5 ms·

Hangouts == WhatsApp. It's the older chat + video system. It's being split into Meet and Chat. Meet == Zoom. It's video conferences for businesses. Duo == Fac

Hangouts == WhatsApp. It's the older chat + video system. It's being split into Meet and Chat. Meet == Zoom. It's video conferences for businesses. Duo == FaceTime. It's video calling, with integrations into the Phone app on Android.

TaylorAlexander 6y ago
I guess “meet” being separate makes sense but I have to say that in the Apple ecosystem “Duo” and “Hangouts” have their counterparts in the unified iMessage/FaceTime system.
- izacus 6y ago
  Hangouts is pretty much a dead product so I see it going away soon anyway.
  - yoz-y 6y ago
    https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/01/upcoming-hangouts-service-consolidation.html https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/01/upcoming-hangou... There is a timeline, at least for entreprise customers.
    - discreditable 6y ago
      They haven't stuck to that timeline at all. > Classic Hangouts will be retired for all G Suite customers starting in October 2019 Chat within Gmail is still hangouts. Hangouts.google.com still works. Users still use the hangouts apps. On the personal side, if you use Google Fi, SMS integration is still only available via Hangouts. This is a somewhat unique feature of Fi and Google Voice. You can send/receive SMS within Hangouts via browser or app all the same. It's not like the Messages app for web (which relies on your phone being online). They have a newer timeline at https://support.google.com/a/answer/9197126?hl=en&ref_topic=9197125 https://support.google.com/a/answer/9197126?hl=en&ref_topic=...
      - arkanciscan 6y ago
        My guess is they have realized what terrible idea it is to get rid of Hangouts while everyone is still using it.
    - ProZsolt 6y ago
      But that Hangout is not this Hangout. This is a Slack competitor. Same name different product.
      - notatoad 6y ago
        no, this hangouts is still that hangouts. the slack competitor is "hangouts chat", the regular old hangouts app from 5 years ago is still going strong and most likely what somebody is talking about when they talk about hangouts. IIRC, hangouts chat is still only available to paid g-suite customers.
      - zamadatix 6y ago
        The slack-competitor app is only available on G-Suite and recently dropped the "Hangouts" from the name (now just "Chat" instead of "Hangouts Chat").
  - lern_too_spel 6y ago
    I would say the same for Duo.
  - buttersbrian 6y ago
    Hangouts isn't pushed, but it's a holdover until they finish the merge of duo/video chat into messages, and the GSuite consolidation of meet/chat. There's some cool things coming from google that should have been done earlier, but represents them finally bringing all the pieces together in meaningful manner.
    - qotgalaxy 6y ago
      That's what they said when they introduced Hangouts.
    - danielscrubs 6y ago
      Sounds like business-speak for internal politics to me.
- ProZsolt 6y ago
  iMessage counterpart is Messages(with RCS)
- zamadatix 6y ago
  You used to be able to IM, voice chat, video chat, group versions of the former set, Google voice call Google voice sms, do all of the prior transparently on all of your devices, local sms, and local call from Hangouts. Then they decided that wasn't the way they wanted things and have been slowly killing it off for 5ish years now
benhurmarcel 6y ago
You could add Chat = Slack, for context.
- rubber_duck 6y ago
  I wish - we're using Google docs so I wouldn't mind cutting slack subscription but it's nowhere close. Even teams are better
  - benhurmarcel 6y ago
    Like the message I answered to, I didn't mean that it was equivalent in quality.
keyle 6y ago
It's fun because Duo implies "Deux", or "2". And it takes up to 12 people ;D
- patrickaljord 6y ago
  At this point it wouldn't surprise me if Duo gets renamed...
- ProZsolt 6y ago
  It was only two at the beginning. The desktop app still not supports groups
- lonelappde 6y ago
  Duodecimal == 12
  - keyle 6y ago
    Nice one!
- adrianmonk 6y ago
  They already had Hangouts when they started creating Duo, so maybe it means duo-ver (do-over).
  - brokensegue 6y ago
    Duo was originally announced alongside "Allo". But Allo was killed off last year https://allo.google.com/ https://allo.google.com/
    - adrianmonk 6y ago
      Yes, I'm familiar with the history. The tendency to launch things, kill them off, and launch something else was kind of the point of the joke.
- shp0ngle 6y ago
crazygringo 6y ago
That's the best explanation I've ever seen. That's exactly it. Thanks.
- casefields 6y ago
  But even that isn't the complete picture. It's shouldn't take a shaman, a scholar, and random internet strangers, to explain what the heck they're doing in the audio/video messaging domain.
londons_explore 6y ago
And all of them seem to use the same core audio/video tech which has terrible echo cancellation, variable lag, and clicky jittery audio... I think it's still using some proprietary transport which is UDP over TCP over UDP or something...

