Google is known for shutting down many of its popular services in the past, and it’s now time for Google Hangouts to suffer the same fate. Google has announced that it is stopping its Hangouts chat service for free, personal users. The company says people still using the Hangouts mobile app will be prompted to go to Chat.
Why is Google Hangouts shutting down?
Google is closing Hangouts as part of its plan to retire its legacy messaging platforms. Moreover, Google already has a better platform that offers the user more or less the same functionality. Furthermore, not only does it have the latest features, but it also works better overall.
Aside from that, Google reiterates that Google Chat is getting some advanced features, including Spaces, a dedicated place for topic-based collaboration. And the new integrated view in Gmail makes it easier to use Chat alongside your Gmail inbox, Spaces, and Meet.
“We have big ambitions for the future of Chat, and in the coming months, you’ll see even more features like direct calling, in-line threading in Spaces, and the ability to share and view multiple images,” Google says.
What happens after Google Hangouts is closed?
Google mentions that conversations are automatically migrated from Hangouts to Chat for most people. Those who want a copy of their Hangouts data can do so before November 2022.
The migration process for app users will begin soon when the Hangouts app refers users to the Google Chat app. Hangouts in Gmail on the web will not prompt users to switch to Chat until July. Spots will remain usable on the desktop site until November, and the company says it will give users “at least a month” notice before redirecting the Hangouts site to Chat.
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When was Google Hangouts launched?
Originally a feature of Google+, Google’s own social media that also shut down a few years ago, Hangouts became a standalone product in 2013. At that time, Google also started integrating Google+ Messenger and Google Talk features into Hangouts. Later, Google began introducing more app featuresincluding voice calling.
Later in 2017, Google began developing two separate enterprise communications products, including Google Meet and Google Chat, as part of its Google Workspace office suite. Google started migrating Workspace users from Hangouts to Meet and Chat in June 2020, while Gmail users began migrating last year. As a result, Google decides to discontinue Hangouts.
The users received Google Hangouts well for its cross-platform sync and the number of features it offered. The chats were automatically synced between iOS, Android, and Windows, so users couldn’t track their conversations. However, it had its drawbacks, such as tight integration with Google+, which allowed the unnecessary exchange of information between users.
Hangouts also had several other competitors, one of which was Google itself and Allo. However, this also stopped at a later date. iMessage, Facebook, and WhatsApp gained popularity when Hangouts entered the company. One of Hangout’s competitors, Google Chat, is taking over the app.