On Tuesday, Google announced that its messaging app, Google Hangouts, will shut down in October. The decision to shut down Hangouts is reportedly part of Google’s new business-friendly offensive.
Hangouts will split into two separate applications: Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. Chat is part of the company’s move to take on its chat competitor Slack. Meet, however, is a revamped version of Hangout’s video call feature.
“Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet are the next generation of Hangouts that focus on team communication,” Google said in its G Suit Update blog. “Later this year, we’ll transition classic Hangouts users on G Suite domains to Chat and Meet. As a first step, some changes are coming on April 16, 2019.”
Read More: Google To Expedite Google+ Shut Down After Another Data Breach
From Google Hangouts to Chat and Meet
Starting April 16th, Google Vault, the enterprise data storage service that protects the messages of the classic Google Hangouts, will cease performing its task. From then onwards, G Suite administrators manage classic Hangouts through a single control panel with the option to disable the chat app for their domain.
Between April and September, Google transition the old Google Hangouts features to Hangouts Chat before its shutdown in October. Google emphasized that the changes will be for G Suite customers only.
“The above dates are specific to G Suite customers and their end users who use classic Hangouts,” the company said.
“We will continue to support consumer use of classic Hangouts, and expect to transition consumers to free Chat and Meet following the transition of G Suite customers. A more specific timeline will be communicated at a later date.”
You can find the complete timeline of G Suite updates here.
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