The news about Google shutting down Hangouts was first announced in June. Today, November 1, the tech company is officially shutting down Hangouts marking the end of the all-in-one text and video chat app, as per Ars Technica.
Google Hangouts is set to be discontinued after November this year, as users will be prompted to migrate to Google Chat.
Hangouts Users Migrate to Google Chat Ahead of the Shutdown
Upon announcement of the app's shut down in June, Google prompted users of Hangouts to migrate over to Chat. The move to Chat is part of the tech company's plan to put the aging messaging platform into retirement.
The tech company asked the users of the messaging app on mobile to switch to Chat. Meanwhile, people who are using Hangouts on Gmail via web browser are advised that they will be upgraded to Chat in July.
According to the tech company, "conversations will automatically be migrated over from Hangouts to Chat," as cited by CNET.
Earlier, Google advised users of Hangouts to use Google Takeout, the data exportation tool of the company, to download their data ahead of time before Hangouts stops operating.
To encourage users to switch to Chat, the tech company rolled out a few new features in Chat. Among the new features are the ability to make direct calls, create in-line threads in Spaces, and the ability to share and view multiple images.
Hangouts is Google's chat platform inside Google+, the former social network of the company. The tech company eventually decided to add chat functionality to its other products, including Gmail.
Eventually Google launched Chat in 2017. Chat is a messaging tool that can be utilized by enterprise customers.
Chat comes with new features including side-by-side editing in Docs, Slides and Sheets, group conversations, and communication within Spaces.
Read Also: Google Hangouts Update Adds GIF Support On Android 7.1
Google Notifies Hangouts Users a Month Ago
According to Google, Hangouts users received notification of the shutdown one month ago via email. Likewise, the users are reminded to export their data.
The company said that exporting the data should be done in case the automatic message transfer from Hangouts to Chat will not work out for some users.
Google Hangouts is originally a feature of Google+. In 2013, it became a standalone product when the tech company started integrating features from Google+ Messenger and Google Talk into it.
Eventually, the tech company also decided to integrate the features of Google Voice into Hangouts.
However, Google started developing two separate enterprise communication products in 2017, the Meet and the Chat. Both communication products were part of Google Workspace office suite.
For over some time, the tech company has been slowly phasing out the Hangouts brand. The move was seen to be in favor of the company's newer messaging services.
In June 2020, Google started transitioning the users of Workspace from Hangouts to Meet and Chat. Eventually, in 2021 the tech company transitioned Gmail users from Hangouts to Meet and Chat.
Given this, it is not surprising that Google has finally decided to retire the platform. While Hangouts did not become as popular as the other messaging app, it is once considered as Google's best with around five million downloads, as per Ars Technica.
Related Article: Google Hangouts to End This November
