Embedded Files
Google I/O is back - after being cancelled in 2020, Google is roaring back onto the scene. And with it comes Google Workspace, taking the prime spot in an Android developer conference. Brimming with innovation, Google Workspace seemingly could not wait until Cloud Next in September.
Let's take a look at what's new - at the shiny new toys and the guiding strategy behind it.
Sundar Pichai, holding his keynote in front of ... a giant canvas.
Where we're coming from: The 2020 strategy
Where we're coming from: The 2020 strategy
In 2019, Prabhakar Raghavan moved from overseeing then G Suite's apps to the search business - he basically runs the place. Javier Solteiro took over, cleaned up a lot of the house during his first year and, in 2020, gave the word:
Integrate core tools like video, chat, email, files, and tasks, and making them better together, so that you can more easily stay on top of things, from anywhere.
He published a blog post, outlining the major milestones Google Workspace would reach:
Chat would be integrated with Gmail.
Meet would be integrated with Gmail and into documents.
Tasks would be integrated with Chat.
Chat would get Files integration.
Teams could edit files collaboratively in Chat
With so much integration, new Chat statuses would protect your time.
That was July 2020, the pandemic was raging and Google Workspace, especially Meet, had just saved many companies. Now, almost a year later, 90% of this vision has been implemented, 5% is still coming and 5% was off the mark. That is impressive, and it tells us to listen closely to the CEO to make sense of what comes next. And he just spoke again.
The previous vision for Chat (in Gmail). It looks like what you have today.
Smart chips
When typing @, Docs will recommend people for your people chips
@mentioning will recommend files to link
Linked files will become file chips with icons
Smart Chips are coming to Sheets
Pageless view: Infinite writing space for creativity. Perfect for logs.
Emoji reactions: Add
emojisicons to paragraphs, like comments.Smart templates
Meeting notes, importing information from Calendar (including people chips for guests and file chips for attachments)
Project roadmaps
Brainstorming with voting chips
Assisted writing recommendations, powered by AI
Avoid offensive language
Simplify your sentences by avoiding passive voice etc.
Inclusive language (instead of chairman, suggest "chair" or "chair person" unless you want to indicate gender)
Timeline view in Sheets for Calendars and Gantt charts
Suggested fixes for formula problems in Sheets
Create and edit Docs, Sheets, Slides in Chat Spaces
Meet is coming to Docs, Sheets, Slides
Start screen sharing from Meet
Have a Meet with collaborators in a sidebar. This looks impressive.
Live captions in more languages and live translation of captions, from English into Spanish, Portuguese, French or German (ja!).
Where we are going: The 2021 vision
Where we are going: The 2021 vision
Google has been transformed by the pandemic, becoming more flexible in terms of time, location and mode of working. Google Workspace powers that "hybrid work experience" and Google hears more demand for it from customers.
The new tenements are (also published in a blog post):
Collaboration equity, or treating remote and field workers as full team members and giving them first-class tools
Managing time and attention, which includes being able to focus or separating private and professional lives.
Collaboration equity can mean making sure that people in less than picture-perfect home offices can turn on their cameras with virtual backgrounds or cancelling noise. It can mean making sure that people on the phone can present to a Meet and edit documents just as well as someone on a laptop. It can mean that others are mindful of time differences when scheduling.
Time and attention management can mean being able to schedule time for yourself and not be interrupted by notifications. It can mean giving people an idea what they are spending their time on.
With that said, how is Google Workspace supporting that? Gmail and Chat have been integrated into the new service mesh, and now the spotlight turns to the editors. Google Docs will be front and center, piloting many innovations that will quickly make it to other services, as happened in the past.
Smart Canvas will be this year's master project, at least in the department of "what most people care about". Smart canvas means transforming Google Docs into an infinite sheet of paper, letting you place all sorts of things.
It also means implementing the <canvas> element, which will break Chrome extensions (such as Grammarly) that meddle with Google Docs' display without registering themselves as proper Docs add-ons - a big security improvement.
Everything will revolve around the @. You could already @mention people, but prepare for steroids - you will be able to insert entire building blocks that look like pre-built tables (meeting notes, project roadmap, brainstorming) and do more in them. It seems they will be extendable and support third-party integrations, too. You will also be able to insert links to calendar events and all chips will become more functional. Finally, the linking will come to Sheets, confirming Docs as just the forerunner of a revolution.
All of that will happen semi-automatically: AI power will make sure you can select from appropriate contacts, files etc. instead of having to browse your entire corpus.
More Meet
More Meet
Meet is getting a "companion mode" for the office. Everyone gets their own video tile, even if they are sitting in a conference room - so you get the same screen time as a dialed-in person. I take that over South Park mode any day.
Google showed unbelievable statistics (20B web page translations/month in Chrome, Google Assistant's interpreter mode usage up by 4x this year). For Google, language is a layer and the groundwork has been laid. More languages for captions and high-quality instant translations have been announced - and if your language is not yet covered in Meet, it will arrive exponentially fast. Sundar mentioned the word "Universal translator".
3 GB of disk space will buy you an episode of South Park
I/O 2019 was interesting too, but there was barely any mention of Google Workspace. We have come a long way and are just getting started - Google Workspace is expanding not only on the market, but also within Google. I encourage you to watch the keynote yourself and hope this summary gives you an idea what will await us this year. Google Workspace is the place to be. Thank you for reading!
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#strategy Published 2021-05-20 by Holger Matthies.Modified 2021-06-16 by Holger Matthies.Written listening to RAM - RAMmsterdam (Jorn van Deynhoven Remix)
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