Google has a long history of releasing innovative products with a seemingly promising future only to backtrack on those months or years later. But some services stand on truly solid ground. One of these is Google Workspace. Incentivised by the work-from-home trend during the pandemic, Google increased its focus on G Suite, its catalogue of office and productivity apps that also includes the likes of Gmail, and rebadged it to Google Workspace in October 2020. Since then, Workspace has become a feather in Google’s cap and is one of its most popular products ever (even though it's still unprofitable). Following the rebrand, Google also added new features to Workspace to enhance its functionality and appeal. One of these is Duet AI, which uses generative AI to help users create and summarise text, generate images from prompts, and organise data. Another is Smart Canvas, which integrates various Workspace apps and allows users to work more efficiently and creatively. And then there's Spaces, which is a new way of communicating and sharing information within Workspace. In this explainer, we will explore what Google Workspace is, how it uses AI to improve its services, and what Smart Canvas and Spaces can do for you. What is Google Workspace? If you’ve used Gmail (who hasn’t?) or any other Workspace app on desktop, you’d have noticed a sidebar to the left with icons that open small windows to other Workspace apps. For example, on the desktop version of Gmail, you can access other apps like Google Keep, Tasks, or Chat from the sidebar on the left. You can also open documents or spreadsheets from within Gmail and edit them in real time with your colleagues. Similarly, on the Gmail app for Android, you can tap on the icons at the bottom to switch between Gmail, Chat, Spaces, and Meet. Google Workspace aims to provide a seamless and integrated experience for users across different devices and platforms. By now it’d be clear that Google Workspace is essentially the name of the family of productivity software that its users have access to. This includes Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and more. Google Workspace pricing in India varies depending on the plan and the number of users. The plans are: Business Starter: ₹136 per user per month. This plan includes 30 GB of cloud storage, file sharing, video conferencing for up to 100 participants, and 24/7 support. Business Standard: ₹736 per user per month. This plan includes everything in Business Starter, plus unlimited cloud storage (or 2 TB per user if fewer than five users), video conferencing for up to 150 participants with recording and breakout rooms, and advanced security and management controls. Business Plus: ₹1380 per user per month. This plan includes everything in Business Standard, plus video conferencing for up to 250 participants with live streaming and Q&A, and enhanced security and compliance features. Enterprise: This plan includes everything in Business Plus, plus premium support, enterprise-grade security and compliance, and custom cloud solutions. Pricing is flexible. The pricing includes 30 GB of cloud storage, file sharing, video conferencing, and 24/7 support. You can upgrade to unlimited storage if needed. What is Google Duet? In a press release from August 29, Google CEO Sundar Pichai talked about the AI-first approach Google has taken of late, applying AI to make its products radically more helpful. One of the results of this effort is Google Duet, a product that was revealed at I/O 2023. Google Duet is powered by an AI assistant called Duet AI, which can do amazing things with language and graphics. Google Duet is designed to improve the Workspace platform, which includes apps like Gmail, Docs, Slides, and more. These features are still in testing mode and not open to everyone, but they will be soon for those who have the right Workspace plans. With Google Duet, you can do things like create slides from scratch using just a few words, and let Duet AI handle the rest. You can also choose the style of the graphics that you want to use. Duet will also allow you to turn an email from Gmail into notes, and then into a presentation, all within Google Workspace. Duet AI will also help you with writing tasks in Google Docs. You can ask Duet AI to help you write something like a job description using prompts or snippets of text. You can also ask Duet AI to help you visualise your data or ideas using charts or diagrams. What is Smart Canvas? Google Smart Canvas is a new product that aims to make online collaboration easier and more efficient. It is a set of features that enhance Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides by using smart technology to connect and organise information. Some of the features that Smart Canvas offers are smart chips, table templates, checklists, a pageless format in Docs, and new views in Sheets. These features may sound complicated, but they are actually very simple and intuitive to use. Smart chips are pop-up windows that appear when you type an @ sign in any document. They allow you to quickly link to related documents, assign tasks, or mention people. When you mention a person, you can also see their contact details, role, and location – if they have shared that information. You can also preview any content that has been linked with smart chips without leaving your document or event. The pageless format in Docs removes the page breaks from your document and adjusts it to fit any screen size or shape. This is great for when you are working with people who use different devices or platforms. Checklists let you add tasks to your documents and automatically sync them with Google Tasks when you assign them to someone. Finally, table templates help you create tables in your documents with relevant information from other sources. For example, the meeting notes template can import data from a Google Calendar invite, such as attendees and attachments. What is Google Spaces? Google Spaces is a feature that lets you create and join spaces, or chat rooms, where you can work with others on projects, have structured discussions, or chat with groups of people. It’s essentially an improved version of what used to be called Rooms, and is also the successor of Google Spaces, an app that Google launched and discontinued in 2017. You can find Spaces in the Google Workspace UI or in the Gmail app. Spaces works well with Google Chat, which is Google's unified messaging service. It offers more advanced ways to organise group conversations, such as in-line topic threading, custom statuses, reactions, and the ability to link and add files to the chat.
