Earlier this year, Google Chat was made available to all Workspace users. Google made the transition to Chat official today by announcing that old Hangouts will be discontinued for free users in October.
Since 2019, Google has been indicating that Google Chat will replace the original Hangouts service, as we exclusively reported. Enterprise clients were the first to transition, although the process took some time to get going and wasn’t finished until recently.
Google is currently focusing on free, personal accounts that still allow access to the original Hangouts.
An upgrade page will advise users of the outdated Hangouts mobile applications to switch to Chat in the Gmail app or the standalone Chat clients starting today ( and iOS ). The traditional Hangouts app will stop functioning once you receive this notice telling you it’s time to chat in Gmail. According to the company, chats are generally moved automatically. However:
The migration of some discussions or parts of talks from Hangouts to Chat will not be automatic. Around September 2022, we’ll email impacted users with more details.
Users using the Hangouts Chrome extension are simultaneously instructed to download and install Progressive Web App and/or Chat on the web .
Chat in Gmail will be available to users of the older version of Hangouts via the online Gmail sidebar starting in July.
The hangouts.google.com client will continue to function until conventional Hangouts ceases to function, with at least until October 2022 availability planned. Before users are forwarded to chat.google.com, there will be a one-month notice.
Last but not least, the last day to use Google Takeout to export your Hangouts data is November, which is one month after the traditional service is discontinued.
For further details on the distinctions between Chat and Hangouts, the migration schedules, and the reasons we advise saving your Hangouts data, please see the Help Center .
In the near future, Google Chat will acquire functions including direct calling, in-line Spaces threading, and the capacity to exchange and see multiple photos. In the end, the company declares lofty goals for Chat.
We believe users will appreciate our ongoing effort in making Chat an effective space for creation and collaboration as we take this final step to migrate the remaining Hangouts users to Chat.
Google’s 9TO5 This transition strategy was initiated by Google’s recent announcement that Meet will take the place of Duo. The first step is to update the current Duo app with all of Meets’ features and a combined interface. Duo will then become Google Meet after that.
Google will soon have its most streamlined messaging approach in a few years when combined with the impending classic Hangouts-Chat plans. Once complete, Google expects people to use Meet for video conferences while Chat is used for text messages without phone numbers or RCS.
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