Google Chat groups in your workplace are about to grow with a new platform update.
Google says it's updating its chat software to "boost communication and collaboration for teams of all sizes," as up to 8,000 members can be added to a Google Chat space in the future, a big increase from the current limit of 400.
The company says the change will be ideal for bringing everyone in an organization into one central group for quick delivery of vital messages, but if we're being honest, we're more concerned about the constant pinging of chat notifications.
Google chat spaces
"We hope this update increases connectivity and creates broader communities for your organizations," Google wrote in a Workspace Updates blog post (opens in a new tab) announcing the news.
The change, which will be available to all Google Workspace customers as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers, won't require admin changes to activate, but will only apply to newly created spaces for domains. domains will see this for all new and existing spaces.
The change will not be available to Google Hangouts users following the software's recent official end-of-life announcement (opens in a new tab) as the company looks to modernize its Google Workspace suite to be as efficient as possible for the users.
The update follows a commitment made earlier this year by Google Workspace to help improve communication and collaboration for all kinds of teams.
This included making video conferences more secure and interactive, with the latter covering features ranging from in-meeting reactions to picture-in-picture video.
Users can also now start a Google Meet call (opens in a new tab) directly from their Docs, Sheets, or Slides file, with calls now including polls, Q&As, and automatic noise cancellation on many types of material.
Google Chat also recently introduced a new feature that allows users to create group chats (called Spaces) within the platform - opens in a new tab - that can then be shared with other members of your organization. The company says this will be particularly useful for creating and sharing "topic conversations" within your company, such as team discussions, how-to guides, and mentoring opportunities.