Google Begins Integrating Hangouts Into Google Chat

Back in October 2020, Search engine giant, Google announced that it’s Chat service will be available to everyone. The company also revealed its plans to end, it’s Hangouts service. Why it made the revelation, the company gave users the option of migrating Hangout to Google Chat. Now, it has officially begun the integration of the two services. This was made known, according to a blog post shared by the company.

Google revealed that it plans to inform users about the migration via an in-app notification. It said that this will appear to users of Hangouts on mobile, urging them to switch to Chat in Gmail or the Chat app. Google says that the new reminder will help the existing Hangouts users switch to the Chat app before Hangouts is shut down for good in November.

Google said that that switching to Google Chat creates new and improved opportunities for collaboration. Users can edit Docs, Slides, or Sheets side-by-side, for instance, which makes it simpler to cooperate while carrying on the conversation.

Additionally, Google Chat has Spaces, an area designated for cooperation on specific topics. Teams and groups can collaborate on documents, manage projects and files from one central spot, and share ideas. Also, the new integrated view of Gmail makes it easier to use Chat with your inbox, Spaces, and Meet. Using skin-tone emoticons, rich text editing to emphasize your talks, @mentions to notify someone in the group, or a GIF becomes more entertaining after upgrading to Chat.

Moving from Hangouts to Chat?

Google says that people using Hangouts on mobile will see an in-app screen asking them to move to Chat in Gmail or the Chat app. Similarly, people who use the Hangouts Chrome extension will be asked to move to Chat on the web or install the Chat web app. In July, people who use Hangouts in Gmail on the web will be upgraded to Chat in Gmail.

While we encourage everyone to make the switch to Chat, Hangouts on the web will continue to be available until later this year. Users will see an in-product notice at least a month before Hangouts on the web starts redirecting to Chat on the web.

For most people, conversations are automatically migrated from Hangouts to Chat, so it’s easy to pick up where you left off. However, we encourage users who wish to keep a copy of their Hangouts data to use Google Takeout to download their data before Hangouts is no longer available in November 2022 by following these instructions. You can visit the Help Center for more information on the differences between Chat and Hangouts, the migration timelines, and why we recommend downloading your Hangouts data.

Source: Google’s Blog