Earlier this week, Google announced a major refresh of its Chat online service. It included, among other things, access to Google"s Duet AI feature for answering questions using files on Google Workspace. However, that"s not the only feature Chat is getting this week.
On the official Google Workspace blog, the company has announced the beta launch of a new feature that will allow messages from Google Chat to be automatically sent to other chat services like Microsoft Teams and Slack.
That"s the good news. The bad news is that the new feature will require a subscription to the Mio interoperability service. Google stated:
We know that communication and collaboration happens over multiple channels and tools. This can cause missed messages, silos of communication, and a frustrating experience monitoring multiple chat tools.
That’s why we’re partnering with Mio, a leading provider of collaborative interoperability solutions helping customers enhance their productivity by streamlining communication across multiple channels. You can leverage Mio to create a seamless experience between Chat and the various tools you need to get your work done.
The official Mio blog offers some more info on how this will work. Google Chat users will be able to type in messages and have them sent automatically to their accounts on Microsoft Teams, Slack, Webex, and Zoom Team Chat. It adds:
Google Chat users will be able to remain on Google Chat while messaging cross-platform colleagues in direct messages, spaces, and group chats. Features such as secure file sharing, editing and deleting messages, emojis, GIFs, reactions, and threaded messages are supported across platforms.
Google Workspace business accounts can sign up to participate in the beta test of the Chat interoperability feature at Milo"s site. They can also discuss pricing for the feature. Google and Milo plan to make the feature generally available to all of its business users sometime in early 2024.