Google said Monday that it is bringing Workspace, its rebranded G Suite, to all users, including consumers and education customers. With Workspace, Google is trying to better integrate its email, chat and productivity apps.
Why it matters: Google has 3 billion users for its collaboration tools, up from 2 billion a year ago. Workspace is designed to compete with both Microsoft Office and a variety of newer upstart productivity tools.
What they're saying: "We’ve been on this journey of bringing these products closer together," Google Workspace chief Javier Soltero said in a briefing with reporters.
As part of the news, Google is also:
- Evolving the Rooms feature within Google Chat to become Spaces, which Google describes as "a dedicated place for organizing people, topics, and projects."
- Offering a new paid option for individual users who can keep their Gmail.com address while getting some of the company's enterprise features for $9.99 per month, with a limited-time $7.99 introductory offer.
- Adding new security capabilities, including for businesses to protect their data using an encryption key that the company — and not Google — controls. An encryption option will also come to Google Meet in the fall.