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Google Hangouts, Google Chat: Products that worked real well, had a lot of 3rd party integrations built for it and now deprecated because Google does not want t

Google Hangouts, Google Chat: Products that worked real well, had a lot of 3rd party integrations built for it and now deprecated because Google does not want to deal with legacy services. Their incentive structure there is to build the "next thing". Both were pretty "groundbreaking" apps when they came out. Hangouts managed to figure out and resolve a lot of issues of team chats and voice/video streaming issues over poor/unreliable connections. A lot of the novel UI and features they developed is now taken for granted. Google Meet: An attempt at Zoom. Will soon be deprecated because Google does not want to deal with legacy services and the incentive structure there is to build the "next thing". Maybe Google Conference. Meanwhile Zoom is laser focused. Google Duo: An attempt at Whatsapp with a whiff of FaceTime. Will soon be deprecated because Google does not want to deal with legacy services and the incentive structure there is to build the "next thing". Maybe Google Trio. Meanwhile Whatsapp, FaceTime are laser focused.

anon102010 6y ago
What's up does chat / does duo? We use zoom at work despite being on Google - meet really doesn't always work across even Google account tyoes. Ie Gmail vs gsuite vs some admin left some setting off for an external users domain and they cannot join. Zoom I can host a no account conference that everyone can join (waiting rooms driving us all crazy)
- subhobroto 6y ago
  Exactly! Everyone on this planet has a GMail account and if Google understood what customers want, Meet would have had Zoom for lunch. Today, anyone who works remotely and is not tied into Teams, have heard of Zoom. Very few, including GMail users, know about Meet. Meet missed a big - perhaps once in a decade opportunity. Users already have Zoom on their phone and computers. There is 0 reason to use Meet if they were not already.
eitally 6y ago
You have no idea what you're talking about (re: Meet & Duo). Duo is included in the standard Android distribution image and even included on Samsung phones. It's a broadly adopted "Facetime for Android" and works very, very well. It's not going anywhere. Meet is clearly a business-first product and a core part of the G Suite offering set. As another poster described, it goes beyond just desktop & mobile apps and contains a lot of the same kind of conference room features you'd get from a Polycom, Bluejeans, Vidyo, etc. It's also Google's internal videoconferencing standard for both rooms & end users. Your comparison with Zoom makes literally zero sense. For one thing, you can't purchase Meet by itself -- it's an entitlement within G Suite -- and if you look at the Meet announcement this week explaining availability for "all users", you should see it as a side-effect of the business product's maturity, not as a consumer-first offering. The only remaining question marks are around what happens with classic Hangouts, and what additional features is Chat going to get that make it more consumer-oriented before it replaces Hangouts in Gmail.
- subhobroto 6y ago
  > The only remaining question marks are around what happens with classic Hangouts, and what additional features is Chat going to get that make it more consumer-oriented before it replaces Hangouts in Gmail. Google is killing off Hangouts slowly and surely. Over time it will start showing its age so bad, that people will move on. I loved the Hangouts Dialer integration. Had to replace it with Voice. I loved the Hangouts/Voice - GMail integration where I could send/receive texts from within GMail. Had to replace it with Voice. Before I could do most tasks from within GMail. Now I HAVE to use atleast 3 different apps that don't talk to each other. The competition on the other hand is going the opposite direction with great integrations in place. > For one thing, you can't purchase Meet by itself -- it's an entitlement within G Suite Have been using Meet ever since it came out. Free/personal tier users could always join a Meet (not create one). Before this announcement, Meet could only be hosted by a G Suite customer > the Meet announcement this week explaining availability for "all users", you should see it as a side-effect of the business product's maturity, not as a consumer-first offering. It's a knee jerk reaction to Zoom. Everyone on this planet has a GMail account and if Google understood what customers want, Meet would have had Zoom for lunch. Today, anyone who works remotely and is not tied into Teams, have heard of Zoom. Very few, including GMail users, know about Meet. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23030326 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23030326 Meet missed a big - perhaps once in a decade opportunity. Users already have Zoom on their phone and computers. There is 0 reason to use Meet if they were not already.
CydeWeys 6y ago
> Google Meet: An attempt at Zoom. Will soon be deprecated because Google does not want to deal with legacy services and the incentive structure there is to build the "next thing". No way. Google Meet is how basically all meetings within Google happen, and is widely used by large G Suite enterprise customers. Create a calendar entry at work and you get a corresponding Google Meet meeting by default. It has integration with stand-alone videoconferencing units too, so the list of meetings for the given unit shows up on that unit and one tap and you're in the right meeting for the current time. It's not going anywhere.

