Google Hangouts to shut down soon: A mini-guide to download chat history

During the migration from Google Hangouts to Google Chat, some conversations need to transfer, says Google. Hence, users interested in keeping a copy of their chats can download it in advance before all of the data on Hangouts will get erased, stated the American tech giant.

For some people, their conversations would automatically migrate from Hangouts to Chat, so it is easy for them to pick up where they left off, explained Google.

Here’s how to download Google Hangouts data:

STEP 1 Go to Google Takeout and sign in with the Google Account you use in Hangouts.

STEP 2 In the available applications, select Hangouts and deselect the rest.

STEP 3 Click Next Step.

STEP 4 In the Delivery method, choose how often you want to download the backup. Since Hangouts is being upgraded to Google Chat soon, we recommend a one-time download.

STEP 5 Choose the file type.

STEP 6 Click Export.

STEP 7 A message tells you that Google is creating a copy of files from Hangouts. You will receive an email when the takeout process is complete. Download the file to preserve your Hangouts data.

Additionally, until the Google Chat and Google Hangouts work together, users can send messages between Chat and Hangouts. This sync between Chat and Hangouts is set up such that if Hangouts data is erased, the corresponding Chat data would also get deleted. Users should delete their data from either of the apps only if they want to delete the data from both.

Notably, Google also stated that users who use Chat at work or school, new spaces created in Chat are not guaranteed to appear for them in Hangouts.

Google hangouts is being upgraded to Google Chat by the end of the year 2022 for those who did not upgraded it already.

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