Google to reportedly kill Voice, integrate it into Hangouts

#1

Post by zosegal » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 4:36 PM UTC

Google to reportedly kill Voice, integrate it into Hangouts
pcworld.com

Re: Google to reportedly kill Voice, integrate it into Hangouts

#2

Post by mdr25 » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 4:58 PM UTC

Ugh, I hate that SMS is conflated with Hangouts as it is. It causes notifications for work-related chat to get mixed in with notifications for personal text messages on my phone. Can anyone suggest alternative SMS clients for Android?

Re: Google to reportedly kill Voice, integrate it into Hangouts

#3

Post by Fishkins » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 4:59 PM UTC

mdr25 wrote: post #2

Ugh, I hate that SMS is conflated with Hangouts as it is. It causes notifications for work-related chat to get mixed in with notifications for personal text messages on my phone. Can anyone suggest alternative SMS clients for Android?

I used to use ChompSMS and liked it.

Re: Google to reportedly kill Voice, integrate it into Hangouts

#4

Post by jpswade » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 5:01 PM UTC

Voice never came to the UK anyway...

Re: Google to reportedly kill Voice, integrate it into Hangouts

#5

Post by Lewisham » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 5:01 PM UTC

mdr25 wrote: post #2

Ugh, I hate that SMS is conflated with Hangouts as it is. It causes notifications for work-related chat to get mixed in with notifications for personal text messages on my phone. Can anyone suggest alternative SMS clients for Android?

I'm quite a fan of Hello, but you need to explicitly turn off a "feature" that tells people you message you send it with Hello. I have no idea why they don't just charge a dollar for it.

Re: Google to reportedly kill Voice, integrate it into Hangouts

#6

Post by stanleydrew » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 5:02 PM UTC

For people like me who follow this space closely, this is not news. And to be fair, the article doesn't really claim it as news.

The Google Voice team was rolled into the Hangouts team long ago. The only thing they haven't done is roll the Google Voice app's functionality into the Hangouts app.

Re: Google to reportedly kill Voice, integrate it into Hangouts

#7

Post by hhsnopek » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 5:02 PM UTC

I saw this coming once Hangouts gained SMS compatibility. The nice thing is, I won't have 2 separate apps to view all my messages. I'll be able to make calls and text via Voice(within hangouts) for work, receive normal texts and calls in hangouts, and still be able to chat up with my circles!

Re: Google to reportedly kill Voice, integrate it into Hangouts

#8

Post by chimeracoder » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 5:04 PM UTC

Well, this kind of sucks.

I use a Google Voice number that is associated with a Gmail account that I do not use for any other purpose (Hangouts/Talk or otherwise). It doesn't even have a Google+ account associated with it.

It's nice to have single number that can ring all my lines.

If/when this is killed, what's the alternative?

(Article appears to be down/inaccessible for me).

Re: Google to reportedly kill Voice, integrate it into Hangouts

#9

Post by zoom » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 5:05 PM UTC

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Re: Google to reportedly kill Voice, integrate it into Hangouts

#10

Post by coreymgilmore » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 5:06 PM UTC

This isn't necessarily new news (they spoke of it last year, albeit once), but this is gaining some steam again.

I personally, would like to see some integration. But sometimes, Google just tries to G+-ify everything a bit too much. Ex: Latitude and YouYube comments.

Hopefully this will just be a nice seamless transition of the GV sms messaging into Hangouts. I could see that as useful.