Back in 2022, Slack introduced a new feature called Huddles, a fast, minimal, audio-first meeting experience. Instead of the usual meeting process of scheduling, inviting, and so on, Huddles allowed Slack users to instantly create meetings from a direct message or Slack channel. Later, Microsoft introduced its take on Huddles with its version of instant meetings.
Today, Google Chat announced its own version of instant meetings called "huddles." The huddles experience is powered by Google Meet, and it allows users to easily start an audio-first meeting. Huddles are available in direct messages, group messages, and spaces. Once a huddle is started, users can resize or drag the window, enable video, or share their screen, similar to a regular meeting experience.
Instead of creating a regular meeting to have audio/video calls, users can start a huddle and continue their conversations directly from the Chat experience. Also, huddles support multitasking while in Chat, as users can easily resize the window based on their needs.
Google has also introduced some changes to the Google Chat interface. The existing Meet video button available in the compose bar of Chat is now moving to the Chat header. From the new location, users can start a regular call, start a huddle, or share a Meet link. When someone invites a user to join a huddle, users will see a chat chip in their message thread that says that a user has started a huddle. Users can click "Join" to enter the huddle.
Huddles in Google Chat are available for the following customers:
- Business Starter, Standard, and Plus
- Enterprise Starter, Standard, and Plus
- Frontline Starter and Standard
- Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus
- Nonprofits
Google has started the rollout of huddles for Rapid Release domains. The rollout of Scheduled Release domains will start on Jan 6th.