(Pocket-lint) – Companies and individuals are increasingly using virtual meeting and chat services, especially in these times of increased home working. Google has its tools called Google Meet and Google Chat.
These were formally a part of Google Hangouts, and if you’ve got the prevailing Hangouts app, you’ll still use that.
As has been seen more recently, employees need services that help them attach over the video, and their chat experience has got to be collaborative. So, thereupon in mind, Google has turned Hangouts into two services, Meet and Chat, to bring teams together.
Here’s everything you would like to understand about Google Chat and Meet.
What are Google Meet and Google Chat?
These apps form communications services that enable text, voice, or video chats, either one-on-one or during a group.
They’re built into Gmail, YouTube, and Google Voice, plus there are apps for iOS, Android, and therefore the web. So it’s essentially a useful and cost-effective collaboration platform for the typical person also as enterprise customers.
Chat may be a messenger app, probably closest to Slack in how it works, but it is currently only available for Google Workplace users allowing you to share Docs, Sheets, and Slides with colleagues.
Google Meet is that the consumer video calling app for up to 30 participants, so it acts as a Zoom rival and can have tons of appeal to regular users outside of companies.
Google Meet is for group calls and meetings.
Google describes Meet as “a video meeting experience with one goal: make joining meetings effortlessly.” the corporate wanted to enhance Hangouts to form it easier and faster for people to start and join video conferences.
Hangouts Meet features a Very light, fast interface and enables you to manage up to 250-person meetings easily. To instigate meetings, you originally needed to possess a G Suite account, but Google is now making it available to everyone – with varying levels of functionality. You’ll find it at meet.google.com, and it runs within the browser if you’re employing a PC.
Google Chat is for chat communication around teams and projects
Chat is “an intelligent and secure communications tool, built for teams. From direct messages to team chat rooms, Chat makes team communication easy and efficient.” says Google. the thought behind it’s that teams performing on a project should be ready to discuss tasks, share work, and more – it’s more like Slack.
Chat offers virtual rooms with threaded conversations and integration with other Google products, like Drive. But, again, it is a simple and lightweight interface so fast to use, and you’ll find it at chat.google.com – although Chat is merely available to G Suite users.
How does Google Meet work?
Video conferences
To start your meetings, you’ll share a link. there’ll be no accounts, plugins, downloads, or hassles if you’re already within the Google ecosystem and signed into a browser like Chrome. People can click on a link from Google Calendar, an email invite, or an ad-hoc share. And if you’re dialing in from a room, your laptop, or a passionate mobile app, it’s just a couple of clicks, and you’re in.
Presentations
Meet offers native, full-screen presenting, making it easy to showcase your team’s projects, although the sharing options aren’t as dynamic as those you will find in Zoom, although there’s the useful choice to share one Chrome tab.
G Suite integration
G Suite is Google’s package of cloud-based services which will provide your company or school with a replacement thanks to working together online. You get a website name and access to Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and other G Suite services like Meet. For G Suite Enterprise customers, each meeting features a dedicated dial-in telephone number.
How does Google Chat work?
Virtual rooms (channels)
Chat features dedicated, virtual rooms for every project your team may have – with threaded conversations, so your team can chat and track the progress of the discussion.
As you’d expect, it also has deep integration with G Suite, so you’ll share content from Drive and Docs. Otherwise, you can view things like photos and videos directly from a conversation. There’s also a filterable search, so you’ll search back through old discussions.
Third-party integrations
Chat may be a platform, too, so that means you’ll expect third-party integrations within the sort of bots, which can allow your teams to try to do more within their conversation. It’s already teamed up with companies like Asana, Box, Prosperworks, and Zendesk.
