Google Workspace has announced a series of updates to its Meet, Chat and Voice apps, aimed at improving communication and collaboration for hybrid teams.
Most of the updates are for Google's video conferencing platform, Google Meet. As offices reopen and some workers start hosting in-person meetings again, collaboration providers are under pressure to ensure remote and in-person participants have the same meeting experience.
Earlier this year, Google announced its own hybrid work plans, with the company expecting most of its employees to be in the office around three days a week.
Google Meet levels the hybrid work playing field
To standardize hybrid working conditions, Google is introducing reactions in meetings that will allow participants to express themselves visually with emojis. Users will also be able to import documents from Google Docs, Sheets and Slides into virtual meetings and present them, all from the same tab.
Companion mode updates mean that people physically present in conference rooms will also be able to add their own personal video thumbnail from their laptop camera, making it easier for other participants to see their expressions and gestures. This update is aimed squarely at ensuring that those in a physical space have the same experience as those working remotely.
A new picture-in-picture feature will allow presenters and hosts running Meet in Chrome browsers to see their audience as they navigate through different tabs and windows, while those using trusted Google Meet hardware, including products from Logitech, Acer and Asus, will begin to experiment. with automatic noise cancellation.
For larger meetings, Google is adding the ability to conduct Q&As and polls in live streams, and later this year hosts will have the option to stream live meetings directly to YouTube from the Meet Activities tab.
Finally, starting in May, Google will release updates to bring optional client-side encryption to Google Meet, and later this year will introduce optional end-to-end encryption for all meetings.
Google Chat and Voice updates
While updates to Google Meet are aimed at improving real-time collaboration, Google is also looking to improve its other platforms to facilitate more asynchronous ways of working.
Google Spaces (which replaced rooms in Google Chat last year) will now offer an online chat thread, allowing members of a space to reply to specific comments and create side conversations, while keeping the dialogue organized and contextual.
Users can now invite others to join a space via a shared link, and later this year, Google says it will let users search for and join any space in an organization. It also improves chat and space search and brings filter chips to chat search results later this year.
Team size limits on slots will increase to 8,000, then 25,000 by the end of the year. Google is also adding features that improve content moderation, the ability to designate administrators, guidelines for specific spaces, and new management capabilities for removing spaces.
Google Voice updates include a SIP link that will allow customers to connect to their chosen telecom carrier's SIP trunks, enable on-demand call recording and automatic call recording.
On-demand call recording will be available to Standard and Premier subscribers starting next month, while automatic call recording will only be available to Premier subscribers.
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