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With the increasing demand for team information applications, the days when e-mail becomes the main business information tool seems to be numbered. However, Google believes the future of its team messaging tool, Hangouts Chat, will be closely tied to email.

The company explained its ideas on Google Cloud Next last month, focusing on integrating Hangouts chat into Gmail so that users can enter chat directly without having to switch apps.

The idea is that, like all software tools, real-time team chat has both advantages and disadvantages. Easy communication can lead to information overload, and fast conversation can be distracting. The same problem can appear in e-mail and should be solved through group chat.

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Jacob Bank, director of product management at Google G Suite, says the combination of chat and email can push the conversation to the most appropriate channel. While team chat is ideal for impromptu discussions with colleagues, e-mail is more suitable for more formal interactions.

"the premise of our communication strategy is that we don't live in a world where everyone gives up email and turns all communication into chat," he said. "

"our basic approach is that chatting is very useful for some use cases," Bank said. "it's fast, informal, low-anxiety, and you can make decisions quickly. It encourages transparency. It's a digital water fountain, where people can express themselves more freely. But it can be interrupted, distracted, and it's hard to extract signals from noise.

"on the other hand, email has many traditional advantages and is a complement to chat in many ways."

In 2017, Google previewed hangout chat and its videoconferencing tool Hangouts Meet for the first time. (they are positioned as alternatives to Hangouts tools in the company's G Suite portfolio.) Chat was officially launched last year.

Google's app has many similarities with its upstart competitors. Hangouts chat allows thread message conversations, artificial intelligence robots and a series of third parties to integrate in their groups and direct messages. One of its key advantages is its integration with other G-suite applications such as Drive and Docs, and the company added artificial intelligence features such as intelligent reply last year.

While the bank said Google was making a "huge investment" in its team chat feature, Gmail would continue to serve as a central "hub" for G Suite users. 'The integration of Gmail reinforces this,'he said. This means that users will be able to call up the full-screen version of the chat tool directly from the left column of the email client without having to switch to the Hangouts chat application. So far, you can only use a small direct message pop-up window in Gmail to chat.

This allows users to quickly move from personal email to group chat without causing too much interference. Hanging out and chatting will still be provided as a standalone application.

Tim Wanjin, chief analyst at Owen, said integration was "a big step forward" from the user's point of view.

"We often hear how company information replaces internal email; it makes sense to integrate it into Gmail." There is only one client to collaborate and communicate, which shows that Google is clearly thinking about ease of use. It is not easy to design a simple and powerful user interface. "

The World Bank said the integration highlighted the company's broader vision of employee communication and collaboration. "the integration of Hangouts chat into Gmail marks a long-term ambition to combine traditional inbox-based email communications with team messaging," he said. "

"Gmail is the center of our existing users today, and we hope to enrich it through more real-time features and more first-party and third-party integration. If there is a group of users who want to be the main users of chat, we will fully support this need."

Google is not the only company that realizes the importance of e-mail.

For example, the micro-software team integrates with Office365 in the developer's Outlook email client. Slack predicts that channel-based communication will eventually become the main form of business communication, but it is still working with Google and Microsoft to bridge the gap with email clients. It also plans to have users send messages directly to Slack via email, and vice versa. Facebook bought RedKix last year to help its workplace social network connect with major email tools.

"our long-term vision is a closely linked, intertwined experience that gets value from two sources," the bank said. " We don't think of this as a lightweight integration, that is, moving an email conversation to a team chat, or publishing the results of a team chat via email. However, in a given team, you can use email as its asynchronous and formal semantics, and chat as its synchronous informal semantics, both of which are core parts of your workflow.

"everyone knows that email is not dead," he said. "but I think we are more willing to accept the benefits of email and Gmail than anyone I meet in the market."

As demand for teamwork tools continues to soar, Google faces fierce competition; its competitors attract a large number of users

. Slack has 10 million daily active users, including 85000 paying business customers, while micro-software teams are used in 500000 organizations. Facebook's workplace has more than 30, 000 paying organizations and about 2 million users.

It is not clear how much Hangouts chat is actually used. The app can be used as part of G Suite subscriptions, which have 5 million customers, but Google does not disclose statistics for the messaging platform.

Google's launch seems to lag behind other companies in the market. "based on the volume of our conversations with customers, Hangouts chat doesn't have much customer motivation," said Larry Cannell, head of research at Gartner.

Angela Ashenden, chief analyst at CCS Insight, said that by integrating Hangouts chat with Gmail, Google could promote more people to use it, providing an opportunity for the use of the chat tool.

HangoutsChat Gmail .

"Google has introduced Hangouts chat into the Gmail user experience, which is a good way to promote the widespread use of Hangouts chat, blurring the boundaries between the two applications and reducing the context switching required as part of the communication workflow," she said. "

"right now, Gmail is the main focus for most users to use G suite, so it's a low-friction way to introduce them to Hangouts chat without the comfort of Gmail," Asunden said. "

Still, she points out that the move to integrate also "shows that they need to do more to increase their use of chat tools."

"in general, we need better marketing and understanding of the different functions of G Suite, especially outside the United States," she said.

With a variety of collaboration options, how does Hangouts plan to stand out from its competitors and grow? Bank points to the deep integration of Google chat with G Suite applications.

He believes that focusing on productivity and minimizing disruption has been the main selling point of Gmail since it was launched 15 years ago. First is spam detection, then features such as the priority inbox that distinguishes social and promotional messages. The same method applies to Hangouts chat.

"not yet, but we want to apply all of these technologies to Hangouts chat products to reduce distractions and distractions and help people feel confident that they are organized and error-free."

At Cloud Next, many new chat features have been released. They include:

Analysts say that given the highly competitive market, Hangouts Chat still has a long way to go to compete with competitors' apps.

"one important missing is the channel," Cannell said. "although Hangouts has chat rooms, this is limited compared to the ability of Slack and micro-soft teams to organize chat."

"it is disappointing that Hangouts chat does not integrate more closely with hard drives (especially team hard drives) and documents," he said. "after all, most teams need to work together on content.

"due to the seamless integration of the Microsoft team with SharePoint and Office applications, the Microsoft team has done a good job of merging document collaboration with dialogue," he said. Slack's integration with Google is impressive, and it can be said that the integration with Google Docs is closer than Hangouts chat.

In addition, Cloud Next has released a new robot directory that allows users to browse the AI robots available in Hangouts chat. The directory also allows G Suite administrators to promote specific applications to their organizations.

Ovum's Banting says focusing on automation should take advantage of Google's traditional strengths. "I think Google's advantage lies in robotics and artificial intelligence," he said. "Google has a large network of developers and can use Google's chat robot service to integrate with G Suite services and data."

Ashendon says the focus on artificial intelligence and automation may help shift Hangouts chat from chat to communication-driven process coordination. This will enable other applications and workflows to be integrated into team chat, she said.

Google is off to a solid start here with its robotics, but this is not the central part of the Hangouts chat story-or the broader G suite story. Its competitors, the Microsoft team and Slack, are very concerned about this area, and Google needs to build its own capabilities and strategies in this area.

"it already has a lot of fundamentals, but it can certainly do more to clarify opportunities for customers, developers and partners," she said. "

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