Block or report a room in Google Chat and Gmail

If you experience abusive behaviour in a Google Chat room, you can block the room or report it as spam. You can also preview rooms marked as spam, then choose to block or join the room.

Block a room

When you block a room:

• Posts that you made in the room stay visible to others.
• You won't get communications from the room.
• The room won’t appear in your ‘Rooms’ list or room searches.
• You won’t get any future invitation notifications for the room, but your name appears as an invited member.

If you get an invitation to a room that you blocked:

• You appear as an invited member, but you won’t get any notifications or be added to the room.
• The room organiser or other members won't know that you blocked the room.

Tips

• Blocked users can't add you to a room, nor can you add blocked users to a room.
• When you unblock a room, you can only rejoin the room if you add  appears in 'Browse rooms'.

Manage spam room invitations

Room invitations that appear to be spam are filtered into a separate section. You can choose to join or block the room. Invitations classified as spam on classic Hangouts show up as spam in Chat and vice versa.

You can prevent future invitations from rooms marked as spam if you block the room. If you think that Google wrongly filtered a room as spam, you can still join the room.

Block a room

Important: You can only report rooms as spam or abuse that include external members.

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail account.
2. Choose one:
   • At the left, under ‘Rooms’, next to the room name, click More options   Block room.
   • Select the room that you want to block  Click the room details drop-down  Block room.
3. Click Block.

Optional: To report the room as spam or abuse, tick the box next to Report this room as spam or abuse. 

Unblock a room in Google Chat

1. Go to Google Chat.
2. At the top right, click Settings  Settings.
3. Under ‘Blocked rooms’, click Manage blocked rooms.
4. Point to the room that you want to unblock to select it  Click Unblock.

Tip: When you unblock a room, it becomes browsable. You can search for it in ‘Browse rooms’.

Unblock a room in Gmail

1. Go to your Gmail account.
2. At the top right, click Settings  See all settings.
3. At the top, click Chat and Meet.
4. Next to ‘Chat notification settings’, click Manage chat settings.
5. Under ‘Blocked rooms’, click Manage blocked rooms.
6. Point to the room that you want to unblock to select it  Unblock.

Block a room marked as spam in Google Chat

1. Go to Google Chat.
2. On the left, click inside the search bar for ‘Find people, rooms, bots’ Browse rooms Browse rooms menu items  Spam invitations  Preview.
   Tip: For your protection, you can't download links or view images when you preview the room.
3. Click Block to block the room and future invitations.

Optional: To report the room, click the box next to ‘Report this room as spam or abuse’  Block.

Block a room marked as spam in Gmail

1. Go to your Gmail account.
2. On the left, next to ‘Rooms’, click Create or find a room More options   Browse rooms Spam invitations  Preview.

   Tip: For your protection, you can't download links or view images when you preview the room.

3. Click Block to block the room and future invitations.

Optional: To report the room, click the box next to ‘Report this room as spam or abuse’  Block.

Join a room marked as spam in Google Chat

1. Go to Google Chat.
2. On the left, click inside the search bar for Find people, rooms, bots  Browse rooms Browse rooms menu items   Spam invitations  Preview.
   Tip: For your protection, you can't download links or view images when you preview the room.
3. Click Join.

Tip: When you join a room marked as spam, the spam label is removed and the room is added to your list of joined rooms.

Join a room marked as spam in Gmail

1. Go to your Gmail account.
2. On the left, next to ‘Rooms’, click Create or find a room   Browse rooms  Browse rooms menu items   Spam invitations  Preview.
   Tip: For your protection, you can't download links or view images when you preview the room.
3. Click Join.

Tip: When you join a room marked as spam, the spam label is removed and the room is added to your list of joined rooms.