15 ms·

Google Hangouts Chat

164 points by alooPotato 9y ago

oh-kumudo 9y ago
Google is losing its mind. Funny that as essential as chat app is for an internet company, Google fails to push a consistent one to the market because of internal politics.
chadbennett 9y ago
It looks like the announcement was a little premature. We tried for about 30 minutes to sign up with no luck. The link to the official page is not resolving in the official blog post and the Techcrunch article. When you do make it to the correct page, it is still showing the early adopter program registration.
- Nullabillity 9y ago
  I just get to the upsell landing page, despite already being signed into a GSuite account.
  - chadbennett 9y ago
    Looks like they fixed it.
Pigo 9y ago
Everyone is talking about how this won't be a good chat app, but isn't this more like Jira than Slack? If it's a good alternative to Jira, I'd be glad try it out. I personally can't stand Jira, and not able to use VSOnline. I just never have a suitable alternative to suggest when I found out a team needs to use it.
- ProAm 9y ago
  Except you only have 18 months to use it before it's abandoned.
  - oldcynic 9y ago
    ...and 3-6 before they release a new Hangout Business Chat or some such that's better because.
- AgentME 9y ago
  It's like Slack, but with a slightly different conversation threading model (and more Google integrations). Ostensibly its conversation model is better at keeping different conversations separate within the same room.
- mirhagk 9y ago
  I'm curious, why can't you use VSOnline?
  - Pigo 9y ago
    Because the place I'm at now doesn't have msdn and a lot of Microsoft buy-in by the developers. It probably works with other tools, but I know it's tied into VS very nicely. If it were my choice, that's what I'd like to use. I think it works great and is intuitive.
- greggawatt 9y ago
  it's not like jira, it's like hipchat
ProAm 9y ago
Im tired of trying to adopt and stay current with Googles ever changing "This is what you should use" product line.
wgjordan 9y ago
> To get started, go to www.chat.google.com on the web or download the app on your desktop or mobile devices. Correct link is chat.google.com, no www.
- defen 9y ago
  Blog post has been up for an hour and that's still not fixed...how is that even possible.
  - grafporno 9y ago
    I have no idea, but the Google Blog is weirdly unoptimized for something so public-facing/PR related. Can't find the relevant HN thread, but somebody pointed out that on another Google Blog post, the author managed to upload something like a 4000x4000px image of himself that then got displayed as something like 80x80px. When you open up chrome dev tools, the blog post is 19.2 mb (!). And they are all like that (e.g. https://www.blog.google/topics/arts-culture/just-flick-wand-harry-potter-history-magic-google-arts-culture/ https://www.blog.google/topics/arts-culture/just-flick-wand-... 92.2 mb).
colept 9y ago
I'm inclined to say that going all in on a Google chat product is like betting it all on a slot machine.
- IntronExon 9y ago
  Not at all! However infrequently, slot machines do occasionally pay out.
- OmarIsmail 9y ago
  This is an inane criticism. How many business services has Google released? How many have shut down? Let's get empirical here.
  - komali2 9y ago
    Well, a business decision can be driven by all product decisions, and if we look at the weird consumer/business crossover with Google the empirical answer is "probably just use slack." Timelines: 1. Google voice gains voicemail functionality. Gains SMS functionality. Gains "make phone call" functionality. 2. Google Voice deprecated in favor of Hangouts. Hangouts gains SMS functionality. Gains "make phone call" functionality." Gains "receive phone call" functionality. 3. Google Hangouts "receive phone call" functionality removed. 4. Google voice gets a makeover. No new functionality, better UI though. 5. Google Hangouts SMS functionality deprecated. 6. Allo released. Duo released. Nobody is sure why. 7. Google Hangouts converted to "enterprise app." 8. Google Hangouts deprecated in favor of Google Hangouts Chat? Other lost Google Products: 1. Gmail -> Inbox? Nobody knows 2. CAPTCHA 3. Google Site search 4. Picasa -> Converted to Google Photos (not so bad really) 5. Helpouts 6. Moderator (used by President Obama!!!) 7. Hello 8. Wave 9. Meebo -> Plus Fucks sake even Google Maps Engine and Google Spaces was discontinued lol. Here's a fun article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products#Discontinued_products_and_services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products#Discon...
    - OmarIsmail 9y ago
      A business decision can be driven by all product decisions, but that would be a bad way to make a business decision. Look at that discontinued list and look at the business services that have been discontinued, can you find any? Can you find more than 5? Look at G-Suite + GCP (Google's business offerings) and tell me how many there are. There are dozens. Many of which have been around for 10+ years (Email, Docs, Sheets, Analytics). So if I'm a business, making a business decision about a new business service from Google it's an incredibly safe bet that this service will be around for the long hall. You can point to consumer services to try and discount that... but you'd be wrong to, and I think you know that.
FreakyT 9y ago
I already find Google's handling of their chat software utterly nonsensical, but this one arguably takes the cake for ridiculousness, considering they already have a chat product called "Hangouts". There is definitely no chance of branding confusion there.
- chimeracoder 9y ago
  > I already find Google's handling of their chat software utterly nonsensical, but this one arguably takes the cake for ridiculousness, considering they already have a chat product called "Hangouts". Apparently this product ("Google Hangouts Chat") is meant for work-related text chat targeted at businesses (I guess like Slack). Not to be confused with Google Hangouts Meet, which is Hangouts video chat, but branded for businesses. Google Hangouts Meet is also known as Hangouts Meet, or just Meet, and even their official website can't decide on which one to use, or even which one should show up in the Google search results: https://twitter.com/chimeracoder/status/968914718508371970 https://twitter.com/chimeracoder/status/968914718508371970 (Apologies for the self-link, but it's easier than reuploading the image).
  - Declanomous 9y ago
