Google makes their Gmail/G Suite mashup official

Leaked earlier today, Google has now made their new and improved Gmail, with deep G Suite integration, official.

Calling it “a better home for work,” Google said G Suite now intelligently brings together the people, content, and tasks you need to make the most of your time by integrating core tools like video, chat, email, files, and tasks in Gmail so that users can more easily stay on top of things, from anywhere.

Google says their journey started with your inbox. To easily join video meetings straight from your inbox, they brought Meet into Gmail on the web, Android, and iOS—and made it free for everyone. Last month, they brought Google Chat into Gmail on web to help users communicate more seamlessly, without the disruption of switching tabs. Soon, Chat will join Gmail on Android and iOS, making it even easier to do more from one place, wherever you are.

Google is also enhancing the collaboration features in Chat rooms by adding shared files and tasks, making rooms an even better solution for longer-term projects. With quick access to shared chat, important documents, and to-dos in one place, it’s easier for everyone in a group to stay on the same page. Plus, Chat lets you create rooms that include people outside your company, like contractors or consultants, so your group can be not only cross-functional but also cross-organizational.

To make rooms even more useful, Google has infused them with real-time collaboration by adding the ability to open and co-edit a document with your team without leaving Gmail. This makes it easier for you to collaborate directly within the context of where you’re doing your work in the moment—so, for example, you can chat about the changes you’re making to a document in real time, or assign a new task (or mark one complete), without switching between screens.

This new integrated workspace also makes it easy to access your favourite third-party apps, including DocuSign, Salesforce, and Trello, so you can get updates and take action within any kind of conversation—across Gmail, Chat, and rooms.

Google is also focussed on making their services work together better, for examples: you can quickly join a video call from a chat, forward a chat message to your inbox, create a task from a chat message.

Because quickly finding what you need is paramount to productivity, they have also expanded Gmail’s powerful search capability to include Chat, so it’s easier to find everything in one place.

Lastly, they have introduced several tools to help users prioritize and stay focused. You can now:

• Pin important rooms so they’re easier to find and access
• Set your availability to “Do Not Disturb”
• Better protect your time with status notices like “Out of office”

G Suit users can now try this new integrated workspace by signing up here. Google says they will be expanding availability to more customers over the following weeks, with Google notifying users when it’s ready to try.