Monitoring release notes

Starting with version 2.71.0, you can use an Ops Agent configuration option to export your metrics, logs, and traces by using the OpenTelemetry-based Telemetry API rather than by using the Cloud Monitoring API, Logging API, or Trace API For more information, see Use the Telemetry API.

A chart on a dashboard can override the dashboard's time-range setting. This feature lets you view trends over a long period or metric data with low sampling rates alongside charts that show only recent data, and is Generally Available (GA).

For more information, see the following documents:

• Google Cloud console: Set a time-range override for a chart or group
• API: Dashboard with an XyChart widget that sets a time-range override

You can opt out of alert notifications from an SMS notification channel by sending a text message to the phone number associated with the notification channel. For more information, see Opt out of SMS notifications.

VM Extension Manager extension policies for the Ops Agent are Generally Available (GA). Extension policies provide zonal and project-wide Ops Agent installation, version upgrades, and configuration management. For more information, see Install and manage the Ops Agent by using VM Extension Manager policies.

The Telemetry API for metric ingestion is generally available (GA). You can ingest OTLP metrics into Cloud Monitoring by using an OpenTelemetry Collector, an OTLP exporter, and the Telemetry API. For more information, see OTLP metric ingestion overview.

Alerting policies based on PromQL queries can now operate over more than 25 hours of data. For more information, see Query over 2 years of metric data and Limits for alerting.

Support for applying role-based access controls (RBAC) to Cloud Monitoring dashboards and alerting policies using Tags is generally available.

You can use Tags to protect Terraform-managed Cloud Monitoring resources and configure team-scoped access. For more information, see Use Tags to control access to resources.

Metrics Explorer can automatically break down a chart into a series of tiles, with each displaying time-series data for a specific label key. This view helps you identify spikes, dips, or trends that the aggregation settings might otherwise hide.

To learn more, see Break down a chart by labels.

All agent.googleapis.com/processes metrics are retained for 24 months. For more information, see Data retention.

Custom dashboards can display trace data. You can view individual spans or aggregated data. This feature is public preview. For more information, see the following:

• Display trace data (Google Cloud console)
• Dashboard with trace data (API)

Support for Histogram widgets on custom dashboards is generally available. These widgets extract the most recent value from each time series, group those values into ranges, and then provide a graphical representation of the result. Unlike tables or other widgets that display the most recent values, Histograms display information about the relative frequency of ranges of values.

This widget is one of several visualizations that you can use to display the most recent values. For more information, see the following documents:

• Configure a histogram (Google Cloud console)
• Dashboard with an XyChart configured as a histogram (API)

The details page for a span can display the call hierarchy of a trace by using a directed acyclic graph (DAG). If you view an Application Monitoring dashboard and explore the trace data that it displays, the flyout supports the DAG option. If you open the Trace Explorer page and explore a span, the DAG option is also available.

For more information, see the following:

• Application Monitoring: Explore a trace
• Trace Explorer: Explore a trace

Starting with version 2.66.0, the Ops Agent can export your metrics and logs by using the OpenTelemetry-based Telemetry API rather than by using the Cloud Monitoring API and Cloud Logging API. During the preview Preview period, you can opt-in to using the Telemetry API. For more information, see Use the Telemetry API.

The Cloud Monitoring API MCP server is generally available (GA). To learn about using the Monitoring MCP server to let agents and AI applications interact with your metrics data, see Use the Cloud Monitoring remote MCP server.

Application Monitoring in Google Cloud provides both agent observability and application observability. Your Application Monitoring dashboards display performance metrics, including the error rates and token usage of your AI resources. Those metrics can help you understand the health and performance of your AI resources.

To learn more, see the following:

• Agent observability
• Application Monitoring overview
• Investigate applications, services, and workloads
• View AI resources

Application Monitoring can display a single, dynamic topology map showing your App Hub applications and your registered and discovered services and workloads. This interactive map identifies services and workloads that have open incidents. It also displays the error rates and P95 latency between your services and workloads.

