Google announced a design review for G Suite that will further integrate its business productivity services, including Gmail, Chat, Meet, and Docs. The new G Suite will be available to a select group of customers for a preview starting this week, with a larger launch slated for later in 2020.
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In essence, the redesign further blurs the lines between Google services: the Gmail app will also serve as a hub for Chat, Docs collaboration will be integrated directly into Chat rooms, and backend search will work in Chat and Gmail. Google says these changes are intended to help G Suite users stay focused by reducing the need to switch applications between tasks. The tech giant also noted that more features are being developed, such as supporting picture-in-picture video calls within Gmail and offering Meet functionality directly in Docs.
Deeper G Suite integrations pose an existential threat to Zoom and Slack as companies will seek to reduce redundant software subscriptions. As we noted earlier, Google and Microsoft together represent virtually the entire business office suite market – this gives tech giants a considerable advantage over smaller competitors like Zoom and Slack, which only offer independent business communication platforms.
Google and Microsoft can exercise this advantage by promoting their less dominant services through their already dominant platforms. In concrete terms: if G Suite is combined with the available Google Chat integrations at no additional cost, there is no point in a company paying for both Slack and G Suite. And because there are no viable competitors for Microsoft and Google in the business office suite market, companies will choose to stay within their ecosystems, reducing the redundant services offered by Zoom and Slack.
Google is likely to take a more gradual approach to implementing G Suite integrations due to concerns about user experience and antitrust regulation. For companies using G Suite in conjunction with competitive services like Slack or Zoom, deeper integrations can be more invasive than useful, considering how much space they take up within the revamped user interface. So while Google could probably flip a switch and activate all available integrations at once, it risks alienating a significant number of customers by doing so. A more gradual approach could also help avoid regulatory scrutiny.
In May, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield told The Verge: “Microsoft may not be concerned about killing us, and Teams is the vehicle to do it.” Google is employing a similar strategy to increase market share in this domain, and since it faces antitrust scrutiny in both the US and Europe, it may restrict its G Suite integration plan in an attempt to avoid attracting more. regulatory care.
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