"This Google Account isn’t supported"
"Bard does not currently support Google Workspace accounts or when our systems indicate you may be under 18."
Smooth move, Google. PAYING Workspace customers should be the first ones to get access. This blows my mind. Oh wait, no… it doesn't. They did this with other devices and apps too. You couldn't use your Workspace account. You had to use a personal account.
Really dumb. You'd think they would give the good stuff to the people PAYING them, first.
That has virtually never been the case, it's generally always the opposite.
Because IT admins need advance time to decide whether to enable features for parts of their org or not, and to implement or update training materials. Also if a feature breaks it's worse if you're paying. Not to mention all the additional regulations around data retention/location/etc. that sometimes have to be implemented, that free accounts don't have to worry about.
So Google generally rolls out new features to free accounts first, and then it comes to paid once fully tested at scale and compliant and admins have had time to evaluate for their institutions.
This is a feature, not a bug.
It's kind of obvious that some people have multiple accounts and not being able to switch right there is sickening.
Of course it would be nice to be able to opt-in either globally or by service and accept that these interactions are not protected with the usual data rules. But this takes even more effort and legal work to implement, so no one has bothered.
Still, after all this time the geniuses at Google kinda ought to have solved this :)
It won't be solved until the day Google stops selling ads. Regular Google accounts are designed to vacuum up any useful user data and use it to improve Google services in any way Google chooses, and they may update the terms with a EULA updates. Workspace accounts are the opposite: user data is controlled by the account admin, and agreement is not with individual users, but their org.
Beta releases work well when information can be freely gathered and reported upstream. The nature and class of information collected may change over time, and is not covered under Workspaces agreements