>Next year, Chat will become available as a free service—both in the integrated experience in Gmail and the Chat standalone app. It was great when Chat [EDIT:

>Next year, Chat will become available as a free service—both in the integrated experience in Gmail and the Chat standalone app. It was great when Chat [EDIT: This was Google Talk, I think.] was integrated within gmail, both as a ui, and the fact that chat messages were mixed-in with your regular emails, and available for searching. I don't remember when this was removed, but I haven't used it 10+ years. Somehow I doubt the new Chat will work the way it used to, but I hope so. EDIT 2 (off topic): I tried to look at Google Chat, but first Google wanted me to answer some survey questions, so I agreed to. There's no (apparent) way to navigate the survey questions or revise your replies. I clicked through one question accidentally without answering it. For another question, I mistakenly answered the opposite of what I meant to. Garbage-in, garbage-out. EDIT 3: After clicking "Get Started" in Google Chat, it appears this is only for groups a la Slack. Why can't I just IM other people with gmail addresses in my address book?