Block Google Chat on school-managed Chromebooks

You can block students from using Google Chat on their school-managed Chromebooks. You can block all students. Or, set different rules for students in certain groups.

Open all  |  Close all

Block Google Chat

Important: These steps work only on school-managed Chromebooks running Chrome OS.

Step 1: Block URLs

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

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

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DevicesChromeSettings. The User & browser settings page opens by default.

   If you signed up for Chrome Browser Cloud Management, go to Menu  Chrome browserSettings.

3. To apply the setting to everyone, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit or a configuration group.
4. Under URL blocking, click Blocked URL and enter this URL:
   • https://chat.google.com
5. Click Blocked URL exceptions and enter https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts/_/meet.
6. Click Save. If you configured an organizational unit or group, you might be able to either Inherit or Override a parent organizational unit, or Unset a group.

For more details about blocking URLs, go to URL blocking.

Step 2: Put only the apps you need on your allowlist

If your school uses Android apps on Chromebooks, we recommend only adding the apps your school needs to your allowlist. You can also allow or block the installation of apps for all students or by group.

Related topics

• Deploy Android apps to managed users on Chromebooks
• Turn a service on or off for users

Step 3: Set a sign-in restriction

To prevent students from using personal accounts to access URLs on your denylist in Incognito mode, set a sign-in restriction on the school-managed devices for your organization.

For details, go to Sign-in restriction.

Step 4: Block secondary accounts

You can prevent students from downloading Android apps with their personal accounts.

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

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

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DevicesChromeSettings. The User & browser settings page opens by default.

   If you signed up for Chrome Browser Cloud Management, go to Menu  Chrome browserSettings.

3. To apply the setting to everyone, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit or a configuration group.
4. Next to Sign-in to secondary accounts, click the Down arrow Block users from signing in to or out of secondary Google Accounts.
5. Click Save. If you configured an organizational unit or group, you might be able to either Inherit or Override a parent organizational unit, or Unset a group.

For more details, go to Sign in to secondary accounts.

Step 5: Disable Guest mode

To learn how to disable guest mode, go to Guest mode.