As of March 22, you are required to switch to Google Chat, the successor to Hangouts. Organizations that support both should switch quickly.
Hangouts, once Google’s main chat client, will officially be sent to the eternal hunting grounds for Workspace customers on March 22. The consumer version has long migrated to Google Chat, but now professional Google Workspace customers must also switch over.
On deadline day, Google ticks the option Chat preferred to everyone in the admin panel. From then on, Google Chat will become the default chat application within Google Workspace, replacing Hangouts. Anyone trying to reach Hangouts in Gmail or the mobile app from that day forward will be automatically redirected to Google Chat. Only the url hangouts.google.com will continue to work for a while after the deadline.
IT admins who today use the option Chat and classic Hangouts or Classic Hangouts only have enabled, can already proactively make the switch if they haven’t already. Make sure everything is migrated to Google Chat. Normally this is done automatically by Google, but a double check never hurts.