Companies and individuals are relying more on virtual meeting and chat services, especially with the increasing popularity of home working. Google has its own tools called Google Meet and Google Chat.
These were formerly part of Google Hangouts, and, more recently, Meet has taken on all of the features available from Google Duo and the two services are combined in the new Google Meet app.
The old Google Meet app still exists, but it's now called Google Meet (original) and it doesn't have all the new features. It's expected that this app will be depreciated at some point in the future.
Here's everything you need to know 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 in a group.
They are built into Gmail, YouTube, and Google Voice, plus there are apps for iOS, Android, and the web. It's essentially a useful and cost-effective collaboration platform for the average person as well as enterprise customers.
Chat is a messenger app, probably closest to Slack in how it works, but is currently only available for Google Workplace users allowing you to share Docs, Sheets and Slides with colleagues.
Google Meet is the consumer video calling app for up to 100 participants, so acts as a Zoom rival and will have a lot of appeal to regular users outside of businesses.
Google Meet is for group calls and meetings
Google describes Meet as "a video meeting experience with one goal: make joining meetings effortless". The company wanted to improve Hangouts to make it easier and faster for people start and join video conferences.
Google Meet has a very light, fast interface and enables you to easily manage up to 500-person meetings. To instigate meetings you originally needed to have a G Suite account, but Google is now making it available to everyone - with varying levels of functionality. You can find it at meet.google.com and it runs in the browser if you're using 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 idea behind it is that teams working on a project should be able to discuss tasks, share work, and more - it's more like Slack, really.
Chat offers virtual rooms, threaded conversations, and integration with other Google products like Drive. Again, it's a simple and light interface so it's fast to use and you can find it at chat.google.com - although Chat is only available to G Suite users.
How does Google Meet work?
Video conferences
To start your meetings, you'll simply share a link. There will be no accounts, plugins, downloads, or hassles if you're already in 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 dialling in from a conference room, your laptop, or a dedicated mobile app, it's just a few clicks and you're in.
Presentations
Meet offers native, full-screen presenting, which makes it easy to showcase your team's projects, although the sharing options aren't as dynamic as those you'll find in Zoom, although there is the useful option to share a single Chrome tab.
G Suite integration
G Suite is Google's package of cloud-based services that can provide your company or school with a new way to work together online. You get a domain name and access to Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and other G Suite services like Meet. For G Suite Enterprise customers, each meeting has a dedicated dial-in phone number.
Duo features
With the merge of Google Duo, Meet has taken on all of Duo's features. This means you can use Google Meet in a similar way to Apple FaceTime, calling someone directly, and using their phone number, without having to send links or a calendar invite.
For existing users of both Duo and Meet, your history, contacts, and messages remain available in the new version making the transition as easy as possible.
How does the Google Duo merge affect Google Meet users?
For now, existing Meet users can continue using the Google Meet app, although they might notice its name change to Google Meet (original).
At some point in the future, though, it's likely that Google will encourage users over to the new Google Meet app, which was formerly Google Duo. The new app has all of the additional features that the merge brings, whereas the original app will likely remain stagnant.
How does Google Chat work?
Virtual rooms (channels)
Chat features dedicated, virtual rooms for each 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 can share content from Drive and Docs, or you can view things like photos and videos directly from a conversation. There's also a filterable search so you can search back through old discussions.
Third-party integrations
Chat is a platform, too, so that means you can expect third-party integrations in the form of bots, which will allow your teams to do more within their conversation. It has already teamed up with companies like Asana, Box, Prosperworks and Zendesk.
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