In 2021 , Google Hangouts is fleet aside and Google Chat is take its spot . So if you ’re a veteran Hangouts drug user — after all , the service has been around for seven years at this spot — what do you need to do to prepare ? What ’s going to happen to your years of confab logs ? And what will exchange the Hangouts box in your Gmail ?
Google ’s messaging intersection are perplexing , and it does n’t help that Google has disjoined setup for individual users with personal accounts and those who lumber into Google services as part of their Job , with feature ( such as Google Chat ) rolling out at different times and in different way .
The newspaper headline newsworthiness for Google Hangouts users is that the service is going to be retired and replaced by two products migrating over from Google ’s business product ( formerly sleep together as G Suite and now known as Google Workspace ) . There ’s no getting forth from it — you’re going to get proceed over .
The current Google Chat app.Image: Google
These two replacement products were first launched in 2017 , as professional twisting - offs of Hangouts for the workplace in G Suite originally call Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet . In 2020 , they ’re called Google Chat and Google Meet , and they ’re going back to consumers to supervene upon the app they earlier grew out of . Confused yet ? We ’ll explain .
Google Chat, Google Meet, and Google Hangouts
Google Chat and Google Meet , the two services replacing repair , pore on text chat and video birdcall , respectively . Google Chat is Google ’s adaptation of Slack or Microsoft Teams , so you may practice it for direct messages or mathematical group treatment , either in private conversation or on private or public boards .
Google Meet , meanwhile , is Google ’s version of Zoom : It let you video recording chat with one or mountain of masses . Recently , Meet was introduced into definitive haunt , so if you launch a group video call in Hangouts now , you ’ll get a Google Meet link to share . ( As for Google Duo , the hearsay isthat it will be replaced by Google Meet eventually , but that ’s yet to be corroborate . )
This late Meet desegregation shows how Google is piece away at the functionality of classic Hangouts , piece by part . In the last couple of months , Googlehas also retiredHangouts support for Google Fi and Google Voice integration , and removed the power to call phone numbers through the Hangouts app as well .
Hangouts is morphing into Chat.Image: Google
have a bun in the oven more features to drop away from Hangouts in the weeks to come . In the first one-half of 2021 , Google say , Chat will fully exchange resort . Exactly what that means and exactly how it ’s going to be done remains to be seen — and the timing might shift along the way , too — but we do know some details about how it ’s all snuff it to work .
Hangouts turns into Chat
When Google decides to pull the plug on Hangouts , it ’ll be entirely replaced by Google Chat — both as a standalone app you may run on your earphone , and as a little box in the corner of Gmail on the WWW . Unlike Hangouts , it looks as though schmoose will get a chit in the Gmail mobile app , too ( there ’s already a Meet one there ) .
If you ’re a Hangouts user , you might be able to attempt out Google Chat right nowin your internet browser(your chat contacts and history should all load up correctly ) . From this screen you may see some of the unexampled features that Chat brings , include emoji reactions to message and memory access to room ( the Chat equivalent of channels on Slack ) . Group chats from Hangouts do n’t show up in the new Chat app yet , however .
While we still do n’t know precisely how Hangouts will morph into Chat in 2021 , the web app present how some of the feature article are going to work . you may now , for example , change state chat history on or off based on individual contacts , rather than using a global place setting . As before , your conversations get backed up into Gmail if history is turned on , though it ’s not cleared if this will continue once Hangouts vanish completely .
The Google Chat interface in Google Workspace.Image: Google
Something else we ’re not sure of is just how many of the business or agiotage Google Chat features will be available to consumers — maybe all of them , or maybe just a selection . Google Chat is already available for Android and iOS , but only to users presently ratify up for Google Workspace ( previously G Suite ) .
What to do next
“ Starting in the first half of 2021 , everyone can begin upgrading from Hangouts to Chat,”Google announced . “ To ensure a fluent transition , we will help automatically transmigrate your Hangouts conversations , along with contacts and economise history . We ’ll apportion more specific guidance on what steps you’re able to take when we start out the transition cognitive process . ”
It seems as though the transition from Hangouts to Chat will be fairly painless — or at least that ’s the possibility . Consumer users of the classic Hangouts app will be migrated to Google Chat free of care , without the monthly fees that business drug user are currently pay for the serve .
Google has promised that all your conversation threads and chew the fat striking will be moved over seamlessly . We have no grounds to doubt that , but just in case , remember that you’re able to export your entire Google Hangouts archive to a data processor viaGoogle Takeout(verify you just choose haunt unless you need everything else as well ) .
The Hangouts box in Gmail will be replacedScreenshot: Google
Fingers crossed that , for most of us , the switch from Hangouts to confabulate will be little more than a rebranding exercise ( which might have been a better fashion for Google to betray it to begin with ) . Everything in Hangouts should still be available in Chat , and you ’ll get a few extra features , so it should go more smoothly than the jump from Google Play Music to YouTube Music .
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