What’s changing
In February, we announced that all domains would be upgraded to ‘Chat preferred’ and Google Hangouts would start redirecting to Google Chat. Since then, the Hangouts mobile app, Hangouts Chrome extension, and Hangouts in Gmail on web have been redirecting to Chat.
As a final step in the migration, beginning November 1, 2022, Google Hangouts on web will redirect to Google Chat on web, and Hangouts will no longer be accessible.
Admins will receive an email containing more information about this change, as well as changes in Vault and exporting Hangouts data.
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why it’s important
Upgrading Google Hangouts to Google Chat gives users a single messaging solution and better integration across Google Workspace. Further, users can take advantage of the feature-rich experience, such as:
- Rich-text editing
- Tagging specific people with @ mentions
- Searching for and sharing GIFs and using emoji reactions
- Seamless integration with Gmail, alongside your other critical apps
- Spaces, dedicated places for organizing people, topics, and projects in Google Workspace.
Getting started
- Admins:
- For some users, some conversations or portions of conversations won’t automatically migrate from Hangouts to Chat. If there are impacted users in your domain, you will receive an email notification with more details.
- Inform your users about the upgrade from Google Hangouts to Google Chat and the associated changes.
- End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about the switch from classic Hangouts to Google Chat.
Availability
- Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers