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? The most recent example comes courtesy of Google, which has announced the creation of huddles. That's right, Slack users will recognize this because Google Chat will now have an identical tool with the same name as its competitor.

So, how will huddles work on Google Chat? Basically, huddles are meant to replace those quick conversations you could have in person while passing by someone's desk or waiting to enter a meeting. Instead of scheduling an audio or video call, you can click on the phone icon in a chat and choose "start a huddle." This will create a space in the chat where you can quickly talk. As usual, you can also change it to a video call within the meeting.

Again, this feature will be very familiar for anyone who has used platforms like Discord or Slack in the past. It will be available in one-on-one and group messages, as well as spaces. Anyone with a rapid release domain can expect to get it by December 20, while users with scheduled release domains will start seeing huddles on January 6.