Google Chat will be available to everyone from next year

Google Chat
(Image credit: Google)

Google has confirmed that users of its communications software Hangouts will have to migrate to Google Chat next year. The announcement comes less than a month after the launch of Google Workspace, the company’s rebranded collection of collaboration and productivity tools that includes Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Chat and Meet.

Now it has been announced that Chat will be replacing Hangouts for everyone from next year. Chat will be free to use for consumers and available within Gmail and also as a standalone app. All of the Hangouts features will be preserved, along with some new Chat additions like suggested replies and emoji reactions.

“Starting in the first half of 2021, everyone can begin upgrading from Hangouts to Chat,” explained Matthew Leske, Group Product Manager at Google Chat. “To ensure a smooth transition, we will help automatically migrate your Hangouts conversations, along with contacts and saved history. We'll share more specific guidance on what steps you can take when we begin the transition process.”

A new place to hang out

In the meantime, Google has also announced several changes for particular Hangouts users. Hangouts support will be dropped from Google Fi and Google Voice at some point early next year and the call phones feature will also soon be removed to comply with new regulations introduced in the EU and US.

Google is keen that the migration from Hangouts to Chat goes as smoothly as possible and so will send notifications to admins about any necessary steps that business users will need to take.

Hopefully, the process will be less confusing than Google’s overall communications strategy. Alongside Hangouts and Chat, the company also has Duo for video calls and has already put Google Allo out to pasture. Here’s hoping that moving everyone to Chat leads to a more straightforward approach.

TOPICS
Barclay Ballard

Barclay has been writing about technology for a decade, starting out as a freelancer with ITProPortal covering everything from London’s start-up scene to comparisons of the best cloud storage services.  After that, he spent some time as the managing editor of an online outlet focusing on cloud computing, furthering his interest in virtualization, Big Data, and the Internet of Things. 

Latest in Software & Services
A man sitting at his desk in the evening and using a desktop computer
Office 2021 vs Office 2024: is it time to upgrade?
Microsoft 365 Business app logos
Office 2024 LTSC vs Microsoft 365 Business: what are the differences?
Windows 11 Start menu layout choices: Grid view
Windows 11 vs Linux for business: which operating system should you embrace?
A phone sitting on a laptop keyboard with the Microsoft Outlook logo on the screen.
Gmail vs Outlook for business: which email system is right for your organization?
Windows 11 logo
Windows 11 Pro vs Windows 11 Home: which version is right for you?
Canva HubSpot
HubSpot and Canva team up to level the creative playing field
Latest in News
Cristin Milioti in Black Mirror season 7
Netflix launches trailer for Black Mirror season 7, giving us a look at its first-ever sequel episode and an unexpected returning character
A graphic of the PC Gaming Show
Get ready for a bounty of PC games on June 8, as the PC Gaming show is back
A close up of The Daily podcast from Pocket Casts' web page
‘Podcasting shouldn’t be locked behind walled gardens’: Pocket Casts slams Spotify and makes its web player free to all
A smartphone on a sofa showing the WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal apps
Forget AI – WhatsApp is planning a simple messages feature that could be its most useful upgrade in years
NordicTrack Ultra 1
The new NordicTrack Ultra 1 treadmill looks like it was designed by an architect and costs $15,000
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070
Nvidia RTX 5080 stock is so barren that retailers are holding competitions where you can "win" the right to buy one for MSRP