What’s changing?
As part of our effort to make Google Chat a central hub for team collaboration, we’re introducing ‘huddles,’ a new way to connect quickly and flexibly.
Powered by Google Meet, huddles let you instantly start audio-first meetings that make real-time collaboration easier than ever. Once a huddle has started, you can resize or move the window, add video, or share your screen for a richer meeting experience while multitasking in Chat.
Huddles provide a seamless collaboration experience between Chat and Meet, and can be useful in a variety of situations, such as two colleagues who were messaging in a Chat stream quickly discussing a project.
Benefits of huddles:
Huddles reduce meeting fatigue for hybrid workers and eliminate the need for lengthy email or Chat discussions. Instead of moving away from a conversation to a meeting, huddles are integrated directly and seamlessly into the Chat experience. The format of huddles also supports multitasking in Chat, so you can easily resize the window or share your screen.
Additional details
The Meet video button that is currently in the compose bar in Chat has been moved to the Chat header, providing multiple options such as start a call, start a huddle, and share a Meet link through a single entry point.
Getting started
Admins:
If Meet is disabled for users in your domain, they will not be able to create huddles, but they can join them.
Learn more about enabling Meet meetings and calls for your organization in the Help Center.
End users:
Huddles are available in 1:1 messages, group messages, and spaces.
To start a huddle in Chat:
- Click the video icon in the upper right of a chat message > select “Start a huddle”
- Huddles start with audio only by default, but you can turn on video at any time.
- When there is a request to join a huddle, a chat chip that says “[User] started a huddle” will appear in the message thread, and you can click “Join” to enter the huddle. A huddle toggle will also appear in the Chat header of that conversation.
- Visit the Help Center to learn more about huddles in Google Chat.
Rollout details
- Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 27, 2024 and expected to be complete by December 20, 2025
- Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout starting on January 6, 2025 (up to 15 days for feature visibility)
Availability
- Business Starter, Standard, Plus
- Enterprise Starter, Standard, Plus
- Frontline Starter and Standard
- Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Essentials Plus
- Nonprofits
Resources
- Google Workspace Admin Help: Enable Meet meetings and calls for your organization
- Google Help: Learn more about huddles in Google Chat
Note: This is a translation of the Google English blog post from November 27th.
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