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Google Chat could soon let you pin important messages and files (APK teardown)
- Google Chat could soon get a new “Board” feature for pinning messages and resources such as files, links, and media.
- Workspace users would likely appreciate this feature for improved collaboration.
- Google is also experimenting with Google Chat’s UI.
Google’s messaging strategy is a mess, but most of us have long given up on making sense of it. We “it is what it is” our way through the still-confusing mess between Google Messages and Google Chat, and we can’t really pinpoint why there is Google Chat within Gmail, either. Workspace users have increasingly gravitated towards Google Chat, though. Google seems to be leaning into this use case with an upcoming feature that lets you pin messages to a chat within Google Chat.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Gmail’s latest v2024.11.24.702067492 update adds a new feature for Google Chat within the app (which could possibly be extended to the standalone Google Chat app, too). Google Chat is getting a new Board feature, which will let users access pinned messages and other resources inside any chat. We managed to activate the feature across personal and group chats, and here’s how it would look.
Workspace users will likely appreciate this feature, as it would let them pin important resources or FAQs directly to each chat.
Google is also experimenting with the UI within Google Chats. For instance, the Shared and Tasks tabs have been pushed to the three-dot menu in the top right, which also absorbs the Threads and Search buttons. This means you do have to go deeper into a menu to access the previously tabbed options, but now you get visibility for more chat messages, and all the options are available in one menu.
This change to Google Chat has not yet been rolled out. We’ll update the article when it does.