Google today unveiled various updates to its Workspace Productivity apps aimed at streamlining the workflow of remote groups. Features announced at the company’s I / O event include automatically generated text summaries of chat conversations to help keep team members on the same page.
The summary feature was launched in February in Google’s Docs Word Processing Tool, where it is used to create an overview of text in a document. The company today expanded the summaries into workspace “spaces” – chat rooms that enable conversations and file sharing for a specific purpose, such as a specific group or project.
Space summaries select and highlight the most important information from a chat and allow users to quickly jump to the right place in chat history.
GoogleGoogle has increased the summary of workspace spaces.
“You’ll be able to see a helpful digest of the most relevant information, decisions and actions from a space without having to read every missed message,” Gmail and Google Chat product lead Drew Rowney said before the announcement. “You can right-click on the part of the conversation that is most important to you, so that you can easily find out the details, stay on top of everything and catch up quickly.”
This feature is due to be introduced next month for English-language workspace clients using Business, Enterprise, Education, Essentials and Frontline editions.
Google also plans to introduce automated transcripts in Meet Calls so that team members can see missed meetings. This feature will be available later this year, Google said. The Docs and Space Summary feature will also be applied to transcription text, although it will not be until 2023.
“The Google Workspace team is providing features that are important, that do not streamline communication and collaboration, and create a narrative that better communicates their efforts to provide ‘collaboration equity’ in Google’s language,” said Wayne Kurtzman, the study. Director at IDC
He said workspace updates show that Google is focusing on streamlining work, collaboration and communication for teams, adding features that meet the expectations of technology-savvy employees.
“This is just as true for internal teams as working with partners, suppliers and customers – a rapidly growing need and expectation in doing business,” says Kurtzman.
Google’s AI technology is being applied to workspace apps in a variety of ways. To improve call quality, the new “Portrait Recovery” and “Portrait Light” capabilities use machine learning to address common problems caused by poor connectivity and low light, while “de-reversion” automatically eliminates echoes encountered by users in certain rooms or spaces. .
Portrait recovery will come to Business Plus and Enterprise Plus subscriptions later this year; Portrait lights will be offered next month for Business Standard, Business Plus and Enterprise Plus customers. And de-reversion will also be available in Business Plus, Enterprise Standard & Plus, Education Plus and Teaching & Learning upgrade plans.
A live-sharing feature will enable interaction with various apps while on a video call, such as YouTube and third-party platforms. Google did not immediately provide a timeline for when those third party services will be available.
New security features are also on the way. The phishing and malware warning system currently available in Gmail will be extended to protect other workspace apps, such as Docs, Sheets and Slides.
It is expected to be available later this year.
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