The killer feature of Hangouts and Talk before it was always that people didn't need to sign up for or install anything if they already had a Google account. Th

The killer feature of Hangouts and Talk before it was always that people didn't need to sign up for or install anything if they already had a Google account. That was lightyears ahead in 2006 when most people were using a desktop mail client and one or more desktop chat clients and SMS to talk on the go. Fast forward to 2018 and the probability of convincing any non-tech person to sign up for a new service just to talk to you is even lower than in 2006 when new services at least had novelty.