If you experience abusive behavior in a Google Chat space, you can block and report the space. You can also preview spaces marked as spam, then choose to block or join the space.
Learn what happens when you block a space
When you block a space:
- Posts you made in the space stay visible to others.
- You no longer get updates from the space.
- The space won’t appear in your “Spaces” list or space searches.
- You won’t get any future invitation notifications for the space, but your name appears as an invited member.
If you get an invitation to a space you blocked:
- You appear as an invited member, but you won’t get any notifications or be added to the space.
- The space organizer or other members won't know you blocked the space.
Tips:
- Blocked users can't add you to a space, nor can you add blocked users to a space.
- When you unblock a space, you can only rejoin the space if add
appears in "Browse spaces."
Block a space
- On your computer, open Google Chat or Gmail.
- Choose one:
- On the left, under “Spaces,” next to the space name, click More options
Block space.
- Select the space you want to block
- On the left, under “Spaces,” next to the space name, click More options
- Click Block.
Tips:
- To report the space as spam or abuse, check the box next to Report this space as spam or abuse.
- If you report a space for abuse, a copy of the last 50 messages in the space is sent to Google for review.
- To rejoin a space that you blocked, another member of that space must invite or add you again.
Unblock a space
- On your computer, open Google Chat or Gmail.
- Choose an option:
- In Chat, at the top, click Settings
Manage blocked spaces.
- In Gmail, at the top, click Settings
- In Chat, at the top, click Settings
- Next to the space, click Unblock.
Block a space marked as spam
- On your computer, open Google Chat or Gmail.
- In Chat, click New Chat
- Click Browse spaces menu items
- Next to the space, click Preview.
- For your protection, you can't download links or find images when you preview the space.
- To block the space and future invitations, click Block.
Optional: To report the space, click the box next to "Report this space as spam or abuse" Block.
Join a space marked as spam
- In Chat, click New Chat
- Click Browse spaces menu items
- Next to the space, click Preview.
- For your protection, you can't download links or find images when you preview the space.
- Click Join.
Tip: When you join a space marked as spam, the spam label is removed and the space is added to your list of joined spaces.
Manage spam space invites
Space invites that appear to be spam are filtered into a separate section. You can choose to join or block the space.
You can prevent future invites from spaces marked as spam if you block the space. If you think Google wrongly filtered a space as spam, you can still join the space.