Google says Hangouts will shut down in November as it begins prompting mobile Hangouts users to move to Chat
It'll start moving mobile Hangouts users to Chat today — After sunsetting Google Hangouts for Workspace users in February, Google's now beginning the process of migrating free, personal Hangouts users to Chat.
The VergeEmma Roth
Context & Ripple Effects
Google had already separated its workplace communications products from the consumer Hangouts brand through the rebranding of Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat and set a timetable to retire classic Hangouts for G Suite customers. The personal-user migration completes that longer product transition by directing the remaining mobile audience to Chat.
First-order effects
Personal Hangouts users on mobile begin receiving prompts to move to Google Chat, while Hangouts is set to cease service in November.
Google shifts its remaining consumer Hangouts support and migration burden onto Chat after ending Hangouts for Workspace users earlier in the year.
Second-order effects
Google Chat becomes the single destination for both the business users moved off classic Hangouts and the personal users now being migrated, reducing the need to maintain a separate consumer Hangouts product.
Users who stayed with Hangouts after Google removed Talk and SMS functions face a further narrowing of legacy communications options as the service is retired.
Third-order effects
Google’s communications lineup is consolidating around distinct Chat and Meet brands rather than the broader Hangouts umbrella, making product migrations a recurring mechanism for simplifying its service portfolio.
The pattern points to legacy messaging users being routed into actively maintained Google services instead of receiving parallel feature paths.
The trend: Google is retiring the Hangouts-era communications stack and concentrating users in separately branded Chat and Meet services.
Google Hangouts is being upgraded to #GoogleChat. Hangouts users can expect to be prompted to switch to Chat in Gmail or the Chat app. Read more to learn how Chat provides users a better experience by being more powerful, helpful and integrated → https://blog.google/... https://t…
Google Hangouts is shutting down in November. Its successor is Google Chat, which is not the same as GChat, which was also known as Google Talk. None of those are the same as Spaces, which is the new name for Rooms. I am not making any of this up. https://www.theverge.com/...
Google is now so deep in constantly renaming and shutting down chat apps that even the people building the products need a diagram to explain what the current names of their half dozen active chat apps are. https://twitter.com/...
My theory remains that Google keeps trying to schedule a big internal call to sort this out once and for all, but they can never agree on which app to use. https://twitter.com/...
Never ceases to amaze me what Google is doing with their half a dozen chat products that are being deprecated parallel. Microsoft has Teams. Facebook has Workspace. Salesforce has Slack. Google has... I never know. https://twitter.com/...
Not only is it impossible for me to keep track of all the different chat apps Google makes, but I also swore this was already happening? https://twitter.com/...
As a customer, I am confused what got deprecated and what is still a thing. As a product manager, I am confused how product decisions are made to literally live out the messaging app meme for more than a decade. https://twitter.com/...
2032 - Google Chinwag will be sunsetted in favour of the new Google Natter protocol. But don't worry! Users of Google's Hot Air protocol can continue to use the service via Google Jaw-Jaw. Phew! https://twitter.com/...