL translations.

This feature is in preview.

Feature

In BigQuery Data Transfer Service, you can monitor resource-level status reporting for Hive managed tables to track progress and view granular error details for individual tables. This feature is in preview.

Feature

You can use the BigQuery migration assessment for Snowflake to assess the complexity of migrating from Snowflake to BigQuery. This feature is generally available (GA).

Bigtable

Announcement

Bigtable client for Java has modernized its Admin API. For detailed migration steps and code examples, see Upgrading client libraries.

Cloud Location Finder

Announcement

Cloud Location Finder checks service activation and quota for the project that you’re using to run Cloud Location Finder API queries (the client project), not the projects that queries target (the resource project). As a result, you only need to enable the Cloud Location Finder API in your client project.

Generative AI on Vertex AI

Feature

Lyria 3

Lyria is available in public preview. You can use lyria-3-pro-preview to generate 184 seconds of audio, or lyria-3-clip-preview to generate 30 seconds of audio.

For more information, see the following:

• Lyria 3 Pro Preview

• Lyria 3 Clip Preview

Google Kubernetes Engine

Feature

To provide more controls over the control plane version upgrade, you can now do the following:

• Configure a frequency of disruption from auto-upgrades by using the cluster disruption budget. For more information, see Control the frequency of disruption from auto-upgrades.
• Continue using an existing control plane patch for a longer period, which facilitates large-scale upgrade and downgrade operations. For more information, see Patch version support.

Google SecOps

Feature

Credential validation for third-party API connectors

Credential validation is now available for all 49 third-party API connectors.

When you create a feed using a third-party API connector, Google SecOps now automatically validates the provided credentials. This ensures that if credentials are incorrect:

• Immediate feedback: The web interface displays an error message explaining the configuration failure.
• Prevention of broken feeds: The system blocks the creation of the feed until valid credentials are provided, preventing the creation of broken feeds that fail to ingest data later.

Google SecOps SIEM

Feature

Credential validation for third-party API connectors

Credential validation is now available for all 49 third-party API connectors.

When you create a feed using a third-party API connector, Google SecOps now automatically validates the provided credentials. This ensures that if credentials are incorrect:

• Immediate feedback: The web interface displays an error message explaining the configuration failure.
• Prevention of broken feeds: The system blocks the creation of the feed until valid credentials are provided, preventing the creation of broken feeds that fail to ingest data later.

Looker

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where creating or updating database connections that use OAuth (such as Snowflake or BigQuery) could fail with the error JDBC Parameter Validation Failed. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

When no theme is selected, the Theme picker will now display “Default” rather than “None”.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where dashboard themes were not applying color collections correctly. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where buttons on dashboards that used the extension framework could unnecessarily add /embed/ to link URLs. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the font and background color picker was not accessible when you edited visualizations on merge queries. This feature now performs as expected.

Announcement

Looker 26.6 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes:

• Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Sunday, March 22, 2026

• Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Sunday, April 5, 2026

• Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, March 23, 2026

• Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Friday, April 3, 2026

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where opening the Interaction Details dialog on the Historical Analytics Interactions Search dashboard in a new window could result in a 401 error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where searching for content could return a 500 error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where pressing Enter to confirm IME composition when writing a message in Conversational Analytics would prematurely submit the message. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the LookML Assistant could return a 404 error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where tabs could be automatically added to existing dashboards. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where visualization tooltips on dashboards could use incorrect background or text colors. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the LookML dashboards folder could fail to display the complete list of LookML dashboards. This feature now performs as expected.

Breaking

Tabbed dashboards with unsupported layouts will now display a warning message prompting users to update to a new layout.

Source: Google Cloud Platform