What’s changing
Earlier this year, we announced that we will be transitioning classic Hangouts users in G Suite domains to Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. At that time, we provided a timeline of changes and said that in October 2019 we would start retiring classic Hangouts for G Suite customers.Since then, we’ve heard feedback from many of you that you’d like more time to migrate your organizations from classic Hangouts to Hangouts Chat.
As a result, we’re officially postponing the final transition date (i.e. phase 4 in this timeline) to no sooner than June 2020.
In the interim, we’ll continue to improve the transition experience of classic Hangouts group conversations, as well as add new Chat features like Read receipts. We’ll also provide advance notice once we have a more definitive date, so please monitor the G Suite Updates blog for updates. We’ll also have a detailed breakdown of the transition timeline in the Help Center.
Migrate sooner with the Accelerated Transition Program
Admins who prefer to fully migrate to Chat sooner can still request an invitation to the Accelerated Transition Program, which disables classic Hangouts and migrates all users to Hangouts Chat, while providing early access to new Chat features.
This program is great for domains that:
- Want to simplify communications and get all users on the same chat experience
- Are new G Suite customers or haven’t used classic Hangouts before
Migration by organizational unit is not available at this time, and classic Hangouts group conversations will need to be recreated in Chat. Please review the Deployment Guide and Known Limitations to determine if this migration experience is right for you.
For admins who have already signed up for early access through the Accelerated Transition Program, we are adding domains to this program on a rolling basis.
How to get started
- Admins: G Suite admins can express interest in the Accelerated Transition Program.
- End users: No action required.
Helpful links
- Accelerated Transition Program sign-up
- Help Center: Accelerated Transition Program
- Help Center: Transition timeline
Availability
- G Suite editions All G Suite editions can apply.
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