    Google is taking naming cues from Microsoft now. Microsoft's naming conventions are maddening if you are trying to search for documentation. I have spent a lot of time developing for Access and Excel, and trying to search for VBA solutions is a madhouse. You could maybe chalk up the VBA|VB madness to decisions being made at a time when search engines were somewhat uncommon tools, but they have made this mistake so many times. For instance, try figuring out the difference between all the Active Directory solutions on Azure. The documentation describing the differences between them is spread out all over the place, and it's not clear which option is necessary to achieve a given result. Plus several of the Azure AD solutions have nothing to do with the Active Directory protocol. I would chalk it up to being unfamiliar with the Azure environment, but I'm working with a couple of Azure devs and even they were confused by the limitations of each version of AD and when you could use them. Honestly, if business units within a company could sue for copyright infringement resulting in market confusion I would highly recommend the Active Directory team send a cease-and-desist to the rest of the company.
rednerrus 9y ago
Google Hangouts Chat is no Slack...
- f-penelope 9y ago
  Sounds great to me :)
melq 9y ago
Another Google chat app? Anyone want to start a pool on how long it will last?
defen 9y ago
Hey look, another "I need a promotion" chat product from Google. Incredible impact.
- indogooner 9y ago
  I had the same thought. May be after so many underwhelming messaging/talk products from Google I am imposing my bias but seems like now there are too many people in 'rest and vest'[1] mode at the top along with of course 'I need a promotion' [1] https://www.businessinsider.in/Inside-the-world-of-Silicon-Valleys-coasters-the-millionaire-engineers-who-get-paid-gobs-of-money-and-barely-work/articleshow/59942927.cms https://www.businessinsider.in/Inside-the-world-of-Silicon-V...
- patmcguire 9y ago
  Yup. The Google promo article [1] from today is good on the background for why these things happen. How can you show technical impact on a chat product that scales from 20 million to 80 million users? (numbers made up) Sure, there are challenges, but they're very easy to look at and dismiss as not that hard. If you launch a new chat app it's very clear something happened. I'd also add that it's a often a lot easier to build and launch something like this with Google infrastructure than it is to get a new feature suggestion taken seriously by someone two levels up and an org over. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483241 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483241
bpchaps 9y ago
Is anyone else expecting this to be, or turn into a complete shitshow like the current hangouts is?
blhack 9y ago
It almost seems like satire at this point. Maybe this is all actually a long con to drive everybody back to IRC (or keep them there if they never left).
- dhimes 9y ago
  Wouldn't that be awesome!
- crocal 9y ago
  Let’s do this.
- sandos 9y ago
  They already drove everyone I know to FB messenger. A long time ago.
  - mirhagk 9y ago
    It's sad and true. FB messenger is such a crappy thing but google still manages to be worse than it. I think the last time I used a messaging app that doesn't consistently crash and fail on the basics (scrolling, pasting text) was when I used MSN messenger. That was also the last time I could use a single messaging app to message everyone
    - lambda_lover 9y ago
      Luckily my friend group has slowly migrated away from FB Messenger thanks to the battery life impact (substantial, in our experience) and hamfisting of Stories/Ads into the app. For the most part, we're back on SMS now. Personally I'm hoping AOL releases AIM mobile soon and we can finally go full circle to my first messaging client.
      - blhack 9y ago
        I'd love SMS if apple would stop screwing around with it re: imessage.
- 9y ago
osel 9y ago
So do I have this straight.... - Classic Hangouts (deprecated?), has chat, works with most browsers and all devices [0]. - Hangouts Meet is the new Hangouts (for Apps (sorry G Suite)), has chat, chrome only. Poor device support. - Hangouts Chat, is chat, GApps only, doesnt appear to work at all. I truly wonder how much worse it can get. [0] https://support.google.com/a/answer/7303775?hl=en https://support.google.com/a/answer/7303775?hl=en
reustle 9y ago
I generally like you Google, but your lack of support keep me away from your business products wherever possible. Let me pay you.
- wstrange 9y ago
  You can pay for products if you wish (Gsuite).
  - peatmoss 9y ago
    True, but the bulk of users seem to be using free versions, and thus product design follows whatever crazy motivations Google has. Aside: Just moved my vanity domain to Fastmail, and it feels refreshingly like a paid product that hasn’t been fscked with endlessly for dubious reasons. I suppose that may be a feature of being an old school paid-for service.
- lern_too_spel 9y ago
  The only way to use this product is to pay for Gsuite.
alooPotato 9y ago
Our team at Streak has been using the product for several months now and are pretty happy with it. The killer feature for us is the threading model. We found Slack to be really hard to follow in a really active channel and worse, hard to catch up on if you've been away for a while. Its easy to skim the threads to see which are important. One thing that might be jarring for people coming from slack is that the entire thread moves to the bottom (newest) any time there is a new message in the thread. Similar to email but in a chat product, you really see it moving around - just took some getting used to for us. We also found the search to be really good. I don't really have a hard time finding things as I did in Slack - I think the threading also really helps here. Adoption was pretty quick in our company because it works with the old (regular?) hangouts chat thats built into gmail so people were already used to using that. It's definitely not as feature rich as slack but for a new product, it works for us. I wish there were more integrations with 3rd parties (looking at you github).
- chu4n 9y ago
  > I wish there were more integrations with 3rd parties (looking at you github). Not arguing against your general point, but just wanted to point out there is in fact a Github bot for Chat (try "@Github").
nanexcool 9y ago
I haven't been able to video chat using Hangouts for a long time now. Chrome on Windows 10 or Chrome on Ubuntu 17.10, I click the video button and... nothing. Works on Android though.
mxuribe 9y ago
Instead of creating the weekly/monthly/latest G-powered chat product, why doesn't Google go all-in to leverage something like the matrix protocol? Gmail is so successful and it leverages the universal, decentralized email protocols. For non-techy users its clear the value platforms like gmail bring. Yet, there are so many tech-savvy users who COULD be managing their own mail/smtp servers and infrastructure but instead CHOOSE to still use gmail. I think there is an opportunity here for google on chat, and it does not involve constantly designing a new chat product almost every frickin' week. I firmly believe that google could build a single/final chat product but leverage an open (and distributed) protocol like matrix...and still win mind-share, market-share, make enough money on ads (displayed in the chat product), allow for 3rd-party integrations, etc. But, hey, whatever.
