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Yes, the chat in Gmail was "Gmail Chat" aka Gchat, released back in 2006. The standalone app was called Google Talk. [1] And in 2017, they forced everyone off
by et-al 7y ago
Yes, the chat in Gmail was "Gmail Chat" aka Gchat, released back in 2006. The standalone app was called Google Talk. [1]
And in 2017, they forced everyone off Google Talk / Gchat and onto Hangouts [2], only to bring us back to where we are.
I'd love to hear the behind-the-scenes about this.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Talk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Talk
[2] https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/24/15051272/google-talk-gchat-replaced-hangouts-messaging-gmail https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/24/15051272/google-talk-gcha...
- balladeer 7y agoNo, not really bringing us back where we were. Back then in the beginning it was a federated XMPP implementation and you could talk with G Chat accounts from outside the Google ecosystem and that's not changing. Also, there's another "Chat" in Google stables right now - Google's RCS messaging app. My guess would be Google is just doing its periodic itch thingie that it does with messengers and social networks.
- et-al 7y agoYou're correct. I too, believe that they replaced a perfectly good product with an inferior one, then had the audacity to assume the name of the original product.
- secfirstmd 7y agoThanks for clearing up that complete mess.