Losing has consequences — RIP Google Hangouts, Googles last, best chance to compete with iMessage Today Google realizes it needs to fight iMessage, but it’s 8 years too late.

Ron Amadeo – Nov 1, 2022 10:00 am UTC Enlarge reader comments 219 with 142 posters participating Share this story Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Reddit

Google Hangouts is scheduled for death today. The phone app has been individually booting people off the service since July, but the last vestiges of Hangouts, the web app, will be shut down today.

For a brief period, Hangouts was Google’s best, most ambitious, most popular messaging effort, but 5 billion downloads later, Google is moving on. Hangout’s next of kin, Google Chat, should have all of your messages and contacts automatically imported by now, but the new service is a mere shadow of the original plan for Hangouts.

Further ReadingA decade and a half of instability: The history of Google messaging appsThe closing of Hangouts is the latest chapter in themess that is Google’s messaging history. Google Talk launched 17 years ago, and Google still doesn’t have a competitive message platform. Part of the reason we’re on Google’s umpteenth messaging app is that there is no solid, stable home for messaging inside Google.

You can see the problem in the company’s 2022 messaging lineup. The Google Workspace team makes Google Chatthat’s Google’s business team making a Slack competitorand then there’s Google Messages, a carrier-centric sort-of-competitor to Apple’s iMessage that seemingly grew out of the Android team. Is the team that makes Android more or less important than the team that makes Gmail and the rest of the Google apps? Both have their understandable reasons for chasing messaging, but splitting the Google user base across two incompatible products makes it tough for either project to gain any traction. Besides those two big projects, there’s also still Google Voice and a bunch of siloed messaging services in apps like Google Photos and Google Pay. Advertisement

Once upon a time, Google tried to fix this situation. Messaging was supposed to have a real home at Google, and that home was supposed to be (cue dramatic thunderclap) Google+. Back in 2011, Google’s then-CEO Larry Page decided that social media was the future and spun up the Google+ project across the company. The head of G+ got the title “senior vice president,” making him one of the eight-ish people who reported directly to Page, enshrining Google+ as one of the main pillars of Google. This division was supposed to take full ownership of messaging, and it launched its messaging projectGoogle+ Hangoutstwo years later. The day-one Android app. Ron Amadeo / Android Police Blob emojis and an ongoing video call. Ron Amadeo / Android Police Would you believe Android used to have tablet apps? Google Just like Google Talk, Hangouts also worked in Gmail. Who could forget the butt-ugly, puke-green version of Hangouts that launched in 2014? By the end of 2014, you could quickly switch between Hangouts, SMS, and Google Voice by tapping the button to the left of the input field. Android Police The current (and, I guess, final) design for Android. Google

Hangouts, which was codenamed “Project Babel,” was charged with the task ofget thisunifying Google’s messaging portfolio. Google had four messaging apps at the time: Google+ Messenger, Google Talk, Android’s SMS app, and Google Voice. Hangouts launched in 2013, and by the end of the year had integrated SMS messages. By 2014, the app was fully operational and featured Hangouts Messages, SMS, and Google Voice in one app, all available from your phone or anywhere on the Internet. With the release of Android 4.4 in 2013, there wasno standalone Android SMS app. Hangouts was the only default SMS option.

Google had built its iMessage clone, and it was an incredible service. All your communication was available from a single messaging app in one easy-to-use interface. Google also had tangible advantages over iMessage, thanks to wide cross-platform compatibility. Hangouts was on Android, iOS, the web, and inside Gmail. That meant the service natively worked on phones, watches, cars, tablets, web browsers, and even Google Glass at one point. Google would probably have a decent footing in messaging today if it just kept updating and investing in Hangouts. Page: 1 2 Next → reader comments 219 with 142 posters participating Share this story Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Reddit Ron Amadeo Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Email ron@arstechnica.com // Twitter @RonAmadeo Advertisement

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