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As a person who uses the Hangouts chrome app daily, I have been expecting a day when I go to launch it and it wont open for the last 3 years. Google doesn't wan

As a person who uses the Hangouts chrome app daily, I have been expecting a day when I go to launch it and it wont open for the last 3 years. Google doesn't want to support "Classic Hangouts" anymore (and supposedly they killed it in October for GSuite, but not for my domain, I guess). Hangouts is one of the only ways I privately communicate with old friends and past co-workers since EVERYONE has at least one gmail account. And trying to get 20 people to switch to something else is a complete non-starter.

skinkestek 7y ago
> And trying to get 20 people to switch to something else is a complete non-starter. Eh. I participated in getting all my friends to start using WhatsApp and later to stop using it. Way more than 20.
crazygringo 7y ago
Does hangouts.google.com not work for you? It works for me. You don't need an installable app to use it. And it works inside Gmail too, of course. (True, for companies Google's currently transitioning to the alternative "Hangouts Chat" which has enterprise features. But that's different from consumer Hangouts, and in any case obviously neither depends on Chrome Apps.)
- jermaustin1 7y ago
  hangouts.google.com will actually launch the chrome app since I have it installed. Also, I only use hangouts for the chatting and SMS features, so all that cruft for video conferencing and stuff really detracts from the simplicity of the hangouts app.
  - rockostrich 7y ago
    So uninstall the app and then just use hangouts.google.com? There are buttons for video/audio calls, but if you don't click them then it behaves like a chat app and when you have 2 conversations open they get hidden anyway.
starshadowx2 7y ago
Over a year ago the Hangouts app had a notice at the top saying support was going away and to switch to the extension. That is still working fine. We've been moving people over to Chat in our domain but a large (probably majority) still use Hangouts.
- ajosh 7y ago
  In addition to the Chrome app, there is the Chrome extension. They basically do the same thing and the extension has no expiration message. The main reason I wasn't using the extension before is that it didn't provide a desktop icon in Linux. There is a way to fix that by creating a .desktop file[1]. I'm don't remember if there is a similar problem and/or fix on Windows/Mac. For what it's worth, I've found Hangouts to be the better consumer communications tools. I use other software like Signal and Whatsapp but Hangouts works better between devices. It also makes moving to a voice/video call easy for my less-technically-inclined family members. This is especially true when you want to have a call with multiple users, want to switch for your phone to your computer or want to start a screen share. All of these things can be very useful, even with family members. Of course, there are trade-offs. There isn't E2E encryption. The video takes a lot of battery on many devices. You never know what's going to happen to the service in the future. What you discuss is being recorded and probably used to target ads. [1] https://askubuntu.com/questions/771408/separate-icons-for-chromium-and-hangouts-in-unity-ubuntu-16-04 https://askubuntu.com/questions/771408/separate-icons-for-ch...
djsumdog 7y ago
I still have SMS tied to Hangouts. I moved my phone number to Google Voice when I left the US years ago and kept it on there when I moved back. It's been migrated to hangouts, which is pretty much total garbage now. I want to migrate my phone number to another service, but I also want to get off Android entirely at some point and want to find a service with a public API so I can eventually write Plasma Apps or a Matrix bridge. Are there any good VoIP providers I can pay for monthly that fit that bill?
techntoke 7y ago
Duo is their future replacement and works fine on the desktop.
- int_19h 7y ago
  Duo is about video calling specifically, no? Hangouts is a generic IM client. I'm on Google Fi, and one major feature of Fi is that it lets you receive texts and calls to your phone number on your desktop, and access voicemail there. But it's all done via Hangouts now, and Google has been very vague on what the replacement is going to be going forward.
  - techntoke 7y ago
    They have reverted back to Google Voice for this and I'm pretty sure it'll be the replacement.
    - int_19h 7y ago
      When I open voice.google.com, as soon as I login, it immediately redirects me to the Google Fi account page. Which does not have any of this functionality.
      - techntoke 7y ago
        Works fine for me. Also if you look at the GV Android app it has gotten a lot of recent updates compared to Hangouts, including Dark Mode. Additionally they have added the option to text from it which has newer features than Hangouts.
- summerlight 7y ago
  I believe Google wants to release Hangouts Chat to general consumers and replace Classic Hangouts.

