Hangouts was launched in 2013 and was a unification of Google Talk and Google+ Messenger. Its new, contemporary successor is Google Chat, which is already integrated into Gmail. While there\'s no official closing date yet, the company has already notified its users through its app that Google Chat will soon replace Hangouts, and the transition is already underway. For a few months now, users have been able to use Google Chat, where they\'ll see that all their conversations from the last year are already in the new messaging client. In the same Hangouts notification, Google states that older conversations will be available later.

Hangouts Chat Gmail

Hangouts displays a shortcut to switch to Chat in Gmail, which will log you out of Hangouts and open the Gmail app, activating the Chat tab. Google Chat can be used through its standalone app or from within Gmail. Google Chat is essentially an improved version of Hangouts, which was previously only available to Workspace accounts under the name Hangouts Chat, and adds integration with Google Drive, Google Calendar, and Google Meet.