US browser and technology giant Google announced earlier this year that it would shut down its Hangout platform and Google Chat as its default chat app. Most users have already switched to chat. If you haven’t switched to Google Chat, you should do so before November 1, 2022. Publish the mentioned date, users will be automatically directed to Google Chat.
During the migration from Google Hangouts to Google Chat, some conversations need to be transferred, Google says. Therefore, users interested in keeping a copy of their chats can download it ahead of time before all data on Hangouts is erased, the US tech giant said.
For some people, their conversations would automatically migrate from Hangouts to Chat, so it’s easy for them to pick up where they left off, Google explained.
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Here’s how to download Google Hangouts data:
STEP 1 Go to Google Takeout and sign in with the Google account you use in Hangouts.
STEP 2 From the available apps, select Hangouts and deselect the rest.
STEP 3 Click Next Step.
STEP 4 In the delivery method, choose how often you want to download the backup. Since Hangouts will soon be upgraded to Google Chat, we recommend a one-time download.
STEP 5 Choose the file type.
STEP 6 Click Export.
STEP 7 A message tells you that Google is creating a copy of the files from Hangouts. You will receive an email when the takeout process is complete. Download the file to preserve your Hangouts data.
Also, until Google Chat and Google Hangouts work together, users can send messages between Chat and Hangouts. This synchronization between Chat and Hangouts is configured in such a way that if the Hangouts data is deleted, the corresponding Chat data will also be deleted. Users should delete their data from either app only if they want to delete data from both.
Notably Google also said that users who use Chat at work or school, new spaces created in Chat are not guaranteed to appear for them in Hangouts.
Google Hangouts is being upgraded to Google Chat by the end of 2022 for those who haven’t upgraded already.