What are Google Chat’s New Features?

The popular business tool by Google known as Google Chat is getting an array of new features to make users' experience easier. Neeraj Mishra, Product Manager at Google Chat mentioned 7 new features for the product. 

After getting into the race of AI and bringing out its chatbot platform, Google Bard, the tech giant has been continuously adding new features to its products to make them more versatile. Recently, the company also announced a Duet AI feature for its Google Sheets. 

READ| What Is Google’s New Duet AI Feature for Google Sheets?

What are Google Chat’s New Features?  

According to Google Keyword Blog, these are the new features: 

• “Quickly craft a response with smart compose

• Edit and delete your messages

• Quote a message in a group chat

• Check read receipts in a group chat

• Link directly to text

• Hide inactive conversations

• Add apps for more features”

Smart Compose:  An Efficient Way to Write in Google Chats

Starting with the ‘Smart Compose’ feature, this feature is already available on Google’s other applications which makes it familiar to almost everyone. In its most basic form, this feature provides users with suggestions to complete sentences as they are being typed. 

The feature is being introduced in 5 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. The suggestions appear in light grey colour and users just need to press the ‘Tab’ button to accept them. 

Google Blog states, “Smart compose, also available in Gmail and Google Docs, helps you quickly craft a response in Chat, offering contextually-aware suggestions that help reduce spelling and grammar errors. When you start typing in Chat and a suggestion appears, just hit tab to accept it.”

Edit and Delete Message Feature: A New Way to Control Your Conversations

The next feature in the lineup is the ability to edit and delete messages which has been long due for Google Chats. It is common for users to make typos, grammatical mistakes or even forget important information when using Google Chats for work purposes, this can make them look unprofessional.

With this new feature, users can now edit or even delete the messages that are sent by mistake. Users can access this feature by hovering on the message they sent and clicking the pen icon. 

Ability to Quote a Message in Group Chat

Moving forward to another feature introduced to Google Chat is the ability to reply to a specific message in a group conversation. This feature is useful when one wants to respond to a specific point that someone has made in a conversation, or when there is a need to keep the conversation organised.

Source: Google

Google mentioned, “It’s easy to get lost in a group chat, especially if it’s moving fast and covering a lot of ground. To help keep the conversation (and your thoughts) organized, you can now quote a message in your response.”

See Who Has Read Your Messages in Google Chat

Earlier, group users on Google Chat could only see if their message had been delivered, but they could not see who had read it. This was an evident lack from Google, especially if the message was sent to a large group of people and users wanted to know if everyone had seen it.

Google rectified 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 it. For large group chats, one can hover over or tap the message to see a full list of who has read it.

This feature will roll out for group messages this month. Yet it is already available for one-to-one messages on mobile and the web. 

New Link Feature Makes It Easy to Share Resources

Doesn’t it look messy to send a link in a group chat? Well, Google also took care of this problem by offering 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 chats. 

Source: Google

This feature is already available on Google Docs and Slides and is commonly known as the ‘Hyperlink’ feature. It will roll out in the coming weeks for Android and web users of Google Chat. Google Chat Will Now Hide Inactive Conversations

Hide Inactive Conversations to Declutter Your Chat List

A cluttered interface can be annoying and make it challenging to find the conversations that users are interested in. That is why Google Chat will now hide inactive chats. This means that chats that have not been opened or had a new message in the last 7 days will be hidden from view. 

The hidden conversations can be viewed by clicking the “More” button. This feature will work if the user has more than 10 conversations. 

Source: Google

Here is what the Google Blog states: “Clutter builds up everywhere: on desks, bookshelves, countertops and even your chats. If you have more than 10 conversations or spaces, we’ll help you spruce up by hiding direct messages and spaces that have been inactive for the last seven days”.

Make Google Chat even more powerful with apps

Finally, allowing users to have a more personalised 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 their conversations. 

Source: Google

The feature is still not launched publically, but Google will bring it to users in the upcoming weeks. 

To conclude, these are just a few of the new features that have been added to Google Chat. As Google continues to develop its platforms, there is a possibility that more new features will be introduced in the future. Additionally, these features have been long awaited and make the platform more seamless.