Google Chat is the Preferred Messaging Service
On Wednesday, July 1, 2020, the OIT enabled the setting to make Google Chat the preferred messaging service in Google. Google has retired Hangouts, the previous message service within Google. Note: Google Meet, the video conferencing service from Google, is not impacted by this change.
Google Chat History
To comply with information security best practices, all message history for direct messages, group messaging, and chat spaces will be automatically deleted, on a continual basis, after 180 days. Also, by default, history is disabled for 1:1 and group messages meaning that you need to specifically enable history for these chats or they will disappear after 24 hours. To enable, click the drop-down next to the person's name in a 1:1 chat or the drop-down for the group (both drop-downs located below the search bar) > Turn on history.