The pandemic gave rise to work-from-home or study-from-home situations. People are making use of multiple workspace platforms to accomplish their tasks from home, while the world is dealing with the pandemic. To fit into the mold, Google wants Gmail to be the hub of all communications for this hybrid work environment. With the addition of the ability to place video and voice calls will allow users to collaborate with one another more easily and through a single application. As per the official announcement, Google is adding a new “ring” feature which will allow users to place calls to another Google user using Google Meet. However, this will be possible only via the Gmail mobile app, and not from the Meet app. According to The Verge, after the feature rolls out, the Gmail app’s interface will become like one of those VOIP apps. Gmail app also gets the ability to join Google Meet meetings.
Gmail voice and video calls feature will first arrive for enterprise accounts
The new update that adds video and voice calling ability to the Gmail app may sound disruptive, but it is introduced to make workspace tasks a bit easy. Instead of going back and forth between apps to accomplish different tasks, users can now make use of the Gmail app. You can place calls with your colleagues over Gmail, and they will be able to take calls immediately. Talking about other workspace features, the redesigned Gmail interface now houses Chat, Spaces, and Meet tabs apart from Mail. Spaces is another important upgrade that Google is presenting to the Gmail app. Think of it as Google’s version of Slack. Members of the same group or team can collaborate and chat with each other. Spaces come with support to other Google products including Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and Task. The Spaces feature is now live for users, with more features to arrive soon in the coming months. The new features include streamlined navigation, sharing spaces with other teams, improved search, etc. Partnering with Avocor, Google will be launching two conferencing products. One is the 27-inch One Desk 27, and the other 65-inch series One Board 65. Last but not least, Google has expanded the reach of the Google Meet hardware ecosystem with other third-party devices. This includes Logitech Rally Bar Mini and Rally Bar devices. The main idea here is to make users use Google Meet from anywhere. Notably, the Gmail voice and video calling feature will first go live for enterprise accounts. Meaning regular Gmail users will have to wait for a few more days.
