[dr_dshiv]

I love that in Google Hangouts chat, default chat app on Android phone, there is no search capability.

I keep using it because I'm assuming they will add it eventually. I still find the Gmail+chat+hangout combo to be extremely robust and easy -- I just don't know why it isn't supported.

[qiqitori]

You can export your Hangouts chat history on takeout.google.com. The resulting Hangsouts.json file is human-readable but not fun to read. I have a one-liner to convert it into something nicer, but it doesn't resolve user names and you need to figure out the conversation ID you want to export yourself.

    jq -c '.conversations[] | select(.conversation.conversation_id.id == "YOUNEEDTOFILLTHISINYOURSELF") | .events[] | [(.timestamp | tonumber / 1000000 + (9*3600)| strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S (%a)")), .sender_id.gaia_id, [.chat_message.message_content.segment[]?.text], .chat_message.message_content.attachment[]?.embed_item?.plus_photo?.url?]' Hangouts.json | sort > foo.log

When you open Hangouts.json, you'll see that every conversation has something like this at the beginning:

    "conversation_id": { "id": "BASE64-LIKE_STRING" }

This BASE64-LIKE_STRING belongs into the YOUNEEDTOFILLTHISINYOURSELF placeholder.

[AjithAntony]

Hangouts conversations are archived in your gmail, you could search there.

[dmos62]

You didn't miss that it's about to get killed right? I've been an avid user of Google Hangouts. I wonder what will I use instead.

[dr_dshiv]

Wait, the chats are getting killed? Or the video? Or is it getting renamed?

Super confused.

[dmos62]

I found out about it on https://killedbygoogle.com/ just now. However, after double-checking, apparently it's some G Suite Hangouts variant that's getting killed: https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/08/updates-to-hang...

[summerlight]

The new version of Chat has a search functionality so you'll likely get it when the transition's done.