Google Chat To Replace Classic Hangouts for Workspace Users

Hangouts.google.com will continue to operate on all devices, confirmed Google.

Google Chat will replace Classic Hangouts on March.

(Photo: iStock)

Google is moving into the final phase of migrating from Classic Google Hangouts to Google Chat for users of Google Workspace.

The giant tech company has also announced its plans of making Google Chat the default chat application. This change will come into force from 22 March 2022, Google has said.

The "Chat Preferred" setting will also be turned on for those customers who have not done so earlier.

The company explained in a blog post that this change meant, if a user visits Classic Hangouts in Gmail on the web or on the mobile app, they will be automatically directed to Google Chat.

The latest reports suggest that Hangouts.google.com will continue to operate on all devices.

Google Chat to Google Hangouts: What Are the Changes?

All Classic Hangouts applications will be disabled on all devices, including Android and iOS devices, once Google upgrades the domains to Chat Preferred. Users can continue exporting their Classic Hangouts and Chat data.

It is also reported that the "Chat and Classic Hangouts" and "Classic Hangouts only" setting will also be removed.

However, the users do not need to worry about losing their chat history in Hangout as Google has already shifted it to Google chat.

Google Chat to Google Hangouts: What It Means for Users?

It is important to note that the migration from Hangout to Google Chat by Google is only going to affect the users on the workspace. People using free personal chat space will not be affected by this change.

The messages sent in Classic Hangouts will continue to be searchable and exportable with the help of Gmail search in Vault.

Google has also made it clear that the chat history from Hangouts will also be made available in Google chat, except for a few special cases.

The change that will take place from mid-march 2022 is that any new space created in Google Chat within the domain will not display in Classic Hangouts. The messages sent in these spaces will appear in Google Chat only.

This is going to be different from earlier as workspace administrators were able to use both Hangouts and Google Chat for end users.

Google might reveal more information about the migration from Classic Google Hangouts to Google Chat in the coming days, so keep an eye on the updates.

(Written with inputs from Hindustan Times.)