All classic Hangouts users to be migrated to Google Chat in late 2021

Google has announced that it’s extending the timeline Google Workspace and G Suite for Education customers have to migrate from classic Hangouts to Google Chat. This is to make the migration process as easy as possible.

In June, Google introduced the Chat preferred setting in the Admin console to allow any admin to opt in to migrate all end-users to Chat. Google also made Chat preferred configurable at the organisational unit level.

In 2021, Google will start migrating all remaining customers with “Chat and classic Hangouts” and “classic Hangouts only” settings selected to Chat. Here’s what you can expect:

• Opt-out upgrade (no earlier than Q2 2021): All customers will be migrated to Chat Preferred unless their admins explicitly opt-out. Customers who only have enabled Chat, with classic Hangouts completely disabled, will not be impacted.
• Mandatory upgrade (late 2021): All remaining customers will be migrated to Chat Preferred and we will fully replace classic Hangouts with Chat. There will be no option to opt-out at this stage.

Google will provide advance notice (4 weeks minimum) on the Google Workspace Updates blog before each phase begins.