Google is about to shut down its messaging platform, Google Hangouts, after more than 10 years, the company has announced.
It is now shifting to its most recent service, Google Chat.
Hangouts was originally a part of Google+ which let people message and call other users. In late 2020, Google announced some changes in the standalone app such as the addition of Google Voice.
Earlier this year, however, Google Chat was added to Workspace instead of Hangout.
Google has now announced that Hangouts will no longer be available after November 2022. Those who use it on their phones must have already been urged to transition to Chat.
The tech giant said that users will be redirected to Chat. However, those who use Hangouts on web will receive a notice a month prior to the redirection.
Chat is a platform that is similar to Slack and Microsoft Teams.
“We have big ambitions for the future of Chat, and over the coming months you’ll see even more features like direct calling, in-line threading in Spaces and the ability to share and view multiple images,” Ravi Kanneganti, a product manager for Google Chat, wrote in Monday’s blog.
