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Google Hangouts For Consumers Will Be Shutting Down Sometime In 2020 (9to5google.com)
According to 9to5Google, Google Hangouts for consumers will be shutting down sometime in 2020. The news shouldn't come as too much of a surprise since Google essentially stopped development on the app more than a year ago. Thankfully, there are plenty of other Google messaging apps available, such as Allo, Duo, and Android Messages. From the report: Last spring, Google announced its pivot for the Hangouts brand to enterprise use cases with Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet, so the writing has been on the wall for quite some time regarding the Hangouts consumer app's demise. Meanwhile, Google has transitioned its consumer-facing messaging efforts to RCS 'Chat' and Android Messages following Allo's misadventures.
As mentioned, Hangouts as a brand will live on with G Suite's Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet, the former intended to be a team communication app comparable to Slack, and the latter a video meetings platform. Meanwhile, Google Voice calling, which was at first independent and then long integrated into Hangouts, was moved back out to its own redesigned app earlier this year. Interestingly, despite its forthcoming axing, Hangouts was one of a few apps to get early support for Android Auto's new MMS and RCS functionality, alongside Android Messages and WhatsApp.
As mentioned, Hangouts as a brand will live on with G Suite's Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet, the former intended to be a team communication app comparable to Slack, and the latter a video meetings platform. Meanwhile, Google Voice calling, which was at first independent and then long integrated into Hangouts, was moved back out to its own redesigned app earlier this year. Interestingly, despite its forthcoming axing, Hangouts was one of a few apps to get early support for Android Auto's new MMS and RCS functionality, alongside Android Messages and WhatsApp.
First you shoved it down our throats. We liked gtalk. Then you abandon it.
And why as a business would we want to use it??? You stopped development on it over a year ago!!! Itâ(TM)s not good enough for the plebes, so now your paying customers have to use it!?!?
Asshats.
The problem is how long will we have the replacement... With Google it will be around for a couple years, and then they will drop it, and release something else. So don't get used to it or count it.
Android Messages doesn't have video chat. Google Allo does, but there is no desktop client.
Hangouts is great. Video, voice and text chat all in one place on mobile and desktop. Nothing else offers that.
Hangouts has some other unique features, like the way it handles group chats. It shows the webcam/avatar of whoever is talking using the volume level of each participant, and it really helps stop people talking over each other.
Damn it Google, why do you kill everything good? None of your other stuff comes close to Hangouts!
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC