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Google Replaces Gchat With Hangouts Today (axios.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The day dreaded by stubborn office workers around the country has finally arrived. At some point today, Google will replace its Google Talk feature in Gmail -- known colloquially to most of the world as Gchat -- with Google Hangouts. The reasoning: Google's announcement of the switch back in March touts Hangouts' better features and integration with other Google products over the barebones Gchat, which launched way back in 2005.
And I only mean Slackware in reference to the nerds on Slashdot.
Slack
(Stoot, we still don't forgive you for ending Glitch)
hangouts has been around for a while and i have long preferred it but...they really are terrible at this.
By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. -- George Carlin
Too bad it contains a bunch of people I don't want to talk to over chat.
GTalk contained a specific list of contacts I cared to talk to over chat (like AIM/MSN before it).
I don't use hangouts, I don't like hangouts.
Everything since GTalk has been garbage.
What's the problem with wanting a low-RAM-footprint, standalone chat program, that I don't have to open up aRAM-guzzling web browser to access?
Big surprise, Google, not everybody spends every waking moment with your browser open (mostly because it's a RAM-guzzling, forced advertising dystopia.).
Seriously, the closest they have to a standalone application for hangouts is a plug-in for Chrome. Fuck Chrome. Why would I just use a browse whose entire purpose is to advertise to me and gather as much information about me as possible.
Firefox + Pidgin is where I'm at right now, but I'm still fuckered into using Hangouts through it because there isn't a good, truly cross-platform (I mean Windows/Linux/Mac/iOS/Android, all of them. Everything is either iOS/Android only or Windows/Mac/Linux only. WTF?) messenger that is worth a damn that I can get people to switch to.
I'm unimpressed to be quite honest. If an app is any good, a user will use it until something better comes along. Google can't understand that and they force users into their versions of whatever popular app exists. Google+ was an example of this kind of shakedown. It's terrible. Facebook is no better but Google+ was simply awful.
If something is good people will use it. Youtube is good so people use it all the time... but Youtube administrative causes a lot of users big trouble. Look at people who lose their revenue because some professional squatting company comes along and files bogus DCMAs against legitimate Youtube users who were merely applying the fair-use rules appropriately in the first place.
Google doesn't really care about you. They don't care about your audience or your beliefs or values. They just want to force their own profit margins and grow their garden of trust until the next big harvest.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
other than in Gmail on a desktop PC browser. why no search feature in the Hangouts app, Google? for some reason I thought you were supposed to be good at searching
Bingo. For my part, it's because Hangouts doesn't play nice with other chat clients, such as Pidgin, whereas GTalk played nice with all of them, given that it was built on an open protocol, XMPP, rather than the proprietary protocol Hangouts uses. While it's possible to get Hangouts working in Pidgin by using some extensions that are buggy and missing key features, it's an inferior experience to what I had with GTalk.
Currently the XMPP server is still available (and can chat to Google Hangout users)
For now.
Let's hope that Google will at least maintain this access.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Let's be honest, it's not like gchat was that great anyway.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
While I am not entirely happy with this move, my sincere hope is that Google will improve its YouTube app, both on desktop/Chrome and Android with addition of a feature that lets the video remain visible as I browse comments.
This isn't so hard.
I have submitted many requests for this but they just seem not to listen, sadly.
True, but hangouts is much worse.
I still use Gchat because Google Voice integrates into it quite well, i can easily make calls, screen incoming,and manage contacts all in one place. It also has a nice and simple low resource usage chat feature, I really hope they change their mind or at least provide the same functions for voice in Hangouts. (last time I checked, 3 weeks ago, they didn't).
PPN
Actually, Google Talk was fricking awesome. Especially when it still supported XMP, and there were a number of desktop and mobile clients for it.
Now this is all history, and you have to use the sanctioned Google app, which does like to crash a lot. So yes, Google Talk was great (at some point). Hangouts is just ok.
I connected to google talk via pidgin via xmpp for years, up until the announcement came out that google talk was being replaced with hangouts. I think actually you can still connect to hangouts with xmpp, too.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
It's Google -- they'll change it again in a couple years.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
True, but hangouts is much worse.
But with "better features and integration with other Google products". :-)
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
You want this. Why? Because Google wants you to want it. /logic
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
Much as you dread every work day.
and worse integration with everything else
Higuita
Look, I used FB chat when it first came out, and then realized 90 percent of it was people not reading my FB post, so I stopped using it, other than for family and a few individuals.
Same will happen with Gchat and G hangout. I used Google circles, but they just get in the way.
