Google Hangouts Will Stop Operating as of November 1, 2022

Google hangout announced that it will close its multi-platform instant messaging service, Hangouts, after 9 years of operation. Reportedly, Google will officially stop Hangouts operations on November 1, 2022.

Later, Google Hangouts users will be migrated to use Google Chat which has been developed since 2019.

Google Workspace users (aka enterprise customers) were the first to migrate from Hangouts to Google Chat and now the Hangouts app will also be officially deprecated for all free users.

Google also urges its users to download all data and back up chat history and media that was previously built in Hangouts.

Meanwhile the company assures that all conversations from Hangouts will automatically migrate to the Chats app.

Although Google guarantees to transmit all messages from Hangouts to Google Chat, users are still encouraged to save their important data.

“However, we encourage users who wish to keep a copy of their Hangouts data to use Google Takeout to download their data before Hangouts is no longer available in November 2022,” Google wrote.

Although it has been confirmed that it will stop operating on November 1, 2022, Google announced that the web version of Hangouts will still be available until the end of this year.

“While we encourage everyone to switch to Chat, Hangouts on the web will continue to be available through the end of the year.

Users will see an in-product notification at least a month before Hangouts on the web starts switching to Chat on the web.”

Which users will be affected in this phase?

As previously explained, the official Google Hangouts operation will be deactivated simultaneously. So all users will be affected. Therefore, Google urges its users to switch to using Google Chat to continue to support their information exchange needs.

However, Google has now turned its attention to free personal accounts that still have access to classic Hangouts.

Google Hangouts is being upgraded to Google Chat in late 2022 for those who haven’t upgraded yet. Some people may have moved to Google Chat and may no longer be able to use Google Hangouts on some platforms,” ​​Google wrote.

How about a chat backup?

Hangouts on the web, including conversations and user history, will continue to be available.

Access to Hangouts on the web will be available until at least October 2022. After this, users will be redirected to Google Chat on the web.

To download all chat backups users can use Google Takeout to download their data until at least November 2022.

Here’s how to download data from Hangouts and export it in a downloadable archive file.

How to download Google Hangouts chat history via Google Takeout

– Go to Google Takeout and sign in with the Google account you use in Hangouts.

– Select only the Hangouts app and click Next Step.

– In shipping method, click download once for backup.

– Select file type.

– Click to export media.

– Google will send you a message once it starts copying files from Hangouts.

– You will receive an email after the process is complete.

– Download files received in email.