Google Sheets Canvas sharing lets you publish dashboards without access

What Google has changed

Google Sheets has gained a new way to share data with other people. According to Android Authority, users can now publish Canvas items through shareable links, so others can view and interact with them without ever opening the original spreadsheet.

Canvas is a Google Sheets feature that uses Gemini, the company's AI assistant, to turn spreadsheet data into interactive dashboards, calendars and task boards. Until now, sharing these creations meant sharing the spreadsheet itself, which exposed everything inside it.

How the new sharing works

To publish a Canvas, a user needs editing access to the spreadsheet. They open the Canvas sharing menu, select the publish option, and choose who can view it. After publishing, Google generates a link that can be copied and sent to others.

The publisher keeps control after sharing. Android Authority reports that users can change the audience later or stop sharing entirely at any time. This means a published dashboard is not a permanent decision.

There is also a choice about freshness. A published Canvas can update automatically whenever the spreadsheet data changes, or it can stay frozen exactly as it looked when published. For a project dashboard where deadlines shift often, automatic updates could be useful; for a fixed report, a static version may be preferable.

Why separate access matters

The key point is that permissions for the Canvas are managed separately from the spreadsheet. Viewers of a published dashboard cannot see or edit the rows behind it unless they are also given access to the sheet.

Android Authority offers an example: someone organising an event could turn a planning spreadsheet into an interactive schedule and share it with attendees. Those attendees could check timings and find details, while only the organisers could edit the underlying data.

This addresses a common frustration. A spreadsheet built for project management may contain dozens of rows of tasks, notes and internal details. People who only need to know the next deadline should not have to scroll through all of it, and the team may not want them seeing everything else anyway.

Who can use it and what to consider

The feature applies to Canvas creations in Google Sheets, which are generated with Gemini from existing spreadsheet data. Anyone with editing rights to a sheet can publish a Canvas from it, according to the report.

Before publishing, it is worth checking what the Canvas actually displays. Because it is built from the spreadsheet's data, reviewing the audience settings and the update option helps ensure only intended information is visible.

For teams that already use Sheets to track projects, budgets or events, the change reduces the need to build separate reports or copy data into other tools. A single spreadsheet can remain the source of truth while different audiences see tailored, interactive views of it.