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I have multiple gmail accounts and Hangouts desktop app (in Chrome apps)

I want to change my account to use with it, but I can't figure out how. I don't see logout/login option anywhere. In Gmail/G+ is easy but I don't understand to make it with the desktop app.

Alternatively, how do I reset the app data so that I can just do a fresh login? I tried by uninstalling and reinstalling it but it kept all the data.

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  • Same same. It seemed to change on it's own accord to the account trough which I have no hangouts contacts. I did find the 'Sign out of Hangouts' button if you click the caret to the right of the New conversation bar and scroll down, but signing in again still signs back into the same account. – RickyD Dec 8 '15 at 1:15
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You need to change the default account in your multi-account setup.

To do this, sign out of everything (all accounts in all google apps) in Chrome. Then sign in again, in the order you want for priority for extensions and apps.

The first account you sign in as will be default and will ride hangouts extension.

It's a quirk in the multi-login system Chrome and Google use. Really they need a 'set as default' button to save having to this every time you want to switch hangouts accounts.

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  • 6
    Just discovered a hidden feature related to hangouts with multiple accounts. By default, if you open a hangout it will default to the first user as described in the answer. If you open a hangout associated with a google calendar event, it appends an authuser parameter to the url with the value of the current calendar user. This id is not unique and is dependent on the sequence of account logins (0, 1, 2..). If you replace the numeric value with the actual username of the user, it will correctly join as that user. This way you can just append ?authuser=<username> to the hangout link. – kldavis4 Oct 21 '16 at 17:01
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    kldavis4 has a great solution! I just added the authuser to my URL and saved that for quick reference. (i.e. hangouts.google.com/?authuser=MyFullEmailAddress@gmail.com). kldavis4, if you had made this an answer I certainly would have voted for it! – MBentley Aug 11 '17 at 14:57
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    this worked for ages with me, but sadly I can't get it to work now :( recently upgraded my computer, latest windows, latest chrome. sadface. – Jon Marnock Sep 24 '18 at 6:59
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You now also have the option of adding another user to your browser. Click on your name in the title bar, add a user. Then sign in, and add the chrome plugin. You'll end up with two instances of the plugin.

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In my case, we had a link on our calendar events and Slack for the hangout. Turns out there's a URL parameter at the end you can change if needed. https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts/_/example.com/your-conference-name?pli=1&authuser=1

Note the authuser=1 which can be switched, which changes the default account.

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  • This should be the accepted answer. – Bass May 26 '20 at 13:47

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