TaylorAlexander 6y ago

I guess “meet” being separate makes sense but I have to say that in the Apple ecosystem “Duo” and “Hangouts” have their counterparts in the unified iMessage/FaceTime system.

izacus 6y ago
Hangouts is pretty much a dead product so I see it going away soon anyway.
- yoz-y 6y ago
  https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/01/upcoming-hangouts-service-consolidation.html https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/01/upcoming-hangou... There is a timeline, at least for entreprise customers.
  - discreditable 6y ago
    They haven't stuck to that timeline at all. > Classic Hangouts will be retired for all G Suite customers starting in October 2019 Chat within Gmail is still hangouts. Hangouts.google.com still works. Users still use the hangouts apps. On the personal side, if you use Google Fi, SMS integration is still only available via Hangouts. This is a somewhat unique feature of Fi and Google Voice. You can send/receive SMS within Hangouts via browser or app all the same. It's not like the Messages app for web (which relies on your phone being online). They have a newer timeline at https://support.google.com/a/answer/9197126?hl=en&ref_topic=9197125 https://support.google.com/a/answer/9197126?hl=en&ref_topic=...
    - arkanciscan 6y ago
      My guess is they have realized what terrible idea it is to get rid of Hangouts while everyone is still using it.
  - ProZsolt 6y ago
    But that Hangout is not this Hangout. This is a Slack competitor. Same name different product.
    - notatoad 6y ago
      no, this hangouts is still that hangouts. the slack competitor is "hangouts chat", the regular old hangouts app from 5 years ago is still going strong and most likely what somebody is talking about when they talk about hangouts. IIRC, hangouts chat is still only available to paid g-suite customers.
    - zamadatix 6y ago
      The slack-competitor app is only available on G-Suite and recently dropped the "Hangouts" from the name (now just "Chat" instead of "Hangouts Chat").
- lern_too_spel 6y ago
  I would say the same for Duo.
- buttersbrian 6y ago
  Hangouts isn't pushed, but it's a holdover until they finish the merge of duo/video chat into messages, and the GSuite consolidation of meet/chat. There's some cool things coming from google that should have been done earlier, but represents them finally bringing all the pieces together in meaningful manner.
  - qotgalaxy 6y ago
    That's what they said when they introduced Hangouts.
  - danielscrubs 6y ago
    Sounds like business-speak for internal politics to me.
ProZsolt 6y ago
iMessage counterpart is Messages(with RCS)
zamadatix 6y ago
You used to be able to IM, voice chat, video chat, group versions of the former set, Google voice call Google voice sms, do all of the prior transparently on all of your devices, local sms, and local call from Hangouts. Then they decided that wasn't the way they wanted things and have been slowly killing it off for 5ish years now

benhurmarcel 6y ago

You could add Chat = Slack, for context.

rubber_duck 6y ago
I wish - we're using Google docs so I wouldn't mind cutting slack subscription but it's nowhere close. Even teams are better
- benhurmarcel 6y ago
  Like the message I answered to, I didn't mean that it was equivalent in quality.

keyle 6y ago

It's fun because Duo implies "Deux", or "2". And it takes up to 12 people ;D

patrickaljord 6y ago
At this point it wouldn't surprise me if Duo gets renamed...
ProZsolt 6y ago
It was only two at the beginning. The desktop app still not supports groups
lonelappde 6y ago
Duodecimal == 12
- keyle 6y ago
  Nice one!
adrianmonk 6y ago
They already had Hangouts when they started creating Duo, so maybe it means duo-ver (do-over).
- brokensegue 6y ago
  Duo was originally announced alongside "Allo". But Allo was killed off last year https://allo.google.com/ https://allo.google.com/
  - adrianmonk 6y ago
    Yes, I'm familiar with the history. The tendency to launch things, kill them off, and launch something else was kind of the point of the joke.
shp0ngle 6y ago

crazygringo 6y ago

That's the best explanation I've ever seen. That's exactly it. Thanks.

casefields 6y ago
But even that isn't the complete picture. It's shouldn't take a shaman, a scholar, and random internet strangers, to explain what the heck they're doing in the audio/video messaging domain.

londons_explore 6y ago

And all of them seem to use the same core audio/video tech which has terrible echo cancellation, variable lag, and clicky jittery audio... I think it's still using some proprietary transport which is UDP over TCP over UDP or something...