The world continues to deal with restrictive travel, eased lockdowns in some places and adapts to general disconnect from the workplace by making use of technology. I’ve been through a number of solutions over the past few months when looking at conferencing tools. Most recently I had at a look at Tencent’s international release of their meeting software, rebranded as “VooV”. During the course of this pandemic the company have offered free conferencing tools for groups of people and if you have business in China, it’s a clean and useful tool. Data privacy matters are another issue that I won’t get into here. Both Microsoft and Facebook decided to make moves as popular conferencing app, Zoom made headlines. After months of cool updates, Google seem to be wanting to join in with their own updates and features.
For Gmail users, their favourite inbox client will be getting a lick of new paint as leaked designs suggest a more user friendly approach to their interface and management suite in general. Google and social networks are a weird concoction but G Suite is pretty robust and the company are seeking the best ways to package their services into one place. It’s a little scary when companies announce makeovers of their existing products as some of my most used tools can get lost easily. However, Google have not been one to radically change the layout of things and I welcome the changes and aesthetic direction they wish to pursue, time will tell if it’s really nicer on the eyes or not.
Collaboration is at the heart of Google’s update and G Suite is set to receive a number features to put it on par with competitors like Microsoft Office 365 with an abundance of features. Going to the workplace might be as simple as heading to G Suite in the future as Chat and conferencing tools will be on hand for teams to make use of all in one central place. It’s an inevitable move that will improve the G Suite experience in my opinion but whether it’s too little too late remains to be the question. Companies have already had to adopt new technologies and Google’s update is most definitely coming off a considerable gap. I am curious to see these major features roll out and hope conferencing does not follow the same fate as Hang Outs. Only time will tell!
https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/15/21325966/google-gmail-g-suite-chat-rooms-meet-integration-redesign
