Duet AI brings chat and file summaries, audio-first ‘Huddles’, and a visual redesign to Google Chat

Duet AI for Google Workspace just launched, and acts as your personal AI assistant and collaborator across Google’s services. In fact, it can even take notes and attend meetings on your behalf! At $30 per person per month, it is a steep investment, especially for small businesses, but it offers a no-cost trial for those eager to get started. The gist is that Duet AI wants to streamline your workflow so effectively that you might even get your evenings back. Okay, that’s just my interpretation, but it’s a pretty sweet selling point, wouldn’t you agree?

Now, here’s what’s coming to Google Chat specifically. The user interface has been refreshed as shown above. There are shortcuts for mentions and starred chats, direct messages, and of course Spaces as we covered recently On mobile, this will show up as the ‘Timeline‘ feature.

More interestingly, a new feature called Huddles will act as a Google Meet-style audio-only integration in your Spaces. Think of it like you would Twitter Spaces. I suppose the idea is that you have less commitment for appearing on camera, but you can still relay your ideas verbally, hop in and out at will and sure, even toggle your camera if you need to.

Here’s what I’m most excited about. You know how you can get pings directly from Google Drive and other bots in Chat to make your life a bit easier? Well, Duet AI will be available as a direct message chat so you can get summaries for documents and chats, among other things. It’s like having a direct line to your virtual assistant (sorry, Google Assistant, you missed the boat…for now).

Lastly, Chat is supporting up to 500,000 participants in Spaces, which is kind of nuts. I’m not kidding when I say this since they were Google’s own words, but they’re literally trying to replace Google+ with Chat and Spaces. By allowing 500,000 people in any given space, you’re essentially creating a social network, but for a more tight-knit and internal group of individuals.

No matter how you feel about that last point, I’m sure you’ll agree this and the other features shown off here are pretty exciting. I love Chat and use Spaces for every aspect of my life. From home life to running my small business, it’s a part of my digital bullet journal – no, really!

Let me know in the comments if you’re going to invest in Duet AI, or if you agree that the price is too steep. I suppose if you’re an individual or a small team, it’s not much of an up charge, so it may be worth checking out, if only with the trial at first!