Same take home message: Stop Being Pervy.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Google's been treating Hangouts as the red-headed step-child now for a couple of years. They've more or less completely deprecated it on Android, where it's no longer either their SMS system (Messages) or their recommended apps for IM (Allo) or video chat (Duo.)
So... why NOW switch all GMail users to Hangouts? There's literally nothing in Hangouts that isn't being done by Google's own preferred alternatives to Hangouts.
Don't get me wrong, I kinda like Hangouts, and I was annoyed when they removed non-Google Voice SMS from it, but it still doesn't make sense: if you're going to deprecate an app, and Google is deprecating Hangouts, why force people to use it?
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Hangouts was tolerable until they nuked Effects. The sad trombone was the unofficial meeting sound...
Hangout is one of the most ugly programs I have ever used. (yes I use the App on Android, and used to use it on iPad until it got discontinued (( for my iOS version? )) ...) ...
No idea what UI designers think, probably there was none
Why one is replacing a Jabber based communication system with a Hangout bullshit is beyond me.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Pidgin (or any other libpurple-based client, like Adium) with the purple-hangouts plugin works fine for my requirements.
The purple-hangouts plugin works fine for my requirements.
True,
I used Google Talk with my iChat client (a old school variation of iMessanger).
iChat was for a long time the best Yabber client on Mac OX X, but lie Google promoting Hangouts, Apple did iMessenger. No one really is using it. To buggy. If you have multiple devices both sent and "received" messages go lost (sometimes ofc. Obviously not all of them, or Apple had realized it and probably fixed it).
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
That's the exact one I had in mind. Looks like it's been updated since the last time I installed it and has addressed some of the missing features and bugs I was speaking of, so thanks for the link!
Out of the many chatting/messaging/video config things I have tried, by far I hated hangouts the worst. It always seemed to have problems, the UI I remember being really poor, and it just was not as effective as other things for team communication...
I can only imagine how many groups will be driven into the willing arms of Slack because of this.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If you find something that does not work well, open an issue.
It's based on Hangouts - the entire thing is an inefficient piece of shit that can't compare with the likes of Camfrog.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I'm still on Gchat. Hangouts wastes screen space with user icons, makes it less obvious who's online than the old colored dots, doesn't obey its own "compact" view setting, and lags in Firefox on my i7. It also seems more prone to convert pasted code snippets into useless emoticons.
I am also using this plugin. Eion is also very responsive to any issues.
Now for the gtalk side i had very good luck using app passwords when using pidgin.
I don't know if the app passwords still work on the hangouts plugin. I had to do the handwaving to get the key to bind the plugin.
Hello troll.
Support for every possible platform.
Video and voice support.
Multi media support.
Screen sharing.
Groups (mix and match video, voice, and chat).
Yep, pretty much sucks.
"Joogle" = Jewish Google.
Now you know that your 'security product' is written by a racist fuck.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Screenshotted proof for you.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Good job proving yourself a racist fuck, Alexander Kowalski.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I still connect with Kopete. I think it's using XMPP. I guess I'll see what happens later today.
Look at Google's hiring criteria. Gee, They don't do well with social media? But the IQs are enormous! Hire based on social skills if you want to do social media.
=-+
Support for every possible platform.
False.
Also, gchat had even wider support since you could use any standard XMPP client.
Video and voice support.
Screen sharing.
Don't need for chat, google had a better voice option, and there are far better screen sharing options (IMO).
Multi media support.
Groups
GChat has these (AFAICT)
XMPP support : gchat only
Federation support (use your own domain): gchat only
Client tied to the browser (at least on my platform): hangouts (this is not a good thing IMO)
Message delivery is reliable: gchat only (many many times, I'll get hangouts messages on one of my clients and not the other, or significantly delayed on all; ex desktop and phone)
End-to-end encryption options: 3rd party clients on gchat made this trivial; hangouts, depends if you can get it to work with another client, and if that'll keep working.
... heard of it.
I have more Gmail accounts than Carter has little liver pills.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
True, but hangouts is much worse.
False.
Don't need for chat
False.
See, I can play too.
I have not yet used the video/voice features they added to Slack, what's wrong with them?
To me that hardly matters as it's so easy to Skype/Facetime anyone as needed.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I much prefer Lync. My company changed hands for the 3rd time in 3 years and the new overlords have standardized on GOffice. Gosh I hate it. Google does have better mail search, but just about everything else is better in Microsoft's products. I really hate the calendar app and find Outlook's calendar to be so much better.
Can't we just agree to use signal? Text, voice, video, encryption, easy to use. Why do we stick with these inferior alternatives.
Better an amateur third party program than no program at all.
