A privacy bug within Google's Hangouts and Google Talk chat instant messaging services has confused message recipients and sent instant messages to other contacts as well as the intended recipient.

It is unknown what exactly caused the messaging bug, which had privacy implications and the potential for messages to be redirected to embarrassing unintended recipients.

One user, PardeepDhingra01, complained on Google's product support forums that "while I was chatting with my other colleague, my chats [got] sent to my boss and my boss' chats, which he sent to me, [got] sent to my colleague."

The issue seems to have been limited to Google Talk users attempting to communicate with people who have migrated to Google's newer, replacement instant messaging platform, Google Hangouts.

Google: "Service is returning to normal"

The issue was first noticed at 9.32AM on 26 September by Google who said: "We're investigating reports of an issue with Google Talk."

"At this time Google Talk is not functioning correctly and we are continuing to work to restore full functionality," Google continued.

However, the bug seems to have been resolved, as Google later said as of 12:15PM, "all services are gradually returning to normal. We will update when full service is restored."

Google recently updated its mobile version of the Google Hangouts client for Android, although it is unclear whether the issue was caused by the update.

• In August, Google said users shouldn't expect privacy when using the company's Gmail email services.