Tips and Tricks

Three kinds of conversation

There are three different modes of conversation in Google Chat:

• One-on-One - This is a conversation with one other person.
• Group chat - A group chat is created when you add more than one person to a chat. These are usually created for ephemeral discussions that do not have a long life.
• Space - A Google Chat Space is for a group of individuals to carry on conversations throughout the year or to make announcements. They have more controls than a group chat, along with the ability to easily add or remove not only people but Google Groups.

Accessing Google Chat

There are a few ways to access Google Chat: within your Gmail account, through the Google Chat mobile app, or via the web. The easiest way to get started is to look at Google Chat in your Gmail.

From there, all you need to do is mouse over the chat icon on the left and the Google Chat menu will pop up. You can continue a past conversation or start a new one-on-one conversation and group chat. This is also where you can create a Google Space.

For Google Chat to replace texting it needs to be able to be used on your smartphone, and you can do that by installing the Google Chat App through your smartphone’s respective app store. You can access Google Chat through the smartphone Gmail app, but I would recommend turning off Chat in the mobile Gmail app:

Why? Because it makes it easier to separate email notifications from chat notifications.

Finally, you can open up Google Chat as its own separate tab or as a web app. Create a new tab and navigate to chat.google.com. You’ll be able to chat separately from your email in this tab.

If you prefer this view, you can go into your Gmail settings and turn off Chat in Gmail to declutter the Gmail site: