Anyone With a Work Email May Sign Up for Google Workspace Essentials

Google believes it has a method to shatter rivals like Microsoft’s grip on the workplace landscape: allow employees to make (some) decisions. The company has launched a free Workspace Essentials Starter Edition that you may access by just entering your work email address. You won’t have access to Gmail, but you will have access to Chat, Docs, Drive, Meet, Sheets, and Slides.

Google’s reasoning is devoid of complexity. Workplace Essentials Starter is a bet that will help teams enhance cooperation even if their employers use “legacy productivity tools” that weren’t built for remote and hybrid workplaces. To put it another way, Google is hoping that the next time you start a project, you’ll use Workspace instead of your company’s old Microsoft Office suite.

If your company already uses a cloud-based service like Microsoft 365, this may not be particularly convincing. It’s also safe to assume that if your workplace has tight restrictions in place on the tools you’re permitted to use, this isn’t going to fly – your boss might not like you going rogue to submit a quarterly report. Google certainly believes that at least some employees will be enticed, and it wouldn’t be shocking if the Starter Edition leads to some organizations complementing or even replacing current products in response to rank-and-file staff demand.