 |
| Google will shut down Hangouts in November |
Google has announced that users who still use Hangouts on their mobile devices will receive an in-app message asking them to chat in Gmail or the chat app.
After completing the migration to Workspace users in February, the company began migrating free and personal users to Chat.
Google said the new news could help the rest of its users access chat as the company is working to officially shut down Hangouts in November.
People who use the Google Chrome Hangouts extension need to access the web chat or install the chat app.
In July, people who use Hangouts in Gmail on the web will switch to Chat in Gmail.
Although Google encourages everyone to use chat instead. However, the web version of Hangouts will still be available by the end of this year.
Users see in-product notifications at least a month before Hangouts web starts redirecting to web chat.
Most people's conversations automatically switch from Hangouts to Chat. But the company encourages users who want to keep a copy of their data to use Google Takeout to download their data before Hangouts goes offline.
“Chat offers a modern, integrated experience within Google Workspace,” said Ravi Caniganti, Google Chat Product Manager. We have big ambitions for the future of chat. In the coming months, you'll see more features like Direct Connect, Direct Connect in Spaces, and the ability to share and view multiple photos. As we take this step to bring remaining Hangouts users into chat, we hope users will appreciate our continued investment in making chat a powerful place to create and collaborate.
Google moves users from Hangouts to Chat
According to Google, moving to chat gives users a better way to communicate and collaborate with others. This means that users can edit a document, presentation, or spreadsheet by editing them side by side.
The chat also gives users access to Spaces, a section dedicated to thematic collaboration. Users can also visit @mentions to notify someone in the group. You can also send GIF files.
The new announcement comes as Google said in October 2020 that it would allow anyone to switch from Hangouts to Chat for free.
Chat is designed to provide business users with a Slack-like messaging service. But it is already free for consumers.