Update on Google Hangouts Chat

April 3, 2018

Earlier this month we announced that the new Google Hangouts Chat would be rolling out on the UMICH domain. Since then, the ITS Infrastructure Collaboration Services team, ITS Accessibility experts, and the Collaboration Services Advisory Group at the University of Michigan have taken a detailed look at Hangouts Chat.

After thorough testing, these groups found that this current version of Google Hangouts Chat lacks many critical and essential features. The ITS Collaboration Services Team and the Collaboration Services Advisory Group recommend that the University of Michigan not activate Google Hangouts Chat until these gaps are addressed and the product matures. For more information, please read the Service Evaluation.

Google Hangouts remains available as it is a different app than Hangouts Chat.

We will keep you updated with new developments.