Apps admins will be able to communicate with Google tech support staffers via online chat, complementing other existing options, including phone calls.

More than 90 percent of beta testers of the new Apps chat support service gave it a thumbs up recently, so Google has decided to roll it out for English speakers globally. Chat support will be provided in more languages in the coming months, Google said Tuesday, without specifying which languages are in the pipeline or the timeline for availability. Apps end users won’t get access to the chat support.

Google Apps, a cloud suite that includes email, productivity apps and file storage, has been in the market for about eight years. It’s not clear why Google didn’t provide this support option earlier, given that it has become widespread among retailers, banks, IT vendors and other businesses. Clearly, a key consideration when prepping a new support service is to make sure that it can handle the expected volume of queries. There are currently 5 million Apps customers.

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