Google Chat update making conversations more efficient

A new feature that made Google Chat easier to use was the ability to see participant avatars in unread chats. This improvement streamlines the user experience by making it easier to quickly identify conversations that are of priority within Spaces. The functionality, which is accessible for Google Workspace users and personal accounts on the web, Android, and iOS, attempts to simplify decision-making by giving users upfront context.

Google said, “In order to provide you with more context upfront, you will now see participant avatars for unread threads in the conversation view. Without having to click to open the thread side panel, it will now be much easier to decide which threads to read and reply to.”

If a user was returning to Spaces after a break, they would come across multiple threads, not knowing what was being discussed without manually opening them and going through the replies. The new update solves this problem by adding participant avatars to all unread threads to make it more apparent what the discussion is about.

This feature will be available to all Google account holders, including Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal accounts. The Google Chat feature does not require any admin control (for Workspace users) and will remain on by default. It will also be available on the web, Android, and iOS. The tech giant started its rollout on Monday, but it may take up to two weeks to reach all users.

Recently, Gboard, Google's keyboard app for smartphones, also received a new feature called the "Scan Text" mode that allows users to click a picture of text and insert it into the text field. It uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to extract the text and insert it into Gboard's app.