Google Workspace was formerly known as G Suite, which was formerly known as Google Apps. It's the business version of Google products that includes additional functionality that consumer accounts don't have. https://support.google.com/a/answer/6043385?hl=en
I shall attempt to explain what this announcement actually means, since it doesn't do a great job:
1) "Starting today, all of Google Workspace is available to anyone with a Google account" there are a lot of individual business owners that have signed up for free Gmail accounts and use them to run their business, now they can pay a subscription fee to upgrade those accounts to include Workspace functionality (like Google Chat rooms, Meet recordings, Calendar appointments, ML assisted writing, device management and other business features).
2) Google Chat (their competitor to Slack) and Docs suite are getting more deeply integrated in Gmail. Enabling the ability to bring in Docs/Sheets/Slides inline with a Chat "room" for collaboration without leaving Gmail. This will only be available for Workspace users (business, enterprise, education or the new individual plan).
I'd like to point out that 'all of Google Workspace' leaves out 'minus creating shared drives' - shared drives don't count against account storage whatsoever and would probably require a large rework to become compatible with regular G accounts. Even Google Workspace for Nonprofits, which enforces a 30GB/user limit, gives accounts the ability to set up shared drives with no per-user storage limit or limit across the org.
So for people who pay 5$/user/month for having Gmail on their own domain (which is really the main use a lot of individuals have for Gsuite), this is no-op?
I believe if you're using Gmail on your own domain and paying, you're already using Workspace. I think the new individual plan is aimed at the folks with consumer @gmail.com accounts, using them for business purposes and want to upgrade.
Right, but I was wondering if it is now free for @gmail.com users, would it also be free for us individual users using our own domain.
One big issue that's always existed with Gsuite/Workspace is that there's two types of usecases that are nothing alike. One is a company/school/nonprofit admins who want to manage all their employees/students. The other are people like me who literally have a single "user" and just use Gsuite to have gmail on their own domain. Unfortunately, most of the changes, features and UI really cater to the former. I've always hoped they'd make a special thing for people who don't care about any of that administration stuff and just want Gmail-on-custom-domain.
I shall attempt to explain what this announcement actually means, since it doesn't do a great job:
1) "Starting today, all of Google Workspace is available to anyone with a Google account" there are a lot of individual business owners that have signed up for free Gmail accounts and use them to run their business, now they can pay a subscription fee to upgrade those accounts to include Workspace functionality (like Google Chat rooms, Meet recordings, Calendar appointments, ML assisted writing, device management and other business features).
2) Google Chat (their competitor to Slack) and Docs suite are getting more deeply integrated in Gmail. Enabling the ability to bring in Docs/Sheets/Slides inline with a Chat "room" for collaboration without leaving Gmail. This will only be available for Workspace users (business, enterprise, education or the new individual plan).