Google is today announcing a major rebranding and redesign for its OfficeFish apps suite, renaming G Suite with a new name: Google Workspace. With the new branding for the product, which includes Gmail, Docs, Meets, Sheets and Calendar, all of these products have new features designed to make them feel more connected to each other. Google is also making some changes to its pricing levels, adding a new “Business Plus” level with more device management features.
As an example of new features, a chat window can generate a new document for each group without the need for a new tab. And in Google Drive, instead of chasing each other’s cursors around or opening a chat window, you can immediately start a video call in the same window for everyone active in the document.
The idea of flying separate applications into smaller pieces that can be embedded elsewhere is not entirely new – MicroStory is trying to do the same thing with its fluid framework in Fl Fl. The launch of similar capabilities in the workspace by Google is a sign that it may be trying to be serious about challenging Microsoft. If this is too vague for you, press statements from Xavier Stertero, VP, in-charge of Google Workspace, are clearer: “As we know, this is the end of ‘office fees.’
Google has already taken some steps in this new direction – the integration of Google Meet in Gmail was a big one. Now, Google hopes to draw more users with the convenience of fully integrated services that won’t send you looking for another tab. It’s not so much that everything has to be inside Gmail on the desktop, but the working surface you use will be able to accommodate other work surface elements.
Some small examples of this type of integration will begin today. Google Workspace applications will bring users small previews of other documents embedded in the item they are working on. Google will also expand the use of “smart chips”, which are short contact cards that can pop up when you specify someone in a document.
More ambitious features, including creating a document directly from a chat window or launching a video call from within a presentation, will be rolled out “in the coming weeks” or “coming months.” Speaking of non-commercial customers, these changes will be available to business users later – again, “in the coming months.”
It should also be noted that all of this is very desktop .p-centric, focused on Google’s applications within web browsers like Chrome (and hopefully others). In addition to the above (and not universally popular) termination of inclusion in Gmail, this will not be strictly integrated to launch Google’s other mobile apps.
Finally, Google is changing the iconography for its Google Workspace applications. I suspect there will be a global upheaval over the idea of changing the Gmail icon from its familiar All-Red M to the multicolored color you see at the top of this post – with Calendar, the second closest to the most intrusive change.
Soltero tells me that Google has no intention of reducing support for third-party applications in the Google workspace. If your team uses a combination of Google services, Slack, Asana, Zoom or anything else, nothing should change there. But the promise of new integration and less tab-hopping shows that Google hopes that more of its users will start using more of its options instead of alternatives.
Speaking of micro .ft, these changes are unlikely to knock Fish off its perch anytime soon. Think of these updates as a statement of intent to further attack. The G Suite (now Google Workspace) has seen faster and more significant improvements in Soltaro’s first year than many years ago. It seems certain that Google is putting in resources and is getting ready to fight with Office fees.
