Tag Archives: Google Chat

Introducing a new mobile experience for Google Chat

What’s changing

We recently announced a streamlined user experience in Google Chat to help you find what you need much faster, including new features like home and mentions. Starting today, we’re excited to introduce a new bottom navigation bar within the Chat app on Android & iOS devices to help you easily access these features on mobile. You will now have easy access to the following views: 
  • Home: helps you stay on top of all conversions in one unified view, with a filter that allows you to drill down to unread messages. 
  • Direct messages: see a compact list of all your 1:1 and group messages, including pinned conversations at the top of the list. 
  • Spaces: see a compact list of all your spaces, including pinned conversations at the top of the list. 
  • Mentions: helps you easily find messages from conversations and spaces where you’ve been mentioned. 
Introducing a new mobile experience for Google Chat


Getting started 


Rollout pace 

Android & iOS: 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Expanding message bubbles in Google Chat to iOS devices

What’s changing

In September, we introduced message bubbles in Google Chat on web and Android, enabling users to more easily differentiate incoming versus outgoing messages in the Chat message stream. Today, we’re excited to announce the expansion of message bubbles to iOS devices. 

On your phone or tablet: 
  • Each incoming message will have an independent message bubble aligned to one side with a solid color background 
  • Each outgoing message will have an independent message bubble aligned to the other side with a different color background 
Expanding message bubbles in Google Chat to iOS devices


Getting started 

  • Admins and end users: No action required. You’ll automatically see these updates in your web and mobile experience over the next several weeks. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Improved search query suggestions in Google Chat web

What’s changing

In conjunction with recent updates to search in Google Chat, we’re introducing enhanced search query suggestions, a feature already available on mobile, that helps you find the right message, person, file, or space in Chat on the web. 

When searching in Chat, you will now see query suggestions based on historical search activity, sorted by relevance. The top suggestion will also appear in the search box and you can press “Tab” to autofill the query. You can also delete a suggested query by hovering over it and clicking on the “x” icon next to it. 
Improved search query suggestions in Google Chat web


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Star important messages in Google Chat

What’s changing

Following the recent announcement of home and mentions in Google Chat, we’re excited to introduce starred on web, an additional shortcut in the redesigned navigation panel that helps you stay on top of your most important messages in Chat. 
Star important messages in Google Chat

Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

This feature enables you to “star” any messages in Chat for easy access via the starred shortcut in the navigation panel, and can be useful when you need to come back to a message later. 


Additional details 

Starring messages is unavailable in existing spaces organized by conversation topic (legacy threaded). 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users:
    • To star a message, hover over the message and click the star icon or click on the three dot overflow menu to display the star option.
    • You can unstar a message from the original message or unstar messages from the shortcut. 
    • Starred messages will be available on mobile in 2024. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn how to star messages in Chat. 

Rollout pace 

  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 16, 2023 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 30, 2023 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Take action on Google Drive requests and comments directly in Google Chat

What’s changing

Currently, you can use the Google Drive Chat app to get read-only notifications in Chat about activity in Drive, such as comments and share requests. Starting today, we’re adding the following improvements:
  • Reply to and resolve comments in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides directly from Chat 
  • Show more of the comment thread so you can have more context while replying 
  • @mention your colleagues easily while replying to comments 
With these updates, you can collaborate more easily on Docs, Sheets and Slides without ever leaving Chat.
Take action on Google Drive requests and comments directly in Google Chat


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Streamlining the user experience in Google Chat to help you find what you need much faster

What’s changing 

We recently introduced numerous enhancements across Google Chat, and today we’re excited to announce the general availability of three features highlighting a new integrated experience. 

The redesigned navigation panel brings direct messages and spaces together and introduces shortcuts, a new framework to help you stay on top of your messages. 

To reduce friction while navigating between messages, home helps you quickly catch up on any new activity across all conversations in a single location. Additionally, you can narrow down your view by filtering for unread messages. 
chat home



Mentions give you visibility into the messages addressed specifically to you. Within this single destination for important, actionable messages, you can see and navigate to the messages that @-mention you. 
Chat mentions

In addition to these improvements to the user experience, we’re updating the icon for Google Chat over the coming weeks. The new icon has a cohesive look with other popular Workspace products and reflects the central role of business messaging and collaboration in Workspace. 
New Chat logo


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

These features are designed to help you stay on top of the busy flow of communication and make it easier to prioritize and find the conversations that are most important to you. 


Additional details 

The direct message and spaces sections will be listed separately, but are scrollable and collapsable in one unified list. 

The list of messages where you have been @-mentioned are sorted by recency. 
  • Each row represents the message within the thread that mentions you. 
  • If you are mentioned multiple times in a conversation, each mention will show up as one row. 
  • Unread messages are highlighted in light blue and include a blue dot. 
Clicking on a message in the Home or Mentions view will bring you directly to the conversation or thread where you can respond. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – October 20, 2023

4 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.


Multi-task using new split screen feature in the Gmail app on large screen Android devices 
Last year, we announced numerous improvements to the Google Workspace experience on large screen Android devices, which included multi-instance support on Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides. We’re excited to introduce a similar feature for the Gmail app on Android tablets & foldables. With this update, you can now open links & attachments directly beside your email content when your device is in landscape orientation. 
  • Upon tapping a link (or attachment) in your email, the link (or attachment) will open on the right half of the screen and the email will move to the left half. 
  • You can control the width of each half or make one the full screen by dragging on the divider handle. 
This feature is now available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about 7 productivity apps for Android tablets and foldable phones. 
Multi-task using new split screen feature in the Gmail app on large screen Android devices

Add Google Groups to spaces in Google Chat 
Last month, we rolled out the admin controls for a new feature that enables space managers and users with the permission to manage members to add Google Groups to a space. Starting this week, end users can utilize this option and add Groups to spaces in Chat. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for November 1, 2023. | Available to all domain-verified Google Workspace customers. | Learn more about adding a Google Group to a space. 


