It seems like Google is kind of bullish on its “Workspace” label lately. Originally a replacement for G-Suite, as in the paid upgrade to standard Google services for companies and corporations, the Workspace label is now apparently being applied to everyone that uses Gmail. That’s an odd expansion, since previously we’ve seen that you need to opt into the Workspace interface on Chat and Meet.

Now when you log into Gmail on a desktop browser (and assuming your PC or connection are slow enough that you can actually see it), you’ll be greeted with a “Workspace” logo beneath the new multi-colored Gmail “M” envelope logo. You’ll see it even if Chat and Meet are completely hidden in your Gmail settings menu, as is the case for mine. It doesn’t seem to be universal: I’m seeing “Google Workspace” in Edge, and just “Loading Gmail” when I go to the same page in Chrome.

That’s weird, since access to new features in Google Meet and Google Chat are the only real benefits for non-paying end users who now have access to Workspace. It would seem that Google wants Workspace to get as much exposure as possible, especially for its hundreds of millions of non-paying users who might not have an organic reason to check it out on their own.

With that supposition in place, it seems possible (if not necessarily likely) that we’ll see the Workspace brand popping up in a lot more Googley places in the near future.