Hangouts will receive some important changes for group conversations in the coming days. Notably, group conversations in Hangouts will soon appear in Google Chat app.
The new feature will appear on Google Chat in the coming weeks. If you are familiar with Hangouts group conversations, then you are set to get the same treatment in Google Chat as well.
This change is in line with the initiative that Google has taken. Apparently, Google will eventually replace Hangouts with Google Chat by the first half of 2021.
Google shared this information in an official blog. Currently, Google account users using Google Chat see one-on-one Hangouts conversations.
However, these users could not see the group conversations from group chats. That will soon change because starting from December 3, 2020, a total of three changes are coming for Google Chat.
FYI, Google has recently killed the group video calling feature on Hangouts. So, all this turns out to be a sort of preparation to shift the users over to Google Chat.
In fact, Google has stated in the blog that this is done to ensure a smooth transition of the users from Google Hangouts to Google Chat.
Google is also making changes to Vault retention policies in Google Chat
Apart from the Hangouts group conversations feature, there are some other changes as well that are soon coming to Google Chat.
The first significant change is the updated group conversations. With the new changes in effect, users will be able to add and change members of new group conversations.
All the other members of the group will see a notification about the addition of the new member. Furthermore, the newly added member will be able to see the entire conversation, including the messages that were sent before the user entered the group.
To create a new group conversation, you simply need to head over to the conversation settings menu and tap the “Start a new chat” option.
The second change is about chat history. End-users will now be able to turn on/off chat history. Admins can control whether to keep the chat history turn on/off for their organization.
Finally, the third change is about the Google Vault retention policy. As per Google, the new group conversations will also follow an updated retention policy in Vault.
The updated retention policy will apply to existing chat rooms, plus updated group messages and group messages.
Google is set to bring these new features to Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and Nonprofits customers.
