Google Workspace has released new features for its chat platform to make collaboration even easier, but it may be even more confusing for some users.
Company announced (opens in a new tab) updates on its Google Cloud Next ’22 event, introducing layers of chat and sub-threads, which can complicate things for non-IT-savvy employees.
Previously, Google chat spaces could accommodate up to 400 members, making the platform unsuitable for large-scale messaging in large organizations. This has now been increased 20-fold to a cap of 8,000, which the company hopes will help increase the appeal of the app.
Google Chat update
However, anyone familiar with the Slack interface will already understand threading and commenting on individual messages in the space, which Google says will allow “smaller groups of people [to] continue the conversation on a specific topic.
The outstanding feature is designed for ease of use, with indicators like notification badges and direct “@” mentions, but some users may still find it difficult to keep track of notifications across the platform that are not stored in one central location.
We already know the version of Google chat groups, Spaces, which are organized by topics. This format will continue to be supported until early 2023 when threading will become the only option for newly created Spaces.
However, this will not affect existing spaces in the “old” project, so if users prefer to stop the “slackification” of Google’s online collaboration tool, they should create their spaces before taking over the thread.
This feature has already rolled out to all Google Workspace customers, including legacy G Suite Basic and Business plans, and is also available to personal Google Account holders.