Google Workspace, Chat now open to all for seamless hybrid work

The company's 3 billion-plus existing users across consumer, enterprise, and education have access to the full Google Workspace experience, including Gmail, Chat, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Meet and more.

In addition to Google Workspace, the tech giant announced new innovations that address the specific challenges and opportunities of the hybrid work world.

"Our focus is on delivering consumers, workers, teachers and students alike an equitable approach to collaboration, while still providing flexibility that allows these different subsets of users to take their own approach to communication and collaboration," said Javier Soltero, VP and GM, Google Workspace.

Starting from Monday, users can enable the integrated experience in Google Workspace by turning on Google Chat in Gmail.

Google also launched a subscription offer called 'Workspace Individual' to help business owners grow, run, and protect their business.

This new subscription offering provides premium capabilities, including smart booking services, professional video meetings and personalized email marketing, with much more on the way, the company said.

Within their existing Google account, subscribers can easily manage all their personal and professional commitments from one place with access to Google support to get the most out of their solution.

�Workspace Individual' is rolling out soon to six markets, including the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Brazil and Japan.

With the introduction of Spaces, the Rooms experience in Google Chat will evolve into a dedicated place for organising people, topics, and projects in Google Workspace.

"Over the summer, we'll evolve Rooms to become Spaces and launch a streamlined and flexible user interface that helps teams and individuals stay on top of everything that's important," said Google.

Spaces will seamlessly integrate with files and tasks, becoming a new home in Google Workspace for getting more done.

The company also unveiled Companion Mode in Google Meet that gives every meeting participant access to interactive features and controls like polls, in-meeting chat, hand raising, Q&A, live captions, and more.

Companion Mode will be available on the web and Google Meet's upcoming progressive web app in September.

To allow meeting organisers to better plan for hybrid meetings, invitees will soon be able to RSVP with their join location, indicating whether they'll be joining in a meeting room or remotely.

Next month, Google will introduce key moderation controls for hosts of Google Meet meetings, giving them the ability to prevent the use of in-meeting chat and prohibit presenting during meetings, allowing them to mute and unmute participants.