Opt out of the automatic upgrade to Chat Preferred

This article is intended for Google Workspace administrators. For information about your personal account, visit instead Learn about the switch from classic Hangouts to Google Chat. 

In August 2021, we’ll start upgrading organizations with the “Chat and classic Hangouts” service setting to “Chat preferred” unless they explicitly opt out. This automatic upgrade will begin on August 16, 2021, and may take up to 2 weeks to complete. After that time, the “Chat and classic Hangouts” service setting will no longer be available unless you opt out of the automatic upgrade.

You can opt out of this upgrade at this time, but note that starting in late 2021, classic Hangouts will no longer be supported and all remaining users will be migrated to Chat. For more details, refer to the Google Chat migration timeline.

What do I need to do?

What you need to do depends on the current Chat service setting for your organization. To view or change your setting, see Choose a Chat service for your organization.

If your service setting is NOT “Chat and classic Hangouts”

If your organization has selected the “Chat only,” “Chat preferred,” or “Classic Hangouts only” service setting, or if you have both Chat and classic Hangouts turned off, your service setting won't change. No action is required.

However, you’ll no longer be able to choose the “Chat and classic Hangouts” option after the automatic migration is complete unless you opt out as described below. Opting out of the migration in these cases won’t change your service setting or affect your users’ experience. It will simply preserve the “Chat and classic Hangouts” service option.

If your service setting is "Chat and classic Hangouts"

If you have the “Chat and classic Hangouts” service selected for any organizational unit, review Transition to Google Chat prior to August 16 to help decide whether you’re ready for the change. In particular, review the FAQ and Chat known limitations. 

You can migrate to Chat sooner than August 16, opt out of the automatic migration for now, or wait for the automatic migration:

• To migrate your “Chat and classic Hangouts” users to “Chat preferred” prior to August 16, follow the steps in the Chat preferred deployment guide.
   
• To opt out of the automatic migration and preserve your “Chat and classic Hangouts” setting for an organizational unit, take these steps before August 16, 2021:
   
  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

     Sign in using an account with super administrator privileges (does not end in @gmail.com).

  2. Go to http://admin.google.com/ac/apps/gmail/migrationtochatsettings.
     
     If you see a 404 error, make sure to first sign in to the Admin console (step 1), and then try again.
      
  3. Select Don’t migrate to Chat preferred as part of this migration opt-out launch.
  4. Click Save.
      
• If you don’t take any action by August 16, 2021, everyone with the “Chat and classic Hangouts” setting will automatically be migrated to “Chat preferred” over 2 weeks, starting on August 16. We recommend that you review the Chat preferred deployment guide prior to the migration to ensure the smoothest possible transition. Your chat service setting may still display as “Chat and classic Hangouts” during the migration, but it will work like the “Chat Preferred” setting.
  
  When you’re automatically migrated to Chat Preferred, your users will see Chat in Gmail. Their classic Hangouts apps will be disabled, but they’ll still be able to access classic Hangouts on the web.
  
  Note: After the automatic migration has started for your organization, you may still be able to opt out and undo the migration by visiting the link in the opt out steps, above. This option will be available until mid September, 2021.

Additional details

• If you don't opt out of the automatic migration, the “Chat and classic Hangouts” service option will no longer be available after the migration completes.
• Conversation History: With the exception of a few special cases, messages sent in classic Hangouts 1:1 and group conversations will be available in Chat. To learn more, refer to Chat and classic Hangouts interoperability.
• Direct calling: Chat doesn’t yet support direct calling in the same way as classic Hangouts. Direct calling is expected to roll out to Chat in Q3 2021.