Google Chat in-line topic threading

dpavlov
Participant IV

Hi communty, 

 

as per this article from 14 June 21, Rooms are becoming Spaces as well as in-line topic threading was supposed to be introduced in spaces. 

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/workspace/helping-business-with-new-additions-to-google-works...

So far we this feature is still not available. 

We haev Chat preffered and enabled in our admin console. 

Is anyone actually able to use in-line topic threading? 

 

12 135 12.5K
135 REPLIES 135

Penelope
Participant V

I may be misunderstanding that article and what is in-line topic threading...but do you mean having a room threaded versus unthreaded where if the room is able to have multiple threads you could have a thread for each topic whereas if you can't create threads then all topics are together? If so, that is how you set it when you first create the room. So for example when a Google Chat room is created, you can chose if it's unthreaded or threaded but can not change it down the road. https://support.google.com/chat/answer/7653861 number 6 in "create a space from Chat or Gmail" The example given in the article almost looks to me an unthreaded Space since I don't see the option of '+ new thread' in their gif/screenshot. 

If you don't have the option to chose threaded replies when creating a Space, then please let me know which Workspace edition you have and I can go check in with some colleagues of mine to ensure that is an edition that supports both threaded and unthreaded replies (do note that by default, Spaces have unthreaded replies so the person making the Space has to ensure they chose threaded if they want to have threaded replies). 

dpavlov
Participant IV

Actually, in-line topic threading should be the ability to qoute a message and respond to it. 

 

Thanks for the clarification! I have asked some folks I know for some more info about it too. And like Bill said, it could come out with the Feb 8 launch of the new integrated view. 

 

Update: I heard that in line topic threading is the ability to pin a comment/post in an unthreaded space and then have the ability to just have a conversation to that (so I guess in a way make it kinda like a threaded room).

Looks like they are still promising to release this feature: https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/workspace/announcing-new-features-in-google-workspace-for-hyb...

We are improving how conversations are displayed in Spaces with inline threading, a top request from enterprise customers. With inline threading, members of a space will be able to respond to specific comments and create side conversations, while keeping the dialogue organized and contextual. Every teammate can easily browse a space and catch up on topics that are important to them, at a time that works for their schedule.

This is great, but still no timeframe for the release and they announced that last year as well. So hopefully it will come out soon

If I could improve one thing at Alphabet/Google, ... it would be their customer communications!

 

Receiving reliable timeframes and schedules (including updated schedules) would be invaluable to us as customers, and as Support professionals to our internal customers and organizations!

 

@bill_pier3 someone at Google would have to know what's going on to be able to do that: it appears that the features developed and released are rather whimsical, so can change direction every other day.

@StephenHind and @bill_pier3 , I know what you mean!  Google purposefully doesn't give timelines for things.  It avoids artificial deadlines before things are ready and allows teams to work on different things.  I agree it's a paradigm shift and one which is frustrating.  But I usually just recommend people not get spun up about features until they actually announce the roll-out.

-KAM

 

bill_pier3
Participant V

While I don't know, perhaps it will come with the new integrated Gmail page, rolling out this next week.

 

ref: New integrated view for Gmail features email, Google Meet, Google Chat and Spaces in one place 

Not sure if it'll arrive alongside the Feb 8 rollout of the new Gmail integrated view, but I do know that Google is alpha/beta testing this feature.

Today the conversations are grouped and shown within the space. With in-line topic threading only the first message will be shown in the space. To see responses or reply, a new column will open. Slack works like this.

Hmm, I don't see that functionality yet within my Spaces. Do you have a screenshot? Does it look like what's in this animation?

Yeah, exactly this. 

@vs17 @dpavlov I don't believe those features have been released yet (you may have inadvertently shared something that isn't for a wider audience).

@dpavlov @vs17 yes that graphic is public but those feature are yet to be launched (if they actually come out like depicted as Google can change stuff before launch).

It will be made available to everyone. I've been waiting since launch.

This answer is NOT a solution!

This Chat feature was announced last September (2021)!  And now it's May 2022, and still no inline threading!