rekoros 9y ago
Time to update! https://sameroom.io/chat-timeline.pdf https://sameroom.io/chat-timeline.pdf
onestone 9y ago
Any bets on how their next IM app will be named? My pick is Hangouts Talk.
- angryasian 9y ago
  google hangouts allo talk
- komali2 9y ago
  It's about time for the "adding new words" portion in the Google What-The-Fuck-Is-This-For product cycle. Last time we had that was Allo and Duo, before that was Plus. The "filler projects" just have normal nouns like Inbox or Photos or whatever.
pacetherace 9y ago
"We are Google and we know what is best for you. Go ahead and use it until we realize something else is best for you. Oh, and BTW if you think our UI is bad then you don't know what is best for you."
ajkjk 9y ago
I wonder why some UI designer thought it wouldn't be annoying to have a quarter of the screen taken up on the top and bottom with massive useless bars. Maybe they only test on huge monitors and smartphones?
jzig 9y ago
nope.
aetimmes 9y ago
I'd argue that someone needs to needs to make a Google Chat Product equivalent of the Cleveland Browns Quarterback Graveyard jersey (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Clb2inPWAAAh3lX.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Clb2inPWAAAh3lX.jpg), but Google seems intent on circumventing that possibility by using pants-on-head moronic namespacing.
- dhimes 9y ago
  Missed Griffin...But that list certainly makes its point.
bighi 9y ago
Is this a joke?
komali2 9y ago
I would pay cash money to read an interview with a higher-up about what the fuck is happening at google with all these chat apps. Tech Journalists, somebody, ask a C suite or even just a team lead, "why are there fifteen chat apps and what is the google chat app long term strategy." Then link your patreon. Where are these kids hiding? I'm in South Bay all the time - which bar do I need to and who do I need to feed alcohol to until I get answers? It's to me the world's greatest unsolved mystery.
- JorgeGT 9y ago
  Google's chat strategy is the Mary Celeste of our time.
  - thrill 9y ago
    These days I feel they're sailing on the Gitche Gumee.
- remir 9y ago
  Also, where's Sundar? I feel like he should answer that question.
  - jgalt212 9y ago
    Sundar's main job is keeping the FTC and EU at bay. All other matters are rounding errors.
- gervase 9y ago
  Based on the article from earlier today [0], my new theory is that engineers at Google have realized that the best way to get promoted is to launch a big, shiny product (regardless of need, market fit, etc), and the easiest way to get a big, shiny product is to just re-launch the same projects over, and over, and over. Who cares about long-term product strategy as long as you get your promotion? Seems like a classic case of employees optimizing for local maxima, at the expense of the global maximum. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483241 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483241
wcfields 9y ago
So after reading this and trying to enable on my own GSuite and getting nothing but errors I see this: "Chat will be made available over the next 7 days. " So I expect over the next 7 days I'll have at least 20 emails from GSuite power users of why I haven't enabled it yet.
- jtokoph 9y ago
  This is immensely confusing since the first paragraph of the blog post says: "Today, we’re making Chat generally available". I think this is becoming more common too, especially with GSuite releases.
- aaomidi 9y ago
  I think it's on under chat.google.com, they never actually link this through the announcement page.
derrikcurran 9y ago
Will I be able to search my Hangouts Chat messages on Android? Because I can't with Hangouts. Seriously.
- what_ever 9y ago
  Yes.
gringoDan 9y ago
At this point Google has out-Hooli'ed Hooli...you'd be hard-pressed to write better satire than this.
lousken 9y ago
Killed rss reader, created dozens of useless chat clients - Google
ironjunkie 9y ago
never using Google for anything remotely related to Chats again
jdoliner 9y ago
I'm honestly starting to believe that Google's fleet of chat products is the most elaborate / expensive April fool's joke they've ever pulled.
codegladiator 9y ago
Now every single new feature is a new app. Every app has ONE killer feature.
ikeboy 9y ago
Yup, this looks like ... it does ... something
cpeterso 9y ago
Does Hangouts Chat support browsers other than Chrome? Given that Hangouts Meet doesn't support Firefox or Edge yet, so I kinda doubt Hangouts Chat would be any different.
Numberwang 9y ago
You guys should skip this. On google i/o there is plans to introduce "Google Verb" which is a new chat platform something using AI something which lets you communicate using only verbs and culturally vetted smileys. I for one will be on Verb, at least until Skype Edge is out.
- brokenmachine 9y ago
  Only verbs and smileys? Sounds great, sign me up at once! Actually, I should say, ":-) sign :P" Who needs nouns anyway?
e12e 9y ago
> "In case you’re wondering, Chat is compatible with Hangouts and works with your existing contacts." Well no shit. A "contact" is a userid at a Google controlled service. If they'd managed to not be able to address their own siloed users, that'd be pretty sad? Also: with email, you can email people. > "To get started, go to chat.google.com on the web or download the app on your desktop or mobile devices." So no Gnu/Linux client, only a Android/Linux client. Why am I not surprised.
AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
And yet somehow Pidgin with GTalk still works on my desktop. I really have no idea how. I'm pretty sure Google said they would completely kill the GTalk plugin over the summer. But I'm not asking questions.
amluto 9y ago
Next year they'll come full circle and release Google Chat Talk.
pmlnr 9y ago
We should all just go back using ICQ, it would make things much simpler.
iamdave 9y ago
I'm taking the over: 18 months before Google kills it, replaces with another messaging application.
fh973 9y ago
Amazing that something like this is possible. When I was a SWE at Google, I thought about switching to the PM role. A PM told me that PMs are the secret emperors of Google. Sounded good then but now I think I finally got it: they are the only ones acting in a meaningful way. As there is no overarching strategy to be followed, it seems like they can launch whatever they want if it "sgtm" to someone above. Launch done, promotion package complete for quite a few people, everyone happy.
- asdfasasf 9y ago
