Good golly, gang, Google’s done it again.

Just when the G-team was thought by me had made its messaging service strategy as convoluted as humanly possible, Le Googlé has were able to inject a lot more messy confusion into its suite of messaging products.

This, my fellow earthlings, deserves some serious recognition. Achieving degrees of perplexity this high is really a rare feat, and you’d better believe it ain’t easy.

Our latest confounding twist comes thanks to an announcement earlier this week that Google Workspace – the recently rebranded identity for the entity formerly referred to as G Suite – will now be accessible for everybody, whether you’re utilizing a paid company-connected account or perhaps a free individual Google account.

With that announcement comes a bunch of incoming changes to the communication services you understand and love and also some changes to the core Gmail interface . It is a lot to wrap your mind around, and my very own Gmail inbox has been filled with questions from bemused and befuddled Google users.

In order to answer those inquiries and seem sensible of Google’s increasingly comical messaging service situation, I thought we’d consider some questions together – questions that’ll help us reach underneath of what’s actually going on with all this and exactly what it, truly opportinity for us as humble Google-using hominids.

So sharpen your fingernails and plan some intensive head-scratching: It is time to get inquisitive.

Fine, let’s start simple. Just what is Google Workspace?

 

Excellent question, Mr. Watson! Best I could tell, Google Workspace is currently the name for several of Google’s productivity apps – Gmail, Docs, Sheets, etc. With this particular week’s announcement, that name now pertains to anyone using said services, whether you’re a paying business customer or simply a normal ol’ individual-account-owning schmo.

Got it. Just what exactly exactly is changing, then, Mr. Wizard? From the name aside?

 

Basically, all of the Workspace features that bring different messaging and collaborating opportunities into Gmail – the stuff we found out about last fall for paying Workspace account owners – are actually gonna be accessible to anyone who’s using Gmail, whether on a paid or perhaps a free basis.

This is a screenshot to illustrate what’s coming to an inbox in your area:

Google

 

Wait, that’s Gmail? My head hurts.

 

Mine does, too. But that’s not a question.

Um, okay – just what exactly the fluff is being conducted there?!

 

What you’re seeing for the reason that screenshot is really a conversation in the Google Chat group messaging system, that used to be called Rooms but is currently getting renamed to Spaces, in which multiple folks are discussing a spreadsheet from Google Sheets and focusing on said spreadsheet there in the Gmail inbox.

Wait, what? My head hurts.

 

Again, not a relevant question.

Right. Just what exactly exactly is Google Chat again?

 

Google Chat may be the new-ish messaging system linked to Google Workspace. It had previously been available and then paying Workspace customers, but starting now, everyone can use it.

Hasn’t Gmail always had Google Chat inside it?

 

Not exactly. Back the olden days, Gmail had a Google messaging service referred to as Google Talk . But lots of people described that service as Google Chat – or GChat – despite the fact that that wasn’t technically its name.

First got it. And what messaging service was in Gmail for individual users before this?

 

Most individual Gmail users remain using Google Hangouts, that is the universal messaging service that debuted in 2013 and was designed to simplify Google’s messaging strategy. It launched with the promise that it’d end up being the “the single communication app” all Google users would depend on.

Um, okay. So what’s happening to Hangouts, then?

 

Hangouts has been around the procedure for being eliminated for about 7,492 years now. Google says it will likely be shut down eventually, once most of its users have successfully moved to Google Chat instead.

I see. So Google Chat will handle texting, too, like Hangouts just?

 

Nope. It’s simply for messaging with others who may also be using Google Chat. For SMS-based texting, you will want to utilize the Google Messages service.

Doesn’t Google Messages likewise have a messaging feature called Chat?

 

Yes – yes, it can.

Chat is the brand for the next-gen messaging option obtainable in Google Messages, which depends on the Rich Communication Services, or RCS, standard. It enables you to speak to other Google Messages users who’ve Chat enabled and revel in a modern-messaging-app-like experience, with active typing indicators, read receipts, end-to-end encryption, along with other such niceties.

However the Google Chat feature in Google Messages is unrelated to the Google Chat app?

 

Correct-o!

What the hell is Hangouts Chat, then?!

 

Hangouts Chat was what Google originally called the Google Chat service (the standalone service that’s getting built-into Gmail, not the RCS messaging feature within the Google Messages app) when it first launched in 2017.

Wasn’t it said to be an enterprise-only tool at that time?

 

Yes – yes, it had been.

Just what exactly happened?

 

That sensible-seeming setup clearly wasn’t confusing enough, so Google changed its mind sooner or later and turned Chat into an all-purpose, available-to-everyone type of tool.

When am I likely to use Google Chat instead of Google Messages?

 

You utilize Google Chat on days with odd amounts of letters within their names and use Google Messages on days once the nearest visible grass is continuing to grow to a length that’s between 1.4 inches and 7.62 centimeters.

Very useful. Okay, so what’s these things about Spaces, again?

 

Spaces may be the new name for Rooms, that is the group messaging feature available within the Google Chat system (which, remember, is currently open to everyone within Gmail).

How come Google changing its name already?

 

Because Google really wants to make sure nobody ever fully understands its messaging service strategy and which product has been used of which time.

Wasn’t there already a Google service called Spaces?

 

Indeed, there was! Just what a memory you have for the reason that disturbingly moist brain of yours. Google Spaces was an app introduced in 2016 that has been likely to simplify group sharing. It enable you to create Spaces (obtain it?) with other folks and share messages, links, videos, and angry koala photos and view all that stuff immediately for the reason that one interface.

What happened compared to that?

 

It had been killed significantly less than per year after it launched. Charges are pending still.

Oookay. So what’s happening with video now? Some new video chatting thing is getting into Gmail, too?

