Google Chat’s web version got a major Material Design update

Material was brought in by Android 12, and since then we have seen it getting embraced by every app. Google has updated all of its apps, including the app and web versions, with this Material You feature. During the last month, Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drive were updated, whereas Gmail got its update during the last year in July. As per the latest update, Google is rolling out a new user interface for the web version of Google Chats.

As per the Workspace Update Blogs, the changes that were mentioned were quite similar to the previous version, which included mention of tweaks in the main message view, a button for a new topic, composed setup, an app bar, and a navigation key on the left. Along with that, chat contains a thread panel that will be getting some updates. An overview regarding this update is that it’s bringing in all new colors, layouts, fonts, and sizes of panels.

This latest update will be rolled out to all users of Google Workspace, along with G Suite basic and business users, and to those users that are using a personal account. Google has already started rolling out these features as of April 13. These features will take a while to be available for users.

Although the coexistence of the Chat and Messages apps first raised some questions about Google’s intentions, we have subsequently come to understand the former as more of a Slack-style messenger for large organizations. Last year, customers within a company were able to design their own emoji with admin constraints using Google Chat on the web. Separately, in January, the Chat app underwent UI changes that made it easier for users to discern between group conversations and Spaces. Advanced search chips were first added to the online app a year after the mobile version received the same feature.