Google Hangouts reportedly shutting down in 2020
You could only have one year left to use Hangouts with your friends, family, and coworkers.
In its continuing pursuit of making bad decisions, it appears Google could possibly shut down its popular in-browser messaging system, Google Hangouts, by 2020.
In a report via 9to5Google, an internal source claims that Google Hangouts for consumers will be shutting down sometime in 2020. The company has long since ceased development for the app, but the effective shutdown comes as a massive surprise. Many lean on the product for daily workflow chat (if they haven't migrated to programs like Slack) and praise it for its relative ease of use as well as the lack of feature bloat.
Last spring, Google discussed a pivot from the original Hangouts branding to business use with Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet, so it's been clear for some time that the company wishes to focus on its usage for business, but killing the consumer app off seems quite backward, especially since Allo itself has bombed in terms of user adoption.
Hangouts as a brand won't be going anywhere, and Google Voice was given its own special app earlier this year, but the question we're still asking is what the company will be banking on that users will want to use this time around. There are plenty of different chat clients to use online, but the ease of use and reliability of Hangouts, inside and outside of your Gmail client, is endlessly useful, and the truth is I don't want to change. Not everything needs to be an endless parade of video and emoji, and it was a nice, simple and reliable client.
Are you still an avid Hangouts user? If this report is indeed true, are you going to be upset by the loss of one of the best messengers since AOL Instant Messenger? It's not pleasant news, but we definitely want to hear your takes on this report.
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replyBrittany Vincent posted a new article, Google Hangouts reportedly shutting down in 2020
