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Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

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Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#102

First of all, this was announced more than 3 years ago, and it still won't happen for another 2.5 years. Second of all, this should be treated as good news for the HN crowd: Google is transitioning from a proprietary, Chrome-only app model to the open-standard, PWA model. Who doesn't support that? There are a bunch of "typical Google cancelling a product" comments here. But for real, I simply cannot imagine any Chrom…

As a person who uses the Hangouts chrome app daily, I have been expecting a day when I go to launch it and it wont open for the last 3 years. Google doesn't want to support "Classic Hangouts" anymore (and supposedly they killed it in October for GSuite, but not for my domain, I guess). Hangouts is one of the only ways I privately communicate with old friends and past co-workers since EVERYONE has at least one gmail account.

And trying to get 20 people to switch to something else is a complete non-starter.

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#103

First of all, this was announced more than 3 years ago, and it still won't happen for another 2.5 years. Second of all, this should be treated as good news for the HN crowd: Google is transitioning from a proprietary, Chrome-only app model to the open-standard, PWA model. Who doesn't support that? There are a bunch of "typical Google cancelling a product" comments here. But for real, I simply cannot imagine any Chrom…

As a person who uses the Hangouts chrome app daily, I have been expecting a day when I go to launch it and it wont open for the last 3 years. Google doesn't want to support "Classic Hangouts" anymore (and supposedly they killed it in October for GSuite, but not for my domain, I guess). Hangouts is one of the only ways I privately communicate with old friends and past co-workers since EVERYONE has at least one gmail a…

> And trying to get 20 people to switch to something else is a complete non-starter.

Eh. I participated in getting all my friends to start using WhatsApp and later to stop using it.

Way more than 20.

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#104
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I’m saying is Google should require access to the source code and the right to modify it. At that point, it is Google’s responsibility to make any changes to keep it compatible with the latest kernel.

Ok sure - you're welcome to your opinion. I feel like expecting endless maintenance builds from Google for any manufacturer's hardware forever is a bit of an optimistic expectation though, especially for old models. They guarantee at least 5 years support (1) for updates which I don't think is unreasonable considering that they are so cheap. If that is not long enough for you then I guess you are not the target audie…

My Asus laptop bought with Windows 7 on it back in 2009, is running the latest Windows 10 version.

Both Microsoft and Asus keep having updates for it.

Google just needs to actually care.

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#105

First of all, this was announced more than 3 years ago, and it still won't happen for another 2.5 years. Second of all, this should be treated as good news for the HN crowd: Google is transitioning from a proprietary, Chrome-only app model to the open-standard, PWA model. Who doesn't support that? There are a bunch of "typical Google cancelling a product" comments here. But for real, I simply cannot imagine any Chrom…

As a person who uses the Hangouts chrome app daily, I have been expecting a day when I go to launch it and it wont open for the last 3 years. Google doesn't want to support "Classic Hangouts" anymore (and supposedly they killed it in October for GSuite, but not for my domain, I guess). Hangouts is one of the only ways I privately communicate with old friends and past co-workers since EVERYONE has at least one gmail a…

Does hangouts.google.com not work for you? It works for me. You don't need an installable app to use it. And it works inside Gmail too, of course.

(True, for companies Google's currently transitioning to the alternative "Hangouts Chat" which has enterprise features. But that's different from consumer Hangouts, and in any case obviously neither depends on Chrome Apps.)

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#107
post #30
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that, but you got a Chromebook despite everything Google did in the past. If people had gotten any message they'd have abandoned Google back in 2008.

Was Google anywhere near as bad in 2008? I don't recall anything particularly awful back then.

I don't remember all the little details, but it was the year I started to actively avoid anything they touch, starting with their search engine. I think the main concern was the privacy nightmare.

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a person who uses the Hangouts chrome app daily, I have been expecting a day when I go to launch it and it wont open for the last 3 years. Google doesn't want to support "Classic Hangouts" anymore (and supposedly they killed it in October for GSuite, but not for my domain, I guess). Hangouts is one of the only ways I privately communicate with old friends and past co-workers since EVERYONE has at least one gmail a…

Does hangouts.google.com not work for you? It works for me. You don't need an installable app to use it. And it works inside Gmail too, of course. (True, for companies Google's currently transitioning to the alternative "Hangouts Chat" which has enterprise features. But that's different from consumer Hangouts, and in any case obviously neither depends on Chrome Apps.)

hangouts.google.com will actually launch the chrome app since I have it installed. Also, I only use hangouts for the chatting and SMS features, so all that cruft for video conferencing and stuff really detracts from the simplicity of the hangouts app.

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#109
post #98
post #67

Chrome Apps were a Chrome-only proprietary solution, and they're being replaced by Progressive Web Apps which work in other browsers as well. This is the sort of change we should be supporting! (Disclosure: I work at Google, not on Chrome)

So PWAs will have support for Bluetooth and all the other features of Chrome apps?

That's the broad idea of Google's Web Capabilities effort, “There are some apps that are not possible to build and deliver on the open web today. We call this, the app gap. The gap between what’s possible on the web and what’s possible on native. We want to close that gap. We believe web apps should be able to do anything native apps can.” https://developers.google.com/web/updates/capabilities

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#110
post #98
post #67

Chrome Apps were a Chrome-only proprietary solution, and they're being replaced by Progressive Web Apps which work in other browsers as well. This is the sort of change we should be supporting! (Disclosure: I work at Google, not on Chrome)

So PWAs will have support for Bluetooth and all the other features of Chrome apps?

https://developers.chrome.com/apps/migration

Everything except advanced File System APIs are supported by PWAs, including Bluetooth through the Web Bluetooth API. [1]

The replacement Native File System API is in origin trial and is pre-standardization, however. [2]

[1] https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2015/07/interact-w...

[2] https://web.dev/native-file-system/

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