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People use Hangouts. No one I know has ever used Allo. It hasn't even come up in conversation, even when they were marketing it. Hangouts, on the other hand, I

People use Hangouts. No one I know has ever used Allo. It hasn't even come up in conversation, even when they were marketing it. Hangouts, on the other hand, I get meeting requests all the time that include a Hangouts link. It's a quite popular technology...in my, admittedly limited, experience, it is a leading option, if not the leading option, in the "let's schedule an online meeting" sort of way. So, I have no idea why they're killing Hangouts and it isn't clear to me what I'm supposed to use instead (as I also use Hangouts for that "let's have a meeting" purpose, and no one has ever said, "can we use something else?"). But, I see clearly why they're killing Allo. It could have literally zero users, for all I know. But, Hangouts definitely has a lot of users. I don't think one should group the killing of Allo in with the killing of Hangouts. Killing Allo is a no-brainer, as it was seemingly a bad idea with no market fit (I mean, I guess...I never even looked into what Allo was, because I was happy with Hangouts, but the market has spoken, for sure).

mcrittenden 8y ago
I think you're confusing Hangouts with Meet? Meet isn't going away as far as I know.
- Rebelgecko 8y ago
  Isn't "Hangouts Meet"[1] just the enterprise-y version of Hangouts? That's what it looks like on the comparison page[2], minus some Hangouts features that are missing in Hangouts Meet (no text chat, fewer supported browsers) [1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.meetings https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and... [2]: https://gsuite.google.com/learning-center/products/meet/switch-from-classic-hangouts/#!/ https://gsuite.google.com/learning-center/products/meet/swit...
- SwellJoe 8y ago
  I don't know what Meet is. When I add an event in Google Calender, there is an "Add Conferencing" dropdown...in it is "Hangouts". That adds a conference link to the event, which I can then share with whoever I want to meet with. When it comes time to meet, I open the email reminder, or look in my calendar, and click the link. Everybody shows up...we meet. That's Hangouts, as far as I know. It opens in the Hangouts group video UI. I receive these invites from others pretty regularly, so I don't think it's anything mysterious? But, as far as I know I've never received a Meet invite. Google is very bad at branding and marketing is what I think we can learn from this.
  - gomox 8y ago
    That thing you are describing used to be Hangouts, but is now Meet.
    - SwellJoe 8y ago
      Nobody told me. Or Google, apparently. https://photos.app.goo.gl/E9qk9KJC73VoEj5y6 https://photos.app.goo.gl/E9qk9KJC73VoEj5y6
      - gomox 8y ago
        When you go to the actual conference in the calendar event, do you still see a Hangouts URL and UI? Maybe we are on different sides of an A/B test.
        SwellJoe 8y ago
        Literally everything I see has Hangouts branding. And, not just for me or my events...I was invited to a meeting with someone from another company yesterday, and everything about it was branded with "Hangouts" and not "Meet", too. Also, the Google Meet website is laughably useless. It has literally no content, not even a description of what it is.
        dragonwriter 8y ago
        > Also, the Google Meet website is laughably useless. It has literally no content, not even a description of what it is. “Video meetings for your business. Connect with your team from anywhere. With easy-to-join video calls, you can meet face to face without the added cost of travel.” https://gsuite.google.com/products/meet/ https://gsuite.google.com/products/meet/ EDIT: I just realized there is a separate “Google Meet” page which has no SERP summary and just redirects to the Play Store page for the Hangouts Meet app (at least, on Android.)
        SwellJoe 8y ago
Gustomaximus 8y ago
I was happy with hangouts. When they took away merged SMS...that showed someone seems to be whiteanting the product or just wasn't the right person to make decisions about a messaging app. Then they pivoted to a business focused product, that was the death bell ringing IMO. I think hangouts was their way to a decent messaging platform at some point. Now I think they'd be better off supporting signal or buying Facebook...
- microtherion 8y ago
  TIL the word "whiteanting". Supremely useful, I'll have to remember that one.

mcrittenden 8y ago

I think you're confusing Hangouts with Meet? Meet isn't going away as far as I know.

Rebelgecko 8y ago
Isn't "Hangouts Meet"[1] just the enterprise-y version of Hangouts? That's what it looks like on the comparison page[2], minus some Hangouts features that are missing in Hangouts Meet (no text chat, fewer supported browsers) [1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.meetings https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and... [2]: https://gsuite.google.com/learning-center/products/meet/switch-from-classic-hangouts/#!/ https://gsuite.google.com/learning-center/products/meet/swit...
SwellJoe 8y ago
I don't know what Meet is. When I add an event in Google Calender, there is an "Add Conferencing" dropdown...in it is "Hangouts". That adds a conference link to the event, which I can then share with whoever I want to meet with. When it comes time to meet, I open the email reminder, or look in my calendar, and click the link. Everybody shows up...we meet. That's Hangouts, as far as I know. It opens in the Hangouts group video UI. I receive these invites from others pretty regularly, so I don't think it's anything mysterious? But, as far as I know I've never received a Meet invite. Google is very bad at branding and marketing is what I think we can learn from this.
- gomox 8y ago
  That thing you are describing used to be Hangouts, but is now Meet.
  - SwellJoe 8y ago
    Nobody told me. Or Google, apparently. https://photos.app.goo.gl/E9qk9KJC73VoEj5y6 https://photos.app.goo.gl/E9qk9KJC73VoEj5y6
    - gomox 8y ago
      When you go to the actual conference in the calendar event, do you still see a Hangouts URL and UI? Maybe we are on different sides of an A/B test.
      - SwellJoe 8y ago
        Literally everything I see has Hangouts branding. And, not just for me or my events...I was invited to a meeting with someone from another company yesterday, and everything about it was branded with "Hangouts" and not "Meet", too. Also, the Google Meet website is laughably useless. It has literally no content, not even a description of what it is.
        dragonwriter 8y ago
        > Also, the Google Meet website is laughably useless. It has literally no content, not even a description of what it is. “Video meetings for your business. Connect with your team from anywhere. With easy-to-join video calls, you can meet face to face without the added cost of travel.” https://gsuite.google.com/products/meet/ https://gsuite.google.com/products/meet/ EDIT: I just realized there is a separate “Google Meet” page which has no SERP summary and just redirects to the Play Store page for the Hangouts Meet app (at least, on Android.)
        SwellJoe 8y ago

Gustomaximus 8y ago

I was happy with hangouts. When they took away merged SMS...that showed someone seems to be whiteanting the product or just wasn't the right person to make decisions about a messaging app. Then they pivoted to a business focused product, that was the death bell ringing IMO. I think hangouts was their way to a decent messaging platform at some point. Now I think they'd be better off supporting signal or buying Facebook...

microtherion 8y ago
TIL the word "whiteanting". Supremely useful, I'll have to remember that one.