Google has been somewhat late to the ballgame with their workflow solutions. While Microsoft delivers Skype for Business and Teams, Cisco has Spark, and Atlassian has Stride; G Suite’s option has remained strangely absent from the field. However, Google’s recent update to the Hangouts tool could make it more suitable for workplace productivity enhancement, meaning that the Alphabet unit can finally compete with other UC brands.
Hangouts Chat is designed to support instant messaging across countless devices, offering instant collaboration between workers. The system also allows users to implement their own widgets so that they can access other software through a chat window. Google originally announced “Chat” in March 2017, but the solution is only just rolling out to the public.
What to Expect from Hangouts Chat
The Hangouts Chat Feature will be situated within the over-riding “G Suite” portfolio. This package already includes word-processing, document sharing and email tools that serve more than 4 million global businesses. In 2013, Hangouts was launched as a free service, but Google started to adapt it for business needs as organisations began their quest for communication services beyond the telephone.
According to the Director of Product Management at Google, this upgrade is a “second incantation” for Hangouts, designed to help people perform faster and more efficiently at work. Of course, Hangouts Chat isn’t the only option available today. Microsoft Teams offers a similar solution for companies who prefer the Office 365 package, and there’s always Slack for those who are sick of the unpredictability of email.
In 2016, the global collaboration software belonged 37% to Microsoft, and 5% to Slack. Hangouts Chat is Google’s attempt to earn their own piece of the pie.
Implementing Google Hangouts Chat
Just as Google offers a free version of Gmail and Docs to their clients, there’ll also be a free option for Hangouts available too. However, as you might expect, the paid option will include far more functionality, including support for group conversations with as many as 8,000 participants. Messages will automatically save by default, though recording strategies can be controlled on a granular level.
Organisations can link their database with the Hangouts Chat feature for access to bug tracking, IT support, and an employee directory. Alternatively, you can choose from integrations with popular third-party services like Salesforce, Kayak, and Dialpad.
What’s more, Chat also offers access to Google’s innovative selection of artificial intelligence services present within G Suite. That means that you can use a smart meeting scheduler to make sure that conferences are planned for a day when everyone in your organisation is free. Similar artificial intelligence services will be added to the Google calendar system – with a solution that suggests meeting locations after analysing the seating chart and conference room options for a business.
Those who embrace Hangouts Chat will also be able to pair their messaging services with audio through Hangouts Meet – the teleconferencing solution that Google released in 2017. It seems that Google is slowly but surely making their way into the UC market after all.
