Google Workspace Individual announced – new teleconferencing functionalities for SMBs

Google Workspace, previously known as G Suite, was launched back in October 2020 and served as a combination of Google’s apps such as Docs, Slides and Gmail which was only available for businesses and enterprises initially who paid a subscription fee for a G Suite business account.

The standard Workspace productivity site service has now been made free to everyone with a Google account and this is set to see growth to the already three billion strong Workspace users currently as Google attempt to rival both Microsoft Teams and Zoom in the videoconferencing and workplace collaboration market spheres.

Workspace’s recent updates have included a plethora of new functionalities including changes to Google Meet to enable collaboration equity, the development of ‘Rooms’ in Google Chat to ‘Spaces’ and new privacy/security settings across Workspace.

A highlight of the new security features introduced is that Google will offer users client-side encryption where they will be able to shield their data with encryption keys they possess making the data indecipherable to Google themselves or potential cyber criminals.

One major feature of the 14th June update rollout was the announcement of Google Workspace Individual. Priced at $9.99 per month, Workspace Individual expands the productivity suite’s availability to small businesses with options to upgrade their Gmail accounts for calendaring, email newsletter and video chat capabilities.

Google states that Workspace Individual allows the user to “create a secure collaboration space in Google Chat to keep everyone up-to-date, share ideas, and keep track of all your important info in one place, from videos and pictures of your last trip to a Google Sheet of your family’s annual budget”

Workspace Individual is deploying out soon to six markets, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and Japan.


Microsoft Teams now has over 145 million daily users

Microsoft, continuing the trend of growth in online communications during the COVID-19 pandemic, has informed on social media that their telecommunications app Microsoft Teams now has over 145 million daily users.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Microsoft Teams amassed an estimated 32 million daily active users – with an increase to 75 million users as the reliance on digital tools from the need to work at home dramatically amplified.

The figure is estimated to be about a 26% growth since October 2020 where there was an average of 115 million active users daily. This rapid growth in users has been paralleled with the expansion and inclusion of new features to the telecommunications app including the continual development of Teams Connect which allows the user to share channels with anyone internally or externally to their organisation, virtual meeting whiteboards and background effects for working at home environments; to name a few.

In relation to its competitors, Zoom revealed they had 300 million daily participants and Google Meet displayed 100 million daily participants. It must be noted that both these apps do not record daily users individually, but rather daily participants which implies that a single user could be logged several times if they attend multiple meetings during one given day. However, all these apps have undoubtedly experienced a rapid upsurge in user counts throughout 2020 and 2021 regardless of their user calculation systems.

CEO Natya Sadella states that the “digital adoption curves aren’t slowing down. They’re accelerating and it’s just the beginning”.

Future plans for feature incorporation into Teams include the interoperability with the new Microsoft Mesh, powered by Azure, which promises to be the office meeting’s digital leap into mixed reality technology combining both the physical and virtual world into one shared interactive environment.

For the Teams app itself, Microsoft has promised a host of new capabilities including end to end user encryption for one-on-one voice calls, ability to lock meetings to prevent unauthorised guests from attending and business branded lobbies where admins will be able to add custom logos to their Teams experience.