Earlier today , Google foretell in acorporate blog postthat the dice - hards currently left on the Hangouts message platform are officially get the kick . Starting in early 2021 , the party will start cause move to “ automatically migrate ” everyone ’s Hangouts chat story and contacts to the Google Workspace - ready alternative , Google Chat .
While the exact timing on the switchover is still “ to be determine , ” what ’s clear is that sometime in the first half of next year , some of the core role of Hangouts are just going to be essentially killed off . Google Fi , the company’salternative to traditional wireless carriers , will no longer suffer Hangouts calls or texts . Instead , Google suggests Fi users ’ pauperization can be met with the troupe ’s resolution to Apple ’s iMessage , helpfully calledGoogle Messages . Then there are Google Voice user , who have been able to habituate haunt for call . That ’s get a snatch trickier .
“ New telecommunications regulations are being introduced in the EU and U.S. beginning in 2021 , ” Google explains in the blog , adding that , by former next twelvemonth , the calling feature will need to be expunged entirely . These exploiter , the company goes on to say , will be slowly shepherded toGoogle ’s Voice platformsometime before that go on .
Graphic: Google
While the society has n’t react to our request for comment on which regulations they ’re referring to here , there ’s a good chance this is consult to some of the raw communications protocol the FCC ’s putting into place for telcos this number summer . TheSHAKEN / STIRRED protocol , as it ’s called , is meant to crack down on the currentscourge of robocallsby allow telecoms to make trusted a phone ’s caller ID matches up with their actual registered phone number — something that could be hard to do if that call is rout through Google ’s systems .
This news is n’t inevitably unexpected . Back in early 2019 , Google firstseveredties between the chat app and its enterprise customers — family line that then used Hangouts via GSuite , which would laterbecome Google Workspace . The plan was that these customers would be push into Google ’s Slack - corresponding messaging app , Meet . At the meter , Googletoldthese customer that while they were acquire the boot first , the non - paying audience on the Hangouts app would n’t have much long go forth on the app themselves , and would soon be nudged into a free - to - download version of Meet , or a free - to - download variation of Chat .
Because Google has launch a grand sum of 10 — count ‘ em,10 — messaging apps over the twelvemonth , I ’m certain this news comes as a reliever for some readers . But it ’s also kind of a painfulness for others . Chat , for example , was clear designed with powerfulness user in creative thinker , rather than passing conversations , allot to the company blog berth :
And you thought I was kidding.Gif:GIPHY
With Chat , you’re able to more well plan with others on finish and similar interest , portion and cooperate on files , and assign tasks to help keep everyone on the same Sir Frederick Handley Page .
From the mode that sound , Chat seems to be kind of an extension of Meet : another workplace chat platform for workplace chats , large and small-scale . In other words , it sounds like the shift to more workplace - favorable platforms is n’t only a way to slim down its unwieldy accumulation of message apps , but also to amount after workplace mainstayslike Slack .
But then there are those of us who regularly used hangout to , well … give ear out . In my case , Hangouts was my chatting app of option during the first few calendar month of oeuvre - from - household Scheol , when the only means to socialise with anyone was tosocialize over apps . At the time , Hangouts calls were seemingly impossible to hijack , which digest in stark contrast to the scourge ofZoom bombingsthat took place over the summertime ( and remain today ) . for certain , Hangouts was n’t gross — it ’s aGoogle productafter all — but it give me a much - needed line of life to the hoi polloi I overleap , when I needed them most , and all for free .
Google ’s pivot to more buttoned - up messaging alternatives might satisfy the suits that squawk about itstoo - casuallook and find , but it also mean Google ’s leave up on a political program that examine some pretty strange stuff and nonsense in its seven - yr history . What other chatting app would have you runadorable poniesacross the bottom of your New World chat , or a tiny mob with tiny pitchforks ? Would Slack everpay homageto one of the well characters on Futurama ?
Hangouts ’ stay might come from the fact that it was free , prosperous to apply , and jolly seamlessly desegregate across all of Google ’s property . It was never built to be the bodied message app of the time to come , and those cause - friendly apps were never built to let in tiny , anthropomorphic sawhorse go across the bottom of your texts . With Hangouts ’ ho-hum march to theGoogle Graveyardcomes the demise of the only Google message political platform that was n’t afraid to laugh at itself . RIP .
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