You can now limit external Google Chat to people in trusted domains

Google has added the ability for Workspace admins to limit Google Chat to only users in their allowlist of trusted domains. Prior to this, they could only choose to allow external Chat or not.

Trusted domains for Chat allows admins to choose to limit external chat to people in trusted domains for their entire organization or set different policies for different OUs. Google says the new ability for admins gives them more fine-grained control over external chat in their organization, which can help the right users communicate with the stakeholders they need to work with, while helping to prevent inappropriate or undesired external chats.

To enable trusted domains from the chat:

• Sign in to your Google Admin Console
• From the Admin console Home page, go to Apps > Google Workspace
• Select Settings for Google Chat and classic Hangouts
• Click External Chat Settings
• Check "Only allow this for whitelisted domains" to restrict external chats to trusted domains

"Trusted domains only allows communication with domain managed accounts in those domains. Email verified consumer accounts will not be trusted," Google said.

The ability to limit Google Chat to trusted domains in Google Chat is available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.