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Google Replaces Gchat With Hangouts Today (axios.com)

Posted by msmash on from the day-has-come dept.

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.

17 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Re:stubborn? by xSauronx · · Score: 2

    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
  2. Hangouts doesn't have specific contacts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  3. Just give me back GoogleTalk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Just give me back GoogleTalk by rogoshen1 · · Score: 2

      it's not like google would have a vested interest in you keeping your (their) browser open 24/7. They definitely wouldn't pull bullshit like this in order to nudge you in that direction. A company who's motto was 'do no evil' would never, ever employ such underhanded tactics..

    2. Re:Just give me back GoogleTalk by farble1670 · · Score: 2

      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.

      You know why there isn't a free alternative? You might want to sit down for this .... stuff like this costs money.

      Why would I just use a browse whose entire purpose is to advertise to me and gather as much information about me as possible.

      Because you are not willing to pay for such a service, and as a reasonably rational human you understand that if someone is offering a good, x-platform chat service, they has to be some sort or motivation for them to build, maintain, and support said service.

    3. Re:Just give me back GoogleTalk by ogdenk · · Score: 2

      That IRC and various other IM clients used to run on machines with 16MB of total RAM or less, some supporting multiple interactive users. If your just throwing text w/ hyperlinks and images around, why would you think 38MB of RAM is reasonable? Hell, I used to engage in multiparty online chats with machines with 64K of RAM.

      What's wrong with wanting software that does one thing and does it well? Web browsers are for viewing hypertext documents with images. Web browsers were never meant to be the catch-all computing platform of the future and all the kludges to make them so have resulted in a patchwork bloated mess.

  4. So What. by mfh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  5. and still no way to search through Hangouts by urbster1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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

  6. Re:stubborn? by Anubis+IV · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  7. XMPP service by DrYak · · Score: 5, Informative

    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 ]
  8. Re:stubborn? by JohnFen · · Score: 2

    True, but hangouts is much worse.

  9. Re:stubborn? by thsths · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  10. Re:stubborn? by jdavidb · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.
  11. Trust me here, now. by thegreatbob · · Score: 2

    You want this. Why? Because Google wants you to want it. /logic

    --
    There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
  12. GTalk was based on Jabber by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:GTalk was based on Jabber by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      The fact that you don't see the edges of "controls" ??

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  13. Re:stubborn? by farble1670 · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.