Google Chat spaces just ballooned to the size of a major metro area

Summary

• Google Meet and Chat are core communication platforms post-Hangouts shutdown.
• Google Chat now supports up to 500,000 members in spaces.
• Google Chat’s integration with Workspace apps gives it an edge over competitors like Slack and Microsoft Teams.

Following the shutdown of Google Hangouts in November 2022, Google Meet and Google Chat remained the company’s core communication platforms. While both Google Meet and Chat apps seem to have similar functionalities, Google Chat has been tailored to the needs of enterprise customers of Google Workspace. Google Meet is the preferred app for one-on-one communication or small group chats. In addition, Google Chat still supports text-based communication, while Meet primarily focuses on video and audio calls.

Last year, Google made a significant announcement, increasing the number of Google Chat space attendees from 8,000 to 50,000. While a 50,000 cap on chat attendees seems far more than most organizations need, Google is now bringing even more flexibility to the Chat app.

Over half a million people can now join Google Chat spaces

As the company noted in its blog post, Google Workspace customers can now add up to 500,000 members to their spaces. This suits the needs of large multinational corporations that operate globally and want to communicate seamlessly with their employees or sales representatives worldwide.

While platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams are widely used for collaboration and membership management, Google Chat stands out for its integration with various Google apps, especially Workspace apps. This unique feature gives Google Chat the upper hand, offering a seamless and comprehensive communication experience.

Google also noted that for those who want to add Google Groups as a member to spaces, it takes a different amount of time to populate the space. For example, it takes around a minute for a Google Group with 1,000 members to join the spaces, while the estimated time for a group of 500,000 members is 150 minutes.

The new feature is now available to all Google Workspace customers, with the rollout beginning on June 26, 2024. However, it might take some time before all users can access it.