Changes to classic Hangouts and Google Chat

In preparation for classic Hangouts being permanently retired by Google in late 2021, you will see two new changes in the G Suite chat apps. 

• In classic Hangouts, all video conferencing capabilities will be moved to Google Meet by default.
• Group conversations in classic Hangouts followed by message history—will begin to appear in Google Chat over the coming weeks. In addition, group conversations and the new unthreaded rooms in Google Chat will appear in classic Hangouts.

To ensure further compatibility between classic Hangouts and Google Chat. By mid December you will now be able to do the following in Google Chat:

• Add new members into a group conversation. All members in the group conversation will see a message announcing the new member. The new member will be able to see the entire conversation, even messages sent before they entered the group conversations.

• You will be able to create rooms that by default are unthreaded. When you create a new room, conversations will not use threads unless you turn on threading. (Note that you cannot change whether a room is threaded or unthreaded after it’s created.)

Google will be releasing more information in the coming weeks on how the message history and conversations will appear in classic Hangouts and Google Chat. We will keep you posted through https://www.torontomu.ca/google/news.