Google has officially announced that Hangouts will be shutting down and users have only a few months to prepare for the big change. As part of an effort to modernize the Google Workspace suite to be as effective as possible for users, the company has announced that Hangouts will be shutting down for all users by November 2022. Hangouts users will therefore have to migrate to Google Chat.
Enterprise users on classic Hangouts had already migrated to Google Chat in March 2022. In a blog post announcing the news, Google stated that people using Hangouts on mobile devices will see an in-app screen asking them to switch to Chat in Gmail starting today.
Anyone using the Hangouts Chrome extension will also be prompted to switch to Chat on the web or install the Chat web app. Users who continue to use Hangouts in Gmail on the web will be migrated to Chat in July.
The company says conversations will be automatically moved from Hangouts to Chat, but advises users who want to keep a copy of their Hangouts data download it before Hangouts is no longer available in November 2022.
Ravi Kanneganti, Product Manager for Google Chat, said: “Google Chat offers a modern and integrated experience in Google Workspace. We have big ambitions for the future of Chat and you will see more features in the coming months.”
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