Google Chat on the web gets bold and finally adds rich text editing tools

Until now, Google Chat on the web has had very limited tools for adding any sort of emphasis to your messages – absolutely nothing. You’d type something out and hit enter to send it. The Android app, on the other hand, has had a full suite of formatting options, and the experience across the two has remained severely different.

We all know that Google eventually gets to things that matter to its users, even if it takes years, and even if it should have been something that was added from the get-go. Now, the company is mirroring its formatting tools across to the progressive web app so that you and your organization will have an identical experience across the board.

Rich text editing in Google Chat will now allow you to bold, italicize, underline, strikethrough, and even change the color of the text as well as bulleting lists. To activate the rich text editor, just tap or click the “A” icon on the right side of the compose bar. You’ll see it drop down below your text, and you’ll be able to interact with the new options instantaneously.

Markdown is utilitarian, and while it has its uses, Chat is an application that’s meant to cater to communicators, not coders. People love to and sometimes need to add a bit of oomph to their conversations, and now they can!

Rich text editing rolls out in Google Chat on the web over the next two weeks or longer for both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. Google is taking the “extended rollout” approach, so if you don’t see it over the amount of time listed, you may see it appear shortly thereafter. We’re not sure why this feature would take so long to integrate across all Workspace accounts, but unfortunately, it is what it is, right?

All Google Workspace customers across all tiers, including those with G Suite Basic and G Suite for Business licenses will have this update when it finally does finalize, so let us know in the comments if you’ve experienced any frustration up until this point having not had access to rich text formatting up until this point. I personally open the mobile app sometimes to apply such formatting before going back to the web app for the rest of the conversation, so I can imagine this is as annoying to others as it has been for me.