Slack, Teams, Chat — all the workplace chat apps are the same now.
Google is making some big changes to Google Chat, its answer to Slack and Microsoft Teams. The messaging app — aka The Product Formerly Known As Hangouts — is getting a new design, some features that will feel distinctly familiar to Slack and Teams users, and a lot of Google’s new Duet AI collaboration tools. Most of the new features are rolling out later this year and early next, but they add up to a much more useful and competitive Chat platform.
Duet is the flagship new feature and potentially a reason for a lot of Workspace users to start using Chat. You can use Duet to search and ask questions about all your stuff in Drive and Gmail and summarize both documents and conversations. You’ll also be able to use AI-powered autocorrect in Chat, and thanks to Smart Reply, you might never have to manually talk to your co-workers again.
Outside of the AI integrations, Chat is also getting a facelift. The app has, until now, looked like a fairly barebones messaging app, with a list of conversations on the left and the active chat on the right; now, it’s going to have a lot more going on. There will be a new home view with all your recent conversations, plus dedicated ways to see all your starred conversations and mentions.
The underlying tech of huddles is Google Meet, which is a surprisingly sensible bit of corporate synergy from Google — it’s just a simpler, less intense interface for getting in touch. Meanwhile, Spaces, the Discord-like group channels in Chat, can now have up to 500,000 people, which is 10 times the previous 50,000-member limit.For Jasti, this launch is kind of a coming-out party for Chat. “Not only are we catching up with or meeting competitors — this is a starting point,” he says.
There’s nothing about the new Chat updates that will likely send users sprinting away from Slack or Teams, but the useful AI and huddles features might make some existing Chat users a little more likely to stick around.
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