  How are Google PM's? I work at Amazon and the PM's seem to act like secretaries that manage the deadlines for each projects deliverable and when those dates slip, they page people until they get back on track. Don't even get me started on region build TPM's.
  - dingdongding 9y ago
    I think by PM at Google he meant Product Manager and by PM at Amazon you mean Program Manager?
    - fh973 9y ago
      Yes. PM @ Google is product management. Seems like 5 years later the ivory tower world view is still in effect.
fh973 9y ago
I have only one question: can I disable it in GSuite without disabling the Gmail "chat" and this "Hangouts" thingy that you schedule via calendar?
013a 9y ago
In this thread: Google needs to stop making chat apps that I'll never use. This is a core G-Suite product for businesses. Right now, Google has no internal products that compete here. Their MO so far is to move Hangouts to be G-Suite/Business centric, whereas Allo/Duo are consumer. If you are still using Hangouts as a consumer, you're behind the times. Yes they need to clean up their Hangouts naming scheme. Yes they have Voice that's just kinda dangling there unloved. Yes, they could integrate SMS/Voice/Allo/Duo better. But frankly, I don't get all the hate. HN loves startups and experimentation and mistakes, but Google isn't allowed to do that? HN hates when Google deprecates products, but they have too many messaging apps? They'll get there. I'd take their messaging ecosystem today over 3 years ago; Allo is amazing.
- ikeboy 9y ago
  If Google was missing some essential business features after building a messaging platform from scratch 5 times, they have simply failed at software development.
  - rurban 9y ago
    They did fail. At hiring, development, management and project management.
- jsight 9y ago
  I get your point, but why reuse the Hangouts brand for a completely different product while deprecating the old one? And I definitely would take their ecosystem of 3 years ago over today. Hangouts was the main chat app and it integrated my SMS and Google Voice pretty nicely at the time. Also, I'd like to go back even further and get back XMPP federation. Now, I have the chat platform that I still use (consumer Hangouts), a few that noone uses (Allo & Duo), and some new ones that noone uses. This pivoting is grating not great.
  - 013a 9y ago
    My guess: Its an enterprise product, so they want to help ease that transition and encourage enterprise users to adopt it. I imagine there will come a day when the "Hangouts" brand disappears, from both Meet and Chat.
dilap 9y ago
Haha, this is hilarious. Can anyone keep track of all the Google chat apps? (And the only one that was pleasant to use was the original gchat, which they stupidly threw away.) This makes for an interesting juxtaposition with the guy who quit Google because he couldn't get a promotion. I guess the the way to get promoted at Google is to make a chat app? ;-)
thrillgore 9y ago
Finally, Google delivers the business chat app of 2016! What the fuck are they doing with messaging apps? Is this going to be retired in a year?
cmurf 9y ago
When I think of Google, I think of search. And then there's Hangouts which has no search at all. Mark text or calls as spam in Google Voice? They still come through on Hangouts, the only way to prevent it so to find the buried block option. Google and chat is the Peter Principle in action. And everyone who has tried has failed. The idea anyone's been promoted is hilarious.
- philsnow 9y ago
  > And then there's Hangouts which has no search at all. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#chats https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#chats or search for "is:chat" in gmail.
dreamfactored 9y ago
On functionality (not google product history etc), is this worth switching a small 40 person company from slack? Killer feature in slack for us is probably granularity of alerting and mobile desktop handoff (read a message on one and that carries across), and full featured mobile.
luord 9y ago
Good grief: Talk, Hangouts, Meet, Allo, Duo, Hangouts Chat... When does it stop?
bingobob 9y ago
too many people are thinking that a one fit solution can work for everyone but Google are massive and they can afford to have many product to suit their customers needs, Microsoft also has this with Skype, Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams. Skype will always be consumer focus and it has built in video. Skype for Business a old product bad UI that was called Lync is being replace with Teams. Teams Fantastic product but i don't ever see consumers using it business its great check it out if you have 365. and don't forget microsoft has there old system call messenger that they merge into Skype. now we look at Google also all these new chat systems are build on WebRTC, HTTP2.0 & QUIC all built to be fast. anything in G Suite has a requirements of Google Account, high SLA, standards compliance & data retention Hangout Meet - be a easy video chat app Hangout Chat - be a group/teams chat app both Allo and Duo work without any account creation all you need is a SMS verify and it works off a mobile number for area of the world that don't bother with creating accounts or maybe some beginnings of supporting a imessage type service so this would be a big change to Google whole systems and thinking around how that layers in with other services. but there now gearing up to add the Google account layer with the latest teardown its coming and soon as the new smart display depend on duo having google account Allo - be a modern consumer chat app Duo - be a modern video app Hangouts - be legacy now this is what i would do to merge the system once they add Google Account support then i can see they will be able to build a layer to import legacy hangout chats into the allo system and in the end maybe even swapping out the hangout backed with allo's two different views/UI on a centralize base. this would keep the internet happy and most people would be no wiser but then allo people can talk with hangout people and the two apps would be 100% feature the same just a bit of paint difference.
threatofrain 9y ago
Definitely not diminishing the criticisms on brand confusion lodged by other comments here, but I would praise all the very assuring security and compliance features.
e2e4 9y ago
Google should fix the regular hangouts first; I constantly am having troubles with it; and I am not the only one: a post from 4 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16383525 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16383525 "Is Hangouts being so bad the reason for the popularity of Slack?"
ew 9y ago
Interesting. Some real challenges getting started on day 1. Now I'm seeing that the Github bot is created by something called Linovi Developments which has a busted ass website and fewer than 100 Github users authorized it... fishing?
hattie19 9y ago
hi