 

Yup – Google Meet, that is Google’s group video conferencing service. It will likely be obtainable in the Gmail website sidebar aswell.

Wasn’t Google Meet originally meant limited to enterprise use?

 

It was! However now it’s meant for anybody and everyone to utilize .

How is Google Meet not the same as Google Duo?

 

Well, Google Duo enables you to have calls each one using one or with as much as 32 people. Google Meet enables you to have calls each one using one or with as much as 100, 150, or 250 people, based on your Google Workspace plan , and contains some extra presentation-related and work-oriented conferencing options. Google Meet can be more fun to state, because people never know if you are discussing a video conferencing service or some strange new beef product.

So for video calls involving two to 32 people, which am I likely to use?!

 

Yes.

You said something about Docs and Sheets and all that also getting into Gmail. Whaaaat?

 

Yeah – with the brand new Workspace setup, it is possible to open documents, spreadsheets, and presentations right within Gmail when someone shares one particular with you in an organization chat Room (soon to be referred to as a Space).

But I could still open those in the most common Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps, too?

 

Right-o.

What happens easily open something in both Gmail and Docs at exactly the same time?

 

The encounter could develop a time paradox, the results which might lead to a chain reaction that could unravel the fabric of the area time continuum and destroy the complete universe.

Wait one minute. What’s Google Voice?

 

Google Voice is really a Workspace-related service that acts as a virtual switchboard for the phone number to enable you to make and receive both calls and messages on a variety of devices.

So how exactly does it tie into all this?

 

It generally does not, exactly. It’s just its separate thing.

So if I’m using Google Voice, may i still use Google Chat?

 

It is possible to! Google Chat has nothing in connection with your phone number, therefore the two services are totally unrelated.

Think about Google Messages and the RCS Chat system within it? MAY I use that with Google Voice, too?

 

No, Google Voice doesn’t support the RCS-based Chat system as of this moment.

Wait – what?! You will want to?

 

Yes.

Oof. Okay, to Workspace back. If Workspace can be acquired for everybody with a Google account now, does which means that everyone has to shell out the dough?

 

No. Businesses and schools can choose to work with a paid Workspace setup, but also for regular folk with standard individual Google accounts, everything’s still free – like always .

Cool. At the very least that’s relatively easy to comprehend.

 

Well, I will probably also mention that Google’s now supplying a new paid Workspace Individual option for anybody who comes with an individual Google account but really wants to utilize the business-level Workspace features.

Just what are those business-level Workspace features?

 

In accordance with Google’s announcement , they’ll let anyone with your small business “have more done, arrive more professionally, and serve their customers better.”

Is it possible to elaborate any longer on that?

 

Sure! Google also says the Workspace Individual plan will let subscribers “easily manage almost all their personal and professional commitments in one place with usage of Google support to obtain the most out of these solution.”

Oh, and it offers you a neat Calendly-like scheduling feature .

How am I likely to know easily need the Workspace Individual plan or in case a regular free individual Google account is sufficient for my needs?

 

Yes.

Sigh. So, okay, is all this going to arrive in Gmail for me personally right away?

 

No, silly. The Google Chat integration in Gmail will arrive only if you go in to the Gmail settings on the site, click on the “Chat and Meet” tab, and change the “Chat” setting from “Classic Hangouts” to “Google Chat.”

What will eventually all my old Hangouts info easily do that?

 

Any messages sent after June of 2020 will arrive there automatically. Any messages sent before June of 2020 can look there at some unspecified future date. Until then, they’ll presumably exist in a virtual vortex that’s closely guarded by way of a robot named Keanu.

So may i speak to anyone I used to speak to on Hangouts in Google Chat?

 

No, it is possible to only talk to others who have Google Chat enabled and/or installed on the various devices.

Beyond people using Chat inside a company, how many individuals who I know are in fact gonna be onto it?

 

The number will change based on just how many Google employees you talk to on a regular basis, but also for most average users, I suspect the quantity is presently somewhere within zero and two.

Think about the Docs and Sheets integration in Gmail? Is that open to me now?

 

Yes! In the event that you switch to Google Chat, utilizing the setting we mentioned another ago, you can start documents, spreadsheets, and presentations anytime someone shares one right into a Google Chat Room.

Wait, not mean a Google Chat Space?

 

No, the differ from Rooms to Spaces won’t happen until sometime “come early july.”

Which are the odds that Google could have introduced a minumum of one other new messaging service by that time?

 

Extraordinarily high.

EASILY don’t desire to use any of these things and just want Gmail to be Gmail, can it is prevented by me?

 

You can! Just make certain the choice for “Chat” in the “Chat and Meet” portion of the Gmail website’s settings is defined to “Off” and make certain the choice for “Meet” for the reason that same section is defined to “Hide the Meet section in the primary menu.”

Think about on mobile? MAY I get rid of all of the extra tabs Google put into underneath of my Gmail app?

 

It is possible to! In the Gmail Android app, tap the three-line menu icon in the upper-left corner just, find and choose “Settings” from the menu that arises, then tap the name of the Google account you intend to adjust. Uncheck the box close to “Chat,” say “Expelliarmus!” once and for all measure, and that entire bar should disappear.

What’s the difference between using Chat and Meet within the Gmail app and using Chat and Meet of their own standalone Android apps?

 

There is absolutely no difference.

THEREFORE I could conceivably speak to someone in Google Chat within the Gmail app while simultaneously communicating with them in the standalone Google Chat app and in addition messaging them with the Chat feature in the Google Messages app?

 

You can, yes, but that is clearly a fine solution to lose a friend.

Hold on a sec. Whichever happened to Google Allo?

 

It was only a figment of one’s imagination. Google Allo never existed actually.

Okay, one last question: Will there be something called Google Meat?

 

If only, my pal. If only.

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