With one of the changes it provided to Google Workspace customers today, Google probably had Slack in mind.
The business revealed a few minor modifications to its Google Workspace offering in a blog post. Even though there weren’t many updates, even one of them could have a big impact on how people share access to files, particularly when a meeting is in progress.
The pivot table editor side panel can now be resized in the first update, which is specific to Google Sheets:
We’re excited to announce a requested feature that allows you to resize the pivot table editor side panel when creating or editing a pivot table. This functionality is especially useful when the names of columns or fields are too long and you want to see the text in its entirety.
The second update will leverage your most recent Gmail search history to improve web search for the product:
In July, we announced better search and suggestion options in Gmail. Now, when using Gmail on the web, this also includes better search results based on your recent search activity in Gmail. This enhancement to Gmail search makes results more relevant and contextual.
Possibly the most important update was the most recent one. You can now share a Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file through Google Meet chat directly from your meeting when you are in a Google Meet meeting. The ability to quickly share (or not share) the file with meeting participants is even better.
Earlier this year, we announced the ability to join or present to a Google Meet call from Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides. Now, if you are presenting or joining a meeting from a file, you can easily share that file with meeting attendees through in-meeting chat. With this update you’re able to grant access to a document, spreadsheet, or presentation to all or select meeting attendees, allowing everyone in the meeting to collaborate while having a conversation.
As the current method of sharing this is a little more difficult when working with something outside of Google Workspace like Slack, this could increase the adoption of the Google Meet chat product. We’ll see if customers actually use this convenience to possibly switch from Slack to Google’s chat service in some circumstances.
