Turn history on or off in Google Chat

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.”

Work, school, & personal accounts

• 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.

Turn history on or off in Chat or Gmail

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.

Tips:

• History is always on in rooms with threaded conversations. If you use a Google Workspace account, learn how to start a new conversation thread.
• When history is off in rooms without threaded conversations, messages remain in your email if you forward them to your Gmail inbox.
• When history is off in a room, shared files won’t appear in that room’s “Files” section. For people to view shared files, turn on room history and then share files. Learn how to manage your files in Gmail rooms.
• If history is on, people added to the room can view past messages from before they joined the room.