Google's new chat assault on Microsoft and $5 billion startup Slack begins today.

Add caption

On Wednesday, Google is expected to make Hangouts Chat, its long-promised workplace chatroom tool for businesses, available to enterprise users of its G Suite productivity service. Google shared the news in a blog entry.

Hangouts Chat is available from the web browser, or from iOS and Android apps.

The service was first announced almost exactly a year ago, right alongside Hangouts Meet, a videoconferencing tool. 

Hangouts Meet has been available to the public for months, but Chat has so far only been available to a relative few G Suite customers in the Early Adopter Program. 

Now, Hangouts Chat will go right up against some of tech's biggest guns. $5 billion startup Slack provides what many consider the gold standard in team communication software, while the similar Microsoft Teams is a key part of the Office 365 cloud productivity suite for businesses. 

By Prachi Bhardwaj

Full story at Business Insider.