anon102010 6y ago

What's up does chat / does duo? We use zoom at work despite being on Google - meet really doesn't always work across even Google account tyoes. Ie Gmail vs gsuite vs some admin left some setting off for an external users domain and they cannot join. Zoom I can host a no account conference that everyone can join (waiting rooms driving us all crazy)

subhobroto 6y ago
Exactly! Everyone on this planet has a GMail account and if Google understood what customers want, Meet would have had Zoom for lunch. Today, anyone who works remotely and is not tied into Teams, have heard of Zoom. Very few, including GMail users, know about Meet. Meet missed a big - perhaps once in a decade opportunity. Users already have Zoom on their phone and computers. There is 0 reason to use Meet if they were not already.

eitally 6y ago

You have no idea what you're talking about (re: Meet & Duo). Duo is included in the standard Android distribution image and even included on Samsung phones. It's a broadly adopted "Facetime for Android" and works very, very well. It's not going anywhere. Meet is clearly a business-first product and a core part of the G Suite offering set. As another poster described, it goes beyond just desktop & mobile apps and contains a lot of the same kind of conference room features you'd get from a Polycom, Bluejeans, Vidyo, etc. It's also Google's internal videoconferencing standard for both rooms & end users. Your comparison with Zoom makes literally zero sense. For one thing, you can't purchase Meet by itself -- it's an entitlement within G Suite -- and if you look at the Meet announcement this week explaining availability for "all users", you should see it as a side-effect of the business product's maturity, not as a consumer-first offering. The only remaining question marks are around what happens with classic Hangouts, and what additional features is Chat going to get that make it more consumer-oriented before it replaces Hangouts in Gmail.

subhobroto 6y ago
> The only remaining question marks are around what happens with classic Hangouts, and what additional features is Chat going to get that make it more consumer-oriented before it replaces Hangouts in Gmail. Google is killing off Hangouts slowly and surely. Over time it will start showing its age so bad, that people will move on. I loved the Hangouts Dialer integration. Had to replace it with Voice. I loved the Hangouts/Voice - GMail integration where I could send/receive texts from within GMail. Had to replace it with Voice. Before I could do most tasks from within GMail. Now I HAVE to use atleast 3 different apps that don't talk to each other. The competition on the other hand is going the opposite direction with great integrations in place. > For one thing, you can't purchase Meet by itself -- it's an entitlement within G Suite Have been using Meet ever since it came out. Free/personal tier users could always join a Meet (not create one). Before this announcement, Meet could only be hosted by a G Suite customer > the Meet announcement this week explaining availability for "all users", you should see it as a side-effect of the business product's maturity, not as a consumer-first offering. It's a knee jerk reaction to Zoom. Everyone on this planet has a GMail account and if Google understood what customers want, Meet would have had Zoom for lunch. Today, anyone who works remotely and is not tied into Teams, have heard of Zoom. Very few, including GMail users, know about Meet. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23030326 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23030326 Meet missed a big - perhaps once in a decade opportunity. Users already have Zoom on their phone and computers. There is 0 reason to use Meet if they were not already.

CydeWeys 6y ago

> Google Meet: An attempt at Zoom. Will soon be deprecated because Google does not want to deal with legacy services and the incentive structure there is to build the "next thing". No way. Google Meet is how basically all meetings within Google happen, and is widely used by large G Suite enterprise customers. Create a calendar entry at work and you get a corresponding Google Meet meeting by default. It has integration with stand-alone videoconferencing units too, so the list of meetings for the given unit shows up on that unit and one tap and you're in the right meeting for the current time. It's not going anywhere.