Earlier this week the news broke that Hangouts for consumers is quitting and the focus is on Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet within G Suite. Now it appears that Hangouts for consumers is going to migrate to Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet according to an official response from Google.
Hangouts will not disappear for Android users outside of G Suite. Despite the earlier rumors, Google has denied it today with an official statement. At first the search giant didn’t want to respond to the initial rumour, but after the news conquered the world, Scott Johnston, Comms’ product lead in G Suite, explained it on Twitter.
Official reaction
Hangouts Chat is a Slack-like chat client within G Suite while Hangouts Meet, like Skype, focuses on videoconferencing. Both are becoming an essential part of G Suite, but the classic Hangouts hardly got any love from Google. After the Hangouts storm earlier this week, Google is now creating some clarity with a statement.
In March 2017, we announced our plans to evolve the classic Hangouts into two experiences that bring teams together: Hangouts Chat and Meet. Chat and Meet are available to G Suite customers today and will also be available to consumers. We have not yet announced an official timeline to migrate Hangouts users from the classic version to Chat and Meet. We are fully committed to supporting the classic Hangouts until everyone has successfully migrated to Chat and Meet.
With this, Google throws a lifebelt at users of the classic Hangouts chat client. It remains to be seen, however, how this migration will take place and how the search giant can shake off the business aspect for these people.
G Suite expansion
Regarding Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat, Google will let you know that you will soon be able to connect with other people outside your organization. In the coming months the function will be rolled out and Google will give more information about how it will work.
Teams, Microsoft’s chat client within Office 365, received another free variant in July to gain market share. Slack also has a free version to introduce as many people as possible to the chat client. It is possible that this step will soon be taken by Google in order to welcome the classic Hangouts users.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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