from Hacker News

Google Workspace for everyone

by danirod on 6/14/21, 12:13 PM with 337 comments

• by vtail on 6/14/21, 1:53 PM

  For as long a I am a “wanna-be founder”, I used to be afraid of working on ideas that compete with (parts of) Google business. That feeling is no more.

  I use GSuite at work at a FAANG company, and Google slides with 50+ pages is so slow (multi-second pauses when changing slides) to be practically unusable. Finding documents in Google drive is hard to impossible, and good luck keeping track of comments or tasks assigned to you in multiple unrelated documents.

  I’m sure at some level consolidating their offerings is a right product move, but I don’t think Basecamp or Calendly should be particularly concerned.

• by corndoge on 6/14/21, 1:52 PM

  If you have a normal google account, once you sign up for workspace, if you decide to no longer subscribe, you can't get your original free account functionality back. No more gmail, calendar, keep, etc. Learned the hard way

• by Brajeshwar on 6/14/21, 2:07 PM

  I like Google, but their product teams desperately need to talk to each other. I had been a 2TB Plan subscriber for quite a while. While trying to prune and free up some space, I realize it is practically impossible to do it any way that is easy and correct.

  It took me over two weeks of dedicated hourly time slots, a few automation, and many manual deletions to clean up everything. I also end up deleting essential documents that I should not have (I did have backups).

  I wrote down my frustration, the horrible experience deleting all the photos (some tips included that will help if you are planning to do so) - How to delete all Photos and get off Google Photos - https://brajeshwar.com/2021/how-to-delete-all-photos-and-get...

  I do have the grandfathered legacy Google Domains for Apps (may be about 10 or odd domains) and I pay for about 5 domains Google Workspaces. Teams find it easier to use Google Products (especially Gmail, and Calendar).

• by cloudking on 6/14/21, 10:50 PM

  Google Workspace was formerly known as G Suite, which was formerly known as Google Apps. It's the business version of Google products that includes additional functionality that consumer accounts don't have. https://support.google.com/a/answer/6043385?hl=en

  I shall attempt to explain what this announcement actually means, since it doesn't do a great job:

  1) "Starting today, all of Google Workspace is available to anyone with a Google account" there are a lot of individual business owners that have signed up for free Gmail accounts and use them to run their business, now they can pay a subscription fee to upgrade those accounts to include Workspace functionality (like Google Chat rooms, Meet recordings, Calendar appointments, ML assisted writing, device management and other business features).

  2) Google Chat (their competitor to Slack) and Docs suite are getting more deeply integrated in Gmail. Enabling the ability to bring in Docs/Sheets/Slides inline with a Chat "room" for collaboration without leaving Gmail. This will only be available for Workspace users (business, enterprise, education or the new individual plan).

• by Marveleouse on 6/14/21, 8:19 PM

  Do not use a Google Workspace account for personal use. Just get a Gmail account. There’s far too many restrictions and caveats that they’ve manufactured in the past few years (for no good reason). I’ve used Google Workspace since 2008, long before any of these restrictions existed and I wish it wasn’t a nightmare to migrate 12 years of context to a Gmail account. Google put me in lose-lose position. Don’t put yourself in one.

• by buggeryorkshire on 6/14/21, 1:39 PM

  It would be nice if they provided a route to getting old GAFYD users over to a standard Google Account.

  I've still got old accounts with photos etc on that I cannot move, and the only reason I moved from GAFYD is because of so much functionality being missing.

  GAFYD https://lifehacker.com/what-does-google-apps-for-your-domain...

• by subpixel on 6/14/21, 3:43 PM

  As a paying customer, I built my entire family photo sharing and storage scheme on the longstanding ability to sync images between Google Drive and Google Photos.

  Google removed that functionality, borked my entire system, and lost all of my trust that they know (or care about) what their customers want.

• by drcongo on 6/14/21, 4:31 PM

  I have absolutely no idea what this announcement is actually announcing. It takes seven paragraphs to actually get there, and then announces something that I'm 99% sure was already available. My wife doesn't have a work Google Workspace account, but she can still use docs etc. What's actually changed?

• by easton on 6/14/21, 1:40 PM

  Are they losing a lot of customers to Basecamp or something? This seems like the business model for a lot of their customers (small businesses/churches/etc that just need a space to put stuff where everyone knows where it is). Those places are probably paying for Google or Microsoft mail anyway though.

• by pylon on 6/14/21, 4:34 PM

  So I assume the things that are becoming free don't include using your own domain for mail? Will Google Workspace Individual include that? The TechCrunch article mentions it will be $9.99 with introductory price of $7.99 which is more expensive than current basic plan.

