Since Duet AI’s introduction within the Google Workspace, many companies, along with over a million trusted testers, have harnessed its capabilities to enhance their written communication, streamline workflows, and enrich their collaborative endeavors. Today, Google unveiled an upgraded chat experience, further empowered by Duet AI, which redefines messaging’s future.
AI-powered messaging
Incorporating cutting-edge artificial intelligence, Chat now serves as a real-time collaborative companion that proffers timely updates, insightful revelations, and proactive recommendations across all your Google Workspace applications. Duet AI enables intricate query responses spanning the entire spectrum of your correspondence stored in Gmail and Drive. It offers concise summaries of documents shared within your Workspace and comprehensive recaps of previously missed conversations.
Moreover, Google is committed to refining the Chat user interface, introducing a harmonious fusion of updated color schemes and typographical enhancements. This is all firmly rooted in Google’s innovative Material 3 design language. Finding the desired conversation will become a breeze as Google combines direct messages and spaces into a unified conversation hub. This transformation is further aided by introducing user-friendly shortcuts, including a chronological home view, @mentions, and starred conversations, all designed to simplify your communication flow. The home view will evolve into a more intelligent and dynamic platform in the coming months. This platform will be adept at prioritizing messages based on your communication patterns.
The integration of the smart canvas concept into Chat brings forth the introduction of smart chips, allowing for seamless file sharing directly from the composition bar. We also diligently enhance in-line threading, ensuring swift access to all pertinent conversation threads through shortcuts.
To further enhance the chat experience, Google’s search functionality is being updated. You can expect a revamped results page enriched with features such as suggested queries, autocomplete, “did-you-mean” suggestions, and AI-driven relevance ranking of search results. Furthermore, we are incorporating an autocorrect feature into our suite of AI-powered composition tools to help you maintain a polished and professional tone even while on the move.
More Collaboration
In recognition of the evolving needs of collaborative teams, Chat is expanding its horizons to cater to organizations of all sizes. Earlier this year, Google raised the membership limit for spaces from 8,000 to 50,000. Today, Google announced a staggering 10X increase in this limit. Areas will soon support up to 500,000 members, making it possible for even the largest enterprises to unify their entire workforce within a single space (private preview by the end of the year). Additionally, Google introduced message views, offering a snapshot of engagement within a particular space.
Huddles are the latest addition to Chat, providing teams with a convenient avenue for real-time communication through quick-to-join audio and video conversations. With Huddles, meetings seamlessly integrate into your ongoing discussions, eliminating the need to switch between different platforms. Huddles will be available for customer preview at the end of the year.
In modern collaboration, messaging is just one piece of the puzzle. It is possible to smoothly incorporate Workspace and other external applications to make your conversations more efficient. Google’s upcoming features include a dedicated apps section in the conversation list. In addition, Google has enhanced the Google Drive app that allows comments and share requests. We also have a selection of third-party apps for Google Chat, including Workday, Loom, Zoho, and LumApps, to augment the existing roster of supported apps. Moreover, the introduction of Duet AI in AppSheet empowers users to create custom apps within Chat without coding skills.
More secure Messaging app
For organizations relying on multiple collaboration tools, Google collaborates with external partner Mio to enable message interoperability with major platforms. This is beginning with today’s public preview.
Security remains at the forefront of our priorities. Thanks to Chat’s integration within the Workspace ecosystem, users benefit from robust built-in protections that effectively thwart spam, phishing, and malware, ensuring Gmail inboxes remain secure. Chat also provides real-time data loss prevention warnings to prevent the inadvertent sharing of sensitive information. Soon, Google will introduce admin-customizable chat messages that will enhance security.
Efficiency and value are paramount to modern teams, and Chat is designed to address these needs. By connecting seamlessly with other Workspace apps, Chat simplifies common tasks and minimizes context switching. Features like sharing Drive files and assigning Tasks directly in spaces, automatic notification muting during focus time, and Gmail integration all contribute to a seamless Workspace experience.
As Google integrated Google Groups with spaces in Chat, Workspace administrators will soon be able to synchronize space membership while provisioning new users. This streamlines essential tasks such as app deployment for frontline workers, employee onboarding, and configuration of announcement spaces for specific buildings, regions, or groups.
