Google just can’t seem to get its act together when it comes to messaging services. Meanwhile, other companies like Apple (iMessage), Telegram, Slack, Meta (Messenger, WhatsApp), and plenty more have flourishing messaging services. Right now, it has Google Chat which seems to be doing well.
Google dropped the Hangouts app from the Play Store
Google Hangouts has been hanging on for dear life for a few years. The company introduced Allo back in 2016, and by that point, Google had already pretty much forgotten about Hangouts. Still, it persisted through the years and got barely any love from Google. That being said, as discovered by 9To5Google, Google is finally putting the last nail in the service’s coffin. The company actually dropped the Hangouts app from the Google Play Store. This is something that doesn’t really surprise anyone (it’s surprising that it took so long). As of March 29th, you can not access or download the app from the Google Play Store. Google first nipped the app from the iOS store, then the Google Play Store.
So, what’s next?
Now that the Hangouts app has been dropped from the Google Play Store, the company is going to need to redirect to another service. That service is Google Chat. Even though the Hangouts app is gone, those who already have it downloaded can still use it. This means that those nostalgic few of you who love Hangouts can still use it as your primary communication platform. However, when you open up the app, you’ll get a splash screen prompting you to migrate to Google Chat. This is Google’s newest messaging service, and it’s integrated with Gmail. In fact, the big blue on the splash screen will take you to the Chat feature in Gmail. If you like to handle things with standalone apps, you can do so. There’s an option to get the dedicated Google Chat app. What’s neat about that is that Google Chat and Hangouts are integrated. When you move over to Google Chat, you’ll see all of your messages sent in Hangouts and vice versa.
