Use the Google Chat standalone app

People in your organization can use the Google Chat standalone app for a faster and more secure experience. You can deploy the app to your organization, or you can allow users to install the app themselves.

About the standalone app

Note: If Google Chat is turned on for an organizational unit where Gmail is turned off, users who go to mail.google.com/chat get a You do not have access to Gmail error. Users can still access Chat and install the standalone app at https://chat.google.com/, or you can deploy the app from https://chat.google.com/download. If you use Context-Aware Access, access levels assigned only to Gmail don't apply to chat.google.com, so assign your access levels to Chat as well.

Option 1: Deploy the app to users

You deploy the app to your users through the Chrome policy management settings.

  1. In the Google Admin console, go to Menu and then Devices and then Chrome and then Apps & extensions and then Users & browsers.

    If you signed up for Chrome Browser Cloud Management, go to Menu and then Chrome browser and then Apps & extensions and then Users & browsers.

  2. Point to Add and click Add by URL .
  3. For URL, enter https://chat.google.com/download Important: Enter the URL exactly as it appears above.
  4. From the Open website in list, select Separate window.
  5. Click Save.

Option 2: Let users install the app

To let users install the app themselves:

  1. Make sure users can install Chrome Browser extensions and apps. For details, go to Allow or block apps and extensions.
  2. Direct users to the steps to Install the Chat standalone app.

Known limitations

We're working to address these limitations with the Chat standalone app:

  • You need Chrome Browser 73 or higher installed on your computer. Chrome Browser doesn't have to be your default browser to use the standalone app.
  • To use the standalone app, the Chrome Browser needs to be open.
  • The standalone app is not yet packageable by enterprise re-packagers such as SCCM.