New chat

Multi-tasking

Everybody will have their own favorite feature, but for me it's multi-tasking or pop-up windows. Any conversation will open normally - but when you mouse over it, you can open it in a pop-up (1) that will not distract you from a bigger conversation you were paying attention to, or working on. Since Chat now also has items you may want to reference to (files, tasks, your daily schedule), this allows you to reply or keep conversations open while looking up something else. And when the house is on fire, you can have many conversations open in parallel.

You can also shrink open conversations (2) and have full window controls for pop-up windows (3).

Global search and room search

Previously, search was messy in Chat. The box to look up people (more on that later) looked like a search box and search results was really a room-level search. You had to know where to search.

This has all been solved. The new search box will search all conversations, highlight results and let you jump back to where you need. You can specify who send a message or what kind of file you're looking for. And you can still search in a single conversation only - just click the search icon (left to the (2) on the left screenshot).

It is a bit challenging to exit search - you will need to select a conversation to go to. Search does not "close", it is now a search screen.

Team tasks

You heard it last week - tasks are going to be big in Google Workspace. Team tasks are now available in Chat rooms, so your team can keep organize itself easily without big lists or complicated tools. Sometimes, a list of tasks is all it needs for lightweight project management and tracking.

Add tasks to rooms by going via the "tasks" tab (1). Even better, every task gets its own thread in rooms, keeping discussions organized. Changing or completing a task will send an update in that thread.

By the way, tasks that have been assigned to you are shown in your tasks side panel - available in Chat now (2), conveniently.

Files view

Chat has always been able to send files (both file transfers and attaching Drive files) and rooms have always been bundles of references to those files. But without searching or scrolling, it was difficult to know what had been shared, until now!

The "files" tab will list every file that has been made available to the room. The files will stay there until the message containing the file is expired or deleted, so if you want to remove something: delete the message.

Two handy buttons will let you add the file to Drive (or move it, if you have permissions) and jump in the conversation where that file was posted.

Editing documents

Google Workspace is where teamwork gets done, so it's natural that Chat will now let you edit Docs and Sheets in the same window, collaboratively. For that to happen, your Chat window must be wide enough or the links will just open in a new window. A link "open in Chat" will appear on the document preview.

You will view/suggest/edit with the full experience of the editors. The only thing missing are comments and anything that goes on in side bars (like AI-powered explore, outlines etc.).

Meet integration

Meet is the glue that holds a firm of 280.000 together, remotely or in the office. It's also another layer of glue between the apps, and now it's easier to jump between Chat and Meet.

Note that only upcoming calendar events with a Meet link (in the proper field!) are displayed - if some of your meetings are scheduled using other technology, this might be a good time to change that. Also note that this view will not notify you of beginning events, you need to have Calendar open for that.