This year, Google Chat was made available to all Workspace users. Google has finally transitioned to Chat officially by announcing that old Hangouts will be discontinued for free accounts in October.
Google has been hinting that Google Chat will replace conventional Hangouts since 2019. Enterprise clients were the first to transfer over in a process that started slowly and wasn’t finished until recently.
Google is now focusing on free, personal accounts that still allow access to the original Hangouts.
Users will get a prompt
Currently, users of the outdated Hangouts mobile applications will be urged by an update screen to switch to the separate Chat clients or Chat in the Gmail app (Android and iOS). This “It’s time for Chat in Gmail” notification will cause the traditional Hangouts app to cease functioning.
For the majority of users, the corporation claims that conversations are automatically migrated. However, some conversations—or even specific threads of conversations—won’t go seamlessly from Hangouts to Chat. Around September 2022, Google will email impacted users with further details.
Users of the Chrome extension for Hangouts are simultaneously encouraged to download the Progressive Web App or switch to Chat on the web.
The transition will have a one-month notice
Classic Hangouts users using Gmail via the web sidebar “will be updated to Chat in Gmail” in July.
The availability of the hangouts.google.com client is anticipated to last at least until October 2022, when old Hangouts will no longer function. Before users are sent to chat.google.com, there will be a one-month notice.
Last but not least, the last day to obtain a copy of your Hangouts data through Google Takeout will be in November, or one month after the traditional service is discontinued.
Also read: Google will allow continued free use of G Suite legacy edition.