In 2020, Google had announced that the next version of Gmail will come up with the ‘Chat’ messaging and Group Rooms along with the existing Meet video calling integration. As promised, Google is now integrating Chat Messaging and group rooms with its Gmail. It is already available for enterprise users, but now Google is rolling out ‘integrated workplace’ for all personal Gmail accounts. Intending to let users get everything at one platform without need of switching between the tabs, Google wants to make Gmail a ‘home for work’.
After the integration, Gmail now has four tabs which include Mail, Meet, Chat, and Rooms. While “Mail” and “Meet” have been in place for the past few months, the ‘Chat’ option is not introduced where users can message individuals and small groups. The ‘Rooms’ option is like a slack, dedicated to larger conversations with shared chat, files, and tasks. All of these tabs appear on the bottom bar on Android and the web, the Gmail sidebar is split into four sections. These options can be hidden by clicking the chevron.
The functionality of both, ‘Chat’ and ‘Rooms’ tabs is the same as the standalone Google Chat app, where users can delete the dedicated client. Many free Google accounts can enable the new Gmail and Chat integration on both, Android and the web. As of now, this facility is not available on the iOS platform. Enterprise accounts will need permission from the admin to use the new integration, while android users need to make sure they are on the latest version of the Gmail app.
Android users need to open their Gmail app, go to Settings > Personal Gmail Account > General > Chat (Early Access) > Try It > Gmail. It will launch again with a tutorial and prompt to turn off notifications from the standalone Google Chat app. If you are on the web, go to the settings option and select the ‘Google Chat Access’ option. To get an access to the new integration, users have to simply enable ‘Early Access’ on each of their Android devices and the web, as well as Google Accounts. Activating only on one device cannot bring a new experience to all your Gmail instances.
Google has made few other changes to enhance the overall user experience. The icons are updated with new designs throughout the web interface. Putting all these different vectors into a single app as additional benefits, such as DND status and mute notification will come as a single place. Also, users can now quickly join a video call from chat or forward a task to others. Google’s attempt to leverage the popularity of Gmail to push the collaboration tools, will either make it easy to organise the work, or it might end up just as a set of unwanted add-ons that users will not be able to avoid.
