So you might want to download a copy of your Hangouts chat history before the app disappears in November. If you still use Hangouts, the next time you launch the app, you’ll be greeted with a screen asking you to upgrade from Hangouts to Chat. You can also change Docs, Slides or Sheets with side-by-side editing. For example, Google Chat includes the topic-based collaboration area Spaces. The upgraded chatting functionality includes some new actions that Hangout users can’t see.

But development and support will stop for Hangouts soon, so Google is encouraging the remaining users to make the switch.

You’ll still be able to use until at least October, but that will stop working afterward, and what’s left of classic Hangouts will be the ability to download data/history via Google Takeout.Google Chat was initially only available to selected users, but the company opened it for use by everyone in late 2020 while still keeping Hangouts around. Users are prompted to use Chat in or the PWA (Progressive Web App) at. In addition to Android and iOS, Google is similarly disabling the Hangouts Chrome desktop extension, while this month will see classic Hangouts stop working in web Gmail’s sidebar. Most people late last week were still able to see conversations and send new messages, but that’s no longer the case. We’ve encountered this prompt on several devices and Google accounts worldwide today. We will email impacted users with more information around September 2022 …some conversations or portions of conversations won’t automatically migrate from Hangouts to Chat. This is not the biggest disruption to continued usage as the vast majority of messages have been migrated over to Chat. Once you see this screen, you can no longer access classic Hangouts on mobile. Launching Hangouts reveals an “It’s time for Chat in Gmail” prompt that acts as a forced upgrade on Android and iOS to use the dedicated Google Chat apps or the Gmail tab. The first stage of this shutdown impacts the old Hangouts mobile apps that haven’t seen any major feature additions in several years and have been mostly unavailable for new Google Play or App Store downloads in recent months.

Many users are finding that they can no longer access Hangouts for Android and iOS today. As announced a week ago, Google is now in the process of shutting down classic Hangouts for free consumers.

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