Google has a (bad) habit of drastically killing their services, without giving users any chance to keep these solutions. What’s even more ridiculous is that they often create alternatives that are similar and have the same functionality.
This is exactly what has been happening for several months with Google Hangouts, in the slow process of switching over to chat. This was going on almost silently, but now he would receive one last effort. Users who have not yet changed will be taken directly to the new proposal.
Time to move from Hangouts to Chat
Google has already made the decision several times to migrate its users from Hangouts to Chat. I started this process with corporate accounts, in order to get many of their clients to test the new proposal more intensively.
The next step was to take a look at your free accounts and start that process as well. This has already happened in some groups of users, who saw the possibility of moving to the new service, which is fully integrated with Gmail.
Google has restarted this process again
From Now revealedMigration of lost users from Hangouts to Chat will take its final course, and hopefully, it will happen permanently and without the possibility of rollback. When you open the Hangouts app, users are invited to use the chat via the Gmail app or through its native app.
Those who are using the extension dedicated to Chrome will have the same behavior and this extension will also stop working soon. The version for Android should follow this path towards the end of the year, in November.
Users will not be able to change
At the moment, this appears to be a voluntary migration, although users of this messaging service have been notified. Later, about one month before the change, a new notification will appear. When Hangouts stops working, the app will only redirect users.
And so Google is taking another step to end Hangouts once and for all and migrate users to Chat. The integration with Gmail did not get good reviews, with many preferring the native app. However, this appears to be a typical decision from the search giant.
George Orwell is a writer and contributor covering politics, society, culture, and current affairs. His work focuses on providing clear analysis and thoughtful commentary on the issues shaping modern Britain and the wider world, helping readers better understand complex topics.
