This article outlines the steps required to migrate direct messages in Google Chat between Google Workspace tenants. This article assumes that you have already followed the steps in the below article to set up a Google Workspace to Google Workspace project and added your users migration batch.
Google Workspace to Google Workspace Migration Guide
What is migrated?
- Direct message Google chat spaces between users in the migration list.
- Messages within the migrated spaces.
- Message attachments.
- Message reactions.
- GIFs
- Quoted messages - these will appear with manual quotations at the destination due to API limitations.
What is not migrated?
- Direct message Google chat spaces from users not in the migration list.
- Messages within non-migrated Google chat spaces.
- Created date - The message time will be updated to the time of the migration at the destination.
Watchpoints
There are a few things to consider when planning this type of migration.
- Due to API limitations, the Google chat notifications cannot currently be suppressed for new Google chat messages created at the destination. Our recommendation would be to migrate these items before users begin using Google chat at the destination.
- Due to API limitations, the created date is not migrated. Our recommendation would be to migrate these items before users begin using Google chat at the destination.
- To track which messages have been migrated using the tool, we assign a unique message ID to each message.
- However, due to a technical limitation with Google direct message chats, simply deleting the direct message space for both users does not completely remove existing messages. If a migration doesn’t go as planned, or you want to re-migrate a chat, the unique message IDs from the previous migration will still be in use, resulting in the messages not being migrated.
- To address this, we’ve introduced a "prefix" option in the advanced settings for Google destinations. If you need to re-run a migration for an existing direct message space, you can add a value in the prefix field to ensure the new messages are created. This prefix is only necessary for re-migrations and not required for the initial migration of a direct message space. This option is detailed further below.
Enable and Configure the Google Chat API
You will need to follow the steps in the below article at both the source and destination to enable the Google Chat API.
Enable and Configure the Google Chat API
Adding Items to Migrate
When preparing to migrate users to corresponding accounts at the destination, follow the format below:
- Export Type: User
- Export Name: Source primary email address
- Import Type: User
- Import Name: Destination primary email address
- Given Name: User's first name at the destination (leave blank if the user already exists at the destination)
- Family Name: User's surname at the destination (leave blank if the user already exists at the destination)
For each user entry, select the specific items you wish to migrate. Make sure the 'Migrate' option is enabled for all users included in the migration.
General Settings
In the General Settings section, ensure all domain mappings are configured correctly to facilitate replacing the source domain with the destination domain during the migration.
You can also apply date range filters for various data types to migrate information within a specific timeframe. Specify the date ranges you wish to include.
Source Settings
For this type of migration, it is recommended to keep the source settings as default.
Destination Settings
For a standard user-to-user migration, it is recommended to keep the destination settings as default. However, depending on your specific requirements, you might want to consider the below setting.
- User -> Direct Message Client Id Prefix: If you are re-migrating after deleting chats in the destination, you can use this option to add a prefix to the message ID's to ensure they are remigrated. Without this, the chats may not be migrated as described in the watchpoint section above.
Advanced Settings
For a straightforward user-to-user migration, most advanced settings can remain at their default values. However, consider the following:
-
Address Replacement: It is highly recommended to upload an address replacement CSV that maps source users to their corresponding destination users. This ensures permissions are correctly migrated. For more information, please refer to the Address Replacements article.
Additional settings are outlined here: Advanced Settings
Migration Process
Given the API limitations outlined in the watchpoint section above, we recommend migrating these items before users start using their Google chats at the destination.