December 2025 Looker Recap: Unleashing Data’s Full Potential

Looker News Announcements
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As we close out the year, our focus has been on removing barriers—between you and your data, and between your insights and the tools you use every day. From enabling code-free exploration of local files to deepening our integrations with Google Sheets, this month’s updates are all about helping you move from question to action faster than ever.

Features Spotlight

  • Self-Service Explores: You can now upload .CSV, .XLS, and .XLSX files directly to Looker to query and visualize data —without needing to configure a LookML model or set up Git version control. This empowers your users with the ability to get quick answers from ad-hoc files while keeping them within the governed Looker environment. Learn more.
  • Connected Sheets for Explores: We launched a new “Connected Sheets” option in the Explore actions menu. This opens Google Sheets and establishes a connection to your Looker Explore, enabling you to build pivot tables, charts, and reports in the familiar Sheets interface while relying on Looker’s trusted metrics. Learn more.
  • Gemini CLI Extensions: For our developer community, Looker and Looker Conversational Analytics extensions are now available in the Gemini CLI. This enables developers to interact with Looker data and dashboards directly from the command line, streamlining technical workflows and making data access more flexible. Learn more.

Release Highlights

  • Tableau Connector on Exchange: The Looker–Tableau BI Connector is now available on the Tableau Exchange. This simplifies setup significantly for Tableau Desktop and Server users, as you no longer need to manually download and install the TACO connector file. Learn more.
  • Conversational Analytics Updates: Conversational Analytics is now generally available for instances on Looker 25.18+ and includes new support for instances within a VPC perimeter, ensuring secure, natural language interaction with your data. Learn more.

New Assets

  • [Webinar] On Demand: Looker’s Product Roadmap for Trusted AI.
    If you missed our December webinar which explored advancements in Looker, showing how we’re transforming data-driven decision-making with powerful AI integrations, reimagining BI for the agentic era, good news, we recorded it for you. Watch the recording.
  • [Case Study] Métrica Móvil drives data-driven transformation with Looker.
    Métrica Móvil is a leading Mexican telematics and data intelligence company with a mission to transform fleet management by embedding real-time insights directly into daily workflows. Learn more.
  • [Solution Brief] Unlocking Trustworthy AI: A Guide to Selecting a Semantic Layer.
    This in-depth paper covers how today’s organizations adopting AI need to connect their AI models to business context to avoid hallucinations and deliver consistent answers. It outlines the criteria for choosing a semantic layer and why Looker is a proven trusted brand at the forefront of AI. Learn more.
  • [Blog] ​​How to connect Looker to Gemini Enterprise in minutes, with MCP Toolbox and ADK.
    Building off the recent introduction of Looker’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, we take you through the process of creating an Agent Development Kit (ADK) agent that connects to Looker via the MCP Toolbox for Databases and expose it within Gemini Enterprise.Learn more.
  • [Blog] Solving Multi-Tenancy: How to Reuse Looker Dashboards for Different Data Sources
    If you need to use the same Looker dashboard or a set of Looker definitions with different databases, this guide is for you. Learn how to use Looker’s “import” feature, creating dashboards and models once and using them in many different ways in a single instance. Learn more.
  • [Solution Brief] Looker and AlloyDB Deliver Trusted, High-Performance Data Experiences for the AI Era.
    This two page brief talks about how Looker and AlloyDB provide a unified high performance solution that bridges the gap between real-time operations and strategic analysis. Users can now ask questions of their data with Conversational Analytics and gain rapid insights in natural language. Learn more.

Start 2026 with the best of 2025

You begin 2026 with new goals, new metrics and a clean slate. Now you can start the year with the latest Looker has to offer, whether you’re automating hourly reports or exploring a new .CSV file on the fly. These updates set you up with improvements you can use all year long!

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Connected Sheets have few problems:

  • intermittent refresh errors (no details given though)
  • can’t query hidden fields (I think it should be decided on connection level or by setting)
  • caching problems, we may want to cache Looker queries but in sheets we don’t want to. Sometimes it requires adding new field to pivot table to force refresh of the query.
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Hi Dawid,

Thanks for your feedback on Connected Sheets for Looker. Those items make perfect sense and are definitely things we are looking to address in 2026. Specifically, we’re considering solutions such as:

  • Provide more information in error messages that users can share with their administrators. We’re also considering new UX for holistic administration use cases.
  • Provide an option to show/hide hidden LookML fields.
  • Offer an option to “Clear Cache & Refresh” similar to the Looker explore.

I don’t have a concrete timeline for these items yet, but please stay tuned as we announce more updates. Thanks again and please keep the feedback coming!