164 points by alooPotato 9y ago

Google is losing its mind. Funny that as essential as chat app is for an internet company, Google fails to push a consistent one to the market because of internal politics.

chadbennett 9y ago

It looks like the announcement was a little premature. We tried for about 30 minutes to sign up with no luck. The link to the official page is not resolving in the official blog post and the Techcrunch article. When you do make it to the correct page, it is still showing the early adopter program registration.

Nullabillity 9y ago
I just get to the upsell landing page, despite already being signed into a GSuite account.
- chadbennett 9y ago
  Looks like they fixed it.

Pigo 9y ago

Everyone is talking about how this won't be a good chat app, but isn't this more like Jira than Slack? If it's a good alternative to Jira, I'd be glad try it out. I personally can't stand Jira, and not able to use VSOnline. I just never have a suitable alternative to suggest when I found out a team needs to use it.

ProAm 9y ago
Except you only have 18 months to use it before it's abandoned.
- oldcynic 9y ago
  ...and 3-6 before they release a new Hangout Business Chat or some such that's better because.
AgentME 9y ago
It's like Slack, but with a slightly different conversation threading model (and more Google integrations). Ostensibly its conversation model is better at keeping different conversations separate within the same room.
mirhagk 9y ago
I'm curious, why can't you use VSOnline?
- Pigo 9y ago
  Because the place I'm at now doesn't have msdn and a lot of Microsoft buy-in by the developers. It probably works with other tools, but I know it's tied into VS very nicely. If it were my choice, that's what I'd like to use. I think it works great and is intuitive.
greggawatt 9y ago
it's not like jira, it's like hipchat

ProAm 9y ago

Im tired of trying to adopt and stay current with Googles ever changing "This is what you should use" product line.

wgjordan 9y ago

> To get started, go to www.chat.google.com on the web or download the app on your desktop or mobile devices. Correct link is chat.google.com, no www.

defen 9y ago
Blog post has been up for an hour and that's still not fixed...how is that even possible.
- grafporno 9y ago
  I have no idea, but the Google Blog is weirdly unoptimized for something so public-facing/PR related. Can't find the relevant HN thread, but somebody pointed out that on another Google Blog post, the author managed to upload something like a 4000x4000px image of himself that then got displayed as something like 80x80px. When you open up chrome dev tools, the blog post is 19.2 mb (!). And they are all like that (e.g. https://www.blog.google/topics/arts-culture/just-flick-wand-harry-potter-history-magic-google-arts-culture/ https://www.blog.google/topics/arts-culture/just-flick-wand-... 92.2 mb).

colept 9y ago

I'm inclined to say that going all in on a Google chat product is like betting it all on a slot machine.

IntronExon 9y ago
Not at all! However infrequently, slot machines do occasionally pay out.
OmarIsmail 9y ago
This is an inane criticism. How many business services has Google released? How many have shut down? Let's get empirical here.
- komali2 9y ago
  Well, a business decision can be driven by all product decisions, and if we look at the weird consumer/business crossover with Google the empirical answer is "probably just use slack." Timelines: 1. Google voice gains voicemail functionality. Gains SMS functionality. Gains "make phone call" functionality. 2. Google Voice deprecated in favor of Hangouts. Hangouts gains SMS functionality. Gains "make phone call" functionality." Gains "receive phone call" functionality. 3. Google Hangouts "receive phone call" functionality removed. 4. Google voice gets a makeover. No new functionality, better UI though. 5. Google Hangouts SMS functionality deprecated. 6. Allo released. Duo released. Nobody is sure why. 7. Google Hangouts converted to "enterprise app." 8. Google Hangouts deprecated in favor of Google Hangouts Chat? Other lost Google Products: 1. Gmail -> Inbox? Nobody knows 2. CAPTCHA 3. Google Site search 4. Picasa -> Converted to Google Photos (not so bad really) 5. Helpouts 6. Moderator (used by President Obama!!!) 7. Hello 8. Wave 9. Meebo -> Plus Fucks sake even Google Maps Engine and Google Spaces was discontinued lol. Here's a fun article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products#Discontinued_products_and_services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products#Discon...
  - OmarIsmail 9y ago
    A business decision can be driven by all product decisions, but that would be a bad way to make a business decision. Look at that discontinued list and look at the business services that have been discontinued, can you find any? Can you find more than 5? Look at G-Suite + GCP (Google's business offerings) and tell me how many there are. There are dozens. Many of which have been around for 10+ years (Email, Docs, Sheets, Analytics). So if I'm a business, making a business decision about a new business service from Google it's an incredibly safe bet that this service will be around for the long hall. You can point to consumer services to try and discount that... but you'd be wrong to, and I think you know that.

FreakyT 9y ago

I already find Google's handling of their chat software utterly nonsensical, but this one arguably takes the cake for ridiculousness, considering they already have a chat product called "Hangouts". There is definitely no chance of branding confusion there.

chimeracoder 9y ago
> I already find Google's handling of their chat software utterly nonsensical, but this one arguably takes the cake for ridiculousness, considering they already have a chat product called "Hangouts". Apparently this product ("Google Hangouts Chat") is meant for work-related text chat targeted at businesses (I guess like Slack). Not to be confused with Google Hangouts Meet, which is Hangouts video chat, but branded for businesses. Google Hangouts Meet is also known as Hangouts Meet, or just Meet, and even their official website can't decide on which one to use, or even which one should show up in the Google search results: https://twitter.com/chimeracoder/status/968914718508371970 https://twitter.com/chimeracoder/status/968914718508371970 (Apologies for the self-link, but it's easier than reuploading the image).
- Declanomous 9y ago
  Google is taking naming cues from Microsoft now. Microsoft's naming conventions are maddening if you are trying to search for documentation. I have spent a lot of time developing for Access and Excel, and trying to search for VBA solutions is a madhouse. You could maybe chalk up the VBA|VB madness to decisions being made at a time when search engines were somewhat uncommon tools, but they have made this mistake so many times. For instance, try figuring out the difference between all the Active Directory solutions on Azure. The documentation describing the differences between them is spread out all over the place, and it's not clear which option is necessary to achieve a given result. Plus several of the Azure AD solutions have nothing to do with the Active Directory protocol. I would chalk it up to being unfamiliar with the Azure environment, but I'm working with a couple of Azure devs and even they were confused by the limitations of each version of AD and when you could use them. Honestly, if business units within a company could sue for copyright infringement resulting in market confusion I would highly recommend the Active Directory team send a cease-and-desist to the rest of the company.

