Learn about spaces

Important: Space names are visible for all members of the domain with access to Chat service.

To communicate with a group of people or an organization about a topic, project, or shared interest, create a space in Google Chat. For example, you can create a space to discuss timelines for a future marketing campaign.

With spaces you can:

Focus your conversation on a common area of interest or your projects, or make organizational announcements.
Create threads for things that require detailed discussion.
Share files and assign tasks to members.
Add apps to create easy workflows within your space.

Use spaces for collaboration or announcements

Important: If you use Chat with your personal Google Account, you can only create spaces for collaboration.

Use spaces for collaboration

Available for personal, work, or school accounts.
Use this type of space for important project or team updates, or connect around shared interests such as travel or cooking.
Everyone in the group can post, react, and reply to messages.
You can send a message to the entire group in the main conversation window or reply directly to a message and create a thread.

Use spaces for announcements

Available for work or school accounts.
Use this type of space to share important news and updates with your team.
As a space manager, you can:
- Post announcements in the main conversation window.
- Respond to space member comments on your announcement.
- Turn off replies.
As a space member, you can only react and reply directly to announcements.
After you create a space for announcements, you can’t change the type of space.

Organize spaces with threads

In addition to the main conversation in the space, you can reply to any message and create a separate thread. You can use threads to track important discussions and prevent the main conversation from being cluttered.

In a thread, you can:

Send and reply to messages.
Follow or unfollow the thread.
Change how you’re notified of new messages in a thread.

Use threads in a space.

Manage access to the space

In work or school accounts, you can make the space private or discoverable to everyone or a target audience in your organization.

Learn about private spaces

Ideal for discussion among teams, projects, and groups.
To join a space, a space member must invite or add you to the space.
Unless you're a member or invited to the space, you can’t browse for it in Chat.

Learn about discoverable spaces

Ideal for topics that aren’t limited to specific individuals or teams.
When a space is discoverable, you can browse, preview, and join the space.
If you have a link to the space, you can join it with the link.

Differences between spaces & direct messages

You can communicate with a group of people through spaces or direct messages in Chat. Both forms of communication work in different ways and serve different purposes:

Spaces: A central place where people can share files, assign tasks, and stay connected.
Direct messages: Chat directly with a group. For example, use direct messages to have a quick discussion after a meeting.

	Spaces	Direct messages
Message history	History is on by default and kept based on your organization’s policy. Learn more about message history.	For personal accounts, you can turn history on or off. For Google Workspace accounts, history depends on your organization's settings. Learn more about message history.
Name	The space manager chooses a space name. If you use a Google Workspace account and someone in your organization created the space, you can change a space name. If the space was created by a personal account, any space member can change the space name.	Member names are listed.
Description	The space manager chooses a room description.	Direct messages don't have descriptions.
Default Notifications	Members are notified for conversations they're in or when @mentioned.	Members are notified for every message.
Membership	Members can leave a space. To rejoin the space, another member must add or invite them again. Tip: If the space is discoverable, you can rejoin any time.	Members can leave and rejoin. Tip: For direct messages created before December 2020, members can’t leave.
Multiple chat spaces with the same people	Can have 2 or more spaces with the same group.	Can have 2 or more conversations with the same group.
Create and assign tasks	Can create and assign tasks to other space members.	Unnamed group conversations don’t have task features.
Shared files	Can share files and find a list of files shared with the space.	Can share files with the group, but can’t find a list of the files.