Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 152 posts

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#121

Post by pound »

ucaetano wrote: post #117
pound wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, how does supporting only one video call use case by app mean target is consumer and not that use case?

It isn't "supporting only one video" that mean the target is consumer. Allo & Duo have no enterprise features, and are publicly marketed to consumers. Hangouts is marketed & sold as part of GSuite, the enterprise productivity suite from Google. Targeting determines features, not the other way around.

target here is not a consumer, target here is particular feature. you fragmenting your target 'consumer' by video and text chats, each served by separate app. how is it not a use-case/feature segmenting? feel free not to answer though

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#122

Post by dragonwriter »

cwyers wrote: post #118
ucaetano wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't "supporting only one video" that mean the target is consumer. Allo & Duo have no enterprise features, and are publicly marketed to consumers. Hangouts is marketed & sold as part of GSuite, the enterprise productivity suite from Google. Targeting determines features, not the other way around.

> Hangouts is marketed & sold as part of GSuite, the enterprise productivity suite from Google. And is embedded inside consumer Gmail, and included by default on every Android phone I've seen since it replaced Google Talk or GChat or whatever it replaced. It's the default SMS app on a lot of Android devices. What's enterprise about it?

> and included by default on every Android phone I've seen since it replaced Google Talk or GChat or whatever it replaced.

Hangouts has since been replaced by Messages as Google's primary Android SMS app, and by Allo as its primary Android internet-based text chat app, and by Duo as its primary Android video-call app.

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#123

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

sib wrote: post #72
asidiali wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new Google Voice app is a relatively good experience, unified across web/mobile platforms.

Except somehow they managed to completely hide the "make a phone call" button on the web - which is pretty much the most important use case. So, first thing I do is go to the "legacy Google Voice" menu item; it re-loads the page and there's my old friend...

You can't make a phone call from the app either afaict. You still use Hangouts Dialer.

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#124

Post by curt15 »

infogulch wrote: post #33
curt15 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Google hangouts (which I use for sms, among other things) has a very poor search feature. Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks that a search function seems absolutely basic for a messaging app.

What search function? Do you mean going to gmail.com and searching "in:chat blah"? Even that is terrible.

To make the UX even more annoying, chats are grouped under a special label that's invisible to the gmail app on Android.

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#125

Post by nikolay »

I am done with Google! Except for Gmail, which I can't flee, everything else has been a disaster! A disappointment after a disappointment! Apparently, they focus way too much on hiring engineers with their notorious interview process and not on hiring people who can design and deliver sane and practical products! If they weren't a monopolist in search for too long, they'd be long gone!

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#127

Post by r00fus »

ucaetano wrote: post #94
AaronFriel wrote: post #46

Poe's Law as applied to enterprise messaging platforms. Dear Google, Please make one amazing chat app. Just one. Merge Allo, Duo, Chat, Hangouts, Meet, Messenger, Voice, and your RCS platform into one extensible platform with third party integrations. The comments in this thread? They are not flattering. It is not a sign of joy that people comment on Google releasing a new chat app, or confusing your branding even fu…

Why stop there? Gmail is communications as well, so include email too. And snail mail too, so add Fedex/UPS service into it. And fax, we can't forget about fax. But hey, connectivity is just a section of productivity, and docs, slides, sheets, drive is all productivity, so add it all to the same app, as well as google plus. You also use the app store to get your company's apps, so add the play store as well. Finding…

I think you're being a bit hyperbolic - everyone seems to see snail mail / fax as quite different from electronic communication methods.

I've found most people tend to see email as the "slow/deliberate" electronic communication, and IM/Messages/SMS as the "fast/extemporaneous", so even conflating GMail doesn't really make sense (why do you think Wave failed?).

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#128

Post by AstralStorm »

ucaetano wrote: post #94
AaronFriel wrote: post #46

Poe's Law as applied to enterprise messaging platforms. Dear Google, Please make one amazing chat app. Just one. Merge Allo, Duo, Chat, Hangouts, Meet, Messenger, Voice, and your RCS platform into one extensible platform with third party integrations. The comments in this thread? They are not flattering. It is not a sign of joy that people comment on Google releasing a new chat app, or confusing your branding even fu…

Why stop there? Gmail is communications as well, so include email too. And snail mail too, so add Fedex/UPS service into it. And fax, we can't forget about fax. But hey, connectivity is just a section of productivity, and docs, slides, sheets, drive is all productivity, so add it all to the same app, as well as google plus. You also use the app store to get your company's apps, so add the play store as well. Finding…

Lotus Notes didn't have video, and sound or real-time chat functionality. It does integrate a spreadsheet, decent word processor, calendar and task list. Google Docs with its Calendar and Gmail integration is close enough.

Integrating different use cases is different from interoperability. For example, make it easy to share a file on drive via email and chat does not require drive to be integrated. Likewise meet (new contacts, social net) vs chat (known contacts, rooms) might be a good split if they interact nicely together.

Splitting chat from email is a stretch, much like with voice from text or from video. Or simple images.

What Google is doing is create apps that do not work together with each other.

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#129

Post by pound »

dragonwriter wrote: post #122
cwyers wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hangouts is marketed & sold as part of GSuite, the enterprise productivity suite from Google. And is embedded inside consumer Gmail, and included by default on every Android phone I've seen since it replaced Google Talk or GChat or whatever it replaced. It's the default SMS app on a lot of Android devices. What's enterprise about it?

> and included by default on every Android phone I've seen since it replaced Google Talk or GChat or whatever it replaced. Hangouts has since been replaced by Messages as Google's primary Android SMS app, and by Allo as its primary Android internet-based text chat app, and by Duo as its primary Android video-call app.

Which means 'consumer' have no idea what app to use and when (and also learning that you better not to get used to any of them)

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#130

Post by AstralStorm »

joshuamorton wrote: post #90
AaronFriel wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest you check out Discord, which works well for both the team and individual use cases in one user interface. The way they accomplish this is by having "Friends" (a familiar analogy for anyone who has used chat applications from the 2000s and current social media) as well as "Servers", which are akin to teams. Joining servers is very easy, creating servers - they are perhaps inaccurately named - is instan…

I've used discord. My family is never going to use discord or a discord-like app. For that, we need sms or MMS. One of the problems with discord is that it becomes very bloated to use (fromm mobile). It takes 3-4 interactions to get to the friends list so I can message someone. With sms/mms/allo/fb messenger, I open the app and my friends list is just right there, staring me in the face. Optimized for different useca…

Hmm, my version of Discord either points me at the friends list or restores previous state with 2 or 3 taps max to message a friend. (top left hamburger menu, tap friends, pick a friend)

Is what you describe specific to iOS version?

What is missing most is video chat.

Post reply on HN