rednerrus 9y ago

Google Hangouts Chat is no Slack...

f-penelope 9y ago
Sounds great to me :)

melq 9y ago

Another Google chat app? Anyone want to start a pool on how long it will last?

defen 9y ago

Hey look, another "I need a promotion" chat product from Google. Incredible impact.

indogooner 9y ago
I had the same thought. May be after so many underwhelming messaging/talk products from Google I am imposing my bias but seems like now there are too many people in 'rest and vest'[1] mode at the top along with of course 'I need a promotion' [1] https://www.businessinsider.in/Inside-the-world-of-Silicon-Valleys-coasters-the-millionaire-engineers-who-get-paid-gobs-of-money-and-barely-work/articleshow/59942927.cms https://www.businessinsider.in/Inside-the-world-of-Silicon-V...
patmcguire 9y ago
Yup. The Google promo article [1] from today is good on the background for why these things happen. How can you show technical impact on a chat product that scales from 20 million to 80 million users? (numbers made up) Sure, there are challenges, but they're very easy to look at and dismiss as not that hard. If you launch a new chat app it's very clear something happened. I'd also add that it's a often a lot easier to build and launch something like this with Google infrastructure than it is to get a new feature suggestion taken seriously by someone two levels up and an org over. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483241 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483241

bpchaps 9y ago

Is anyone else expecting this to be, or turn into a complete shitshow like the current hangouts is?

blhack 9y ago

It almost seems like satire at this point. Maybe this is all actually a long con to drive everybody back to IRC (or keep them there if they never left).

dhimes 9y ago
Wouldn't that be awesome!
crocal 9y ago
Let’s do this.
sandos 9y ago
They already drove everyone I know to FB messenger. A long time ago.
- mirhagk 9y ago
  It's sad and true. FB messenger is such a crappy thing but google still manages to be worse than it. I think the last time I used a messaging app that doesn't consistently crash and fail on the basics (scrolling, pasting text) was when I used MSN messenger. That was also the last time I could use a single messaging app to message everyone
  - lambda_lover 9y ago
    Luckily my friend group has slowly migrated away from FB Messenger thanks to the battery life impact (substantial, in our experience) and hamfisting of Stories/Ads into the app. For the most part, we're back on SMS now. Personally I'm hoping AOL releases AIM mobile soon and we can finally go full circle to my first messaging client.
    - blhack 9y ago
      I'd love SMS if apple would stop screwing around with it re: imessage.
9y ago

osel 9y ago

So do I have this straight.... - Classic Hangouts (deprecated?), has chat, works with most browsers and all devices [0]. - Hangouts Meet is the new Hangouts (for Apps (sorry G Suite)), has chat, chrome only. Poor device support. - Hangouts Chat, is chat, GApps only, doesnt appear to work at all. I truly wonder how much worse it can get. [0] https://support.google.com/a/answer/7303775?hl=en https://support.google.com/a/answer/7303775?hl=en

reustle 9y ago

I generally like you Google, but your lack of support keep me away from your business products wherever possible. Let me pay you.

wstrange 9y ago
You can pay for products if you wish (Gsuite).
- peatmoss 9y ago
  True, but the bulk of users seem to be using free versions, and thus product design follows whatever crazy motivations Google has. Aside: Just moved my vanity domain to Fastmail, and it feels refreshingly like a paid product that hasn’t been fscked with endlessly for dubious reasons. I suppose that may be a feature of being an old school paid-for service.
lern_too_spel 9y ago
The only way to use this product is to pay for Gsuite.

alooPotato 9y ago

Our team at Streak has been using the product for several months now and are pretty happy with it. The killer feature for us is the threading model. We found Slack to be really hard to follow in a really active channel and worse, hard to catch up on if you've been away for a while. Its easy to skim the threads to see which are important. One thing that might be jarring for people coming from slack is that the entire thread moves to the bottom (newest) any time there is a new message in the thread. Similar to email but in a chat product, you really see it moving around - just took some getting used to for us. We also found the search to be really good. I don't really have a hard time finding things as I did in Slack - I think the threading also really helps here. Adoption was pretty quick in our company because it works with the old (regular?) hangouts chat thats built into gmail so people were already used to using that. It's definitely not as feature rich as slack but for a new product, it works for us. I wish there were more integrations with 3rd parties (looking at you github).

chu4n 9y ago
> I wish there were more integrations with 3rd parties (looking at you github). Not arguing against your general point, but just wanted to point out there is in fact a Github bot for Chat (try "@Github").

nanexcool 9y ago

I haven't been able to video chat using Hangouts for a long time now. Chrome on Windows 10 or Chrome on Ubuntu 17.10, I click the video button and... nothing. Works on Android though.

mxuribe 9y ago

Instead of creating the weekly/monthly/latest G-powered chat product, why doesn't Google go all-in to leverage something like the matrix protocol? Gmail is so successful and it leverages the universal, decentralized email protocols. For non-techy users its clear the value platforms like gmail bring. Yet, there are so many tech-savvy users who COULD be managing their own mail/smtp servers and infrastructure but instead CHOOSE to still use gmail. I think there is an opportunity here for google on chat, and it does not involve constantly designing a new chat product almost every frickin' week. I firmly believe that google could build a single/final chat product but leverage an open (and distributed) protocol like matrix...and still win mind-share, market-share, make enough money on ads (displayed in the chat product), allow for 3rd-party integrations, etc. But, hey, whatever.

