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It has somehow been nearly five years since work from home became such a norm (for obvious reasons) and companies are still competing to be glared at on your screen come 9AM Monday. Often, this involves copying each other's ideas because really how much can you innovate when it comes to work communication?

Google first previewed "huddles," a quick way to start instant audio conversations in Google Chat, in 2023. Huddles are now coming to Google Chat users in select Google Workspace tiers. They are instant-on audio calls that Google says will help "reduce meeting fatigue" for workers.

Google Chat is rolling out instant voice meetings — similar to Slack’s Huddles — that let you quickly switch to a voice or video call from within a chat. Google is not giving the feature a new name, though,