Google Hangouts for Workspace users has already been sunset back in February, and now Google will begin the progress of migrating free, personal Hangouts users to Chat in Gmail. According to a Google blog post, the announcement outlines the process and that people who still use the Hangouts mobile app will see a prompt to move to Chat.
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As for users who use Hangouts in Gmail on the web, Google says it won’t start prompting users to make the switch to Chat until July. Hangouts will remain usable on its desktop site until November, and Google says it will warn users “at least one month” in advance before it starts pointing the Hangouts site to Chat.
Google has a long history of launching new software products that seems similar to others, and canning them as quickly. Google Chat isn’t the same thing as GChat (or Google Talk), which Google discontinued for good earlier this month. Hangouts was originally supposed to be the successor to GChat, but here we are.
If you’re still using Hangouts, Google should automatically transfer your existing conversations to Chat. The company also gives you the option of using its Takeout service to download a copy of your Hangouts data before it’s officially discontinued come November.
To entice users into making the switch to Chat, Google says it’s rolling out a few new features, including the ability to make direct calls, create in-line threads in Spaces (the rebrand of Rooms), as well as share and view multiple images.
