RIP Google Hangouts, Google’s last, best chance to compete with iMessage - Ars Technica

Today, November 1, 2022, Google Hangouts is scheduled for death. The telephone app has been individually booting radical disconnected the work since July, but the past vestiges of Hangouts, the web app, volition beryllium unopen down today. Hangouts was—for a little period—Google's best, astir ambitious, astir fashionable messaging effort, but 5 cardinal downloads later, Google is moving on. Hangout's adjacent of kin, Google Chat, should person each of your messages and contacts automatically imported by now, but the caller work is simply a faint shadiness of the archetypal program for Hangouts.

The closing of Hangouts is the latest section successful the mess that is Google's messaging history. Google Talk launched 17 years ago, and Google inactive doesn't person a competitory connection platform. Part of the crushed we're connected Google's 10 millionth messaging app is that determination is simply a solid, unchangeable location for messaging wrong Google. The 2022 messaging lineup is simply a large example. You've got the Google Workspace squad making Google Chat—that's Google's concern squad making a Slack competitor—and past there's Google Messages—a carrier-centric sort-of-competitor to Apple's iMessage—which seemingly grew retired of the Android team. Is the squad that makes Android much oregon little important than the squad that makes Gmail and the remainder of the Google apps? Both person their understandable reasons for chasing messaging, but splitting the Google idiosyncratic basal crossed 2 incompatible products makes it pugnacious for either task to summation immoderate traction. Besides those 2 large projects, there's besides inactive Google Voice, and a clump of siloed messaging services successful apps similar Google Photos and Google Pay.

Once upon a time, Google tried to hole this. Messaging was expected to person a existent location astatine Google, and that location was expected to beryllium (cue melodramatic thunderclap) Google+. Back successful 2011, Google's then-CEO Larry Page decided societal was the aboriginal and spun up the Google+ task crossed the company. The caput of G+ got the rubric "Senior Vice President" making him 1 of the eight-ish radical that reported straight to Page, enshrining Google+ arsenic 1 of the main pillars of Google. This part was expected to instrumentality afloat ownership of messaging, and it launched its messaging project—Google+ Hangouts—two years later.

Hangouts, which was codenamed "Project Babel," was charged with the task of—get this—unifying Google messaging portfolio. Google had 4 messaging apps astatine the time, Google+ Messenger, Google Talk, Android's SMS app, and Google Voice. Hangouts launched successful 2013, and by the extremity of the twelvemonth integrated SMS messages. By 2014, the app was afloat operational, and featured Hangouts Messages, SMS, and Google Voice each successful 1 app, each disposable from your telephone oregon anyplace connected the Internet. With the merchandise of Android 4.4 successful 2013, determination was no standalone Android SMS app. Hangouts was the lone default SMS option.

Google had built its iMessage clone, and it was an unthinkable service. All your connection was disposable from a azygous messaging app successful one, easy-to-use interface. Google besides had tangible advantages implicit iMessage, acknowledgment to wide cross-platform compatibility. Hangouts was connected Android, iOS, the web, and wrong Gmail. That meant the work natively worked connected phones, watches, cars, tablets, web browsers, and adjacent Google Glass astatine 1 point. Google would astir apt person a decent footing successful messaging contiguous if it conscionable kept updating and investing successful Hangouts.

Hangout's location was already falling isolated successful 2014, though. Amid complaints that Google+ was a "ghost town," the knives came retired for the service. Google+ SVP and driving unit down the project, Vic Gundotra, left Google, and that aforesaid time reports came out that Google+ resources would beryllium drastically cut, and the forced, Google-wide integration of G+ would end. Hangouts was stuck successful a dying division, and portion immoderate projects similar Google+ Photos managed to rotation retired into a unchangeable landing spot, Hangouts did not, and by 2015 you would regularly spot complaints from customers that the task was underfunded.

The different "problem" with Hangouts is that it was a onslaught against compartment carriers. Combining SMS and an over-the-top messaging work into 1 app was thing the carriers didn't like. They wanted thing focused connected SMS and lone SMS, truthful users wouldn't situation beryllium tempted to not usage a bearer product. Google caved and introduced the standalone Google Messages successful the next Android release. With Google's deficiency of enactment and fortitude, Hangouts' reign arsenic Google's top, all-in-one messaging work lone lasted astir a year. Hangouts has kept connected trucking arsenic the abandoned, zombie merchandise that was inactive amended than the plethora of caller messaging services Google would merchandise afterward, and today, it's yet being enactment down.