How to Block Incoming Chat Requests from Strangers in Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts has been replaced by Google Chat, so the old Hangouts invite settings are gone. To block chat requests from strangers today, open Google Chat, click Settings, and under Who can message you? choose Known senders only.

With that option selected, Google says you only receive invitations from people who are in your contacts or who you have interacted with before. Invitations from everyone else go to the spam folder instead of reaching you.

What happened to the Hangouts invite settings

The older version of this guide used the Hangouts menu path Settings > Customize invite settings > Everyone else > Can’t send invites. That screen belonged to classic Hangouts, which Google has retired. Google’s old Hangouts help address now opens Google Chat Help, and conversations happen in Google Chat or in the Chat section of Gmail.

Google Chat handles strangers in two ways. First, the first direct message from someone new arrives as a message request, which is an invitation you can accept or ignore before a conversation starts. Second, a newer setting lets you keep unknown senders from reaching you at all. Google announced that setting on its Workspace Updates blog in December 2025 for Google Workspace customers and personal Google accounts.

Before you start

• You need to be signed in to the Google Account that receives the unwanted requests. The setting applies to that account only.
• The steps below follow Google’s current help pages for a computer, Android, and iPhone or iPad. Menu names can change as Google updates Chat.
• Google states there is no administrator control for this feature, so the choice is yours even on a work or school account.
• The setting does not affect messages between people in the same organization. A coworker on your company’s domain can still message you without having talked to you before.

How to block message requests from strangers in Google Chat on a computer

These steps follow Google’s help page Restrict messages from unknown senders in Chat.

1. Open Google Chat in your browser, or open Gmail and click Chat on the left side of the window.
2. Click Settings at the top right. It is the gear icon.
3. Find the Who can message you? section. This controls 1:1 conversations, which are private chats between you and one other person.
4. Select Known senders only. The other choice, Anyone, is the default and lets anyone send you an invitation.
5. Find the Who can invite you to spaces? section. A space is a shared group conversation in Google Chat.
6. Select Known senders only there as well if you also want to stop invitations to spaces from people you do not know.

You can change one setting and leave the other alone. For example, you might restrict 1:1 messages but still accept space invitations from anyone.

How to block message requests from strangers on Android

1. Open the Chat app on your Android phone or tablet.
2. Tap Menu at the top left, then tap Settings.
3. Look for the Manage invites heading.
4. Tap Who can message you? and select Known senders only.
5. Tap Who can invite you to spaces? and select Known senders only if you want the same limit for spaces.

How to block message requests from strangers on an iPhone or iPad

1. Open the Chat app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Menu at the top left, tap Settings, then tap Manage invites.
3. Under Who can message you? select Known senders only.
4. Under Who can invite you to spaces? select Known senders only if you want it.

Google’s instructions for phones and tablets name the Chat app. If you only use Chat inside the Gmail app and cannot find these options there, change the setting in the Chat app or on a computer.

Anyone vs. Known senders only

Setting	Who can reach you	What happens to other invitations
Anyone	Anyone with a Google Account who tries to message or invite you	They arrive as invitations that you can accept, ignore, or block
Known senders only	People in your contacts and people you have interacted with before	They go to the spam folder

Keep one tradeoff in mind before you switch. A legitimate new contact, such as a recruiter, a customer, or a relative using a new account, is treated the same as any other unknown sender. Their invitation goes to spam, and you will not see it unless you look there.

How to handle a request you already received

If you leave the setting on Anyone, or a request arrived before you changed it, you can deal with it one at a time. Google describes this on its page Respond to a Google Chat message request.

1. On a computer, open Google Chat or the Chat section of Gmail.
2. Click New chat, then click Message requests.
3. Click the person’s name. Their message appears with the request.
4. Click Ignore to dismiss it. To stop more requests from that person, select Also block and then click Ignore.

According to Google, the sender cannot tell that you ignored the request. If you accept instead, the person can see your basic profile details, which are your name, avatar, and email address. They can also tell when you are online and can add you to spaces. Only accept requests from people you recognize.

Google Chat also filters requests that look like spam into a separate section. You can accept or block the requests it places there.

How to block and report a specific person

Blocking is the better tool when one particular account keeps bothering you. Read what blocking does before you confirm, because it reaches beyond Chat:

• The blocked person cannot send you messages until you unblock them.
• Their messages are hidden from you in spaces and group messages, but they can still read messages sent to a space you share.
• Google says the person is also blocked in certain other Google services.
• If you report them for abuse, a copy of the last 50 messages of your conversation is sent to Google for review.

To block someone on a computer, follow the steps on Google’s Block & report someone page:

1. Open Google Chat or the Chat section of Gmail.
2. In your conversation list, next to the person’s name, click More options, then click Block & Report. On a work or school account, the option is just Block when the person is in your organization.
3. Optional: check the Report to Google box to report abuse.
4. Click Block to confirm.

On Android, iPhone, or iPad, tap and hold the direct message in your conversation list, tap Block & report, check Also report if you want to report the person, and tap Block.

How to confirm the change and how to undo it

To confirm the setting, go back to Chat Settings and check that Known senders only is still selected under Who can message you?. Google’s instructions do not mention a save button for this setting.

To undo it, return to the same place and select Anyone. New invitations from unknown senders will then reach you as message requests again.

To unblock a person on a computer, click Settings at the top of Chat, click Manage blocked users, select the person, and click Unblock. In the Chat app on a phone or tablet, tap Menu, then Settings, then Manage blocked users.

Troubleshooting

I cannot find Customize invite settings

That option was part of classic Hangouts and no longer exists. Use Who can message you? in Google Chat settings instead.

I do not see Who can message you? in Settings

Make sure you opened the settings for Chat and not the general Gmail settings. In Gmail, click Chat on the left first, then click Settings at the top right. If Chat does not appear in Gmail at all, Google notes that it has to be turned on in Gmail settings. On a phone, update the Chat app and look again under Manage invites.

Someone I do not know still messaged me

Check whether they are in your contacts, whether you have exchanged messages with them before, or whether they belong to your work or school organization. Google treats all of those as allowed senders. If the person is none of those, block and report them.

A message I was expecting never arrived

With Known senders only turned on, an invitation from a new person goes to spam. Check the spam message requests in Chat, or add the person to your Google contacts and ask them to try again.

Frequently asked questions

Can I still use Google Hangouts to block invites?

No. Classic Hangouts has been replaced by Google Chat, so its invite settings are not available. The closest current setting is Who can message you? in Google Chat, set to Known senders only.

Who counts as a known sender in Google Chat?

Google defines a known sender as someone who is in your contacts or someone you have interacted with before. People in the same organization as you are not affected by the setting.

Does the other person know I ignored or restricted them?

Google states that a requester cannot tell you ignored their message request. Google’s help pages do not say whether a sender is told when an invitation is sent to spam.

Does Known senders only delete requests from strangers?

No. Google says those invitations go to the spam folder. They are filtered away from your normal conversation list, not deleted.

Does this setting stop spam email in Gmail?

No. It only covers Google Chat invitations for 1:1 conversations and spaces. Email is handled separately, and you can block someone’s email address in Gmail for that.

Next step

Once strangers can no longer reach you in Chat, clean up any leftovers from the old service. If the Hangouts add-on is still in your browser, see how to remove the Hangouts extension from Chrome.