Google adds some new features to Google Workspace today, including new tools to categorize your focus time in Google Calendar and Chat, better ways to join Google Meet video conferencing across multiple devices, and a preview of its front-line office suite . It also takes Google Assistant for Workspace out of beta and makes it widely available.
The company is trying to categorize these features as part of a new push for what it calls ‘collaboration equity’. For Google, it’s a great way to explain the tools it’s trying to create so that people who work from home are not harmed compared to people who work from an office (that is, when people work in office is allowed).
The idea that comes closest to it is Google’s tools to determine your status in its product range. In addition to setting up outside office hours and work hours, users can also create a new type of event called Focus Time. When you set a block focus time, Google says that it will restrict “notifications during these event windows”. You can also set your location so employees can get a better idea of your availability and time zone.
The key is that Workspace’s various tools like Gmail and Chat will be aware of your current status and location and will customize your notifications. It’s not nearly the ideal universal status indicator, but it’s a step in the right direction – as long as you’re mostly living in Google Workspace and not mixing other tools like Slack.
The new types of calendars on the calendar also allow Google to create a kind of ‘focused’ time map, just this shows how much time you waste in meetings each week. Google says this time division will only be available to workers, not their bosses.
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Google also launches “second screen experiences” for Google Meet. It allows people to log in to a meeting from multiple devices, making it easier to share screens (or get other work done) without the meeting taking up your entire laptop. The idea is that domestic workers can use a Google Nest Hub Max or their phone to log in to the meeting, but still offer from their main computer.
On phones, Google Meet includes a mobile tile version for video calls, picture-in-picture support and split screen. It is not clear if the tools will work in Android and iOS.
Google is also building up its cheaper offering of Google Workspace Essentials with support for Chat, Jamboard and Calendar – all of which were bizarre omissions during the launch.
Finally, Google says it’s launching ‘Google Workspace Frontline’, which it calls a ‘custom solution’ for frontline workers. This seems to be a simplified way for administrators to set up a Google Workspace setup for retail or field employees. It will also make it possible to create AppSheet applications (simple, form-based applications) within Google Pages.
Compiled, the set of feature updates that Google announces today seem mostly designed to make meetings less painful (because you can do multitasking more easily during it) or easier to avoid (because you can set Focus time and also discover how much time you was given away in the Time Insights sidebar).