Google Assistant will finally work with business G Suite accounts
That's just one of many new features Google is announcing today.
Google has been steadily rolling out G Suite updates like AI grammar suggestions in Google Docs, streamlined two-step verification, new Tasks features and shortcuts to make Google Doc and Sheet creation faster. Today, at the Cloud Next '19 event, Google announced its newest batch of G Suite changes.
The updates include features like Google Assistant integration. While that's still in beta and primarily works with Calendar, G Suite customers can now ask their Assistant when and where a meeting is. Google Assistant has worked with Calendar for a while, but only on personal accounts. It was an obvious and glaring omission from G Suite, so it's about time Google incorporated it.
There's changes for Hangout Meet and Hangout Chat, too. In Hangout Meet video calls, users can opt for automatic live captions using Google's speech recognition technology. Soon, users will be able to publicly live stream video meetings. Google is also bringing Hangout Chat into Gmail. While Gmail had chat integrated, Hangout Chat is G Suite's more robust Slack alternative, and users will be able to access it from their desktops.
Google has also made it possible to edit in real-time in Microsoft Office. Users will be able to work on Office files in G Suite without having to convert file types. And, to make searching for files and data easier, G Suite now allows users to add metadata to any file in Drive.
Google is also making it easier for G Suite customers to search third-party data sources -- like Salesforce -- from Cloud Search, expanding the data capabilities of Sheets, offering a cloud telephone service that gives users a phone number that works from any device and more. In the coming months, Google will expand G Suite's Add-Ons to work with more third-party apps, including Copper, Workfront and Box.
You can find a full list of G Suite's latest updates here, and if you're one of the 5 million businesses that works with G Suite, you can begin testing most of these features immediately.