skinkestek 7y ago

> And trying to get 20 people to switch to something else is a complete non-starter. Eh. I participated in getting all my friends to start using WhatsApp and later to stop using it. Way more than 20.

crazygringo 7y ago

Does hangouts.google.com not work for you? It works for me. You don't need an installable app to use it. And it works inside Gmail too, of course. (True, for companies Google's currently transitioning to the alternative "Hangouts Chat" which has enterprise features. But that's different from consumer Hangouts, and in any case obviously neither depends on Chrome Apps.)

jermaustin1 7y ago
hangouts.google.com will actually launch the chrome app since I have it installed. Also, I only use hangouts for the chatting and SMS features, so all that cruft for video conferencing and stuff really detracts from the simplicity of the hangouts app.
- rockostrich 7y ago
  So uninstall the app and then just use hangouts.google.com? There are buttons for video/audio calls, but if you don't click them then it behaves like a chat app and when you have 2 conversations open they get hidden anyway.

starshadowx2 7y ago

Over a year ago the Hangouts app had a notice at the top saying support was going away and to switch to the extension. That is still working fine. We've been moving people over to Chat in our domain but a large (probably majority) still use Hangouts.

ajosh 7y ago
In addition to the Chrome app, there is the Chrome extension. They basically do the same thing and the extension has no expiration message. The main reason I wasn't using the extension before is that it didn't provide a desktop icon in Linux. There is a way to fix that by creating a .desktop file[1]. I'm don't remember if there is a similar problem and/or fix on Windows/Mac. For what it's worth, I've found Hangouts to be the better consumer communications tools. I use other software like Signal and Whatsapp but Hangouts works better between devices. It also makes moving to a voice/video call easy for my less-technically-inclined family members. This is especially true when you want to have a call with multiple users, want to switch for your phone to your computer or want to start a screen share. All of these things can be very useful, even with family members. Of course, there are trade-offs. There isn't E2E encryption. The video takes a lot of battery on many devices. You never know what's going to happen to the service in the future. What you discuss is being recorded and probably used to target ads. [1] https://askubuntu.com/questions/771408/separate-icons-for-chromium-and-hangouts-in-unity-ubuntu-16-04 https://askubuntu.com/questions/771408/separate-icons-for-ch...

djsumdog 7y ago

I still have SMS tied to Hangouts. I moved my phone number to Google Voice when I left the US years ago and kept it on there when I moved back. It's been migrated to hangouts, which is pretty much total garbage now. I want to migrate my phone number to another service, but I also want to get off Android entirely at some point and want to find a service with a public API so I can eventually write Plasma Apps or a Matrix bridge. Are there any good VoIP providers I can pay for monthly that fit that bill?

techntoke 7y ago

Duo is their future replacement and works fine on the desktop.

int_19h 7y ago
Duo is about video calling specifically, no? Hangouts is a generic IM client. I'm on Google Fi, and one major feature of Fi is that it lets you receive texts and calls to your phone number on your desktop, and access voicemail there. But it's all done via Hangouts now, and Google has been very vague on what the replacement is going to be going forward.
- techntoke 7y ago
  They have reverted back to Google Voice for this and I'm pretty sure it'll be the replacement.
  - int_19h 7y ago
    When I open voice.google.com, as soon as I login, it immediately redirects me to the Google Fi account page. Which does not have any of this functionality.
    - techntoke 7y ago
      Works fine for me. Also if you look at the GV Android app it has gotten a lot of recent updates compared to Hangouts, including Dark Mode. Additionally they have added the option to text from it which has newer features than Hangouts.
summerlight 7y ago
I believe Google wants to release Hangouts Chat to general consumers and replace Classic Hangouts.