Upcoming changes to how retention policies are applied to 1:1 direct messages in Google Chat

Upcoming changes to how retention policies are applied to 1:1 direct messages in Google Chat
Monday, March 17, 2025

What’s happening
Many Google Workspace organizations rely on Google Chat to facilitate communication and collaboration, including with users in the same domain, users in other Workspace Domains, and users with personal Google accounts. Currently, each organization in an external 1:1 direct message conversation can set their own retention policy, which impacts what messages end users see in the Chat user interface and what admins see in Google Vault.
To provide a more consistent product experience across conversation types, we are changing how retention policies are applied to 1:1 direct messages with external participants.
Following this change, 1:1 direct messages with external participants will respect the retention policy of the user who created the conversation. If a user in your organization did not create the conversation, they may see more or fewer messages in the Chat user interface after this change since the creator’s policy will be respected. You can see who created the conversation by scrolling to the top of the conversation, or hovering over the external badge.

This change does not impact an admin’s ability to apply a retention policy or ability to access 1:1 direct messages in Google Vault or Data Export for users with a Google Vault policy applied.
If you do not have Vault, or do not have a Vault policy applied, changes in access to conversations will apply to the Chat user interface and Data Export.

Additionally, today, in the case that two users within the same organization have conflicting retention policies, we respect those policies separately for each user in the Chat user interface, and in Google Vault. Once the migration happens, we will respect the longer of the two retention policies for both the Chat user interface and Google Vault. If one user has a custom retention rule while the other has only a default retention rule, the custom rule will take precedence for both users.
If an auto-deletion policy applies to one user in the conversation, that policy will delete messages for both users in the Chat user interface. If both users have an auto deletion policy, the shorter of the two policies will be respected for both users. Even if messages are deleted from the Chat user interface, they will continue to be retained in Google Vault in accordance with the configured retention policy.

Starting May 1, 2025:
All new external 1:1 direct messages will respect the retention policy of the creator.
For users with a Vault policy applied, the creator’s policy will only impact messages in the Chat product user interface.
Starting June 2, 2025:
Existing 1:1 direct messages will migrate to respect the retention policy of the creator.
For users with a Vault policy applied, the creator’s policy will only impact messages in the Chat product user interface.
By August 1, 2025:
We anticipate the migration will be complete.
Until February 1, 2026:
We will preserve impacted 1:1 direct messages in Google Vault or Data Export for 6 months past the end of the migration to allow organizations to download a copy of the data.

Why it matters
It’s important to note that if your organization has a Google Vault policy applied to your users, you will not lose access to any conversations—even if they no longer appear in the Chat product user interface. If your organization does not have Vault or does not have a Vault policy applied, some conversations that were previously available may no longer be available in Data Export or Vault.

Getting started
Admins:

• For more information, including answers to common questions about this change, check out our admin guide to message retention changes.
• We recommend that you confirm your external chatting settings and ensure you have Vault policies properly configured (if applicable) to preserve data for the desired amount of time. Visit the Help Center to learn more about retaining messages in Google Chat with Vault and using Vault to search Google Chat.
• If you’d like to obtain a copy of all conversations not created by your organization, you can perform a Vault or Data Export after August 1, 2025. To reduce the size of the export, you can use the Vault search operator “is:externalmanaged” after August 1, 2025.
• End users: Visit the Help Center to learn about message history for conversations with work or school accounts.

End users: Visit the Help Center to learn about message history for conversations with work or school accounts.