To learn more, see the following:

• View application topology
• Application Monitoring overview
• View application telemetry

Application Monitoring has added a Services and Workloads tab, which lists your registered and discovered services and workloads. From this tab, you can do the following:

• Register discovered services and workloads.
• Search for services and workloads by functional type, such as Agent or MCP server.
• Open dashboards that display telemetry. For discovered services and workload, Google Cloud Observability uses the Cloud Asset Inventory name to identify relevant information.

To learn more, see the following:

• List registered and discovered services and workloads
• Application Monitoring overview
• View application telemetry

Application Monitoring has added support for the following resources:

• Vertex AI Workbench
• GKE Gateway
• GKE Ingress
• Layer 7 cross-regional Application Load Balancers

Additionally, dashboards for Kubernetes workloads display L4 and L7 traffic metrics, when both are available. For more information, see Application Monitoring supported infrastructure.

For any new project that is created on or after March 30, 2026, if the project enables the Cloud Monitoring API, Telemetry API.

The Telemetry API's supports up to 60,000 metric-ingestion requests per minute per region. The regional quota replaces the global quota. To learn more, see Telemetry API quotas and limits for metric ingestion.

You can configure legend templates for PromQL-formatted charts. To learn more, see Configure the name of a legend column.

The SQL queries issued by Observability Analytics can now use a system-defined variable which resolves to the project ID. If a dashboard template uses the project ID variable, then you don't need to update the SQL query after installing the template.

For more information, see the following documents:

• Google Cloud console: Charts with SQL queries
• API: Charts with SQL queries

You can use the Cloud Monitoring API MCP server to let agents and AI applications interact with your time series data. This feature is in Preview.

You can now ingest OTLP metrics into Cloud Monitoring by using an OpenTelemetry Collector, an OTLP exporter, and the Telemetry API. For more information, see OTLP metric ingestion overview. The Telemetry API for metric ingestion is in Preview.

You can now install and manage the Ops Agent on virtual machines across zones in your Google Cloud project by using global VM Extension Manager extension policies. Global and zonal extension policies can keep the installed version of the agent current, keep a specified version of the agent installed, and other tasks. For more information, see Install and manage the Ops Agent by using VM Extension Manager policies.

Your Application Monitoring dashboards now display the trace spans that are associated with your registered App Hub applications. The display includes annotations that let you identify services and workloads. You can also open the Trace Explorer page from your Application Monitoring dashboards. To learn more, see the following documents:

• Application Monitoring overview.
• View application telemetry.
• Find and explore traces describes how to use the Trace Explorer page to filter and explore your trace data.

On December 15, 2025, it was announced that your Application Monitoring dashboards will display the trace spans that are associated with your registered App Hub applications. Those dashboards don't display trace data. To view your trace data, use the Trace Explorer page.

Your Application Monitoring dashboards now display the trace spans that are associated with your registered App Hub applications. The display includes annotations that let you identify services and workloads. You can also open the Trace Explorer page from your Application Monitoring dashboards. To learn more, see the following documents:

• Application Monitoring overview.
• View application telemetry.
• Find and explore traces describes how to use the Trace Explorer page to filter and explore your trace data.

You can now add a widget to a dashboard that lets you manage the settings for a variable. To learn more, see the following documents:

• Google Cloud console: Add widget to manage the value of a variable
• API: Dashboard with a FilterControl widget

The Google Cloud CLI (gcloud) commands to manage Cloud Monitoring alerting policies are now generally available. For more information, see gcloud monitoring policies.

You can now install and manage the Ops Agent on virtual machines in a specified zone by using VM Extension Manager extension policies. You can use extension policies to keep the installed version of the agent current, keep a specified version of the agent installed, and other tasks. For more information, see Install and manage the Ops Agent by using VM Extension Manager policies.

You can now view the topology for applications that you register with App Hub. The topology map provides a graphical view of the relationships between the services and workloads in your App Hub application. The topology map also displays alerts and traffic latency, which can help you understand how your application is performing and diagnose issues. This feature is in Public Preview.

To learn more, see the following:

• View application topology
• Application Monitoring overview