Google has been working on moving users from Hangouts to Chat for a long time, and they now have a timeline. The time to permanently switch to Chat is rapidly approaching, and Google’s most recent update has set a deadline for when users will be moved.
Google is ready to move Hangouts into the final phase, according to a blog post on Workspace, and this follows the opt-out migration option it rolled out last year. If they haven’t already done so, all users will have “Chat preferred” enabled in their settings starting March 22. Chat will become your account’s default messaging app, and Hangouts in Gmail mobile apps will be redirected to Chat.
“Beginning March 22, 2022, we’ll turn on the “Chat preferred” setting for any customers who haven’t already done so, making Google Chat the default chat application. This means that when users visit classic Hangouts in Gmail on the web or the classic Hangouts mobile apps, they’ll be directed to Chat. Hangouts.google.com will continue to work. It is not possible to opt out of this change,” the company wrote.
The Workspace admin settings determine when this transition will begin. Starting March 22, users who have Chat and Hangouts enabled will notice changes over the course of three weeks. Those who only use Hangouts have until April 4 to make the transition, after which it could take up to five weeks. Only hangouts.google.com will be enabled once this setting is set to Chat preferred.
Importantly, this transition is only for Google Workspace users; personal accounts will follow a different timeline, for which Google has not yet set a date.
In August last year, users who are not on Workspace started seeing banners prompting them to try out Chat, making way for the transition down the line. So, it is possible that a date might be set for these accounts too, eventually.
Google has been phasing out Hangouts for a while now and it kicked off with the Allo app they launched in 2016. This process is finally on its last legs now and the company is preparing to move to Chat.
