Migrate your Users from Classic Hangouts to Google Chat Now Available in Gmail

When admin enables ‘chat preferred’ setting from G Suite Admin console  it will migrate all of the users of the particular domain at once . Once enabled this setting, then Google Chat will become the default chat application for your organization and it will replace all of your classic Hangouts apps and appear in Gmail on the web. This anticipated integration will allow your users to communicate smoothly , without the disruption of switching tabs.

This  Chat preferred setting was previously available only to a small group of customers via the Chat Accelerated Transition Program.

Once you enable it from the Admin console, the Gmail page will look like this. 

Refer the attached Screenshot.

​

If you enable Chat preferred for your organization:

The new Chat experience will replace the classic Hangouts experience in Gmail.

All classic Hangouts applications, except hangouts.google.com, will be disabled, and users will be directed to go to chat.google.com or download the Chat mobile App.

The classic Hangouts bot will notify users of unread Classic group messages. 

To activate this feature, you need to visit the admin page. 

From the Admin console Home page, go to Apps>>G Suite>>Settings for Hangouts Chat>>Chat Clients

Click Chat Clients.

Note that this setting can be applied only at the top-level organizational unit. Everyone in your organization needs to migrate to Chat at the same time. 

Select Chat Preferred.

Click Save.

It can take up to 24 hours for the changes to take effect, including turning off classic Hangouts apps and turning on new features.

To activate this feature please refer to the below attached screenshot .

Once this feature has been activated from the admin panel your Gmail page will look like this, refer to the below attached Screenshot.

Who’s impacted on this feature :

Admins and end users

Advantage:

The Chat preferred setting allows you to migrate all of your users at once for the most effective and seamless transition. If some employees use classic Hangouts and others use Chat, it can lead to missed messages and become burdensome for Admins. And if you have a remote or distributed workforce, unifying your users onto a single chat network can help everyone communicate successfully.

You will also get access to exciting Chat features within Gmail in your browser. These include:

• One to one and Group chat directly
• Bot integrations
• Forward to inbox
• Full-screen rooms
• Emoji reactions
• Message edit and delete options

To enable Chat preferred and migrate your users away from classic Hangouts, you must have Google Chat turned on for your domain. 

To turn on or off a service only for users in an organizational unit:

• At the left, select the organizational unit.
• Select how you want to use Chat and classic Hangouts in the organizational unit.
• To use these settings even when the settings for the parent organizational unit are different, click Override.
• If the organization's status is already Overridden, choose an option:
• Inherit—Reverts to the same setting as its parent.
• Save—Saves your new setting (even if the parent setting changes).