Add emoji reactions to comments in Google Slides 
Last week, we announced the ability to add emoji reactions to comments in Google Sheets. We’re excited to announce this is now available for comments in Google Slides, increasing collaboration by enabling you to quickly and creatively express your opinions about presentation content. | Rolling out to Rapid Release domains now; launch to Scheduled Release domains planned for October 31, 2023. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about using comments, action items, & emoji reactions. 
Add emoji reactions to comments in Google Slides

Respond to access requests for Google Workspace files more efficiently on Android devices 
Earlier this year, we introduced a new file access experience to make it easier for file approvers to respond to pending access requests across Google Workspace. We’re happy to announce that this update is now available on Android devices. Within a file (Docs, Sheets, Slides, PDFs, etc.), click the Share button > select the Review button in the new banner to view the access request(s) > respond to the request(s). | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Learn more about sharing files from Google Drive. 





Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.



Upcoming changes to third-party cookie requirements in Google Drive
Google Chrome and other browsers have begun phasing out third-party cookies in order to better protect user privacy. Starting January 2, 2024, Drive will start serving downloads without requiring third-party cookies that are embedded on third-party websites. | Learn more about third-party cookie requirements in Google Drive. 


Understand the impact of Context-Aware Access policies with Monitor Mode 
Admins can now use Monitor Mode to understand the implications of a Context-Aware Access (CAA) policy before deploying it to their end users. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, Education Plus, and Cloud Identity Premium customers only. | Learn more about Context-Aware Access policies with Monitor Mode. 


Use the space management tool to bulk delete Google Chat spaces 
Using the space management tool, admins can now delete multiple spaces within their organization at once. Over time, as more spaces are created, the list of spaces for an organization can become cluttered with abandoned and inactive spaces. | Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Frontline, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching & Learning upgrade, Education Plus customers only. | Learn more about bulk deleting Google Chat spaces. 


Subtly enhance your appearance with portrait touch-up when using Google Meet on mobile devices 
We’re introducing portrait touch-up in Meet, a new feature on mobile that enables you to lightly touch up your appearance from the green room before joining or during the meeting. | Available to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, Teaching & Learning Upgrade, Google One and Google Workspace Individuals only. | Learn more about portrait touch-up in Meet. 


Map and sync system attributes of users from External Directory into Google Workspace 
Using Directory Sync, admins can map all the system or default user attributes, including custom attributes, from Microsoft Active Directory or Microsoft Azure Active Directory to Google Directory user attributes and synchronize them. | Learn more about Directory Sync. 


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.

Rapid Release Domains:


Use the space management tool to bulk delete Google Chat spaces

What’s changing 

Using the space management tool, admins can now delete multiple spaces within their organization at once. Over time, as more spaces are created, the list of spaces for an organization can become cluttered with abandoned and inactive spaces. Having the ability to delete multiple spaces at once can simplify the effort required by admins to manage spaces for an organization. . For example, admins can sort spaces based on their member count in descending order or based on the last activity in the space. From there, admins can select multiple spaces and delete them with one click.

Selecting multiple spaces

Deleting multiple spaces




Additional details

When viewing spaces in your organization, you’ll notice a new column: Group counts. In this column, admins can see how many groups are members of a specific space.


Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Frontline, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching & Learning upgrade, Education Plus customers

Resources


Expanding Smart replies everywhere you receive messages in Google Chat

This announcement is part of Google Cloud Next ‘23. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about the new Google Chat. 

What’s changing 

Building upon recently introduced features in Google Chat, such as smart compose and autocorrect, we’re excited to announce that smart replies are expanding from direct messages to group messages and spaces on Chat on web.

You can now utilize smart replies, powered by machine learning, to quickly respond when you're on the go, in a hurry or just want to take the tediousness away from typing messages in Chat. 
Expanding Smart replies everywhere you receive messages in Google Chat

Who’s impacted

End users 


Why you’d use it 

Now available in spaces and group conversations, smart replies help you respond to teammates quickly and move projects forward more efficiently. 


Additional details 

Smart reply uses sophisticated machine learning intelligence to recognize which messages most likely need responses and then proposes up to three different replies. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • Smart replies will appear automatically. Simply select one of three response options surfaced in a chat or customize your response before you click send. Please note, this feature is available in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
    • To t​urn off smart replies in Chat, navigate to the top right, click Settings > Under "Smart Reply," uncheck the box. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about replying to a chat message. 

Rollout pace 

  • This feature is available now for all users. 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Improved search results in Google Chat

This announcement is part of Google Cloud Next ‘23. Visit the Workspace Blog to learn more about the new Google Chat. 

What’s changing

Last year, we announced improvements to the Google Chat search experience on web and mobile that help you find more accurate and customized search suggestions and results. 

Now, when searching in Chat, machine learning models will use the search term(s), most recent Chat conversations in direct messages and spaces, and other factors to help you find more accurate and relevant Chat message results. 
Improved search results in Google Chat

Who’s impacted 

End users 


Additional details 

By default, search results will be sorted by relevance, but you have the option to change the result sorting to recency by clicking on the sort dropdown. 

If you unselect “Only conversations I’m in” at the top of the results page, you’ll see matching results from spaces that you’re not a part of, but have the option to join. For those spaces, you can preview and join them from the search results page itself. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 

  • This feature is available now on web, Android and iOS. 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers 

Resources