

This is a big step ahead of shutting down the legacy service by making sure nobody needs or uses it. In signing users out, they will no longer get notifications from Hangouts or be able to message with the app. Hangouts holdouts will have to finally say goodbye to Google’s most resilient.

If you haven't already, you'll see a prompt to migrate to Chat. it checks for a view with descrtiption More options or a view with classname ending inOverflowMenuButton. Tapping that button will sign you out of the Hangouts mobile app before opening Gmail - even if you have the standalone Google Chat app installed - as the company is focused on the unified (Gmail, Chat, Meet) experience. Google Hangouts is shutting down this fall. “ Learn more” takes you to a support document, while there’s a “Switch to Chat in Gmail” option.

Your conversations from the last year are already in Chat, and older conversations will be available later.
#Google hangouts ending for free
Google is now beginning that process of deprecating the Hangouts app and website for free personal accounts with a warning and sign out.Īs we were expecting, opening Hangouts for Android and iOS today shows a blue “Hangouts is being replaced by Google Chat” banner at the top:
#Google hangouts ending update
Update on January 22, 2019: Google has clarified its timeline for shutting down Hangouts.In late 2021, classic Hangouts will stop working for enterprise Workspace customers and only Google Chat will be available. After Hangouts, Google launched Allo - but considering Allo only allowed users to message other Allo users, it wasn’t really embraced. The end is nigh: Google is ending SMS support for Hangouts in May By AG Deals Team - MaWe knew it was coming, but it seems that we’re one step closer to the end of Hangouts as we know. As mentioned, it has launched quite a few messaging services over the years, and many of them have fallen flat. Hopefully, this signals the start of a much more streamlined approach to messaging for Google. The Hangouts brand will still live on in G Suite’s Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet services, which are targeted at businesses and aimed at those who might otherwise be interested in services like Slack. It’s important to note that not everything about Hangouts will disappear.

Safe to say, if you have not already transitioned away from Google Hangouts, then you will want to do so at some point in 2019. Given that Google has been bringing new features to other messaging apps, many customers have already moved away from Google Hangouts, but there is still a loyal following who prefer to stick with the older service. We are fully committed to supporting classic Hangouts users until everyone is successfully migrated to Chat and Meet.” We have not announced an official timeline for transitioning users from classic Hangouts to Chat and Meet. In late 2021, classic Hangouts will stop working for enterprise Workspace customers and only Google Chat will be available. “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 Meet,” a spokesperson told Digital Trends. When news first broke that the classic Hangouts app would be retired, Google quickly pushed back. The tech giant reached out to Digital Trends to dispel the confusion, claiming it had not set any specific end-of-life date for Hangouts. Given that, we think it’s pretty likely that the classic Hangouts app will shut down for good in 2020.Īccording to Google, the classic Hangouts won’t be retired for customers until they’ve successfully migrated to Hangouts Chat and Meet. Now, Google has clarified its timeline - it will begin retiring the classic Hangouts app in October 2019 for some G Suite users. Not only that, but Google ceased development on Hangouts more than a year ago. Google often gets ridiculed for its multitude of messaging apps, and the company recently announced that it would be turning its attention to Android Messages and integration with the new RCS “Chat” messaging standard. Last year, a report from 9to5Google claimed that the classic Google Hangouts app was set to shut down for consumers at some point in 2020, citing “a source familiar with the product’s internal roadmap.” The news wasn’t all that surprising. The move makes good on plans Google originally laid. Will the classic Google Hangouts finally get the chop? Absolutely - and now we know a little more about when. Google is starting the process of shutting down its Hangouts app and migrating users to Google Chat, the company said in a blog post Thursday.
