Google’s popular business tool called Google Chat is getting a bunch of new features to make the user experience easier. Neeraj Mishra, Product Manager at Google Chat mentioned 7 new features for the product.
After entering the AI race and launching the Google Bard chatbot platform, the tech giant has continuously added new features to its products to make them more flexible. The company also recently announced the Duet AI feature for its Google Sheets.
READ| What is Google’s new Duet AI feature for Google Sheets?
What is the new feature of Google Chat?
According to Google Keyword Blog, these are the new features:
- “Quickly compose responses with the smart compose feature
- Edit and delete your messages
- Quote messages in group chats
- Check read receipts in group chats
- Hide inactive chats
- Add apps for more features”
Smart Compose: An efficient way to write in Google Chat
Starting with the ‘Smart Compose’ feature, which is already available on other Google apps and makes it familiar to most people. In its most basic form, this feature gives users suggestions for completing sentences as they are typed.
The feature is being rolled out in five different languages - English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
This feature is quite useful as it saves time and reduces typing effort by providing relevant phrases. Suggestions appear in light gray and users simply press the “Tab” button to accept.
The Google blog states, “Smart Compose, also available in Gmail and Google Docs, helps you quickly generate responses in Chat, offering contextual recommendations that help reduce spelling and grammar errors. When you start typing Chat and a suggestion appears, just press tab to accept it.”
Editing and deleting messages: A new way to take control of your conversations
The next feature in the product line is the ability to edit and delete long-standing messages on Google Chat. Users often make spelling and grammar mistakes or even forget important information when using Google Chat for work purposes, which can make them look unprofessional.
With this new feature, users can now edit or even delete mistakenly sent messages. Users can access this feature by hovering over the message they sent and clicking the pen icon.
Ability to quote messages in group chats
Moving on to another feature introduced to Google Chat is the ability to reply to a specific message in a group chat. This feature is useful when a person wants to respond to a specific point someone made in a chat or when the conversation needs to be organized.
Source: Google
Google mentioned, “It’s easy to get lost in a group chat, especially if the conversation is fast and wide-ranging. To help keep the conversation (and your thoughts) organized, you can now quote a message in your reply.”
See who read your messages in Google Chat
Previously, group users on Google Chat could only see if their message was sent, but they couldn’t see who read it. This is a glaring omission on the part of Google, especially if the message is addressed to a large group of people and the user wants to know if everyone has seen it.
Google fixed it by adding a new feature that allows group users to see who has read their messages. When someone reads a message, their avatar will appear below the message. For large group chats, one can hover over or tap on the message to see the full list of people who have read it.
The feature will be rolling out to group messages this month. However, it is already available for mobile and web direct messaging.
New linking feature makes sharing resources easy
Sending links in group chats seems messy, doesn’t it? Well, Google has also solved this problem by providing a feature that allows users to link text in their messages. This means that people can share links to websites, documents or other resources without having to mention long URLs in their chat.
Source: Google
This feature is already available on Google Docs and Slides and is commonly referred to as the ‘Hyperlinks’ feature. It will roll out in the coming weeks to Android and web users of Google Chat. Google Chat will now hide inactive chats
Hide inactive chats to organize your chat list
The cluttered interface can be frustrating, and it’s hard to find conversations that interest users. That’s why Google Chat will now hide inactive chats. This means that chats that have not been opened or have new messages in the last 7 days will be hidden from view.
Hidden chats can be viewed by clicking the “More” button. This feature will work if the user has more than 10 chats.
Source: Google
Here’s what the Google Blog states: “Clutter builds up everywhere: on your desk, bookshelf, countertop, and even your chats. If you have more than 10 chats or spaces, we’ll help you stand out by hiding direct messages and spaces that have been inactive for the past seven days.”
Make Google Chat even more powerful with apps
Finally, allowing users to have a more personalized space, Google Chat will now have the ability to add third-party apps to its platform. This means people can now download third-party apps like Asana, Giphy or Google Maps to chat.
Source: Google
This feature has not yet been publicly launched, but Google will bring it to users in the coming weeks.
In short, these are just some of the new features that have been added to Google Chat. As Google continues to develop its platform, it is likely that many new features will be introduced in the future. Additionally, these features have been long-awaited and make the platform more seamless.
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Source: pagasa.edu.vn