The location of employees has become more complex as many people work remotely and some return to the office. Google has made more changes to its Google Workspace offering, including the launch of spaces, its tool for small group sharing that can be used in Google Chat for all users.
Spaces can be integrated with Workspace tools like Drive, calendar, and documents to offer a hybrid experience that allows users to see all the history, content, and context of conversations, regardless of where they are located.
In a blog post, Sanaz Ahari, Google's senior director for product management, stated that customers want spaces to function more as a hub for collaboration in real-time and asynchronously. Teams can now meet in a shared space to discuss projects and other topics, rather than starting an email chain or scheduling video meetings.
These are some of the new features that users can see in these spaces:
All your communications in one place: chats, spaces, meetings, and email.
You can make spaces and the content of them discoverable so that people can find them and participate in the conversation.
Improved search abilities within the teams knowledge base.
Ability to respond to any message in a given space.
Communication monitoring and security enhanced.
For collaboration purposes, employees can now indicate whether they will be in-person or virtual on specific days in Calendar. Users can also call their colleagues via Google Meet on mobile or desktop devices.
All customers will soon be able use Google Meets Companion Mode in November to join meetings from their personal devices while simultaneously tapping into the audio and video of the meeting. Live-translated captions in English, French, German and Spanish will also be available later in the year.
Google also expands its Google Meet hardware collection to include third-party devices Logitechs Video Bar and Appcessoris mobile speaker dock, and interoperability and Webex by Cisco.
Google has created a handbook to help you navigate hybrid work. It includes best practices blueprints for five common hybrid meetings.