  I really just want custom domain hosting with Gmail and ignore everything else.

• by markstos on 6/14/21, 3:16 PM

  The announcement could be clearer.

  Groups could already sign up to pay for Google Workspace, that doesn't change.

  Individuals could also sign up for Google Workplace group account that only a single person would use or use a lot of features in their individual account.

  The announcement could be more straightforward about what's actually changing.

• by mastazi on 6/14/21, 9:49 PM

  As a privacy conscious user, I hope one day there will be a "Premium" Google account for individuals, where you pay in exchange for not being tracked and not being shown ads. I wonder if this announcement is Google going into that direction. I'm sure Google knows that for many, perception of privacy issues has changed drastically in recent years.

  At the moment, they still have dis-joined paid offerings, for example Youtube Premium, Google Play Pass, Google Workspace, etc. - with many Google products, such as Android or GMaps, there is still no way to pay your way out of tracking/ads (at least that I know of). Instead, there should be a single paid subscription, for all Google services.

  I left Google a while ago[1] but if the "privacy subscription" offering became a thing, I would be back in no time.

  [1] My main Google account was deleted and replaced with a combination of Mailinabox, Nextcloud, Duckduckgo etc. - but I have an alt account only for Youtube, linked to my wife's Youtube Premium Family plan.

• by myoffe on 6/14/21, 11:43 PM

  I'm having a hard time taking anything new from Google seriously. In 2 years they might just sunset both of these for yet another iteration of a work collaboration and messaging app.

• by londons_explore on 6/14/21, 1:34 PM

  Is this the start of curtailing the free google suite of apps?

  Will google Docs suddenly be limited to documents no longer than 3 pages or 3 collaborators unless I pay for a subscription to "Google Workspace for Individuals"?

• by personjerry on 6/14/21, 9:45 PM

  What the hell does this announcement actually say? Is this just Gsuite? Are they introducing a lower price tier? What is the pricing? How do existing customers transition?

  The rebranding from "Google hangouts" and "Gsuite" to "Google Workspace" and everything inbetween I have to say has been a tremendously terrible marketing job, given the talent of the people at that company.

• by gregwebs on 6/14/21, 5:23 PM

  A link from this announcement goes here [1] where they show new collaboration features that moves Google Docs in the direction of coda.io to be able to better leverage structured data and tables. I have been loving coda.io.

  [1] https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/workspace/next-evolut...

• by kwanbix on 6/14/21, 3:32 PM

  I don't understand why did they integrate chat with email. For me they are two very different use cases. If not, I will be only using email (or chat). I really don't get it. I had to uninstall chat on my android phone as I was getting double notifications for all chat messages. Really stupid IMHO. Of course there is surely someone who loves the integration.

• by ChuckMcM on 6/15/21, 1:15 AM

  So awesome, Lucy is teeing up the football once again[1].

  For me this is a classic case of a great idea that for the life of me I would never decide to depend on because Google has so thoroughly trashed their own reputation for supporting something that it would literally be more hassle to recover from their inevitable sun-setting of the project after I had invested in it, or done the ransom thing where "now I need to be on a 'pro' plan to use that for only $x/month."

  [1] https://marcellusdrilling.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/luc...

• by deckard1 on 6/14/21, 5:27 PM

  Interesting. I was just looking for a way to route my domain email to Gmail. I then went down the rabbit hole of G Suite and discovered G Suite grandfathered accounts from back when G Suite was free for anyone with a Gmail account, I guess? Somehow I missed that period of time. My GMail accounts predate G Suite but are not on any G Suite plan.

  In any case, I wasn't going to pay Google $72 a year just to get a trickle of email. I signed up for the Zoho free plan and I'm starting to wonder why I stuck with Gmail so long. It's making Gmail look like it's from 2004. Granted, the free plan you can only use their web app or mobile app. But it's like $12 to step up to a full plan with POP/IMAP I think.

• by jfrunyon on 6/14/21, 5:35 PM

  "Use Rooms in Google Chat as a central place to connect, create and collaborate with others. Over the summer, we’ll evolve Rooms to become Spaces and introduce a streamlined and flexible user interface that helps you stay on top of everything that’s important. Powered by new features like in-line topic threading, presence indicators, custom statuses, expressive reactions, and a collapsible view, Spaces will seamlessly integrate with your files and tasks"

  Cool. So when are we (admins - or heck even users!) going to be able to edit, or delete, or hide, or restrict access to, rooms/Spaces?

