Google is marking its transition to a more unified G Suite workspace by changing Google G Suite’s name…to Workspace.
In July, Google announced a more unified look for G Suite, announcing that you’ll be able to collaborate in apps like Sheets, for example, while within an entirely different app. For now, this integrated experience is just available to paying customers of Google Workspace, Google said in a blog post.
In the coming months, Google said, the company plans to migrate the new UI over to the consumer experience, too, “to help them do things like set up a neighborhood group, manage a family budget, or plan a celebration using integrated tools like Gmail, Chat, Meet, Docs, and Tasks,” the company said.
What’s changed? Besides the name, and some new limits on cloud storage, not that much. Google considers its UI changes to be an evolution of the basic G Suite apps, which haven’t changed. “The productivity apps you know and love in G Suite aren’t going away—Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, Chat, and all the others will continue to be the foundation of the Google Workspace experience,” Google added in a support document. “In the future, we’ll continue to evolve our products to be more flexible, more helpful, and simpler.”
Google
One of the new features of Google Workspace is picture-in-picture collaboration.
Google has also published the prices of its three Workspace plans: the $6/user/mo Business Starter, the $12/user/mo Business Standard, and the $18/user/mo Business Plus plans.
The Business Starter plan comes with 30GB of cloud storage per user, video meetings up to 100 participants. Business Standard offers a sharp jump in per-user cloud storage: up to 2 terabytes, along with 150-particpant meetings plus the ability to record them. The premier new Business Plus tier adds 5TB of cloud storage per users, meetings up to 250 participants with attendance tracking, plus additional features like eDiscovery and enhanced security and management controls.
Both the Business Starter and Business Standard plans existed under G Suite already, at the same prices, though they were called “Basic” and “Business,” respectively. The transition to Google Workplace comes with some tighter strings, though. Previously, users received unlimited cloud storage with G Suite’s $12/mo Business offering, but Google Workspace’s new Business Starter and Business Plus tiers put 2TB and 5TB limits on accounts, respectively. That’s spacious for sure—but not unlimited.
Correction: The original headline misidentified Google Workplace.