Support our independent tech coverage. Chrome Unboxed is written by real people, for real people—not search algorithms. Join Chrome Unboxed Plus for just $2 a month to get an ad-free experience, access to our private Discord, and more. Learn more about membership here.
START FREE TRIAL (MONTHLY)START FREE TRIAL (ANNUAL)
You’ve seen it with other popular services, and most recently with Discord – self-contained “threads” for conversations. These are essentially containers that can be created on any reply from any chat participant, and they’re meant to help you keep track of conversation. Most discussion is there and then gone and buried by newer replies, so this is something I’ve welcomed as of late.
Last year, we covered how Google had plans to add inline threading to its Chat application, but until now, we’ve heard little to nothing in regard to updates on the feature. Today, the company announced on its Workspace blog that the useful addition would finally be rolling out over the next few weeks!
Use cases for threaded convos include questions and answers that don’t avoid the flow of the main topic, break-out sessions that may not be of interest to everyone in the main Chat Space (Only those who join the thread will be notified of replies) and well, “necroposting”, or replying to older messages after the conversation has surpassed that spot.
If Google continues to follow Discord, I believe we could have a forum-style evolution for threads. Since Chat and Spaces were meant to replace Google Currents (No, not that one, I mean Google+), how funny would it be if all of this comes full “circle” and forums evolve back into a social network yet again but with more flexible tools? Food for thought!
…newly created spaces will feature in-line threading by default. Until early 2023, you can change this to spaces organized by conversation topic from the creation menu under “Advanced Settings”. Once a space is configured, it cannot be changed.
Workspace Updates
Interestingly, the ability to create spaces organized by conversation topics will be removed next year in favor of the new threading feature. Everything here applies to all Google account users regardless of whether they have a Workspace account, a legacy G Suite account or a personal free one. Are you okay with this update, or do you use and prefer topics?
SUBSCRIBE TO UPSTREAM
Get Chrome Unboxed delivered straight to your inbox
Upstream is our flagship, curated newsletter with the top stories, most click-worthy deals, giveaways, and trending articles from Chrome Unboxed sent directly to your inbox a few times a week. Join 31,000+ subscribers.
