Manage chats

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You can hide chats that you no longer want to see, and you can delete your chat history. You can also set up notifications to receive alerts when new chats appear.

Hide or delete direct message conversations

Hide a direct message conversation

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail account.
2. On the left, next to the person's name or group, click More Hide conversation .

Note: If you hide a chat and then chat with that person or group again, your chat history reappears (if it's turned on).

Delete a direct message conversation

You can delete all your history of a conversation you had with someone. You can't delete your history for group conversations with 2 or more people.

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail account.
2. On the left, next to the person's name, click More Delete conversation.
3. Click Delete to confirm.

To delete only a single message you sent, see edit or delete a message.

Turn Chat notifications on or off

You can get notified when someone sends you a message in Google Chat. If you create, respond to, or are @mentioned in a message or space, you will get a badge and a notification, if you turn notifications on.

You can also customize notifications by device, conversation or space, or threads, if available. You can customize whether to get an email reminder if you haven't read a message in 12 hours.

Customize notifications in Chat

1. On your computer, go to Google Chat.  
2. At the top right, click Settings .
3. To turn on notifications for Google Chat messages, under "Desktop notifications," check the box next to "Allow chat notifications."

Customize notifications in Gmail

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings   See all settings.
3. Click the "Chat and Meet" tab.
4. Under "Chat notifications settings," click Manage chat settings.
5. Select "Allow chat notifications."
6. Under "Notification sounds," select the sound you want to use.

Tip: To turn off chat notifications, select None.

Turn chat notification sounds on or off

1. Open Gmail.
2. At top right, click Settings  click See all settings.
3. On top menu, click Chat and Meet.
4. Under "Chat notification settings," click Manage chat settings.
5. Select Allow chat notifications.
6. Next to "Notification sounds," select the sound from that list.
7. To turn off chat notification sounds, select None.

Customize notifications in a specific space or conversation

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail.
2. Select the conversation participants or space name.
3. At the top, next to the conversation participants or space name, click the Down arrow  or More options   Notifications.
4. Choose an option:
   • Notify always: Get push notifications and a notification dot for all new messages.
   • Notify less: Get push notifications and a notification dot when you’re @mentioned, a topic you follow gets a new message, or if someone in the conversation uses “@all.”
     • For spaces grouped by topic: To get a notification when someone starts a new topic, check the box next to “Also notify for the first message of new topics.”
   • Notifications off: You won’t get any push notifications, but @mentions and @all will continue to get a notification dot.

Tip: Even if you turn off notifications, you'll still get a red notification dot for @mentions and direct messages. 

Customize notifications for a specific thread in a space

If you choose the "Notify less" option in a space, you can follow a specific thread to receive notifications about replies.

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail.
2. Open a space.
3. Point to the thread.
4. At the top right, click Follow.

Understand how badges appear in direct messages

Red dot icon	Status text	Status meaning
Yes	Bold	There are unread individual direct messages or group direct messages.
No	Normal	These conversations have no updates or new messages.

Understand how badges appear for spaces

Red dot icon	Status text	Status meaning
Yes	Bold	There are unread messages which directly mention you, or you turned on notifications for the space or thread.
No	Bold	There are unread messages which don't directly mention you, and you turned off notifications.
No	Normal	These conversations have no updates or new messages.

Change your Chat status in Gmail

To let others know when you're available, you can change your Google Chat status.

Only people you share a space with or someone you've accepted a chat invite from can see your status. Blocked users won’t ever be able to see your status.

Status icon	Status text	Status meaning
	Active	Gmail or Google Chat is open.
	Do not disturb	Google Chat notifications are muted. *For workspace accounts this is visible at the domain level only
	Away	You aren't connected to the internet. You’ve been idle for more than 10 minutes. You're in "Set as away" status.
	Idle	You've been inactive in Gmail or Google Chat for the last 5 minutes.

Change your status

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top right, next to your status indicator, click the Down arrow .
3. Choose: Automatic, Do not disturb, or Set as away.

Set a custom status

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail account.
2. From your status indicator at the top, click the Down arrow .
3. Click Add a status.
4. Follow the prompt to choose an emoji, write a status message, or end or clear a status.
5. Click Done.

