Turn history on or off in Google Chat

When you message a person or group in Google Chat, you can choose to save your conversation or have it automatically deleted after 24 hours.

When anyone in the chat turns history on or off:

A note appears in the message stream that says history was turned on or off.
A prompt appears in the compose box that says “History is on” or “History is off.”

Learn who can control conversation history

If you use Google Chat with a work or school account: Your organization determines if you can use the history setting to save your chats.
If you use Google Chat with a personal account: You can choose whether to turn history on or off.

On your computer, open Google Chat or Gmail.
- In Gmail: On the left, click Chat.
Open a conversation.
At the top, click the conversation name Turn on history or Turn off history.

History is always on in spaces grouped by topic.
History is on by default in spaces with in-line threading. If you have a workspace account, your administrator may change the default history setting.
When history is on, people added to a space can view past messages from before they joined the space.

When history is off in spaces with in-line threading, messages remain in your email if you forward them to your Gmail inbox.
When history is off in a space, shared files won’t appear in that space’s “Files” section. For people to view shared files, turn on space history and then share files. Learn how to manage your files in spaces.
Even with history off, Google Chat may scan messages for spam, phishing, and malware.
Even with history off, if you use Google Chat with a work or school account, your organization may scan messages for sensitive data.