Google’s G Suite software, which offers tools like Gmail, Chat and Meet, will now be known as Google Workspace and will also incorporate additional features to help with remote work.
The company said it had already planned to introduce Google Workspace before the coronavirus crisis, but the pandemic created a new sense of urgency. Along with a new name, the software offers users the ability to create new documents within a chat room, Google’s Slack-like chat rooms, without having to switch tabs. It will also allow users to videoconference while collaborating on documents, sheets, and slides within the same window. Users will also be able to preview links within documents by hovering over the linked text.
The new features within Google Workspace will first be available to paying business customers and then are expected to roll out to consumers in the coming months.
“Work is no longer done in a physical space called an office,” Javier Soltero, vice president and general manager of Google Workspace, said in a call with reporters. The product is “truly a workspace that brings together all [the] tools.”
Google’s rebrand debuts as Google Cloud, the company’s unit that sells business software, aims to gain more traction while competing with other major cloud providers like Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure. It also happens when the company tries to defend itself against competitors like Slack, Zoom and Microsoft, which offers its own set of remote work tools.
Now, more than 2.6 billion users in the consumer, business and education divisions use its tools, although the company did not clarify how many of them pay for the services.
As part of the rebrand, Google is also offering several new tiers to help serve businesses of varying sizes. Its lowest level of service is called business startup and is designed for companies with 300 or fewer employees; offers employers corporate email for $ 6 per user. Its top tier offers large corporations enterprise-grade management controls, advanced security and compliance capabilities, and a suite of productivity features. Google works with its most important customers to determine prices.
Google has a history of renaming its tools as it adjusts its marketing strategy. For example, Google’s suite of enterprise products were first named Google Apps for their domain in 2006, only to later remove the words “for your domain.” Then, in 2016, the company changed the name of the tools to the G Suite name.
Soltero said the latest rebrand helps the company better associate the programs with Google and also better describes the product itself through the word “Workspace.” He also said that the new name serves as a better umbrella for future features and products that Google can introduce as more people adjust to their new normal of working remotely.
