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[Update: Meet] Google combining classic Hangouts, Hangouts Chat settings for G Suite

Classic Hangouts was originally set to be deprecated in October 2019 for G Suite users. In August, Google delayed the transition for enterprise to June 2020 as the slow migration process continues. For admins today, Google is combining classic Hangouts and Chat policy management.

11/19/2019: This change will give G Suite administrators “one place to control all the chat settings” for a company. This includes policies for history, external user chats, and third-party integrations with bots.

With this update, you only need to go to one place to control all the chat settings for your organization. This can help to simplify deployment and ensure policies are set up as desired.

When clicking “Chat Settings” from the classic Hangouts page in the Admin console, users will be redirected to the Hangouts Chat settings page (Admin console > Apps > G Suite > Hangouts Chat).

Google says it’s not “making any changes to your effective settings—only the location and presentation of the settings will change.” End users are not affected by this change, only admins. Available to all G Suite editions, it will be rolled out over the next two weeks.


Update 1/7: Google is now also merging Hangouts Meet and classic Hangouts video call settings. The consolidated toggle respects your previous preference, and is rolling out today. For new G Suite customers, video calling will be enabled by default.

Apps > G Suite > Settings for Google Hangouts > Meet settings

Meanwhile, classic Hangouts will be disabled for G Suite domains starting next June. That said, the actual length of this transition period has not been specified yet. This delay was due to enterprise feedback asking for “more time to migrate organizations from classic Hangouts to Hangouts Chat.” The company is improving the transition experience for group conversations while adding more functionality to Chat. A wind-down of classic Hangouts for consumers will begin sometime after enterprise users.

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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com