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Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

techcrunch.com

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Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#141

Post by ianmcgowan »

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 Hangouts has since been replaced by Messages as Google's primary Android SMS app, and by Allo as its primary Android internet-based text chat app, and by Duo as its primary Android video-call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

Well that clears everything up nicely! ;-)

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#142

Post by ojiikun »

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…

> 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.

all of us who heavily invested in Wave are laughing so hard we are coughing up blood.

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#143

Post by amatriain »

There is a small but vibrant community that uses hangouts video conferencing to play tabletop roleplaying games, with the added bonus of having sessions automatically saved to youtube. There are also people with unmonetized youtube channels that consist of videopodcasts: hangouts video conferences between several people talking about whatever.

For these use cases restricting Hangouts Meet to gsuite customers means Hangouts is dead for them. I guess most people will switch to videoconferencing with Skype+OBS and streaming live to Twitch. It will work but it's harder to set up for non technical people.

Of course google does not owe me nothing and they can do as they like with their (until now) free product. But it's a pity that these common use cases that were possible with Hangouts are going to be discontinued.

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#144

Post by dfar1 »

Honestly, it seems that sometimes Google lives on another planet, and have no idea what their customers want. Here's what all google customer want... they want to see their apps improved and updated, and NOT replaced by more apps.

Maybe their plan is... if we make Hangouts worse, than we can make them use Allo and Duo. I know 0 people using those two apps. Even people with Pixel phones are not using it.

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#145

Post by laughfactory »

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…

Oh come on, this is a ridiculous argument. He's asking for what most of us want: a unified SMS and video calling app for our phones. I too would prefer they just fixed and refined Hangouts, rather than muddy the picture with a host of new options. This is what we call fragmentation. I just want some ubiquitous communications app which allows me to text and video call my friends and family no matter if they're on iPhone or Android. Hangouts was going to do this, but apparently now they've pivoted...But I'm not going to go through the hassle of getting all my friends and family to switch to some new app. So I'm disgruntled too.

We don't want one app which does literally everything, just one app for all our mobile communications: primarily SMS and video calling these days.

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#146

Post by laughfactory »

ucaetano wrote: post #99
cwyers wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Google doesn't segment their chat products based on target market, they segment it based on business unit. Google is just really unafraid of competing with Google in the marketplace, apparently.

Target market: enterprise * Video-conferencing & meeting: Hangouts Meet * Direct messaging & team communication: Hangouts Chat Target market: consumer * Video & audio calling: Duo * Text messaging: Allo You could even put it in a 2x2, doesn't get any more clear than this.

It's clear, all right, but I don't want FOUR apps to do what one should.

And none of the supporting arguments for this change have been persuasive to me. This is just x4 fragmentation, if you ask me.

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#147

Post by laughfactory »

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.

Except that neither Messenger or Allo are embedded in Inbox or Gmail. It's Hangouts all the way there. I actually like Messenger, but it's lacking certain features so I always end up back on Hangouts. Plus, Messenger doesn't give me transcripts of voicemails. So "integrated" is pushing it. It's there, it's nice, but it's not everywhere and as useful as Hangouts is.

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#148

Post by ucaetano »

laughfactory wrote: post #145
ucaetano wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Oh come on, this is a ridiculous argument. He's asking for what most of us want: a unified SMS and video calling app for our phones. I too would prefer they just fixed and refined Hangouts, rather than muddy the picture with a host of new options. This is what we call fragmentation. I just want some ubiquitous communications app which allows me to text and video call my friends and family no matter if they're on iPho…

He's asking for what most of us want: a unified SMS and video calling app for our phones.

Is that what you want or what most people want? I like WhatsApp more than Allo/Duo, especially for the desktop integration and a few other features, but I'm a dinosaur who uses desktop. Nobody uses desktop anymore, but until Google launches a desktop client, my hate of typing on a smartphone keyboard will keep me away from those apps. If they launch, I'd guess that my existing network on WhatsApp will keep me away from them as well.

"They're not addressing my own usage profile" != "They are not addressing a large % of the potential users".

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#149

Post by laughfactory »

accountface wrote: post #74
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…

This is spot on. TONS of people are using Slack in their personal lives because it's a good chat app. It doesn't matter if it was originally built to support business teams.

Yep! I use Slack with friends, family, and work. Great app, and I like that it's all right there.

Re: Google Splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet

#150

Post by laughfactory »

I can't help but wonder if the comments defending Google's strategy are from paid folks (shills, I suppose). The vast majority of comments are hating on the strategy and then there's a few who are lambasting everyone else and claiming that wanting a single chat app out of Google is paramount to "wanting an app which does everything." Perhaps their Google employees? This is high stakes so I'd expect some attempt to control the damage (I.e., "shape" the conversation).
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