We have not announced an official timeline for transitioning users from classic Hangouts to Chat and Meet. Both Chat and Meet are available today for G Suite customers and will be made available for consumer users, too. In March 2017, we announced plans to evolve classic Hangouts to focus on two experiences that help bring teams together: Hangouts Chat and Hangouts. So we asked again, and Google sent over this statement: Hangouts users will be upgraded to Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. No decisions made about when Hangouts will be shut down. Hey I run Hangouts and this is pretty shoddy reporting. First we received the standard line about the company not commenting on rumor and speculation. We contacted Google last week for some clarification. But that left the classic version of Hangouts in limbo, hence news that the app was going away. Google announced in March 2017 that it was splitting the Hangouts platform into two core services: Hangouts Chat, a Slack-like platform for teams, and Hangouts Meet, a Skype-like videoconferencing application. Indeed, Google dropped that hint today not so subtlety: “We’ve learned a lot from Allo, particularly what’s possible when you incorporate machine learning features, like the Google Assistant, into messaging.” Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet Google Assistant integration is the obvious next step. Smart Reply, GIFs, and desktop support have already been ported from Allo to Messages. As I’ve argued before, however, Google shouldn’t be betting everything on RCS, as it can’t support features that other messaging apps do, such as end-to-end encryption.īut with Allo out of the way, Google has more reason to augment Android Messages with Allo features, falling back to RCS if the recipient isn’t using Messages or some other app with RCS support, and to SMS if they’re on an even older device. Upgrading SMS and MMS to RCS is a great long-term goal. Plenty of Android phones don’t use Messages by default or don’t have it at all, phones or carriers or both don’t support it, and there are plenty of different RCS variants. The service is powered by the Jibe RCS cloud ( Google acquired Jibe in September 2015). Messages is Google’s plan to push RCS so that Android phones can offer features like group messaging, IP voice calls, read receipts, and file sharing. If you want to save your Allo messages, you can download your chats or media until March. Google has so far partnered with over 40 carriers and device makers and says over 175 million Android users now have Messages - a number Allo never even got close to. Google had turned its focus to Messages, the default SMS app on Android (unless the carrier decides to change it). Google “paused” work on Allo in April, but it was clear that the app’s days were numbered. It was doomed from the start, and all the updates were merely feature additions - there was never a focus on growing adoption. The team learned a ton from the effort, but Allo was largely an exercise. Learn More Allo is dead, long live Android MessagesĪllo launched in September 2016 as Google’s attempt to build a modern messaging app from scratch.
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