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             How to Eliminate the Google Hangouts Migration Dialog

   Adam Engst

   For the last few weeks, whenever I launch Brave, my primary Web
   browser, I've been getting a dialog from Google Hangouts, alerting me
   that Google has replaced Hangouts with Google Chat. This isn't
   news'Google first mentioned this would happen in an [1]October 2020
   announcement and provided more details in a [2]June 2022 post. And, of
   course, the dialog provides a [3]Learn More link for additional
   details. Moving to Google Chat isn't the problem'I've been using it for
   some time now with the one person in my extended network who doesn't
   use iMessage, SMS, or Slack.

   The problem is that nowhere does Google say how to stop getting this
   migration dialog. Complicating the issue is that Hangouts is from
   Google, so it could be something special and may have migrated to Brave
   when I switched from Chrome years ago.

   Because Google Hangouts puts an icon in my menu bar, my first guess was
   that it was a Progressive Web Application so it could provide
   additional local functionality. Since I know little about PWAs, I went
   spelunking through my drive and found a Brave Browser Apps folder and a
   Chrome Apps folder in my Home folder's Applications folder.
   Unfortunately, although there was a 'Hangouts call' app in the Chrome
   Apps folder, the Brave Browser Apps folder contained only an [4]Authy
   app. So, even though I didn't fully understand what the 'Hangouts call'
   app could be in the context of Chrome, I could tell it wasn't
   associated with Brave.

   After some fruitless searches hampered by the need to use generic
   keywords, I found a page about installing the [5]Google Chat standalone
   app. It gave me a link to another [6]Google support page about
   Progressive Web Applications, which in turn revealed that typing
   chrome://apps (which redirects to brave://apps in Brave) in the address
   bar would show the installed PWA apps. Alas, it showed that the only
   PWA I had installed was Google Drive, making me even more confused
   about the Authy app in ~/Applications/Brave Browser Apps. (And no, the
   'Hangouts call' app didn't show up when I loaded that page in Chrome
   either. Whatever.)

   Additional searches failed to turn up any useful information about how
   to prevent this migration dialog from appearing, but on a hunch, I
   chose Window > Extension in Brave to see what Chrome extensions I had
   installed. I knew a Google Hangouts extension wasn't showing in my
   Brave toolbar, but it wasn't unthinkable that I had the extension
   installed and active but not pinned to the toolbar. That was indeed the
   case, and once I removed the Google Hangouts extension, a quick
   relaunch of Brave confirmed that the dialog was finally retired.

   So if you find yourself in this situation, remove the Google Hangouts
   extension from Chrome, Brave, Microsoft Edge, or whatever
   Chromium-based browser you use.

   I'm a little annoyed with myself for how long it took me to solve this
   problem, but it's a classic example of developers failing to put
   themselves in their users' shoes. It was entirely reasonable to present
   the migration dialog to ensure that users are aware of the switch to
   Google Chat, but either the dialog or Google's [7]Learn about the
   switch from Google Hangouts to Google Chat page should have mentioned
   removing the Google Hangouts extension. I've left feedback about the
   omission on that page; we'll see if Google improves it by adding those
   details.

References

   Visible links
   1. https://blog.google/products/workspace/latest-google-hangouts-and-upgrade-google-chat/
   2. https://blog.google/products/workspace/hangouts-to-chat/
   3. https://support.google.com/chat/answer/9854901
   4. https://authy.com/
   5. https://support.google.com/chat/answer/9455386
   6. https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/9658361
   7. https://support.google.com/chat/answer/9854901

   Hidden links:
   8. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2022/11/Google-Hangouts-migration.png
   9. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2022/11/Google-Hangouts-extension.png

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