Google has transferred many of its consumer facing properties into its enterprise grade suite because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up devoting these features to the people that actually need them. There are a lot of changes coming to these service this year, but a relatively minor change that Google made which you may not even have noticed might have effect worker productivity and stop you from slacking off if you work from home or out of your boss’s line of vision at an office.
This change is happening in Google Chat, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that it is the first change of this variety since 2020. Back in that year, Google launched two new statuses for people that use the Chat program. These two statuses were Away and Do Not Disturb, with the latter creating a red circle next to your icon and the former an empty one.
The latest addition to this list of statuses is Idle, and it will add an orange circle next to your icon if you have not been active for a while. That can stop people from getting in touch with you if you are busy, but in spite of the fact that this is the case many might not like it because it can show your boss that you are not working even though your status is set to active.
With competition heating up in the workplace communications sector, Google is trying to outplay Microsoft and newcomer Slack to cash in on the rising trend of working from home. A big benefit of remote work is that you don’t have your boss hanging over you monitoring your every move, but this change might make that luxury a thing of the past. On the plus side, it can help companies maintain worker productivity without forcing them to come back to the office, so there is a give and take that makes this a reasonable change.
Read next: Google Search May Show Inappropriate Bias When Displaying Controversial Figures To Users
This change is happening in Google Chat, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that it is the first change of this variety since 2020. Back in that year, Google launched two new statuses for people that use the Chat program. These two statuses were Away and Do Not Disturb, with the latter creating a red circle next to your icon and the former an empty one.
The latest addition to this list of statuses is Idle, and it will add an orange circle next to your icon if you have not been active for a while. That can stop people from getting in touch with you if you are busy, but in spite of the fact that this is the case many might not like it because it can show your boss that you are not working even though your status is set to active.
With competition heating up in the workplace communications sector, Google is trying to outplay Microsoft and newcomer Slack to cash in on the rising trend of working from home. A big benefit of remote work is that you don’t have your boss hanging over you monitoring your every move, but this change might make that luxury a thing of the past. On the plus side, it can help companies maintain worker productivity without forcing them to come back to the office, so there is a give and take that makes this a reasonable change.
Read next: Google Search May Show Inappropriate Bias When Displaying Controversial Figures To Users
