After sunsetting Google Hangouts for Workspace customers in February, Google’s now starting the method of migrating free, private Hangouts customers to Chat. In an announcement posted to its blog, Google says individuals who nonetheless use the Hangouts cell app will see a immediate to maneuver to Chat.

As for customers who use Hangouts in Gmail on the internet, Google says it received’t begin prompting customers to make the change to Chat till July. Hangouts will stay usable on its desktop web site till November, and Google says it would warn customers “at least one month” upfront earlier than it begins pointing the Hangouts web site to Chat.

Image: Google

Confusingly, Google Chat isn’t the identical factor as GChat (or Google Talk), which Google discontinued for good earlier this month. (Hangouts was initially imagined to be the successor to GChat, however right here we’re.) The firm first hinted at its plans to transition customers from Hangouts to Chat in 2018 and made the function free for all customers in 2020.

If you’re nonetheless utilizing Hangouts, Google ought to mechanically switch your current conversations to Chat. The firm additionally provides you the choice of utilizing its Takeout service to obtain a replica of your Hangouts knowledge earlier than it’s formally discontinued come November.

To entice customers into making the change to Chat, Google says it’s rolling out just a few new options, together with the flexibility to make direct calls, create in-line threads in Spaces (the rebrand of Rooms), in addition to share and think about a number of photos.