Google Workspace Smart Chips: What Are They?

Smart chips in Google Workspace are an easy way to connect people, files or events to a Google Doc. Smart chips are part of smart canvas, which is an updated product experience announced by Google in May 2021.

Let’s look at how smart chips work and why you would want to use them.

Connect People to a Google Doc

Within a Doc, you can enter the @ symbol and then part of a person’s first name:

After the smart chip has been added, you can hover your cursor over it to see the person’s details:

While hovered, you can take any one of multiple actions. These include:

• Edit the person’s Contact record
• Send an email to the person
• Schedule a calendar event with the person
• Send a Chat message
• Start a Google Meet

Connect Files to a Doc

In some cases, you may be working on a project that involves the use of Docs and Slides or Sheets. Within a Google Doc, you want to be able to quickly link to an associated presentation.

With smart chips, after you enter the @ symbol in a document, one of the options in the dropdown will be Google Drive files.

One you have added a file chip to a document, you can hover over the chip to see a thumbnail.

You will be able to click the thumbnail to see a larger preview, in a form of “picture-in-picture” mode.

Connect a Calendar Event to a Doc

As of the date of this post, Google had not yet previewed exactly how this will work. Once we have details, we will update this section.