Grandfathered-in “Legacy G Suite” customers received a scare not too long ago when one other new “transition” message began popping up within the Google Admin console. “The transition to Google Workspace has began,” mentioned the brand new message that out of the blue appeared in folks’s accounts. This was after Legacy G Suite customers went via a contentious transition final yr, the place Google’s opening place concerned shutting down their accounts if folks did not begin paying, however finally, it was talked into not doing that. A Google spokesperson tells us the Workspace transition message was “a bug that surfaced an outdated banner from earlier within the course of final yr, and our group is engaged on eradicating it. Extra adjustments will not be occurring presently, and those that beforehand opted-in for private use will not be anticipated to take any additional motion.”

We have obtained just a few questions on this message, and this Reddit put up has folks questioning what the deal is, nevertheless it’s only a bug. That is nice as a result of Legacy G Suite customers have gone via sufficient already. To recap, Google at the moment provides companies the choice to pay a month-to-month charge for a Google/Gmail account that ends in a customized area title as an alternative of @gmail.com. Immediately that is known as “Google Workspace,” however attributable to Google’s fixed rebrands, it was first known as “Google Apps on your Area,” then “Google Apps,” after which “G Suite.” Google’s customized area service was not at all times paywalled and never at all times completely aimed toward companies—it was free from 2006 to 2012. Google even pitched these accounts to households as a method to let everybody have comparable e mail addresses. Some folks did so, which implies immediately they’re getting a paid service without cost.

Final yr, the Google accounting division turned its Eye of Sauron on these long-term customers and threatened to remove their almost 16-year-old accounts in the event that they did not begin paying a enterprise price for these previously free and never essentially enterprise accounts. After a public outcry, Google finally left these “Legacy G Suite accounts” alone after making customers verify that they have been utilizing their accounts for “non-business” functions. After that, every little thing was settled.

Legacy G Suite customers are particularly not part of “Workspace,” which is a paid service. So this new message that popped up yesterday suggests they might have moved to a different new service. Despite the fact that Google says it is an error that customers may see this message, truly following the immediate would lead you to a different error message about “Google Workspace for private use” which is a product that doesn’t exist. Workspace has tiers like “Enterprise Starter,” and grandfathered-in customers are on “Legacy G Suite”, however “Workspace for private use” isn’t a factor. Apparently, this was all of the beta branding for the unique plan final yr, and by some means all of it received printed yesterday.

Google Workspace for private use could be an incredible product for Google to promote, by the best way. We have complained earlier than that whereas Apple and Microsoft each promote customized area e mail providers to customers at an affordable price, Google doesn’t, solely providing enterprise e mail at rather more costly charges. An enormous a part of the Legacy G suite downside is that these private customers have nowhere to go inside Google.