Google LLC today announced the launch of Google Workspace, a platform that brings together the entire G Suite of Google cloud tools for messaging, meetings, docs and tasks into one place for office and remote work under one interface.

“This is the end of the ‘office’ as we know it,” said Javier Soltero, vice president and general manager of Google Workspace. “From here on out, teams need to thrive without meeting in person, protect their time to focus on the most impactful work, and build human connection in new ways.”

Google supports more than 2.6 billion customers, enterprise and education users right now who have actively chosen to use its G Suite productivity and collaboration apps every month. As a result, the company wanted to rethink its platform to contend with the world’s shift toward more remote work given the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Google Workspace gives people a familiar, fully integrated user experience that helps everyone succeed in this new reality whether you’re in an office, working from home, on the frontlines, or engaging with customers,” said Soltero.

In July, Google announced the framework that would become Google Workspace. This was the first step in the company’s vision for a unified experience that would become Workspace and it is now generally available to all Google Workspace business customers and, in the coming months, will roll out to everyone.

The idea behind Google Workspace is an all-in-one view that brings together multiple collaboration tools into one space so that it reduces “context switching,” meaning a worker does not need to move away from anything in order to get work done. That means core tools are at the ready at a moment’s notice and become available in context.

Available today, linked previews in Docs, Sheets and Slides allow users to preview the content of a link without leaving the original document, saving time switching between apps and tabs. This allows more time to get work done.

Also beginning to roll out today: When a user “@mentions” someone in a document, a popup will display details and provide context and even suggest actions like sharing that document. That will connect users and people right in Docs, Sheets and Slides. As a result, Google Workspace will help users get more done right where they are.

Inside Docs, for instance, users will be able to dynamically create and collaborate on a document within a room in Chat, without having to switch tabs or tools. That’s intended to reduce complexity and help ensure the team has visibility into relevant project work without the hassle of jumping around.

With Meet picture-in-picture included in Gmail and Chat, users can see and hear the people they’re working with while collaborating. With Workplace, this capability will be rolled out also to Docs, Sheets and Slides, meaning users will get the benefit of nonverbal cues that come with working with a partner on a project in the same room.

“It’s not just businesses facing the need to transform; employees are in a period of transition themselves as they adjust to an increasingly hybrid way of working, and technology plays a critical role in enabling this,” said Angela Ashenden, principal analyst for Workplace Transformation at CCS Insight. “Google’s consumer heritage and cloud-native products make it uniquely positioned to guide users through the evolving workplace environment.

Google is also bringing Google Workspace to the company’s education and nonprofit customers in the coming months. Education customers will continue to access tools via G Suite for Education, which includes Classroom, Assignments, Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Meet.

More information about Google Workspace offerings is available on Google’s Workspace portal.

Image: Google