Google is opening up Google Workspace and its new collaborative UI to consumers who have a free Gmail account. It’s also announcing the next step in its evolution, Spaces.
Google announced changes to Workspace (formerly known at G Suite) and announced a new service called Spaces on Monday. Effective immediately, Google is opening up its unified Workspace experience to anyone with a Gmail account—and adding an individual Workspace paid account. Meanwhile Spaces is yet another collaborative environment that will sit alongside the “smart canvas” concept Google announced last month. Monday’s announcements are just another step along Google’s path of organizing its Google apps like Docs and Sheets into a more cohesive experience. Last October, Google announced that it was changing the name of Google G Suite to Google Workspace, and embarking upon cross-app collaboration. Google began the process with its paid Google’s paid plans, leaving the transition of consumer offerings until later. Now, that time has arrived. Today, consumers with a Gmail account can try out the new Workspace collaborative experience. This allows consumers who open a Google Docs document in Google Chat for Gmail, for example, to share it with others who can then collaboratively edit it.
