Google Chat to Become the Default Chat App for Workspace Users in March

Google Chat is set to become the new default chat app for Workspace customers starting next month. The app will replace the classic Hangouts experience on Gmail on the web, and the Hangouts mobile apps will also start redirecting Workspace users to the new Google Chat app.

“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,” Google explained yesterday. “Except for a few special cases, all the conversation history from Hangouts will be available in Google Chat. However, starting mid-March 2022, any newly created spaces in Google Chat within your domain will not appear in classic Hangouts”

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If organizations won’t be able to opt out of this change next month, the classic Hangouts app will remain available for consumers with a regular Google account. The Hangouts.google.com domain is also not going away.

Google does plan to migrate all consumers still using Classic Hangouts to Google Chat eventually. It’s already been possible to migrate Hangouts conversations to Google Chat since last year, and Google has already pushed Google Fi and Google Voice users to its new Messages and Voice apps, respectively.

It’s been pretty hard to keep up with Google’s messaging strategy in recent years, and for a while, it looked like the company couldn’t pick one app and really stick to it. Well, Google Chat is actually pretty solid now, and it supports modern messaging features that classic Hangouts didn’t have such as @mentions and Smart replies.

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Conversation 7 comments

  • Daekar

    23 February, 2022 - 11:34 am

    <p>Wait… so… how is Google Chat different from Google Messages? Does it have SMS fallback? Is this a thing you would use in your personal life or only in conjunction with a commercial Google account? </p>

    • Laurent Giret

      Premium Member
      23 February, 2022 - 12:11 pm

      <p>no, Google Chat doesn’t support SMS, it’s not a competitor to Google Messages on Android. Google Chat is going to replace Hangouts, which previously replaced Google Talk. I know, it’s a mess ?‍♂️ </p>

  • taswinfan

    24 February, 2022 - 12:56 pm

    <p>That Gmail app render looks like it os trying to be trams for Google workspace. Chats…groups…meetings…. all in one place. Email almost looks secondary for the email app.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • taswinfan

      24 February, 2022 - 12:57 pm

      <p>is trying to be Teams* (not sure why there is a block of space under my comment either.</p>

  • whistlerpro

    24 February, 2022 - 12:59 pm

    <p>Is it me or does <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Laurent’s picture keep changing randomly?</span></p>

  • doubledeej

    24 February, 2022 - 3:02 pm

    <p>Oh, good… it had been a couple weeks since Google last changed their messaging strategy. I was beginning to think that something was wrong.</p>

  • peterepete

    24 February, 2022 - 3:49 pm

    <p>Yet another change to Googles ever evolving strategy for messaging apps &amp; services. And they wonder why all the fuss over Apple’s refusal to ruin iMessage with their cruft falls on deaf ears? I know Android has its committed followers who love to point to Apple &amp; declare the users as iSheep, but if nothing else you get consistent &amp; well designed solutions that work well together. It may not be satisfactory to the hardcore nerds but it just works. </p>

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