Google Hangouts Chat Collaborative Messaging Client Exits Beta To Spar With Slack

Google has just announced that its Slack challenger, Hangouts Chat, has exited beta. Hangouts Chat is now an official member of the core G Suite service. Google wrote, "From direct messages to group conversations, Chat helps teams collaborate easily and efficiently. With dedicated, virtual rooms to house projects over time—plus threaded conversations—Chat makes it simple to track progress and follow up tasks." 

You can work with other G Suite apps from within Chat, that means collaborating with Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Users can also join Hangouts Meet online meetings from within Chat. An integrated search engine allows you to search for room members, past conversations, and shared files.

AI is integrated for speeding up workflows, allowing you to do things like book conference rooms, search for files, and more. Hangouts Chat supports 28 languages and each room can have to 8,000 members; in addition, the client will be offered on desktop for Windows and MacOS, iOS, and Android. The embedded security features allow admins to archive, preserve, search, and export Chat-specific data.

Third-party integrations are available in Chat for team projects and 25 bots are available. The bots include finance, human resources, CRM, project management and more. Directly integrated bots include the @Google Drive bot that can let you know when files are shared with you, comments are made, or people request access to your docs. The @Meet bot integrates with Calendar to schedule meetings for you.

Google also notes that Chat is compatible with Hangouts and works with existing contacts.