Google confirmed back in December that it will replace Hangouts with Chat and Meet, and announced that the transition will start in October 2019. However, the search giant revealed that the transition for G Suite has been postponed and that the new deadline is June 2020.
According to Google, the decision to delay the move is based on the feedback received from many Hangouts users, who apparently need more time to migrate their organizations from classic Hangouts to the new Hangouts Chat.
That being said, Google has officially postponed the final transition date to no sooner than June 2020, which means that it could happen later, but definitely not sooner. In the meantime, Google will continue to improve the transition experience of classic Hangouts group conversations, and add new Chat features like Read receipts.
In case you need a more definitive date, Google said that it will provide advance notice once it figures out when it’s the right time to start the final transition of classic Hangouts to Hangouts Chat.
Also, for those who want to migrate sooner, Google has already kicked off the Accelerated Transition Program, so simply request an invitation and the classic Hangouts will be disabled and you’ll be migrated to Hangouts Chat.
