Google is adding interesting features to its Workspace

 Working from home was a relatively rare option until the Covid-19 pandemic. Some companies allowed workers to do their job remotely. However, the majority preferred to have their employees in offices, where management could better observe their work ethic. However, the pandemic changed that, along with many other things.

We can’t go to the offices for fear of our safety. Companies discovered that they could effectively cut various costs when their employees do their jobs from home. Of course, some jobs require an office environment, but for many others, that’s not as necessary as it seemed until the pandemic.  

Nevertheless, staying at home means that we need different tools and programs to communicate with our coworkers and do our jobs effectively. The major tech firms rose to the challenge. They began developing such platforms, including Google Workspace, Zoom, Team meeting, Asana, Slack, and act.

On Tuesday, Google announced that it is adding several new features to Google Workspace. Those will include new tools for categorizing users’ focus time in Chat and Google Calendar and a version of its office suite for frontline workers. Furthermore, the platform will offer better ways to join Google Meet videoconferences with various devices. Google Assistant for Workspace will become generally available, as well.

Google says it aims to make working from home more advantageous

The company decided to have a say in “collaboration equity” by categorizing these features. Google wants to create effective tools so that people who prefer to continue working from home even after returning to the old routine will become possible, are not put at a disadvantage compared to employees working from an office.

Thanks to Google’s tools, users will be able to set their status across its suite of products. You will also be able to create a new event type – Focus Time and set up working and out-of-office hours. According to Google, when a user sets up a block of Focus Time, it will considerably limit notifications during these event windows. By setting their location, users can let coworkers get a better sense of their availability and time zone.

Workspace’s other tools like Chat and Gmail will be aware of user’s current status and location, adjusting their notifications to suit. If you use mostly Google Workspace, then you’ll find these features much more convenient and useful.

Google is also adding new types of statuses on the calendar, which will allow users to make a work-focused “time well spent” chart. This one will only show how much time you’re wasting in meetings weekly. However, those “Time Insights” breakdowns will be available to employees, not their bosses.