Google Chat gets messaging interoperability with Slack and Teams

Google has been adding new features to its Workspace apps. After rolling out Duet AI capabilities to all the different apps such as Gmail, Docs, Slides, and Drive, and the new home screen redesign for Google Chat, the company’s native chat messenger is getting another important feature upgrade. Powered by Mio, a cross-platform collaboration tool, Google Chat will now offer messaging interoperability to other messaging platforms such as Slack and Microsoft Teams.

The new feature was announced by Google recently in a blog post that said, “If your organization uses a mixture of messaging tools, you can now use Mio to enable messaging interoperability between Google Chat and other platforms such as Slack and Teams”. This feature is currently in beta testing. The feature is expected to arrive in 2024.

Google Chat gets an interoperability feature

As per the blog post, using this feature will be quite easy as most of the heavy lifting is being done by Mio. Users can connect Google Chat with other messaging tools that are being used in the organization and both receive all messages on a single platform as well as respond to them from a single window.

Explaining the reason behind adding this feature, the blog post explained, “We know that communication and collaboration happen over multiple channels and tools. This can cause missed messages, silos of communication, and a frustrating experience monitoring multiple chat tools”.

This feature will be made available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline Starter, Frontline Standard, and Nonprofits customers.

Google Chat also gets a voice messages feature

Alongside, Google Chat has also added a native feature of voice messages. The platform calls it audio snippets and it has been described as a feature that can “save typing and allow recipients to hear the tone and context of the message”. According to a report by 9to5Google, this feature will arrive in the first quarter of 2024. It is aimed to boost team collaboration for Workspace users. It is not clear whether the feature is only available for group messages or also in individual chat windows.