It's fair to say that Google Assistant is one of Google's most widely used products — among consumers, that is. Users on G Suite, Google's portfolio of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools, have unfortunately been missing it. That changes now.
New features are coming to G Suite, Google has confirmed, chief among them Google Assistant. The first integration sees enterprise users being able to summon Google Assistant for tasks related to their calendar.
Google Assistant Rolls Out To G Suite Calendar
They can ask any Assistant-powered smartphone, smart speaker, or smart display questions such as, "When's my next meeting?" or "Where's tomorrow's appointment?" just as they would on the regular consumer-facing version of Assistant. This feature will be accessible to both desktop and mobile users, which means Assistant integration for G Suite is cross-platform.
"Your Google Assistant already helps with your personal life, but now when you sign in and switch to your G Suite account, you can easily use your Assistant to help you prepare for the work day, too," Google said in an official blog post. "Whether you're at home, on the go, or in the car, you'll be able to ask your Assistant to tell you when and where your next meeting is, and stay on top of scheduling changes. This integration is available in beta today."
The only downside is that G Suite users unfortunately won't be able to integrate their personal Google Calendar — only ones tied to their work accounts. That makes sense considering it's an enterprise feature for businesses taking advantage of G Suite.
For now, there are no other G Suite apps that work with Google Assistant, although that could always change over the coming months.
Other G Suite Improvements
Google is also introducing G Suite Add-Ons, which it says will provide a way for people to access their most used G Suite apps from the G Suite side panel to complete tasks, instead of going back and forth between various apps and tabs. Workers can also consult a CRM tool for information when working on Google Docs, add tasks into a project management tool directly from an email, and more. Add-Ons will be available via a beta program that's coming in a few months' time.
In addition, Google is making file search much easier with Drive metadata. Users, admins, and delegates will be able to create metadata categories to make content more easily discovered within search, minimizing the time it takes to locate a particular document.
There's a ton of improvements and new tools Google has added to G Suite, so check out the official blog post to read all about them.
