Labs overview
Looker Labs features are new, in-progress features whose details may change over time. Labs features are split into two categories:
- Beta: These features are expected to remain in the product, and errors are expected to be resolved at some point. However, these features may change in detail, and errors may not be fixed with the same speed as with normal features. You can see the list of current beta Labs features in the Beta features section on this page.
- Experimental: These features may or may not remain in the product, and errors may or may not be corrected. These experimental features are intended to show you functionality that could be incorporated into Looker in the future and to get your feedback. You can see the list of current experimental Labs features in the Experimental features section on this page.
You can choose to use these features or leave them disabled. You'll see a list of these features on the Labs page in the General section of the Admin panel. Each feature has a short description underneath it explaining the functionality that it adds to or changes in Looker.
Enabling and disabling Labs features
To enable or disable a feature, click the switch next to the feature name.
Use caution when disabling a Labs feature. If users or developers have relied on the feature to create a certain behavior, disabling the feature will break that functionality.
Current Labs features
Looker supports the following beta and experimental Labs features.
Beta features
Beta Labs features are expected to remain in the product, and errors are expected to be resolved at some point. However, their details may change, and errors may not be fixed with the same speed as they would be for normal features.
Access Studio in Looker
Enables the Looker reports feature, which lets you create, view, and edit Looker Studio reports in your Looker instance, including both governed and ad hoc data. You can share and manage your reports in Looker folders and see your recent reports and the reports that you have marked as favorites from the Looker Home page.
Embedding Looker Reports
Enables private or signed embedding of Looker reports in iframes. See the Embed Looker reports page for more information about embedding Looker reports.
Complex Filters UI Configuration for Explores
This Labs feature is enabled by default.
When this feature is enabled and a comma is entered into a filter expression, matches (advanced) filters no longer update to simpler filter types until the page is reloaded. This feature resolves a few stability issues with matches (advanced) filters.
Favoriting LookML Dashboards
When enabled, the Favorite icon is available for LookML dashboards stored in the LookML dashboard folder. Users can click the favorite icon to mark a LookML dashboard as a favorite and see the favorited LookML dashboard on various Looker pages.
New Explore & Look Saving
This Labs feature is disabled by default.
This feature improves the visibility and navigation of Save dialogs on the Explore and Look pages. The new experience allows quick navigation of folders, and users can choose to sort existing content by Name, Created Date, or Last Update. It does not change any functionality of these pages.
SQL Runner Vis
This Labs feature is disabled by default.
This feature adds the ability to visualize ad hoc queries from SQL Runner.
Tiered Support Access
This Labs feature is enabled by default.
Enabling the Tiered Support Access Labs feature enables enhanced support access, including updated access duration times and access levels. For more information, see the Admin settings - Support Access documentation page. Disabling this Labs feature enables legacy support access.
Visual Drilling
This Labs feature is enabled by default.
The Visual Drilling Labs feature is not supported by dashboards. For dashboards, visual drilling is possible through the use of the link parameter without needing to enable the Labs feature.
When Visual Drilling is turned off, the drill overlay always displays the data table.
When Visual Drilling is enabled, the drill overlays for Looks and Explores consider the underlying data to select the best visualization type, which can be a table visualization or some other visualization type. Or, with Visual Drilling enabled, you can use the link parameter to customize a drill visualization, as shown on the link parameter documentation page and on the More powerful data drilling Best Practices page. When the visualization from a drill is not a table, buttons let the user switch between the default visualization type and a data table.
For more information about visualization types, see the Visualization types documentation page.
Experimental features
Experimental Labs features may or may not remain in the product, and errors may or may not be corrected. These experimental features are intended to show you functionality that could be incorporated into Looker in the future. We always welcome your feedback.
BI Engine Symmetric Aggregates
This Labs feature is disabled by default.
When the BI Engine Symmetric Aggregates Labs feature is enabled, for queries that use symmetric aggregates, Looker will generate experimental SQL patterns that are designed to execute faster on the Google BigQuery BI Engine. This feature should have no effect on query results, only on execution performance.
Guided analyses in System Activity
This Labs feature is disabled by default.
When enabled, the History System Activity Explore displays guided analysis options to provide a question-and-answer format for performing analyses.
Redux DevTools
This Labs feature is disabled by default.
This feature enables Redux DevTools for debugging application state.
Rigorous Dashboard Download Permission Checking
This Labs feature is disabled by default.
When this feature is enabled, users can download a dashboard only if they have the download_with_limit or download_without_limit permission on every model that is included in the dashboard.