About rooms and group conversations

You can use rooms or group conversations in Google Chat to communicate with one or more people.

• Rooms: A central place where people can share files, assign tasks and stay connected.
• Group conversations: Chat directly with a group. For example, use group conversations to have a quick discussion after a meeting.

Should I use a room or group message?

	Rooms	Group conversations
Purpose	Team or project collaboration and communication.	Direct message with two or more people.
Who can chat	Add or remove people at any time.	Add or remove people at any time from the same organisation.
Conversations	Choose between multiple, threaded conversations, or a single stream of unthreaded messages.	Unthreaded messages.
Message history	Threaded rooms: History is always on and is kept based on your organisation’s policy.  Unthreaded rooms: History can be turned on or off: Off: Messages are removed after 24 hours. On: Messages follow your organisation's data retention policy.	History depends on your organisation's settings. History can be: Off: Messages are removed after 24 hours. On: Messages follow your organisation’s data retention policy.
Name	The room creator chooses a room name.	Members’ names are listed. For new group conversations, a name can be added at any time. If you name a group conversation, it turns into a room. If you turn a group conversation into a room, it can’t be changed back to a group conversation.
Default notifications	Members are notified for conversations that they're in or when @mentioned. These are default settings and can be changed.	Members are notified for every message. These are default settings and can be changed.
Membership	Members can leave and rejoin.	Members can leave and rejoin.   Tip: For group conversations created before December 2020, members may not be able to leave.
Multiple chat spaces with the same users	Can have two or more rooms with the same group.	Can have two or more conversations with the same group.
Create and assign tasks	Can create and assign tasks to other room members.	If you name a group conversation and turn it into a room, you can create and assign tasks to other room members. Unnamed group conversations don’t have task features.
Shared files	View a list of files shared with the room.	You can share files but can't view a list of the files. If you name a group conversation and turn it into a room, you can view a list of files shared with the room.