That’s it, it’s the end of Hangouts. Google’s messaging service is living its last hours on Android and iOS smartphones, while many users can no longer access the application. The Mountain View company also specifies that all messages will be automatically transferred to its successor, Google Chat. If this is not your case, we explain how you can find all your messages before the definitive closure of the service.
It’s a migration that was announced as early as 2019. That year, Google revealed that its new Chat and Meet apps were set to replace Hangouts in the years to come. And, indeed, a year later, the transfer of conversations begins. As early as 2021, Google begins to encourage its users to switch to its new messaging services, in anticipation of the closure of Hangouts.
Today, the latter is entering its final phase. Indeed, recently, the application no longer works on some Android and iOS smartphones. When we try to open it, we get the following message: “It’s Chat time in Gmail”, effectively forcing users to update. Once this screen appears, it is impossible to access their conversations in Hangouts.
Google bids farewell to Hangouts
Note that this first phase of closure concerns older versions of Hangouts, which have not been updated for some time. Moreover, the latter have not been available on Google Play and the App Store for several months. In addition, the Mountain View company has also closed the Chrome extension dedicated to messaging. In the coming weeks, the tab within Gmail will in turn disappear, marking the final end of the mail service.
On the same subject: Google Meet replaces Hangouts Meet, the Hangouts brand disappears a little more
Finally, the Hangouts site will be available until October 2022. After this date, it will stop working. However, users will be able to download their conversations for an indefinite period. Because, indeed, Google specifies that “Some conversations or parts of conversations will not be automatically migrated from Hangouts to Chat. We will email affected users with more information around September 2022.”
How to recover all your Hangouts conversations
Thus, Google specifies how it will be possible to download its conversations for impacted users. Here is the procedure to follow:
- Visit the website of Google Takeout
- If you haven’t already, log in to your google account
- In the available applications, select Hangouts and deselect the others
- At the very bottom of the page, click Next step.
- Select the method of reception messages in the drop-down menu
- Then choose how often you want to download the backup. In this case, it is better to opt for a single download.
- Choose the file typer you want to download
- Click on Create an export
The site will then create a copy of your Hangouts conversations, which you can find in the folder in the format you have configured. Once the process is complete, you will receive an email to let you know that the file is available for download. All you have to do is download the said file to find all your messages.
Finally, Google indicates that “You can send messages between Google Chat and Google Hangouts. The synchronization between Chat and Hangouts is configured so that if Hangouts data is deleted, the corresponding Chat data is also deleted. Only delete data in Chat or Hangouts if you want the data deleted from both”.
Source : Google
