How Google Workspace is helping workers in hybrid working conditions

One of the hopeful signs of a return to normalcy is seeing how people return to their offices, and they’re looking for strategies that will make hybrid work a more equitable and productive experience for everyone.

Here are five features on Google Workspace that can help teams of all sizes stay better connected and engaged (Google)

One of the hopeful signs of a return to normalcy is seeing how people return to their offices, and they're looking for strategies that will make hybrid work a more equitable and productive experience for everyone. When designed well, a hybrid model gives employees the flexibility to deliver their best from anywhere, while bringing them together thoughtfully for the power of in-person collaboration.

Here are five features on Google Workspace that can help teams of all sizes stay better connected and engaged, whether they're working from home, the office, or anywhere in between.

1. Express yourself with in-meeting reactions: “In-meeting reactions” lets attendees visually express themselves with 👍 ❤️ 😆 and more, bringing energy into the meeting and giving immediate feedback to speakers and other attendees. These reactions appear in a participant's video tile, or overflow alongside their name if their video tile isn't visible.

2. Collaborate in real time while having a conversation: Being able to see and hear each other during hybrid collaboration is essential. To address this, Meet has integrated Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Users can now start a meeting and bring it to a document, spreadsheet, or presentation, and they can present this content to all the meeting attendees. This enables everyone in the meeting to collaborate in real-time while having a conversation—all from the same tab.

3. Picture-in-picture: To help presenters and multitaskers see their audience while navigating different tabs and windows, Google has introduced picture-in-picture to Meet running on Chrome browsers. Up to four video tiles of meeting attendees can be seen in a floating window on top of other applications as one shares content or sends a message in Gmail. Clicking on picture-in-picture quickly takes you back to the full Meet session.

4. Personal video tile with companion mode: With Companion mode for Meet, Google provides in-room meeting attendees a way to stay engaged using their personal devices while leveraging in-room audio and video. To improve the in-room experience, automatic noise cancellation on all Google Meet hardware has been rolled out, including Logitech, Acer and Asus hardware. This will help remove background noises—from noisy typing in a conference room to the neighbor's lawn mower.

5. Inline threading in Spaces keeps your messages organized: Spaces in Google Workspace offers an integrated, effective solution for anytime collaboration, where teams can share ideas and knowledge, discuss topics, collaborate on documents, and manage tasks within a single, persistent location. With inline threading, members of a space will be able to respond to specific comments and create side conversations, while keeping the dialogue organized and contextual. Every teammate can easily browse a space and catch up on topics that are important to them, at a time that works for their schedule.