My worst tech decision: AG Suite account for personal use

I’m not a gambling person, but over the years, I’ve learned that buying into any Google service is a game of Russian roulette. The Google Graveyard bears witness to the number of Google services that have been killed over the years, but many other services remain needlessly hampered. Subject – Google Workspace or G Suite as formerly known for personal use.

Related: What is Google Workspace and is it worth it?

I’m sure some of you will point out that I shouldn’t have used Google Workspace as a personal account to begin with. However, when I signed up, Google actively marketed Google Apps and G Suite accounts to individual users and families who wanted their own private domain. Even today, it is not possible to have a normal Gmail account linked to a normal domain. As someone who doesn’t have a first name and last name Gmail account, I opted for the next best solution – a custom domain. I didn’t know it could bite me repeatedly over the years.

My Google Workspace account page indicates that I set up my account around 2009. Suffice it to say, it’s been a thirteen-year love-hate relationship. As with any ups and downs, my primary use case with G Suite for a few years revolved around emails. While Gmail for G Suite often gets features later than the free Gmail service, these were cosmetic at best and didn’t bother me. The real problems started when Google started rolling out a wider portfolio of products.

It was the summer of 2017 when Google introduced Google Pay in India. When Tez was launched, it was part of the first digital payments app built to use India’s Unified Payments Interface. I was eager to try the app only because I didn’t trust the options with my financial information. However, my digital payment journey soon came to a screeching halt. No, the app does not support G Suite accounts.

I assumed these issues might be due to Tez being an India-exclusive app. Fast forward to 2018, and Google rolled Tez into Google Pay. That should settle it, right? Not that, again. In November 2020, the official Google Pay Twitter account He confirmed that support for G Suite accounts will be added in the coming months. It’s now mid-2022, and it’s still not possible to use a Google Workspace or G Suite account with Google Pay. But the issues go beyond Google Pay.

When Google introduced the first generation Google Home speaker in India in 2018, I was among the first to pick one up to expand my growing smart home needs. Setting up the speaker was easy, but I quickly learned that it doesn’t support calendars for G Suite accounts. Considering quick access to calendars and reminders was one of my main needs, the purchase was a complete disappointment for me. Surprisingly, the competing Echo Dot from Amazon had no trouble tapping into my G Suite-based calendar. How about supporting your own products?

Related: The best third-party Google Assistant speakers to spend your money on

But as it turns out, my problems with the Google smart home ecosystem didn’t end there. Even today, if you create this account using a Google Workspace profile, there’s no way to invite family members to your Google Home account. I’ve searched long and wide in the admin panel to see if there’s a security setting I might have missed, but Google simply won’t let me.

If you’re looking at investing in the Nest ecosystem, it gets worse. I recently picked up a Nest camera to see how it compares to my Ubiquiti security cameras. I kept trying to add the camera to my Google Home app for days until I realized it might be a limitation of G Suite. Like hell, switching to a regular Gmail account got me going. I understand that Google wants to lock down access to the improved security and privacy promised by business accounts, but it boggles my mind that there’s no option to change it. It’s also annoying that Google doesn’t show support for Workspace accounts on the packaging or anywhere in the app.

My list of issues is longer, including services like Google One that are not available to Google Workspace users. Similarly, Family Sharing is not accessible to Google Workspace users for Google Drive storage, YouTube Premium, or YouTube Music. I’m not in a supported region, but Stadia is yet another service not supported by these accounts.

I am well aware that there is a way to export data from Google Workspace and manually import some of it into a normal Gmail account. That said, the process is so long-winded and difficult that Google seems to go out of its way to prevent easy migration. Honestly, I wouldn’t be too surprised if that were the case.

As a paying customer, it doesn’t make sense for Google to lock me out of the ecosystem of products and services just because I’m tied to a beta service. Tech purchases like phones and tablets are disposable, not my online identity, and switching to a regular Gmail account isn’t feasible for me at this point. Most older users have had a custom email address as part of their online identity for the better part of a decade. Since Gmail doesn’t allow custom domains, your only option is to move ten or more contacts to another email provider.

And that’s before we even talk about related services like Google Drive, Google Docs, or Google Photos. Or all purchased apps, books and movies. Or the countless services you sign up for with your Google login.

Look, locking down external features to protect user privacy in a business environment is commendable. However, if I can go through the trouble of setting up a custom domain to use with Google Workspace, I can fully understand the risks associated with toggling these features in the admin panel. Conversely, Google can offer a basic plan for Gmail users who want to deploy a custom domain.

I don’t regret buying certain ecosystems, but even though my G Suite account is a key pillar of my online life, it’s one of the worst tech decisions I’ve ever made.