Google announces Hangouts upgrades, to be replaced by Google Chats

Google has recently anunced that Hangouts will be replaced by Google Chats in 2021 while sharing new updates and changes in both apps on October 15. Google Chat will be me available as a free service for all users in upcoming year along with rest of apps in Google Work. It will also include features similar to Google Hangouts. 

"This month, we unveiled Google Work, which includes everything you need—Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Chat, Meet and more—to get anything done, w in one place. Google Work is generally available to all our business customers and next year we’ll bring it to everyone else, too," re official press release. 

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Google upgres Hangouts to Chat

Google Chats is a part of Google Work which is currently available only to business customers of Google. According to Google Blog, from beginning of 2021, this service will be free for all users allowing m to upgre from Google Hangouts to Google Chat. All chats, contacts, and saved history of Hangouts will be automatically migrated to Chat. This includes all Google Hangouts users who use app along with Google Fi and Google Voice. 

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Speaking security features of app, Google said, "Next year, Chat will become available as a free service—both in integrated experience in Gmail and Chat standalone app. Chat features same strong phishing protections we built in Gmail, so if a link is sent to you via Chat, it will be checked against real-time data from Safe Browsing and flagged if it’s found to be malicious."

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Changes for Google Hangout users

Google Fi support in Hangouts will be removed in early 2021. call phone feature and voice support will also be removed from app and Google Hangouts Voice users will be directed to Google Voice. Google also informed Fi users that in coming weeks, Messs by Google will allow m to man ir SMS and phone calls similar to what Hangout does. Similarly, Google Meet will replace group video calling feature of Hangouts. 

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