Google has laid Hangouts to relaxation, a few years after it first introduced that it was going to push individuals to make use of Chat, its Slack-like app, as a substitute. After permitting customers to maneuver to Chat on their very own in 2021, Google phased out the Hangouts Chat app for Android and iOS in July. Customers had been proven a immediate telling them that “Hangouts has been changed by Google Chat” and to change to both the standalone Chat app or the Chat expertise inside Gmail. As TechCrunch notes, the final model of the messaging service, Hangouts for the online, is now additionally going away for good.
When customers entry the Hangouts web site, they could see a message that claims: “Beginning November 1, 2022, Hangouts on the net will redirect to Chat on Net. We advocate transferring to Chat now.” We are able to nonetheless entry the web site with out being routinely redirected, however there is a hyperlink to Google Chat that we are able to click on to load the brand new messaging expertise. The web site may utterly disappear within the coming days.
Chat was certainly one of Google’s enterprise choices earlier than the corporate switched up its messaging technique and made it out there to everybody. The corporate says Chat “opens up new and higher methods” to collaborate with options that weren’t out there on Hangouts. Customers can edit Docs, Slides or Sheets side-by-side inside Chat. Groups at work or teams of buddies may work on paperwork and handle duties utilizing Areas, which is a devoted place they will use for topic-based collaboration. And since Gmail options Chat integration, individuals can simply entry conversations with out having to open the Chat web site.
Google beforehand stated that those that need to make a copy of their Hangouts knowledge must use its Takeout software earlier than the service is gone for good. We nonetheless see Hangouts on Takeout, so those that need to do some last-minute data-saving could need to accomplish that now whereas it is nonetheless potential.
All merchandise advisable by Engadget are chosen by our editorial workforce, impartial of our father or mother firm. A few of our tales embrace affiliate hyperlinks. In case you purchase one thing by way of certainly one of these hyperlinks, we could earn an affiliate fee. All costs are appropriate on the time of publishing.
