Google Chat to be upgraded soon: support for message threads, custom Emoji and more

Google is also steadily updating Workspace during the outbreak, and at the recent Google Cloud Next event the company announced further enhancements to the productivity suite to meet the hybrid workforce needs of today's users. Google announced improvements such as API @ tags to extract information from third-party applications into your Google Doc.

Workspace faces competition from productivity suites like Microsoft Teams, Slack and even Zoom Team Chat, and in response Google has announced new Google Chat features and released several updated windows, including the addition of messaging threads later this month. Google Chat will also add interest to its text conversations once it allows users to create custom emojis later this year.

Google plans to launch a "broadcast-only" space early next year to make it easier for leaders to make one-to-many announcements without much setup or making sure everyone's microphone is muted, for example.

Google Meet and Chat will also get their own APIs early next year, which will allow other apps to create and start meetings in Meet and initiate messages in Chat. Task manager app Asana and employee software LumApps are the first to add these features.

Google Chat has now been integrated into the Google Workspace suite, adding additional data loss protection. Security features are already available for Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides. It helps "prevent sensitive information leakage" by flagging potential messages before employees click to send them. It is now available for Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus accounts.