Expected New features in Google Data Studio

Being part of SpiderWorks Technologies, a leading digital marketing agency in India, I have been using Data Studio extensively and have provided many inputs in the official forum regarding the most wanted features. Also, I have seen feature requests from many others in various threads and discussions. After going through several threads and such feature requests, I have compiled a list of most awaited features in Data Studio.

Expected new features to come in Google Data Studio

1. Embed Google Data Studio reports in web pages with dynamically updated values and reports

One of the most frequently searched and asked questions about Data Studio is, “how to embed Data Studio reports in web pages”. Unfortunately, there is no such feature. It is technically not possible to embed a dynamic Data Studio report in a web page that will refresh the report based on the current data. The best you can do as of now is to make a screenshot of the report and embed in the web page just like you embed any other image. Alternatively, you can link to the dynamic data studio report from your website.

Google has officially clarified that there are no short term plans to build a feature to embed Data Studio reports in web pages.

2. Connect Data Studio with Google My Business

I have seen many people asking for this feature – ability to use Google Business Listings data as a data source for Data Studio reports. It would be helpful to take the number of reviews on a business listing every month and show it as a report.

We have a lot of digital marketing clients and every month we provide a report to the clients. The report includes various metrics that show the improvements in their overall visibility on the web. One of the important information they are looking for is, the number of new reviews they received on their Google business listing. As of now, Google Data Studio doesn’t support Google My Business data as a data source. There are no promises from Google on when this feature would be implemented.

3. Print Data Studio reports efficiently

As of now, there are no built-in printing options available for the reports. Your options are limited to exporting to PDF files or use the raw printing options in the browser. Hope Google will consider adding some print options to the reports.

4. Connect to MS Access databases from Data Studio

Trust me, a lot of people still use MS Access. Building the ability to generate intuitive reports directly out of MS Access data would be a great feature for Data Studio. However, as of now, there are no connectors available to connect Data Studio to MS Access as a data source.

5. Google Data Studio SDK

If Google releases the Data Studio SDK, it will be a game changer. with the SDK, we will be able to build out own data connectors and then we can generate reports from any source of data on earth. As of now, there is no Google Data Studio SDK available and Google hasn’t made any promises on when it will be available.

6. Auto refresh Data Studio reports when the data changes

Currently, if the data in the data source changes, the reports do not change automatically. As an owner of the report, you must refresh the report in the Data Studio dashboard for your clients to see the updated report. There are a lot of scenarios where the data will keep changing in the source and it is not feasible for the report owner to manually refresh it frequently. To make the reports more useful, the report viewer should have an ability to refresh the data from the source. The auto refresh feature is expected in the near future.