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When they started pushing Duo and whatever the other piece of the associated current Google chat/conference... duopoly, is. Supposedly with some move away from

When they started pushing Duo and whatever the other piece of the associated current Google chat/conference... duopoly, is. Supposedly with some move away from and/or deprecation of Hangouts, not to mention the explicit language and dates WRT killing Talk. Well, fuck me. I can't be bothered to keep up with their changing product lineup, naming, marketing, whatever TF this is. I just use non-Google stuff, now, for chat/video. FB Messenger may be busy selling my soul, but at least it's still "Messenger" and actually fucking works. Which is why pretty much everyone has it installed and knows at least basically how to use it. If I could just get my associates and friends to start using Signal or the like... (Of course, Signal could improve their UI a bit. NOT more fucking emojis, but instead making it very clear and easy to opt out of making it the default texting app (on Android). That is, not a big bar to opt in, with a little X within that bar to opt out. Tired of explaning that each time, to "normal" people, before they get back to me complaining that their texting doesn't look/work the same, any more. P.S. As I recall now, that other piece is Allo. If I even understand things correctly. I couldn't bring myself to read up on this thoroughly; I kept feeling the desire to throttle somebody. P.P.S. And I remember when, a few years ago, they REALLY wanted everybody to move to Hangouts. Including integrating their SMS activity. Only, this had significant bugs, including aspects of data loss and the irreversibility of changing to their set up. That they seemed to have little real momentum in fixing -- or even communicating clearly upon. I guess I should actually read the OP. But I'm not sure my blood pressure can take it, now.

rident 9y ago
Duo is a mobile only video/voice chat app that uses a experimental transport protocol. Allo is a text chat app with lots of options for stickers and end-to-end encryption disabled by default. I don't have a strong need for either of these apps.
- pasbesoin 9y ago
  Well, my Motorola G5+, purchased in August and on 7.0, came with an icon for Duo prominently displayed. Hangouts not installed by default. (Nor Allo, I now see.) So, Hangouts is not facing some declared or expected EOL, at this point?
  - rident 9y ago
    It's already marked as "classic" in the help section for Meet. > If you use hangouts.google.com for video calls, or need help on chat, visit the classic Hangouts Help Center.
  - Shoothe 9y ago
    I can confirm. New Android phones ship with Duo and no Hangouts.
- analogic 9y ago
  Was so excited when they finally added a video call option that wasn't a conceptual travesty so that we could finally have a cross-platform facetime alternative, unfortunately video always cut out and audio was inaudible, and still, despite being phone number based, won't let me call a number if I haven't added them as a contact. Oh well, back to, "let me go grab my iPad so we can facetime." I tried to like it, I really did.
chendragon 9y ago
Facebook Messenger Web is becoming unusable. Back in 2015 it was great, but slowly, they made it so that the website lags in all browsers if more than 100 messages are on screen, and the scrolling is now wonky.
- pasbesoin 9y ago
  Ah. I haven't used it on desktop in a couple of years. And even then, I wasn't actually "signing in" to it. It still worked just fine, via Facebook's page(s), so why bother, and this also seemed to avoid their announcing your online status. On mobile, if you don't know how else to reach out to someone, Messenger's your best chance. Closest thing to a modern-day AIM that I've seen, in terms of ubiquity.

rident 9y ago

Duo is a mobile only video/voice chat app that uses a experimental transport protocol. Allo is a text chat app with lots of options for stickers and end-to-end encryption disabled by default. I don't have a strong need for either of these apps.

pasbesoin 9y ago
Well, my Motorola G5+, purchased in August and on 7.0, came with an icon for Duo prominently displayed. Hangouts not installed by default. (Nor Allo, I now see.) So, Hangouts is not facing some declared or expected EOL, at this point?
- rident 9y ago
  It's already marked as "classic" in the help section for Meet. > If you use hangouts.google.com for video calls, or need help on chat, visit the classic Hangouts Help Center.
- Shoothe 9y ago
  I can confirm. New Android phones ship with Duo and no Hangouts.
analogic 9y ago
Was so excited when they finally added a video call option that wasn't a conceptual travesty so that we could finally have a cross-platform facetime alternative, unfortunately video always cut out and audio was inaudible, and still, despite being phone number based, won't let me call a number if I haven't added them as a contact. Oh well, back to, "let me go grab my iPad so we can facetime." I tried to like it, I really did.

chendragon 9y ago

Facebook Messenger Web is becoming unusable. Back in 2015 it was great, but slowly, they made it so that the website lags in all browsers if more than 100 messages are on screen, and the scrolling is now wonky.

pasbesoin 9y ago
Ah. I haven't used it on desktop in a couple of years. And even then, I wasn't actually "signing in" to it. It still worked just fine, via Facebook's page(s), so why bother, and this also seemed to avoid their announcing your online status. On mobile, if you don't know how else to reach out to someone, Messenger's your best chance. Closest thing to a modern-day AIM that I've seen, in terms of ubiquity.