Google is announcing a big rebranding and redesign for its suite of office apps today, rebranding G Suite with a new name: Google Workspace. Along with the new branding for the product that encompasses Gmail, Docs, Meet, Sheets, and Calendar are new features designed to make all those products feel like they’re more integrated with one another. Google is also changing up its pricing tiers just a bit, adding a new “Business Plus” level with more device management features.
As an example of the new features, a Chat window can spawn a new document for everybody in the group without needing a new tab. And in Google Docs, instead of chasing each others’ cursors around or opening up a chat window, you can immediately just start a video call right in the same window for everybody who’s active in the document.
The idea of blowing up the idea of separate apps into little pieces that can be embedded in other places isn’t entirely new — Microsoft has been trying the same thing with its Fluid framework in Office. That Google’s launching similar capabilities in Google Workspace is a sign it may try to get serious about challenging Microsoft. If that’s too vague for you, the press release quote from the VP in charge of Google Workspace, Javier Soltero, is much more explicit: “This is the end of the ‘office’ as we know it.”
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