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Messages in Hangouts Chat can now be forwarded to Gmail

This week saw Hangouts Meet become Google Meet amid a surge in video conferencing usage. Hangouts Chat is picking up a new feature that lets you forward messages to Gmail.

On the web client, hovering over a message opens a pill-shaped tray of actions to edit, delete, or add a reaction. A new envelope icon lets you “Forward to inbox,” with a toast in the bottom-left corner providing confirmation.

What gets emailed to you in Gmail is your selected message, as well as the last four in that conversation thread. The subject line notes the “Fwd” and what room or conversation it originated from. Images are sent as attachments, while you can tap “Open message” to see the full context in Hangouts Chat.

Google notes how it may take up to two minutes for an email to appear in your inbox, while the copy in Gmail will remain even if chat history is disabled.

This forwarding feature has roots in classic Hangouts where all messages had an email copy in the “Chat” folder. That allowed for easy forwarding and was a useful way to relay a long message without having to screenshot.

The Hangouts Chat to Gmail forward feature is widely rolled out on the web. It’s not yet available in the mobile clients, though the capability is listed for Android and iOS on Google’s support document.

More about Hangouts Chat:

Thanks Phil

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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

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