Google Chat vs Google Groups vs Brightspace org to Communicate with Others
When it comes to communicating with a group—whether for sharing announcements, files, or general messages—Stony Brook offers several tools, each with its own strengths. Google Chat, Google Groups, and Brightspace Organizations all support group communication, but choosing the right one depends on your goals, audience, and the type of interaction you need. This article compares these platforms to help you decide which tool best fits your communication needs.
This article will explain ways to communicate with audiences that are faculty/staff/students as well as people external to the Stony Brook University (@stonybrook.edu) domain.
Brightspace Orgs
These are Brightspace sites that you can request to communicate with current students of the declared major or minor. Students are automatically added and removed based on their officially declared major and minor. You can use all the functions of Brightspace to communicate with these students like a discussion board, Quizzes/Surveys, Announcements, and make important files available.
Google Chat Spaces
These are spaces that you can create yourself from Google Mail. Any Gmail email address can be added regardless of whether they are external to the university. Note some Google Mail addresses do not end with @gmail.com similar to the way university mail works and they can be added too! In Google Chat spaces there is a Files and Tasks section to keep your audience engaged in any activity or deadline.
Using Google Chat with non-Google E-mail Addresses
non-Google mail addresses can still use Google Chat as long as they create a Google Account with their existing non-Google email (e.g. yahoo, hotmail, etc). These Google accounts won't have email capability, they can access Google Chat through the web chat portal.
Google Groups
You can request a Google Group by creating a service ticket and add any email addresses as members. They do not have to be affiliated with Stony Brook. This is a great way to communicate with people outside of the institution.