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Bringing Smart Reply to Hangouts Chat

December 6, 2018
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Wenjia Zhu

Product Manager, Hangouts Chat

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Work doesn’t always happen at the office—many employees collaborate on-the-go. Whether you’re traveling between business meetings, checking email from an appointment, or heading home on your commute, it’s important for technology to make it easier to stay connected with colleagues.

That’s why earlier this year, we made Hangouts Chat generally available in G Suite. Chat is a messaging platform that helps teams collaborate and stay connected on projects. Today, we’re helping you reply to messages even quicker by bringing Smart Reply to Chat.

You may recognize Smart Reply from Gmail, which uses sophisticated machine intelligence to propose responses that help you reply to email conversations quickly. Thanks to similar technology, now you’ll be able to do the same thing in chat threads within Chat. Simply select one of three response options surfaced in a chat or customize your response before you click send.
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Note: Smart Reply is currently only available in English.

Getting started in Hangouts Chat

If you’re new to Chat, it’s a great way to communicate with your teams at work. With dedicated, virtual rooms that house projects over time, you can message teammates directly and collaborate in group conversations.

Here are a few reasons to try it out:

  1. Chat is infused with Google’s artificial intelligence. Like today’s Smart Reply announcement, there are many ways that Chat uses Google AI to make work easier. For example, you can use bots to book conference rooms or search for files quicker. If you’re a developer, you can even customize the Chat platform to fit your needs. Check out this example on bots for inspiration
  2. It integrates with other apps you use. Chat works with other G Suite apps, as well as non-G Suite apps. Upload items from Drive, collaborate in Docs, Sheets or Slides or join video conference meetings through Meet. Or try out some of the popular third-party integrations listed in this post.
  3. Chat helps you keep information secure. With G Suite’s enterprise-grade security solutions, you can keep information in Chat compliant. Plus, Chat integrates with Vault, which makes it easy for IT admins to archive, preserve, search and export Chat-specific data.

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To try out Chat on web or mobile, download the app or simply go to chat.google.com to get started. If you use Classic Hangouts, don’t worry. Chat will automatically work with existing contacts when you download the app. Here’s a handy guide to help you get started (or you can cheat with this sheet).

Learn more about Chat from Google Cloud Next ‘18:

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