Ask HN: Pros and Cons of Google Hangouts Chat?

#1

Post by evanslify » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 11:45 AM UTC

Recently, our top brass is looking to replace Slack with Google Hangouts Chat [1] for a team of around 70 members.

Since we already have G Suite subscriptions, and it comes with Hangouts Chat already, without need to pay any extra fees.

It’s said that we need to switch to Hangouts Chat for a month’s period for “evaluation”, but I’m not quite sure how that’s gonna work since that means switching back and forth between Slack and Hangouts Chat.

Personally, I find it not very useful, given that:

- Have to migrate existings bots to Hangouts

- Unable to search messages from Slack from Hangouts

- No public channels to browse & join

- No native client on Linux

Not quite sure about pros. Any thoughts?

Link: https://get.google.com/chat/

Re: Ask HN: Pros and Cons of Google Hangouts Chat?

#2

Post by DarkWiiPlayer » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 12:30 PM UTC

Hangouts makes for a nice alternative to whatsapp, but that's about it. I don't think it's a good choice for any serious teamwork, as it just doesn't have any significant features other than standard text chat and video calls.

Re: Ask HN: Pros and Cons of Google Hangouts Chat?

#3

Post by dustinchilson » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 12:51 PM UTC

We use Hangouts Chat, Switched from Slack about a year ago.

If you solely look at the utility of chat and keeping history of chat, Slack provides no benefit @ $7 a user over Hangouts if you're already a G Suite Subscriber.

Slack has a cleaner interface and has much better integrations. The community of addons and bots is huge and the APIs are better. But, you can achieve all the same things with Hangouts it's just not the path most traveled.

That said, If I had the choice. I would rather use Slack.

Re: Ask HN: Pros and Cons of Google Hangouts Chat?

#4

Post by evanslify » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 6:57 PM UTC

dustinchilson wrote: post #3

We use Hangouts Chat, Switched from Slack about a year ago. If you solely look at the utility of chat and keeping history of chat, Slack provides no benefit @ $7 a user over Hangouts if you're already a G Suite Subscriber. Slack has a cleaner interface and has much better integrations. The community of addons and bots is huge and the APIs are better. But, you can achieve all the same things with Hangouts it's just no…

How did you migrate then? Do you have years of chat history before?

Also, can you compare about efficiency of communication in both?

Re: Ask HN: Pros and Cons of Google Hangouts Chat?

#5

Post by evanslify » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 6:59 PM UTC

DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #2

Hangouts makes for a nice alternative to whatsapp, but that's about it. I don't think it's a good choice for any serious teamwork, as it just doesn't have any significant features other than standard text chat and video calls.

That’s what we need, plus lots of incoming webhooks and bot interface. We don’t even use Slack’s video/voice call — It simply doesn’t work very well.