With the Google Chat API, you can import data from another messaging service to Google Chat. During this process, the Chat app will import these messages into import mode spaces. After the process successfully completes, these spaces become standard Chat spaces. These spaces will be deleted if the process is not completed within 90 days from the time the space was created.
About import mode spaces
- Import mode only supports the named spaces. It does not support unnamed group messages and direct messages.
- Space and message historical timestamps from other services are preserved.
- Users can’t access import mode spaces during the import process, and they receive no alerts or notifications from the space while data is being imported.
- Data loss prevention rules are not enforced on import mode spaces.
- To prevent issues with other features, data during migration is treated as temporary and can’t interact with archival features (such as Google Vault, Takeout, or the security investigation tool).
- After import, import mode spaces become standard spaces and can have their data archived, exported, retained, and managed by administrators as usual. There is no way to identify them as import spaces.
- During import mode, out-of-retention data will be hidden from your users, but not purged from the system. Once the import is complete, data will start following your compliance policies again automatically. This may purge data if there is no Vault retaining rules applied on them.
- Each import mode space has 90 days from the time that it is created to complete the import.
After 90 days, if the space is still in import mode, it's automatically deleted and will be inaccessible and unrecoverable.
Step 1: Turn on Chat for your organization
In the Google Admin console, make sure Chat is on for your top-level organizational unit. For details, go to Turn on your Chat preference.
Step 2: Keep chat history for your users
We recommend you turn chat history on. If you have different forced chat history settings for different sub-organizational units, check that there are no conflicts in these settings. For details, go to:
Step 3: Confirm message retention
If the service you’re importing data from uses message retention, make sure you configure your Google Vault settings to match. For example, if your former service retained messages for 30 days before deletion, make sure Chat follows the same rules. Otherwise, Chat may remove messages earlier or later than expected. For details, go to Retain messages in Google Chat with Vault.
Step 4: Set up user accounts
Domain-wide delegation allows Chat apps to import user messages by re-creating them through Google Workspace accounts. Therefore, before data migration, you need to create Google Workspace accounts for your users. If you have a large team, we recommend adding users in bulk. For details, go to Add accounts for new users.
Note: Due to migration licensing constraints, licenses must be assigned to existing user accounts. For Chat content and membership migration, only active user accounts with active licenses are eligible for migration.
Step 5: Grant import mode access to apps
You must grant domain-wide delegation to the app’s service account to all Chat apps.
- Use this Chat API OAuth scope: https://googleapis.com/auth/chat.import
- For the steps to grant access, go to Control API access with domain-wide delegation.
Step 6: Prepare your users
For a successful transition to Chat, inform your users about the migration and help them get started with Chat in the Google Workspace Learning Center.