I want that Google would at least acknowledge this issue and update a timeline for the Chat feature deployments.

ref: Google Chat takes after Discord and adds inline discussion threads (Apr, 2022) 

WHEN??!  It's almost June 2022!

bill_pier3
Participant V

Well, our domain now has the Spaces "Manager" feature ... but ONLY for mobile apps (Gmail & Chat apps), and not yet available on web/desktop (Gmail & Chat services).

No other announced Chat enhancement features are yet available for our domain.

bill_pier3
Participant V

And now our domain has received the Space Description field and Guidelines option, but only for the mobile Chat app, and not the web access.

It's been almost a year (June 2021) since the Chat - Spaces features were announced and we still don't have these features to use!!!

OK, we now have the Space description and guidelines options on the web services (Gmail & Chat).

BUT, we still do not have the in-line topic threading!!!!  Is it any wonder that I continue to receive requests to use other vendor messaging services?!

I think it's starting to show up for some people. Not yet available for my account.

https://imgur.com/a/TnfZj1f

Is this a newly-created space, or an existing (non-threaded) space?

Is this screenshot reliable? Where did you find it?

I was asking google support for the same feature and I got this response.

"Thank you    for your response,  my apologies as the previous email may have caused some confusion, I must mention that product engineers' response was that there isn’t  a tentative date for that Google Chat  feature to be released at this moment.

Since your idea to be able to create threads based on replies to messages in Google Chat  it's brilliant, it would be excellent if you could share it on the Feature Ideas Community  at https://g.co/workspace/featureideas I'm certain our engineers would be really interested on creating the option  you've mentioned  in the near future, especially since all of  our products are design taking into consideration our customers feedback."

I am wondering if this feature is actually working with anyone. We are waiting for it for a long time and have pending development since we want to use google as our communication medium.

What poppycock!  They already announced this by demonstration, saying that this feature would be coming!!!  It's not a new idea for gosh sakes!  And their competition (e.g. Slack) has had this basic feature for a long while now!  The answer you were given is so disingenuous of Google.

It is really frustrating that Google does not provide reliable information in regards to the feature implementation and communication.

First, the feature was officially demonstrated via comprehensive workspace article mentioned there more than one year ago then it was announced in Workspace Product Roadmap for Q2. We are in mid-June and I am seeing this feature being described in various independent communication sources on websites and youtube video reviews, however, neither support team nor local technical account manager is able to confirm the status of this feature.

Is there anyone who can share any insight into status of this inline threading?

Google has become a big, slow company, like Microsoft. Unfortunately any announced update takes years to actually happen. And when it happens, others have already done it, and better.

I am starting to wonder if it finally being rolled out and they failed to tell anyone. Today I was in a unthreaded Google Chat space and got a notification in my Hangouts mobile app (which does work only for notifications now) that recent comments were made in the Chat Space. When I went to the actual Chat app, it didn't show me anything till I realized a new symbol (which reminds me of the Android Google Messages app logo a little bit) had showed up. When I clicked on that, the recent comments were hiding there. I did some research on the progress of the inline topic threading but I didn't see anywhere that said it had come out or even rolling out. The articles did mention a few things to look for to determine if inline topic threading was apart of the Space and it was to tap on a message and  see if you have an option called "reply in thread' which is now what I suddenly have too. 

Nothing like that available here @Penelope - would you mind sharing a screenshot?

Penelope_0-1663868103621.pngPenelope_1-1663868133905.png

Feel free to let me know if you can see the screenshots or not. I did ask some friends of mine about this since I was quite surprised to see these items. The second screenshot is of chat.google.com in a conversation and on the right hand side of the conversation. Screenshot one is of a comment that is showing a new symbol for me (I used to only have the option to forward a comment to myself which I have used occasionally). 

Happy for you, but nothing like that over here. This is the only thing preventing us from making a massive migration. 😞

I did hear back from two of my friends that say they don't have it so I am wondering if it is very very slow to roll out. I do know that some roll outs can take months to accomplish.

FINALLY!

Not implemented yet, @bill_pier3 

At least Google is trying to make good on a promise which I think is also important since they promised it a long time ago but no one ever saw evidence till the last two months (since I was able to see it and so did some other people who are not under NDA of any kind) and now Google gave us a timeline update as well, which I think was important...

No release date?