Google has announced a rebrand of their GSuite office apps today. Called Workspace, the new interface will combine all their well known apps, and introduce new collaboration interactions between all their tools.
Google Workspace is very much a response to the increased work from home arrangements seen globally with COVID-19. In their announcement Google VP and GM, Google Workspace Javier Soltero says ‘work itself is transforming in unprecedented ways. For many of us, work is no longer a physical place we go to, and interactions that used to take place in person are being rapidly digitized’.
The rebrand also includes a new suite of icons in Google’s four-color style. The icon change also include the iconic Gmail app, with Google also bringing the new style to the Calendar, Drive, Meet and Chat icons, with Google also promising ‘many more’ to come.
The aptly named Google Workspace isn’t just a chance to roll out new icons, it will combine all the Google ‘tools like chat, email, voice and video calling into a single, unified place’.
In introducing Workspace, Google wants to have you spend less time switching apps to get things done. New features including the ability to dynamically create and collaborate on a document with guests in Chat, preview a linked file without having to open a new tab in Docs, Sheets, and Slides, or pop up contact information for users with an @reply someone in a document.
Google has launched a new Workspace website with pricing for Workspace starting at $8.40 AUD per user/month.
The newly renamed Google Workspace is available now to business customers but will become available to consumers in the coming months ‘to help them do things like set up a neighborhood group, manage a family budget, or plan a celebration using integrated tools like Gmail, Chat, Meet, Docs, and Tasks’ says Google.
