Classic Hangouts chat settings

To make sure your users get the most out of chat, enable Hangouts chat as the only option in your organization, and modify your domain's chat settings:

Before you begin, verify that the required G Suite services are turned on.

  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

    Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

  2. From the Admin console Home page, go to Appsand thenG Suiteand thenGoogle Hangouts.
  3. Click Chat settings.
  4. Under Organizations, select the domain or organizational unit for which you want to configure settings.
  5. Adjust the settings as described.
Chat

You can modify the chat history options to determine if chat conversations should be saved. 

Notes:

  • These options do not apply to video calls or chat within video calls.
  • Changes can take up to 24 hours to take effect. Users must refresh their Gmail window to see the changes (and the new chat client option).
  • Chat history changes only apply to new messages.  For example, if you turn chat history off, old messages that were previously saved will still be saved. If you turn chat history on, only new messages will be saved.
Chat History settings may not be preserved if the G Suite chat service is changed (for example, if you enable or disable Hangouts chat). Verify the Chat History settings are correct. 
Sharing options
Note: The Google network referred to in these options is comprised of G Suite and Gmail users.

Hangouts chat

Setting Description
Display users' chat status outside your domain

Each user's status is automatically shown within your domain. Check this box to show the status of users outside the domain who are in the Google network (users of G Suite and/or Gmail).

 Learn more about Hangouts status messages and options.

 
Warn users when having a Hangout outside your domain name

Check this option to let users know if they are chatting with an external participant.
 
Users can chat with other users outside your G Suite domain

Uncheck this option to restrict chat to users within your organization. This setting is checked by default and does not apply to video calls.

Note: If you uncheck this box, users can’t use chat in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
Chat invitations

The following applies to both Hangouts chat and Google Talk:

Setting Description
Automatically accept invitations between users within your domain
  • Check this setting if you want chat invitations to be automatically accepted among users in your domain (users do not have to manually accept invitations from new contacts).
  • Uncheck this setting if you want users to manually accept invitations from new contacts.
Users can override this setting and block others from communicating with them.
Additional services

To limit users to Hangouts conversations, uncheck Allow users to place voice and video call from Hangouts.

This setting doesn't apply to Meet video meetings.

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