The New Google Chat Borrows From Slack, Teams, Discord and Even ChatGPT

Google is making some big changes to Google Chat, its answer to Slack and Microsoft Teams. The messaging app -- aka the product formerly known as hangouts -- is getting a new design, some features that will feel distinctly familiar to Slack and Teams users, and a lot of Google's new Duet AI collaboration tools. From a report: Most of the new features are rolling out later this year and early next, but they add up to a much more useful and competitive Chat platform. Duet is the flagship new feature and potentially a reason for a lot of Workspace users to start using Chat. You can use Duet to search and ask questions about all your stuff in Drive and Gmail and summarize both documents and conversations. You'll also be able to use AI-powered autocorrect in Chat, and thanks to Smart Reply, you might never have to manually talk to your co-workers again. You'll be able to talk to Duet in a one-on-one chat or invoke it in a group chat or a space to help get stuff done. "You essentially have a co-worker who has infinite memory and amazing recall at your fingertips," says Vamsee Jasti, Google's product lead for Chat.

Outside of the AI integrations, Chat is also getting a facelift. The app has, until now, looked like a fairly barebones messaging app, with a list of conversations on the left and the active chat on the right; now, it's going to have a lot more going on. (And, yes, it will look a lot more like Slack and Teams.) There will be a new home view with all your recent conversations, plus dedicated ways to see all your starred conversations and mentions. For now, everything will be reverse-chronological, but Google says it plans to start more intelligently organizing and ordering things next year. The interface as a whole is getting a bit of cleanup, too, with larger buttons and aesthetics borrowed from Google's Material You design language.

Nice product, I'll convert my whole company to it

[greytree]

Aaaand ... it's gone.

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[WankerWeasel]

It'd only be the 4th or 5th chat product Google killed.

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[Anonymous Coward]

In order to save time, Google will now: cancel a product, develop it, announce it, release it.

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[alvinrod]

The Google product or your company? Normally I'd say the Google product, but I'm a bit leery in trusting anything that is getting input from ChatGPT.

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[greytree]

ChatElizaGPT: Why are you concerned about my company?
ChatElizaGPT: Can you elaborate on that?
ChatElizaGPT: Did you come to me because you are a bit leery in trusting anything that is getting input from ChatGPT?

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[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

What, you're not going to run up and kick the football?

What for anyway?

[pierreact]

Soon to be abandoned project, like most google projects you start to rely on to end up disapointed. I'll keep slack.

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[Berkyjay]

This really isn't about the individual user. My employer pays for Google Workspace and so makes us use Google Chat. Which makes sense, because why pay for two chat clients? I'm just glad Google is finally catching up and making Chat more tolerable than the garbage it currently is.

How is it an "answer"?

[93 Escort Wagon]

I'm pretty sure Google Chat has been around, in some form, longer than either Slack or Teams.

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[pauljlucas]

It has. If nothing else, Google gets points for perseverance since they've been failing at chat for about two decades.

Thanks google!

[rogoshen1]

now that you're done fellating yourselves over the newest AI buzzwordy crap, can we get some features that were actually useful added back in, that for whatever retardedly inexplicable Google Reason removed -- put back in?
>ability to pop individual chat conversations out into their own window (so you don't need to keep gmail up in its entirety)
>ability to access via API so that better, less cunty chat apps can be used instead of the aforementioned gmail garbage?

Thanks google you guys are the best!

Re: Thanks google!

[ZERO1ZERO]

+1 for cunty reduction via API usage

Learn from IRC?

[MIPSPro]

I'd say all these services need to learn a few things from IRC. First, that being anonymous is totally fine. Learn to love it and calm down about trying eight different forms of authorization. Just let people in without friction and stop being obsessed with identity, unless your whole service revolves around selling data, hmmmm. Second, bots can be helpful. On many collaborative services, they treat developers and bot owners as hostile. Stop that; publish your protocols and treat developers as welcome part

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[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

Truth!

Time and again we have seen that systems with a developer friendly API end up more useful and popular than closed systems but they just can't let go of "controlling the end to end user experience in accordance with our branding document".

It's almost like they want to fail.

Btw, am I the only one who has given up trying to figure out what services Google offers? I use gmail and through that calendar but the rest is a blizzard of random unknown icons to me on the app list box.

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[Rockoon]

These chat apps require some sort of standardized protocol so that Grandma Pokie knows that she is chatting with her Grandson and not some scammer in india.

decentralized solutions end up leaving too many Pokie's vulnerable

I guess you love having a slave collar on, eh?

[MIPSPro]

Somehow you think grandma is sophisticated enough to understand the PKI setup and sign her grandson's public key etc ? Plus, most folks can authenticate each other just by asking questions or observing personality traits a lot easier than via cryptographic means. All that bullshit is WAY overrated. The value of having less authentication and crypto handwaving is obvious: less friction and setup in the application and more users on the network. Authentication basically helps government and corporations for t

AI filter for Teresa? I'm in

[kid_wonder]

If it will simply drop anything coming from Teresa (yes, I'm talking about you Teresa), all those screenshots and lame meme pics and inane questions and way to long explanations of simple things, then I am on board the AI chat train! Woo! Woo!

Or just auto-reply with a thumbs up or, Teresa's favorite, the heart icon.

Are they going to publish the expiration date..

[strUser_Name]

..at launch this time?