There’s not a lot of need to differentiate between them. You can set up a Meet from Chat and invite meeting participants into a Chat.įrom a user perspective, you can really think of them as different parts of the same tool. They’re really two halves of the same service, and they integrate seamlessly. The only major difference is that Meet is designed specifically around voice and video.Ĭhat is designed to handle text messages, shared files, and collaborative workspaces. They’re both designed around direct communication and conferencing. They are trying to provide the same services. Since Meet and Chat are separate aspects of the old Hangouts system, it helps to differentiate between the two. In that meeting, you can video conference, voice conference, and chat, all at the same time (or only use the one that you prefer). You essentially create a digital meeting (comparable to the Zoom experience). The split also dramatically expanded the maximum number of users in a meeting up to 250.Īll of this is to say that “a Google Meet” is a term for using “Google Meet” for communication. The general functionality is the same, but Chat and Meet are a little more streamlined for modern use, offer higher definition features, and can support more advanced encryption for better privacy. The original Hangouts is still available today (though it is upgraded). Specifically, it was the business side-Hangouts Meet-that was restructured. In 2017, Google restructured Hangouts and broke it into Google Chat and Google Meet.

In other words, you could have larger conferences with the Meets version. The business variation was known as Hangout Meet-with the biggest difference being that Hangouts Meet supported more simultaneous users. Hangouts was released in May of 2013, and it had a consumer and business variation. It allows for video, audio, and chat conferencing, and it is a modern reimagining of an older Google tool known as Hangouts. Google Meet is a tool made by Google for direct communication. Talking about Google Meet for a minute will help add context and understanding that should empower you as you try to access, record, and otherwise use chats.

Let’s jump right into it! What Is a Google Meet?īefore we get into chat logs and workarounds, we can set the stage. So if you want to learn all about retrieving chat messages after a Google Meet, then you’re in the right place. You can also record the meeting or save the chat files with a third-party app. If you don’t use Google Chat, the meeting host can save the whole meeting and review the chats at will. If you use Google Chat, then the chat logs are saved to your Gmail account, and you can review them there. Here’s how to access a Google Meet chat after a meeting:

Download chat logs hangouts google