Finding 3
Users valued privacy and felt the comment and chat feature lacked this.
Users sought ways to address a recipient specifically but the chat feature lacked this.
X Users were unable to “@” a specific recipient in the chat box.
X Users felt frustrated when they could not privately chat with someone.
X Users resorted to alternative communication methods to try and send a private message.
Google Docs Document History & Communication Tools
What Users Said about the Chat Feature
“If I leave a comment in the document, everyone will see it and that’s not what I want… I only want the recipient to see it.”
“It was frustrating at times… I even tried to look at the side panel to see if I could “@” you and I couldn’t.”
“The chat feature left a little to be desired.”
User makes an attempt to “@” a collaborator in the chat.
User resorts to the comment and assign feature to “@” a collaborator in the chat and ensure the recipient gets a notification of their message.
Recommendations
Users looked for ways to address a collaborator in the chat for various reasons such as privacy, clarity, organization, and notification purposes. Many felt the chat feature lacked the function to do this. The ability to “@” a collaborator in the chat may help improve the user experience in the Google Doc chat.