Google announced that it"s pushing a small but useful update for Google Chat users to improve their experience and make the service more reliable. The company is migrating Google Chat to a new domain, offering a faster experience than before.
Google said that Chat will now be served from "chat.google.com", moving away from "mail.google.com/chat", currently used to access the service. Moving to a new home will reduce loading time when accessing Google Chat; however, there are no changes to the user interface at this time.
This change has started rolling out to all Workspace users and people with personal Google accounts, and it will take about a month to complete. If you have bookmarked Google Chat in your browser, you can continue using the service and related links through the existing domain.
Workspace admins and developers who have created an extension to work with Google Chat will need to update it and ensure it"s compatible with the new "chat.google.com" domain. The same goes for Chrome extensions related to Google Chat that end users use; their creators will have to update their extensions to ensure compatibility.
Google added that Workspace admins who have blocked Google Chat for their organization using allowlist and block URLs in Chrome or other browsers will also need to add the new domain. Those with website-specific policies for permissions and behaviors (such as allowing or denying access to the camera, microphone, or notifications) will need to update them.
The web address "mail.google.com" is primarily used to access Google"s email service. Speaking of which, the search giant has pushed a new update for Gmail"s data classification labels, which allow organizations to categorize their emails using custom labels and create Data Loss Prevention (DLP) rules to protect sensitive information in emails.
Google now allows users with select Workspace tiers to create a DLP rule that adds a header or footer message to the email body. These header/footer messages will be presented to users outside an organization"s domain to make them aware of the sensitivity of the message and any handling requirements.