Google Hangouts is dying, long live Google Chat.
Google is leaving Hangouts behind.
Discover what changes you can expect and the impact on your organization.
Digital connection has never been so important in the workplace. The pandemic has accelerated flexible and remote methods of working and as a result communication platforms like Zoom, Slack, and Google Hangouts have seen widespread popularity.
However, Google Hangouts will fade into obscurity as Google Workspace has announced plans to replace the service with Google Chats.
From March 22, Google Workspace will turn on “Chat preferred” setting for any customers who haven’t already done so. This will make Google Chat the default chat application when using Google Workspace.
The company noted that this won’t impact the user experience too much, but when users try to access Hangouts – its domain name which will live on – they will automatically be redirected to Chats. This change is mandatory and will see users locked into Chat without the ability to change back to Hangouts.
Existing Hangouts conversation histories will be accessible in Chat except in “a few special cases”, according to Google.
In 2021, Google discussed the reasoning behind this planned change.
The company explained: “Chat will become available as a free service – both in the integrated experience in Gmail and the Chat standalone app.
“Chat includes familiar Hangouts features like direct and group messaging, with helpful additions like send to inbox, faster search, emoji reactions and suggested replies.
“With Chat, you can more easily plan with others on goals and similar interests, share and collaborate on files, and assign tasks to help keep everyone on the same page.
“In addition, Chat features the same strong phishing protections we built-in Gmail, so if a link is sent to you via Chat, it will be checked against real-time data from Safe Browsing and flagged if it’s found to be malicious.”
From the middle of 2021, users could begin “upgrading” from Hangouts to Chat, and Google offered the ability to automatically migrate while saving the history of Hangouts.
Google noted: “As with any engineering project, it’s important to note that timing may shift. Yet we want to give you as much specific information as we can so you know what to expect.
“We’d like to thank all our users for staying on this journey with us, and we remain committed to delivering a more helpful communications experience for all.”
Michael Karner, Google’s chief workspace evangelist, recently told UNLEASH that: “Flexibility should always be the foundation for assessing new technologies.”
Many will hope that the new features of Google Chat will further enable flexible working and prove to be a successful change.
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Senior Journalist
Dan combines his first-hand experience alongside the latest news and opinions in the HR Technology space.
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