"Good luck against truth shown above - You're known as a criminal whacko!"
Yea, which is why the members of the city council are currently reaming the local authorities a new one for malicious prosecution and violation of due process - you keep on spreading those lies, because it's really easy to catch you in them and then act against you by them. :D
I wonder, do you make enough money from your HOSTs file and other 'works' to protect your ass against a defamation of character and libel lawsuit, bitch boy?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
>Penniless bullshitter.
Yea, yet I hold so much raw and cut gem in my hands that you'd be dwarfed in your measly-ass income.
I rip through 4x4 vehicles yearly and just get a new one.
*yawn*
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
>Good luck against truth shown above
All you showed was a story about arrest. Notice there's nothing about a conviction, dumbass?
I love having the city council on my side, ripping the local departments new assholes over their violating of my rights, hiding exonerating evidence (hint: the e-mail header shows the e-mail is fake. District Attorney and Sherriff's office colluded to hide that evidence.)
Oh man the lawsuit against you is going to be so great. I've got your ass dead to rights. It's so easy to just give you the rope and let you hang yourself. You do it so willingly.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Before they ditch hangouts for Duo, Allo, or what they just had in mind this week.
bickerdyke
Given Google's history:
better features
So useless features, or awesome features that they'll remove next year.
integration with other Google products
That you can't avoid, even if you don't want integration (and god forbid you have say, two Google accounts -- its a giant crapshoot which one will be "active" at any particular time. Not that Google is the only company that doesn't believe you may want to do something like have separate work and personal accounts. Skype anyone?)
And I'm sure Hangouts won't be happy to accept the fact that I'd hidden chat a long time ago. It will jump back in my face and be as annoying as possible until I can figure out how to get rid of it again, since I use it exactly never nor do I have any need or desire to start using it.
I wish they'd just leave gmail alone. It used to be awesome.. and its still better than many mail systems.. but they seem determined to slowly degrade it. Maybe they're trying to find the tipping point where users won't put up with this kind of shit anymore.
YakYak is an unofficial, open source Hangouts client that works almost as good as GTalk client did. On top of that it works on Linux / Mac & Windows. You can find it here. Licensed under MIT license.
I used to like GTalk client a lot and used it to its last day. The switch to Hangouts was painful, both the Chrome App and Extension were terrible. I almost switched to the FB alternative, but I found YakYak and I'm pretty happy with it.
Reading what I just wrote I cannot believe that I'm not their rep ;-)
Hi! Chat is a large enough space with a diverse enough set of requirements that one size does not fit all.
Discord works great for games.
Zoom focuses on business conferences.
Skype has cheap long distant rates for internet to non-Internet phones.
WhatApp is great for international users.
There is another international chat app I used which had great call back, call forwarding, and automatic response features because of being in different time zones.
People who live on Facebook use that chat.
I use Google hangouts for a couple of people who use gmail a lot. You'll be emailing back and forth and then just move to hangouts.
I use at least 5 different chat apps depending on the context and this is just fine. Google hangouts to me is the stripped down chat when it comes to features and limited when it comes to audience. The client on Linux only has about 20 characters with and is not very "long text" friendly. You can't really dump code or other long text into it and have it be cut/copy/paste friendly.
You mean WASTE, which got semi-forked over to here. Pass around the news, it could definitely use being revived but I've no idea how to do it aside from let people know it exists.
Interesting note: Its initial release in 2003 got reported here.
Sure you can play, but you seem to not understand the game. Otherwise, your "false" declaration would be followed by your reasons.
So, the threshold for "troll" is "someone who says something you disagree with" now?
My problem with hangouts isn't its feature set. It's that it performs poorly and tends to be rather buggy. Every time I've used the thing, it's been an exercise in frustration.
Apple's macOS product is called "Messages" and it works just fine and tons of people use it. Supports iMessage, SMS relay via iPhone, Jabber/GChat, AIM. I'm signed into all of those right now and am not having problems. It doesn't sync non-iMessage conversations on other devices though, if that's what you mean. iMessage on iOS doesn't support anything other than iMessage and SMS, which is why.
It works fine in theory.
In practice the Mac and the iPhone and the iPad get out of synch soon and you are missing either your own messages on some of the devices or some of the answers (and yes, obviously I'm logged on with the exact same credentials on all of them). Hence I have set the SMS/messages App on my iPhone back to SMS.
Sometimes even messages I sent from the iPhone or iPad get marked as received, but the recipient never got them (in iMessage mode).
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
iMessage iCloud syncing is an upcoming feature in iOS11/macOS10.13 this fall.