Chat, Groups, Meet - The Communication Tools from Google

Apart from Gmail for formal communication, the tools named Chat, Groups, and Meet from Google are there to explore. This is a must for our various types of communication needs beyond simple emailing. Let's understand them in this blog and know where and when to use them along with their current status.

 

Google Chat

If we go by the name then Google Chat is a very new product from Google. However, if we talk about a chatting solution from Google then it is not new at all. The previous avatar of this was Hangout, recently it is being migrated to Chat. So there is nothing much to talk about this app, it is more or less like other chatting apps in the market.

Recently what I find is that the group feature (named Rooms) seems to follow Microsoft Teams groups or channels. It has dedicated tabs in the Rooms for files and tasks apart from the chat as you can see in the following image. These features will be super useful for business-related groups and office groups.

Also by the URL of chat, you can realize that Google is making it a part of Mail. That is why I find the dedicated tabs - Chat and Rooms in my Gmail mobile app. I think it is the outcome of the Google Wave dream which is still chasing Google 😀.

Google Group

I find google groups nothing more than a group email solution or a distribution list. This means, using this solution you can create a single email ID using which you send emails to many people at a time. You can add Google and non-Google email IDs in a group which is great. To a extend, Google Groups looks like a forum of people on various topics. A topic is nothing but a new email to the group.

As of now, I don't find any straightforward and easy access (like other apps) to Google Groups. I access it using the URL https://groups.google.com/ only. Apart from these the menu to manage and work with a group is plain and simple as follows. I must appreciate the new enhancements in the Groups UI which has taken its ease of use to the next level.

Google Meet

This is the most straightforward app for video conferencing or online meetings - whatever you call it! It can be accessed or found around the Chat or Mail app and is simple to create/start a meeting with the targeted attendees. Also, I have already mentioned the automatic Google meeting link while creating Calendar events with guests.

You can explore that feature which I find very efficient to set up Google Meet along with the calendar invitation automatically. You can find details about important features of Google Calendar in my blog Important Google Calendar Features for Business and Professional Users.

Check out the following option in your Google Calendar settings to set up the auto Google Meet link in calendar events with guests.

Thank you.