To make sure you don't miss messages sent from classic Hangouts, use the classic Hangouts bot. You get the bot when your organization transitions to Google Chat. It's available in all organizations and does not need to be whitelisted.
How the classic Hangouts bot works
Messages
- The bot notifies you of unread group messages from classic Hangouts.
- The bot shows the message and a link to reply in hangouts.google.com. Click the link. Replying to the bot won't send your message.
- All messages sent by the bot have history off and are removed in 24 hours.
Invitations
- The classic Hangouts bot notifies you of group chat invitations from classic Hangouts.
- The bot shows the name of the person who wants to chat and a link to accept in hangouts.google.com. Click the link. Replying to the bot won't accept the invitation.
- After you accept an invite to a direct message, you can message from Google Chat.
Learn how to use Chat and classic Hangouts together.
Turn off the classic Hangouts bot
You can mute the bot or remove it completely.
- In Chat, next to the classic Hangouts bot, click More
.
- Select Turn off notifications or Remove.
- To unmute, select Turn on notifications.
- To add the bot back:
- In the top left, click +Find people, rooms, bots and enter Classic Hangouts.
- Select Classic Hangouts from the list of suggestions.
If you mute or remove the bot and still participate in external chats or classic Hangouts group messages, make sure to check for messages at hangouts.google.com.
Turn on the classic Hangouts bot
If you muted the bot or removed it, you can unmute the bot later or add it back.
- In Chat, next to the classic Hangouts bot, click More
- Select Turn on notifications or to add the bot back:
- In the top left, click +Find people, rooms, bots and enter Classic Hangouts.
- Select Classic Hangouts from the list of suggestions.
Special considerations for administrators
The classic Hangouts bot is treated as part of Google Chat, and has some special behavior:
- The classic Hangouts bot is turned on when you enable Chat Preferred.
- The classic Hangouts bot messages are always sent with history off for compliance reasons. This bot will therefore not work if your organization forces Chat History On ("History is ON by default" selected and "Allow users to change their history setting" not checked).
- If Chat Preferred is on, the bot is on for users even if the admin has disabled bots or if the classic Bot is not whitelisted.
- Admins can't find the bot in the bot catalog or marketplace.
