Google shipped updates to both Looker and Looker Studio in mid-January 2026, and there's a good chance you're reading about the wrong one.
If you access reports at `lookerstudio.google.com`, you got cross-data source filtering on January 15, along with enhanced component visibility controls. If you're running enterprise BI at company.looker.com, Looker 26.0 launched January 26 with tabbed dashboards, custom tooltips, and API service accounts.
Different products. Different release dates. Different features. Let's see what changed and which updates apply to your workflow.
Quick Check: Which Tool Do You Use?
Reports at lookerstudio.google.com? You're using Looker Studio (free marketing tool). Reports at [company].looker.com or Google Cloud Console? You're using Looker (enterprise BI platform).
Both come from Google. Both have "Looker" in the name. The updates don't overlap. Jump to your section.
Looker Studio Updates: January 2026
Cross-Data Source Filtering Finally Works
You've probably hit this limitation dozens of times: dashboard pulling Google Ads spend, GA4 conversions, and CRM revenue. You add a "Campaign Name" filter. It only works on the Google Ads charts because each platform uses different internal field IDs.
The January 2026 Looker Studio update fixes this with cross-data source filtering. You can now override field IDs so one filter controls charts from multiple data sources.
How to set up cross-data source filtering:
Go to Resource > Manage field names and IDs, find your field (like "Campaign Name"), click Override field ID, and give it a consistent identifier (example: campaign_name_unified). Apply this same override to the equivalent field in each data source (Google Ads campaigns, Meta Ads campaigns, LinkedIn campaigns). Create one filter control using the overridden field.
Real-world application: A paid media manager tracks campaigns across Google Ads, Meta Ads, and LinkedIn Ads. Before January 2026, filtering by campaign required three separate dropdowns. Users selected "Q1 Launch" three times, once for Google, once for Meta, once for LinkedIn. Now one dropdown labeled "Campaign Name" filters all three platforms simultaneously. Select "Q1 Launch" and every chart updates: Google Ads spend, Meta conversions, LinkedIn impressions, all filtered to Q1 Launch campaigns.
One limitation: Field ID overrides apply to the entire report. You can't isolate them to specific charts. If you override "Campaign Name" to unify Google and Meta, every chart using either field will be affected.
Enhanced Component Visibility Controls Show Different Dashboards to Different Viewers
Looker Studio's component visibility controls let you show or hide specific charts, pages, or components based on who's viewing the report. This functionality received enhancements in January 2026, making it more accessible and easier to implement.
Right-click any chart, select Control visibility, choose who sees it. For basic use, you can hide components from all viewers while keeping them visible in edit mode.
For Looker Studio Pro users, visibility gets more powerful. Create group membership variables tied to Google Groups or specific email addresses. Charts become identity-aware, they show or hide automatically depending on the viewer.
Agency use case: Build client dashboards with two data layers. Performance metrics (impressions, clicks, conversions, cost) are visible to clients. Internal analysis (actual costs, profit margins, markup calculations) is visible only to your team's Google Group. Clients log in and see campaign performance. Your team logs in to the same report URL and sees everything including margin analysis.
The alternative before January 2026 was maintaining multiple report versions, one for clients, one for internal teams. Every time you updated a chart or added a metric, you updated it twice. Component visibility eliminates duplicate work.
If you're building Looker Studio reports with visibility controls or need AI assistance analyzing dashboards, check out how to use Looker Studio AI features or explore free Looker Studio templates to start faster.
Looker 26.0 Updates: January 2026 (Enterprise Platform)
These Looker 26.0 features are for the enterprise BI platform, not Looker Studio. If you don't use Looker enterprise at company.looker.com, skip to the FAQ section.
Tabbed Dashboards Organize Complex Data
Enterprise dashboards start simple, five KPIs on one page. Stakeholders request regional breakdowns. Then product categories. Then customer segments. Six months later you're scrolling through 40 charts and nobody can find the metric they need.
Tabbed dashboards in Looker 26.0 organize content into separate tabs with clear navigation. One tab for executive overview, another for regional analysis, another for product performance, another for forecasting.
Important technical note: This is a Labs feature (disabled by default). Admins must enable it at Admin > Labs > Tabbed Dashboards before dashboard editors can create tabbed dashboards. The default maximum is 5 tabs per dashboard, though admins can adjust this limit in Content Guardrails settings.
Tiles only load when users click the tab, not all upfront. This improves initial dashboard load time significantly for dashboards with 30+ charts. Filters work across all tabs automatically. Each tab displays only the filters relevant to its content, reducing visual clutter.
The security limitation: There's no tab-level permission control. If someone can view the dashboard, they can view all tabs. If you need genuine data security by role, build separate dashboards with appropriate access controls.
Custom Tooltips Add Context to Data
Looker 26.0 added the ability to configure custom tooltips in Explores using HTML and Liquid templating. This feature moved from Labs to generally available (enabled by default) starting January 26, 2026.
Standard Looker tooltips show "ROAS: 3.2" on hover. Custom tooltips can display the metric definition ("Return on Ad Spend = Revenue / Ad Spend"), industry benchmark ("Typical range: 2.5-4.0"), calculation formula, data quality warnings, and any other context your business users need.
