Google has finally realized it has too many chat apps and will shut down Hangouts in 2020.
According to 9to5Google, a source familiar with the product’s internal roadmap said it would shut down sometime in 2020. Considering Google essentially stopped updating the app over a year ago, this doesn’t come as much of a surprise.
What is surprising is that the search giant will keep Hangouts alive for another year.
While consumers may lose the well-known chat app, Hangouts will live on for enterprise users as Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. In the consumer market, Google has turned its focus on RCS and its Messages app.
Despite its impending demise, Hangouts is still featured prominently in some of Google’s other popular services, such as the Gmail web client. Hangout remains on the Play Store as well, even though reviews have cropped up complaining about bugs and performance issues.
How do you feel about the demise of Hangouts? Is it past time for the app to go, or is Hangouts your go-to chat platform? Let us know in the comments down below.
Source: 9to5Google
Update 01/12/2018: A Google employee named Scott Johnston took to Twitter to clarify that not all Hangouts apps will be cancelled, just the Classic Hangouts app that launched as Google’s competitor to iMessages.
Although, he does mention that Classic Hangouts users will be upgraded to Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat when the service does eventually end.
2/ So while that will result in the eventual shut down of Hangouts classic (as we now call it), it doesn’t imply we are ending support for the use case supported by the product: messaging and meetings.
— Scott Johnston (@happyinwater) December 1, 2018
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