Delete a custom status

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail account.
2. From your status indicator at the top, click the Down arrow .
3. Click the status to delete.
4. Click X.
5. Click Done.

Set a Calendar status with a Workspace account

You can use Calendar status with a Google Workspace account. Your Chat status will automatically update to OOO, in a meeting, or in focus time based on your calendar status. You can always override your automatic calendar status with a custom one.

Anyone who sends you a direct message will find your Calendar status under your name within the direct message window.

Tip: At the top right of your Gmail window in your status indicator, you can find your Calendar status.

Group messages won’t show Calendar status.

Administrators can turn Calendar status on and off for everyone in their domain. After your Administrator turns on Calendar status for your domain, you can turn Calendar status on or off permanently or temporarily.

To permanently turn it on or off:

1. Go to Google Calendar.
2. At the top right, click Settings menu Settings.
3. On the left, under “Settings for my calendar,” select your calendar.
4. Under “Access permissions for events,” check the box next to “Show calendar info in other Google apps, limited by access permissions.” Your changes are automatically saved.

Temporarily stop notifications in Google Chat or Gmail

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail account.
2. At the top, click your status.
3. Select Do not disturb.  
4. To set your preferred duration, select a duration from the list or click "Until a specific time."  
5. Click Set.

Tip: Notifications automatically turn back on after the mute duration expires. To end mute sooner, click your status  Do not disturb  Turn off Do not disturb.

Schedule time for paused notifications in Google Chat or Gmail

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail account.
2. At the top, click your status.
3. Select Do not disturb Set a do not disturb schedule.
4. Under “Do not disturb schedules,” click Create new.
5. Enter details of the times that you want to pause notifications, then click Save.
6. Optional: To match your time zone to your do not disturb schedule:
   1. Open the Settings menu .
   2. Check the box and click Save.

Tip: You can create multiple schedules and notifications will be paused for each of the schedules.

Save chats

When you message a person or group in Google Chat, you can choose to save your conversation or have it automatically deleted after 24 hours.

When anyone in the chat turns history on or off:

• A note appears in the message stream that says history was turned on or off.
• A prompt appears in the compose box that says “History is on” or “History is off.”

• If you use Google Chat with a work or school account: Your organization determines if you can use the history setting to save your chats.
• If you use Google Chat with a personal account: You can choose whether to turn history on or off.

Tip: If history is off, messages are deleted after 24 hours.

If you turn history off in an unthreaded space, shared files won't appear under Files. If you want people to view shared files, turn on space history and then share files.

Messages you forward to your Gmail inbox remain in your email, even if chat history is turned off.

Turn history on or off in Chat

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail account.
2. Select a conversation.
3. At the top, next to the contact or conversation name, click the Down arrow or More options .
4. Select Turn on history or Turn off history.

Turn chat history on or off in Gmail

1. Go to Gmail.
2. Select a conversation.
3. Click More options   Turn on history or Turn off history. 

Block and report someone

If you don't want to chat with someone in Chat, you can block them. You can block direct messages, but you can't block people in group messages or in spaces.

When you block someone:

• If the person you blocked is in your organization, they can still see when you're online.
• The person you blocked can see that they can't send you messages.
• Neither you or the person you blocked can edit your messages to one another.
• The person you blocked is also blocked in certain other Google services.

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail account.
2. On the left, under "Chat," point to someone’s name and click More options Block & Report . If you use a Google Workspace account and the person is in your organization, this option is Block.
3. Optional: To report someone for abuse, check the box next to "Also report." If you use a Google Workspace account, you can only report people outside your organization.
4. To confirm, click Block.

Links or attachments the person sent before you blocked them are still active. To send the person a message, you need to unblock them.

When you report someone for abuse, a copy of the last 10 messages of your conversation is sent to Google for review.

Unblock someone

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail account.
2. Choose an option:
   • In Chat, at the top, click Settings SettingsManage accounts you have blocked. 
   • In Gmail, at the top, click Settings See all settingsChat and MeetManage chat settingsManage accounts you have blocked.
3. Select the person from the suggestions.
4. Click Unblock .

Tip: You can also unblock someone in Chat by going to SettingsBlockedManage accounts you have blocked. Click Removenext to the person that you blocked.

 

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