Google permanently discontinues Google Hangouts

Google permanently discontinues Google Hangouts Today marks the official shutdown of Google Hangouts, a text, video, and audio chat program integrated into Gmail. Google is transitioning Hangouts customers to Google Chat, the company’s Slack-like enterprise instant messaging platform, as was previously stated earlier this year.

The Google Hangouts online app is no longer accessible as of today, November 1. This was the final Hangouts service that was offered to users. In July of this year, the Android and iOS apps stopped working.

Google permanently discontinues Google Hangouts and began to allow users to switch to Chat in 2021, giving the impression that Hangouts was dying slowly. In June 2022, the business declared that it would ask Hangout users to switch to Chat in Gmail or the app.

While most of the messages and contacts will be moved to Google Chat automatically, not all of the information will. The business advises customers to download and save a copy of their data using Google Takeout. Users may retain their Hangouts data until January 2023.

Before being a separate app, Google+’s Hangouts was first a feature. On the Google Play Store, the messaging service had 5 billion downloads.

Chat offers more capabilities for group conversations, as well as security and collaboration tools like Spaces and editing Docs, Slides, or Sheets side-by-side with other users. However, Chat can never completely replace Hangouts. Additionally, chat users can use @mentions to alert other group members and send GIFs.

Google has previously stated that using Chat to connect with others is preferable. Google permanently discontinues Google Hangouts “As we take this final step to migrate remaining Hangouts users to Chat, we believe users will appreciate our continuous investment in making Chat a wonderful environment to create and communicate,” Google Chat Product Manager Ravi Kanneganti wrote in a blog post back in June.