Looker Studio becomes Data Studio
...again
The Google Cloud team just officially announced that Looker Studio will now be called...Data Studio...yes, Data Studio again.
Just official, 2 days ago on the Google Cloud Blog, titling:
“Data Studio returns as new home for Data Cloud assets“
I must admit, that’s a nice way of putting what looks like a rollback at first glance.
The data visualization software will also have a new logo in the form of two connected magnifying glasses, symbolizing data exploration and visualization of shared blue insights…I imagine…or connected blob assets…anyway, I don’t think they’re handcuffs…or maybe…
It is the 4th logo for Data Studio
Discovery of the announcement
I’ll let you read the article that explains the change and the reasons for this step backward, at least in terms of naming.
Without any clue, if we dig a little deeper into the positioning of Looker and Data Studio described in the article, we can easily interpret a number of clues regarding what Data Studio will be, or rather, what it will persist in remaining.
With some additional features as the home of Data Cloud Assets, interacting with variety of data sources and assets, including reports, but also:
Conversational agents
Data Apps from Colab notebooks
In addition to this article, The Google Cloud Next event taking place in 9 days will allow us to learn more and reveal what the future of Data Studio will be, mostly in term of upcoming other features.
We need more, we need guarantees for the future
As an expert in this software, and also a member of the analytics community…and by the way, part of the digital industry in general that adopts Data Studio broadly for a while, I had by interpretations about what I read, facing high expectations:
I hope the tool follows the logical evolution of what we expect from a visualization tool in 2026
I hope it embraces technologies where humans are not alone in the loop when it comes to producing demanding modes of data exposition of all kinds, including relevant interactive reports.
There are many challenges to address. We need much more today than yesterday, and this impression of a symbolic step backward through a simple name was honestly very annoying as the first touch of this change.
We all want Data Studio (there we go, I’m getting back into the habit) to follow the paradigm shifts, the lightning-fast technological evolutions, and the support for change in operations... that we see everywhere else.
So, let’s see what will be announced during the Google Cloud Next in details and how much it is aligned with our current needs of acceleration.
Sharing my first reactions on LinkedIn…
When I heard about this change, I had to share it with the community, and the place to do so in 2026 is LinkedIn.
I was surprised by the number of passionate people listening on a Saturday on LinkedIn and I was happy to find all my friends, and the whole community sharing the same feeling…a consensus that the communication from Google Cloud opened the door to too much negative speculations and the same interpretations. A form of confirmation from peers.
Thank you Ralph, Brais, Siavash, Gianluca, Marc, Shane, Luis…for your takes.
Personal note
On a personal note, I’ll also have to make some decisions regarding my little ecosystem around Looker Studio... sorry, I would say Data Studio.
After nearly 10 years of external advocacy and collaborating with every PM who has worked on this product, I would have preferred to find out some other way than through a blog alert a Saturday morning... but it is what it is.
The final clarifications
To end on a positive note, my contacts in the Looker and Data Studio teams reached out after hearing my concerns. They reassured me about the future and what will be announced in 11 days in Las Vegas.
Even though it looked like a bad joke to those outside the organization, they explained that reverting to the original name was the best way to end over three years of confusion. I understood this as an admission that trying to turn Data Studio into Looker Studio was a mistake, something many of us agree on.
Long live Data Studio! Here’s to fewer unpatched bugs and more innovation that truly embraces how we want to showcase analytics data.
Nevertheless, we’ll be keeping a close eye on every sign that things might be going off track and won’t hesitate to make the tough calls when needed.
Forewarned is forearmed, especially for a digital analyst.
…so “With Looker Studio” becomes “With Data Studio”
And now, I’m embarking on a long find-and-replace journey now that I’ve mapped out the action plan.
A lot of steps involved because the digital ecosystem has become quite distributed.
I’ll be chipping away at it gradually…piece by piece, as it is pretty tedious and I don’t want to put my other side projects on hold.
Official announcement on Google Cloud blog
https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/looker-studio-is-data-studio