Implementation for BI teams: A BI team supporting 50+ business users across marketing, finance, and operations creates Explores with tooltips explaining every metric, what it measures, how it's calculated, which filters apply, what "good" looks like. Business users explore data independently without constantly asking analysts "what does this number mean?" or "how is this calculated?"
Custom tooltips work in Looker Explores only. They carry over to dashboards embedding those Explores, but you can't add custom tooltips to standalone dashboard tiles that don't reference an Explore.
Service Accounts Fix API Automation
Most teams running Looker API automation have been doing it the wrong way. They create fake user accounts like api-bot@company.com, assign a user license, generate API credentials, and hope nobody flags it during security audits.
Service accounts in Looker 26.0 are designed specifically for API-only access. They don't consume user licenses, can't log into the UI, and appear separately in audit logs so you can distinguish automated API calls from human user activity.
Setup: Go to Admin > Users > Create Service Account, set permissions (control which API methods each service account can access), generate credentials. If you're already using regular user accounts for API access, click Migrate to Service Account and your existing API keys transfer automatically, no script changes needed.
A marketing operations team running nightly scripts to extract campaign performance from Looker's API and load it into BigQuery for cross-platform analysis can migrate from a fake user account to a proper service account in under five minutes.
AI Shows Its Reasoning in Conversational Analytics
If you use Conversational Analytics in Looker, the January 29, 2026 update added a "Show reasoning" toggle that reveals the step-by-step logic behind AI-generated answers.
Ask "What's our best-performing product category?" and the AI responds "Electronics with $2.3M revenue." Click the reasoning toggle and see exactly what the AI did: queried the sales_data table, grouped by product_category dimension, calculated SUM(revenue) for each category, applied a 30-day date filter based on context, sorted results descending by revenue, identified Electronics as the top result.
This transparency matters when AI misinterprets questions. You wanted best-performing by profit margin, not revenue. The reasoning makes the misunderstanding visible so you can rephrase your question and get the answer you actually need.
What Actually Matters in These Updates
For marketers using Looker Studio: Cross-data source filtering is the standout feature from the January 2026 updates. If you manage campaigns across Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, or any combination of marketing platforms, this eliminates a daily frustration. Enhanced component visibility controls are valuable if you're an agency showing different data to clients versus internal teams, or if you're managing role-based access to sensitive metrics.
For enterprise teams on Looker: Service accounts should be your first priority if you're running any API automation. Tabbed dashboards solve dashboard sprawl if your team is comfortable enabling Labs features. Custom tooltips and AI reasoning help if you support non-technical business users who need data context without asking analysts.
The honest assessment: Most Looker Studio users will immediately benefit from cross-data source filtering and nothing else from the January 2026 updates. Most Looker enterprise teams will prioritize service accounts, consider tabbed dashboards, and evaluate the other features based on their specific workflows.
If you're consolidating marketing data from multiple platforms into Looker Studio, you can automate connector setup and data integration. Dataslayer connects Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, TikTok Ads, and 50+ platforms to Looker Studio, Google Sheets, or BigQuery. Try it free for 15 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Looker 26.0 updates apply to Looker Studio?
No. Looker and Looker Studio are separate products with separate release cycles. Tabbed dashboards, custom tooltips, service accounts, and AI reasoning are Looker enterprise features only. They don't work in Looker Studio.
Can I use cross-data source filtering with the free version of Looker Studio?
Yes. Cross-data source filtering works on both free Looker Studio accounts and Looker Studio Pro subscriptions. However, creating group membership variables for component visibility requires Looker Studio Pro.
How do I enable tabbed dashboards in Looker?
Tabbed dashboards are a Labs feature, disabled by default. Looker administrators must enable it at Admin > Labs > Tabbed Dashboards. After enabling, dashboard editors can add tabs through the dashboard editing interface.
Will my existing Looker dashboards break when upgrading to version 26.0?
No. Looker 26.0 is backward compatible. All new features are opt-in. Existing dashboards continue working exactly as before unless you explicitly enable new features like tabbed dashboards or create custom tooltips.
What's the difference between Looker and Looker Studio for reporting?
Looker is an enterprise Business Intelligence platform for governed data modeling and complex analytics. Looker Studio is a free data visualization tool designed for marketers and small teams to create dashboards from marketing platforms, Google Analytics, and other data sources. They serve different use cases and audiences.
Can I control who sees specific tabs in a tabbed dashboard?
No. Access control in Looker works at the dashboard level, not the individual tab level. If a user has permission to view the dashboard, they can view all tabs within that dashboard. If you need tab-level security, create separate dashboards with appropriate access controls.
Do service accounts in Looker 26.0 consume user licenses?
No. Service accounts are API-only and don't count against your Looker user license limits. This is the primary advantage over using regular user accounts for API automation.
How do I migrate existing API automation to service accounts?
Go to Admin > Users in Looker, find the user accounts currently being used for API access, and click Migrate to Service Account. Your existing API keys transfer automatically without requiring any changes to your automation scripts.