rekoros 9y ago

Time to update! https://sameroom.io/chat-timeline.pdf https://sameroom.io/chat-timeline.pdf

onestone 9y ago

Any bets on how their next IM app will be named? My pick is Hangouts Talk.

angryasian 9y ago
google hangouts allo talk
komali2 9y ago
It's about time for the "adding new words" portion in the Google What-The-Fuck-Is-This-For product cycle. Last time we had that was Allo and Duo, before that was Plus. The "filler projects" just have normal nouns like Inbox or Photos or whatever.

pacetherace 9y ago

"We are Google and we know what is best for you. Go ahead and use it until we realize something else is best for you. Oh, and BTW if you think our UI is bad then you don't know what is best for you."

ajkjk 9y ago

I wonder why some UI designer thought it wouldn't be annoying to have a quarter of the screen taken up on the top and bottom with massive useless bars. Maybe they only test on huge monitors and smartphones?

jzig 9y ago

nope.

aetimmes 9y ago

I'd argue that someone needs to needs to make a Google Chat Product equivalent of the Cleveland Browns Quarterback Graveyard jersey (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Clb2inPWAAAh3lX.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Clb2inPWAAAh3lX.jpg), but Google seems intent on circumventing that possibility by using pants-on-head moronic namespacing.

dhimes 9y ago
Missed Griffin...But that list certainly makes its point.

bighi 9y ago

Is this a joke?

komali2 9y ago

I would pay cash money to read an interview with a higher-up about what the fuck is happening at google with all these chat apps. Tech Journalists, somebody, ask a C suite or even just a team lead, "why are there fifteen chat apps and what is the google chat app long term strategy." Then link your patreon. Where are these kids hiding? I'm in South Bay all the time - which bar do I need to and who do I need to feed alcohol to until I get answers? It's to me the world's greatest unsolved mystery.

JorgeGT 9y ago
Google's chat strategy is the Mary Celeste of our time.
- thrill 9y ago
  These days I feel they're sailing on the Gitche Gumee.
remir 9y ago
Also, where's Sundar? I feel like he should answer that question.
- jgalt212 9y ago
  Sundar's main job is keeping the FTC and EU at bay. All other matters are rounding errors.
gervase 9y ago
Based on the article from earlier today [0], my new theory is that engineers at Google have realized that the best way to get promoted is to launch a big, shiny product (regardless of need, market fit, etc), and the easiest way to get a big, shiny product is to just re-launch the same projects over, and over, and over. Who cares about long-term product strategy as long as you get your promotion? Seems like a classic case of employees optimizing for local maxima, at the expense of the global maximum. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483241 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483241

wcfields 9y ago

So after reading this and trying to enable on my own GSuite and getting nothing but errors I see this: "Chat will be made available over the next 7 days. " So I expect over the next 7 days I'll have at least 20 emails from GSuite power users of why I haven't enabled it yet.

jtokoph 9y ago
This is immensely confusing since the first paragraph of the blog post says: "Today, we’re making Chat generally available". I think this is becoming more common too, especially with GSuite releases.
aaomidi 9y ago
I think it's on under chat.google.com, they never actually link this through the announcement page.

derrikcurran 9y ago

Will I be able to search my Hangouts Chat messages on Android? Because I can't with Hangouts. Seriously.

what_ever 9y ago
Yes.

gringoDan 9y ago

At this point Google has out-Hooli'ed Hooli...you'd be hard-pressed to write better satire than this.

lousken 9y ago

Killed rss reader, created dozens of useless chat clients - Google

ironjunkie 9y ago

never using Google for anything remotely related to Chats again

jdoliner 9y ago

I'm honestly starting to believe that Google's fleet of chat products is the most elaborate / expensive April fool's joke they've ever pulled.

codegladiator 9y ago

Now every single new feature is a new app. Every app has ONE killer feature.

ikeboy 9y ago

Yup, this looks like ... it does ... something

cpeterso 9y ago

Does Hangouts Chat support browsers other than Chrome? Given that Hangouts Meet doesn't support Firefox or Edge yet, so I kinda doubt Hangouts Chat would be any different.

Numberwang 9y ago

You guys should skip this. On google i/o there is plans to introduce "Google Verb" which is a new chat platform something using AI something which lets you communicate using only verbs and culturally vetted smileys. I for one will be on Verb, at least until Skype Edge is out.

brokenmachine 9y ago
Only verbs and smileys? Sounds great, sign me up at once! Actually, I should say, ":-) sign :P" Who needs nouns anyway?

e12e 9y ago

> "In case you’re wondering, Chat is compatible with Hangouts and works with your existing contacts." Well no shit. A "contact" is a userid at a Google controlled service. If they'd managed to not be able to address their own siloed users, that'd be pretty sad? Also: with email, you can email people. > "To get started, go to chat.google.com on the web or download the app on your desktop or mobile devices." So no Gnu/Linux client, only a Android/Linux client. Why am I not surprised.

