Google hangouts notifications not working now with Android Pie

[Fremen1]

Since recent updates I've noticed that my google hangouts doesn't show a notification dot when there are new messages waiting. In fact when I open the app it takes a second before it even shows the new messages that came in hours ago.
So it seems like its suspending google hangouts and not letting it run in the background to periodically check for messages.

 

[B. Diddy]

Go to Settings>Apps, select Hangouts, then Advanced>Battery, and make sure it's not background restricted. Optimizing battery should be fine, since I have mine set to optimize battery use and it doesn't cause problems with messages coming through. But I haven't tried doing the background restriction, so that might cause your problem.