Google Chat
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While Messages and RCS is how Google wants you to message friends, Google Chat also fits that role and the company today reminded people of that personal use case.
Expand Expanding CloseWe’re expecting a big update to Google Chat in the future, but until then, the existing web app is adding Smart Compose to make writing messages “faster and easier.”
Expand Expanding CloseGoogle Chat, the company’s Slack and Microsoft Teams competitor, looks to be getting an overhaul in the near future that features a new logo and “Timeline”-focused redesign of the mobile apps.
Expand Expanding CloseFollowing Gmail, Drive, and Docs/Sheets/Slides, Google Chat is now the latest Workspace web app to get a Material You redesign.
Expand Expanding CloseIn addition to custom durations, Google Chat will soon let you schedule a recurring DND (Do Not Disturb), which are useful for lunch breaks and the weekends.
Expand Expanding CloseGoogle Workspace’s alternative to Slack, Google Chat, is adding support for custom emoji to your organization starting this week.
Expand Expanding CloseGoogle is rolling out a trio of features to improve the search experience in Gmail with labels and related results. Chat also gets some upgrades with AI-generated summaries and inline threading for Spaces.
Expand Expanding CloseThe last Hangouts client (web) will stop working in November, and Google will be all-in with Chat at that point. The latest updates to Google Chat include the ability to send multiple photos and videos simultaneously.
Expand Expanding CloseGoogle’s push to make Spaces a better Slack or Microsoft Teams competitor continues by making them discoverable in Gmail search on the web.
Expand Expanding CloseAs announced a week ago, Google is now in the process of shutting down classic Hangouts for free consumers. Many users are finding that they can no longer access Hangouts for Android and iOS today.
Expand Expanding CloseGoogle Hangouts has a ticking clock hanging over its head and is set to shut down for good. Fortunately, you can move your Google Hangouts data by downloading it and keeping it safe locally. This guide will take you through exactly how to do that.
Expand Expanding CloseAll Workspace customers were migrated to Google Chat earlier this year. Google announced today that classic Hangouts is going away for free users in October and laid out the migration plans to Chat.
Expand Expanding CloseGoogle Talk, the instant messaging service from 2005 that’s been in limbo for years, is being shut down permanently this week.
Expand Expanding CloseGoogle already lets you create and assign tasks in Google Chat Spaces, and the integration is now going deeper with the ability to create a personal task from any message.
Expand Expanding CloseGoogle is bringing its bright red warning banners to Chat in order to guard against invites that contain potential phishing and malware links.
Expand Expanding CloseA small tweak rolling out to Google Chat brings back the idle status (orange bubble) that was originally found in Google Talk, which was colloquially referred to as Gchat.
Expand Expanding CloseWhile Google Chat does a great deal to modernize Hangouts, some similarities do remain. One of the more fun overlaps is easter eggs — appropriately — with all of the classic slash commands continuing to work in Google Chat.
Expand Expanding CloseAs previewed last month, Google Chat on iOS will let you set which contacts can reach you in Focus mode. This applies to the dedicated Chat app and the integrated experience available in Gmail.
Expand Expanding CloseAlongside a slew of Meet announcements, Google Voice is getting a pair of new capabilities, most notably call recording, for enterprise subscribers. Google also previewed what’s coming to Spaces this year.
Expand Expanding CloseAs classic Hangouts is set to go away for Workspace customers, Google continues to update Chat and Spaces with more capabilities. A small tweak sees Gmail for Android introduce new status bar icons that help differentiate notifications from Google Chat and Spaces.
Expand Expanding CloseFollowing Gmail at the start of this year, Google Drive is the latest iOS app to get new work-focused widgets, while there are also updates for Translate and Chat on iOS in the coming weeks.
Expand Expanding CloseGoogle is working to make Spaces in Chat more versatile and feature rich. It will eventually replace Currents, and Google is now rolling out features like setting Space Managers and guidelines.
Expand Expanding CloseGoogle was originally supposed to start the migration away from classic Hangouts to Chat in October 2019 for Workspace (previously G Suite) users. That switch was delayed, and the multi-stage plan did not start until June 2020. The final phase is now set for late March.
Expand Expanding CloseGoogle+ shut down in April of 2020 as a social network for consumers, but the product was kept around for businesses that wanted an internal tool to communicate with employees in a post/stream-like manner. Citing low usage, Google is shutting down Currents and replacing it with Spaces in the new integrated Gmail/Chat.
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