Google May Be Shutting Down Hangouts for Consumers Sometime in 2020: Report

[steven36]

It looks as though Hangouts will join a growing list of Google chat products to bite the dust. After years of indications that such a move could be imminent, Google may finally be shutting down its Hangouts platform for consumers.

 

 

Citing a source “familiar with the product’s internal roadmap,” 9to5Google reported Friday that the end of Hangouts for consumers will arrive “sometime in 2020.” The site noted Google’s announcement last year of a shift to an enterprise focus with G Suite’s Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet as an early sign that such a decision was forthcoming. But there were other warning signs as well, according to 9to5Google:

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Given Google’s abandonment of the app in terms of development and its presumed eventual death, many have already transitioned away from using it. But Hangouts is still the prominent chat option in Gmail on the web and the app remains on the Google Play Store to this day. Many recent reviews say that the app is showing signs of age, noting bugs and performance issues.

 

Google has indicated for years now that it planned to position Hangouts as a competitor to workplace chat apps like Slack. As 9to5Google noted, there hasn’t been any movement on development for the app in some time, and Google removed Hangouts’ support for SMS in May of last year.

 

As the Verge noted at the time, the move made sense considering the significant number of chat apps under the Google umbrella, including Google Duo, Android Messages, and Google Allo. There’s also Chat, its RCS product that is expected to launch with Verizon in 2019.

 

Given that the rumored death of Hangouts is still more than a year out, any devotees of the platform have ample time to make peace with its reported demise.

 

A spokesperson for Google didn’t immediately return Gizmodo’s request for comment about the report, but we’ll update this post if we hear back.

 

More At [9to5Google]

 

 

Source

[DKT27]

Not much used here.

 

 They should put all of them into one app I think.

[Karlston]

Rumor: Google to shut down Hangouts in 2020

 

A report by 9to5Google suggests that Google plans to shut down the consumer version of Google Hangouts in 2020. Google has not officially confirmed or denied the rumor, and the site cites a "source familiar with the product's internal roadmap" as its source.

 

Google Hangouts would follow other Google products such as Google Inbox, Google Reader, Google Wave, Google Buzz, or Google Plus that the company shut down in recent years or plans to shut down.

 

According to the report, Google Hangouts will be shut down for consumers in 2020. Google unveiled a new strategy for Hangouts in 2017 when it launched the two messaging applications Allo and Duo.

 

Google in the meantime started to focus on an RCS-based messaging system for Android called Chat in favor of the messaging application Allo.

 

Hangouts for Enterprise customers was split into Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet back then. Hangouts Chat offers group-chat functionality similar to Slack, Hangouts Meet video conferencing.

 

 

The company abandoned development of the consumer version of Hangouts more or less last year. While Hangouts is still available on the Google Play Store and as part of Gmail, Google's webmail service, recent reviews of Hangouts have been anything but great.

 

Users complain about bugs and slow performance; it seems likely that Google won't address these concerns anymore if the rumor is true.

 

Google Hangouts is still a popular application with more than 3.6 million user reviews on Google Play alone. Google never revealed the total number of Hangouts users though.

 

The shutting down was inevitable and delayed only because Allo performed poorly. Google's new messaging effort Chat won't take off before 2019, and that is probably the main reason why the consumer version of Hangouts is retired in 2020 and not in 2019.

 

Hangouts users have a year to find an alternative for the service; some may not want to give Google another chance.

 

Source: Rumor: Google to shut down Hangouts in 2020 (ghacks - Martin Brinkmann)

[DKT27]

@Karlston: Topics merged.