Google has announced that people who still use Hangouts on mobile devices are getting an in-app message asking them to go to Chat in Gmail or the Chat app.
After its transition to Workspace users ended in February, the company has begun the process of migrating its free and personal users to Chat.
Google says the new message helps the remaining users navigate to Chat as the company is working to officially close Hangouts in November.
People who use the Hangouts extension for Google Chrome are required to go to the web version of Chat or install the Chat app.
In July, people who use Hangouts in the web version of Gmail will be upgraded to Chat in Gmail.
Although Google encourages everyone to switch to Chat. But the web version of Hangouts remains available until later this year.
Users see an in-product notice at least a month before the web version of Hangouts begins redirecting to the web version of Chat.
Conversations move automatically from Hangouts to Chat for most people. But the company encourages users who want to keep a copy of their data to use Google Takeout to download their data before Hangouts becomes unavailable.
“Chat offers a modern, integrated experience in Google Workspace,” said Ravi Caniganti, Product Manager, Google Chat. And we have big ambitions for the future of Chat. Over the coming months, you’ll see more features like Direct Connect, Direct Connect in Spaces, and the ability to share and view multiple photos. As we take this step to bring remaining Hangouts users into Chat, we hope that users will appreciate our continued investment in making Chat a powerful place to create and collaborate.
Google is moving Hangouts users to Chat
Google says that moving to Chat gives users a better way to communicate and collaborate with others. It indicates that users can modify documents, presentations, or spreadsheets by editing side-by-side.
Chat also allows users to access Spaces, a place dedicated to topic-based collaboration. Users can also access @mentions to notify someone in the group. They also have the ability to send GIFs.
The new announcement comes as Google said in October 2020 that it was letting everyone switch from Hangouts to Chat for free.
Chat was intended to be a Slack-like messaging service for business users. But it has since become free to use for consumers.