• by xibalba on 6/14/21, 1:32 PM

  So can I stop paying for my 1 user business account now?

• by renewiltord on 6/14/21, 9:42 PM

  In all genuineness, I have no clue what they're doing. I won't touch this shit with my personal Gmail account because I just know it has some one-way door built-in. Something like "You signed up for Workspace and now you can't use your Google Home! Hurray! Oh, you want to downgrade? Okay, you lost all your email! Hurray!"

  I'm just glad I make enough money that I can keep my GSuite and my personal separate. The one mistake I made is paying for this Google One shit which I don't know what it is but I'm too afraid to let it go in case they delete all my photos and email.

  Literally the most half-assed platform of all time. But the features are so good I'm pretty sure I'm paying three times for them and not upset. It's the risk of losing the data that scares me.

• by xyst on 6/14/21, 9:29 PM

  I don’t need these “enterprise” features. I just need an e-mail. That being said, I do pay ~$5 per month (they charge PER user) for workspaces just for a hosted e-mail solution using my own domain (firstname@lastname.com).

  One of these days, I’m going to self host it. Just need to figure out what’s the best way so my e-mails don’t get bounced back or get flagged as spam

• by Relatotuile on 6/14/21, 8:17 PM

  I can't seem to find the answer to one of the most important questions - Will this prevent users from using many Google features like GSuite currently does? I'd hate for people to fall into that same trap - You aren't able to use things like Nest to Google account migration, many Google Home features, family sharing, etc.

• by choppaface on 6/14/21, 4:58 PM

  Guh!! The image / video at the top seems to show Google Haircuts, Google Gym, and Google Cafeteria. I thought this announcement was that Google HR saw so many employees going remote that they were opening up the employee-only workspace facilities to everybody. Now I read this is just some dumb software. What a let-down.

• by exabrial on 6/14/21, 9:25 PM

  Not putting any eggs in this basket I got burned on Google Wave and I won't forget it ever, hah.

• by davemtl on 6/14/21, 7:32 PM

  Is this just another Google product I'm going to invest a lot of time in, only to find out that one day they take it 'round back and put it down? [1]

  [1] https://killedbygoogle.com/

• by erik_p on 6/14/21, 9:49 PM

  This makes me miss Google Wave... Are they iframing in spreadsheets with a slack clone?

• by axismundi on 6/14/21, 7:57 PM

  ...and a few years later, once you have adopted it and moved your stuff into it, Google will bin it and move on to something new. No thanks, been there, done that: rss reader, wave, talk, hangouts - never again.

• by winrid on 6/14/21, 11:17 PM

  The example use case, "planning a family reuinion", is hilarious to me as I have a few different sides to my family - and none of the people that actually plan reunions even use Gmail.

  Also, love ya grandma... :)

• by circlesguy on 6/14/21, 2:03 PM

  Prior art: https://circles.app/ Has chat, tasks, files just like Google, but also has shared notes, lists, links and so on.

• by cwkoss on 6/15/21, 1:19 AM

  How many "chat" app brands has google had at this point?

  I can think of Hangouts, Gchat, Messages, Duo, Wave. Now Workspace.

  How many years until the next one? I'm guessing 1.25.

• by JoshTriplett on 6/14/21, 1:39 PM

  The "book a meeting" mechanism shown in the animation towards the end looks like an interesting competitor to Calendly and similar.

• by oogve on 6/15/21, 7:09 PM

  I for one look forward to better support for the business products. Have had a pretty abysmal experience working with them.

• by mkr-hn on 6/15/21, 2:50 AM

  Cuil wasn't the promised Google killer, but Google's product strategy sure does resemble Cuil Theory these days.

• by headmelted on 6/14/21, 8:33 PM

  Not for UK users

  Which sucks, because thats the only way to get Google Voice, which we still dont have here outside of Workspace.

• by snambi on 6/14/21, 5:53 PM

  I have no idea, what this is.

• by znpy on 6/14/21, 7:59 PM

  What even is Google Workspace?

  Is this the used-to-be google apps?

  is this g-suite?

  is this google for education stuff?

• by beders on 6/14/21, 10:16 PM

  Let's take bets on re-re-branding and or end-of-life date!

• by xedeon on 6/15/21, 5:19 AM

  Anyone wants to take a guess ion how long before this product will be canned?

• by detay on 6/15/21, 1:21 AM

  probably be abandoned before 2023.

• by ampdepolymerase on 6/14/21, 1:41 PM

  Some PM just reinvented Google Wave.