AdmiralAsshat 9y ago

And yet somehow Pidgin with GTalk still works on my desktop. I really have no idea how. I'm pretty sure Google said they would completely kill the GTalk plugin over the summer. But I'm not asking questions.

amluto 9y ago

Next year they'll come full circle and release Google Chat Talk.

pmlnr 9y ago

We should all just go back using ICQ, it would make things much simpler.

iamdave 9y ago

I'm taking the over: 18 months before Google kills it, replaces with another messaging application.

fh973 9y ago

Amazing that something like this is possible. When I was a SWE at Google, I thought about switching to the PM role. A PM told me that PMs are the secret emperors of Google. Sounded good then but now I think I finally got it: they are the only ones acting in a meaningful way. As there is no overarching strategy to be followed, it seems like they can launch whatever they want if it "sgtm" to someone above. Launch done, promotion package complete for quite a few people, everyone happy.

asdfasasf 9y ago
How are Google PM's? I work at Amazon and the PM's seem to act like secretaries that manage the deadlines for each projects deliverable and when those dates slip, they page people until they get back on track. Don't even get me started on region build TPM's.
- dingdongding 9y ago
  I think by PM at Google he meant Product Manager and by PM at Amazon you mean Program Manager?
  - fh973 9y ago
    Yes. PM @ Google is product management. Seems like 5 years later the ivory tower world view is still in effect.

fh973 9y ago

I have only one question: can I disable it in GSuite without disabling the Gmail "chat" and this "Hangouts" thingy that you schedule via calendar?

013a 9y ago

In this thread: Google needs to stop making chat apps that I'll never use. This is a core G-Suite product for businesses. Right now, Google has no internal products that compete here. Their MO so far is to move Hangouts to be G-Suite/Business centric, whereas Allo/Duo are consumer. If you are still using Hangouts as a consumer, you're behind the times. Yes they need to clean up their Hangouts naming scheme. Yes they have Voice that's just kinda dangling there unloved. Yes, they could integrate SMS/Voice/Allo/Duo better. But frankly, I don't get all the hate. HN loves startups and experimentation and mistakes, but Google isn't allowed to do that? HN hates when Google deprecates products, but they have too many messaging apps? They'll get there. I'd take their messaging ecosystem today over 3 years ago; Allo is amazing.

ikeboy 9y ago
If Google was missing some essential business features after building a messaging platform from scratch 5 times, they have simply failed at software development.
- rurban 9y ago
  They did fail. At hiring, development, management and project management.
jsight 9y ago
I get your point, but why reuse the Hangouts brand for a completely different product while deprecating the old one? And I definitely would take their ecosystem of 3 years ago over today. Hangouts was the main chat app and it integrated my SMS and Google Voice pretty nicely at the time. Also, I'd like to go back even further and get back XMPP federation. Now, I have the chat platform that I still use (consumer Hangouts), a few that noone uses (Allo & Duo), and some new ones that noone uses. This pivoting is grating not great.
- 013a 9y ago
  My guess: Its an enterprise product, so they want to help ease that transition and encourage enterprise users to adopt it. I imagine there will come a day when the "Hangouts" brand disappears, from both Meet and Chat.

dilap 9y ago

Haha, this is hilarious. Can anyone keep track of all the Google chat apps? (And the only one that was pleasant to use was the original gchat, which they stupidly threw away.) This makes for an interesting juxtaposition with the guy who quit Google because he couldn't get a promotion. I guess the the way to get promoted at Google is to make a chat app? ;-)

thrillgore 9y ago

Finally, Google delivers the business chat app of 2016! What the fuck are they doing with messaging apps? Is this going to be retired in a year?

cmurf 9y ago

When I think of Google, I think of search. And then there's Hangouts which has no search at all. Mark text or calls as spam in Google Voice? They still come through on Hangouts, the only way to prevent it so to find the buried block option. Google and chat is the Peter Principle in action. And everyone who has tried has failed. The idea anyone's been promoted is hilarious.

philsnow 9y ago
> And then there's Hangouts which has no search at all. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#chats https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#chats or search for "is:chat" in gmail.

dreamfactored 9y ago

On functionality (not google product history etc), is this worth switching a small 40 person company from slack? Killer feature in slack for us is probably granularity of alerting and mobile desktop handoff (read a message on one and that carries across), and full featured mobile.

luord 9y ago

Good grief: Talk, Hangouts, Meet, Allo, Duo, Hangouts Chat... When does it stop?

bingobob 9y ago

too many people are thinking that a one fit solution can work for everyone but Google are massive and they can afford to have many product to suit their customers needs, Microsoft also has this with Skype, Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams. Skype will always be consumer focus and it has built in video. Skype for Business a old product bad UI that was called Lync is being replace with Teams. Teams Fantastic product but i don't ever see consumers using it business its great check it out if you have 365. and don't forget microsoft has there old system call messenger that they merge into Skype. now we look at Google also all these new chat systems are build on WebRTC, HTTP2.0 & QUIC all built to be fast. anything in G Suite has a requirements of Google Account, high SLA, standards compliance & data retention Hangout Meet - be a easy video chat app Hangout Chat - be a group/teams chat app both Allo and Duo work without any account creation all you need is a SMS verify and it works off a mobile number for area of the world that don't bother with creating accounts or maybe some beginnings of supporting a imessage type service so this would be a big change to Google whole systems and thinking around how that layers in with other services. but there now gearing up to add the Google account layer with the latest teardown its coming and soon as the new smart display depend on duo having google account Allo - be a modern consumer chat app Duo - be a modern video app Hangouts - be legacy now this is what i would do to merge the system once they add Google Account support then i can see they will be able to build a layer to import legacy hangout chats into the allo system and in the end maybe even swapping out the hangout backed with allo's two different views/UI on a centralize base. this would keep the internet happy and most people would be no wiser but then allo people can talk with hangout people and the two apps would be 100% feature the same just a bit of paint difference.

threatofrain 9y ago

Definitely not diminishing the criticisms on brand confusion lodged by other comments here, but I would praise all the very assuring security and compliance features.

e2e4 9y ago

Google should fix the regular hangouts first; I constantly am having troubles with it; and I am not the only one: a post from 4 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16383525 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16383525 "Is Hangouts being so bad the reason for the popularity of Slack?"

ew 9y ago

Interesting. Some real challenges getting started on day 1. Now I'm seeing that the Github bot is created by something called Linovi Developments which has a busted ass website and fewer than 100 Github users authorized it... fishing?

hattie19 9y ago