Google would be very happy if you used your chat app, so satisfied that it’s pushing you beyond the limits of your real app. Last month, the tool was made available to regular users (who do not pay to access Google Workspace), and now its integration with Gmail is also available to them. But it is not enabled by default, so if you want to use it, you have to dig into the settings menu.
First, open the Gmail side menu, scroll to the bottom and touch “Settings”. Touch your personal Gmail account on the next page.
Scroll down to the “General” area of the list. The first option should be “Chat (Early Access)”. Touch it. In the pop-up alert, touch “Try”.
Gmail will restart, which can be a little shocking. Open it again if it doesn’t appear automatically and you will see a new bar at the bottom of the interface. “Mail” is your default mailbox, “Chat” takes you to the official Google Chat app with all your text conversations and “Rooms” is the view of the ongoing conversation. (Like Slack, but basically useless.) You can switch between the three views at any time.
If you want to remove Chat and the bottom navigation bar completely, and really do, just follow the steps above again.
