Google introduces in-line replies within announcement spaces in Chat

SAN FRANCISCO: Tech giant Google has announced that it is rolling out a new in-line reply feature in the communication service 'Google Chat’, that allows space members to respond to or discuss an announcement.

Earlier this year, the company had introduced the ability for space managers to configure spaces for sharing organisational announcements.

"While these announcement spaces aim to facilitate one-way controlled communication in Google Chat, we’re adding an optional in-line reply feature that will enable members of a space to respond to or discuss an announcement," the tech giant said in a Workspace Updates blogpost on Friday.

The new in-line reply feature does not have admin control, and is available to all Google Workspace customers. For newly created announcement spaces, the in-line reply feature is the default for all members, the company said. Last week, the tech giant had announced that it was increasing the number of members users can add to a space in Google Chat from 8,000 to 50,000.

This update is especially impactful for company-wide announcements, event-oriented spaces, large communities within companies, and support-related spaces. Moreover, the company introduced the ability to easily search for members within a space.

Meanwhile, in March this year, Google had announced that it was rolling out new features for space managers in Chat, including the ability to decide if members can add or remove members or groups to a space. Also, the company had introduced the "Space configuration" feature which allows space managers to choose if members can change space details, such as name, icon, description, and guidelines, or turn Chat history on/off for the space.

On the other hand, the "Conversation moderation" feature "authorises space managers to determine whether members can use @all in a space."