38 ms·
Google plans to shut down Google Voice integration with classic Hangouts
- codingslave 6y agoThey have the best leetcoders!! They are elite!! No problems what so ever with these geniuses!!
- mkoryak 6y agoI agree
- criddell 6y agoI wonder if Google Fi will continue to work with Hangouts?
- greggyb 6y agoNo. The article links to this page[0], which has a section on Fi integration. The guidance is to move to Messages which will support SMS and dialing through the Messages app, including web app usage when the phone is off. [0]: https://blog.google/products/workspace/latest-google-hangouts-and-upgrade-google-chat/#jump-content:~:text=Changes%20to%20Hangouts%20with%20Google%20Voice https://blog.google/products/workspace/latest-google-hangout...
- tych0 6y agoWhat's awesome is, I did the migration, and now both hangouts and messages get my text messages, even though the "SMS" thingy under Hangouts is disabled. Thankfully most of my friends use Signal as well, so it's mostly 2FA codes that pop up twice.
- throw7 6y agoThe problem is this disables RCS is my understanding. So things are still bifurcated.
- greggyb 6y agoI can only speak for myself. I have Google Fi service. One of the big selling points for me is the dead simple billing. Another huge selling point is trivial unification of calling and messaging across devices. The latter feature has been enabled by Hangouts up until now. Now, it seems to be equally fulfilled by Messages. I'm not losing other Messages features, as I've never used them. I'll get to keep my unified calling and messaging across devices. I am relatively happy. I'd prefer no change, but it's been clear that Hangouts would go away for some time now.
- cdmckay 6y agoBut there’s no Messages app for iOS?
- greggyb 6y agoiOS seems to have a fully functioning HTML5 browser. (: There's also no iMessage on Android. Also, Fi support for iPhones is listed as beta, and I don't think there's ever been full support for iPhones on Fi. Finally, if Apple were to launch a Fi-like offering, I don't think anyone would expect even marginal support for Android devices. This is not to say that you couldn't get service working on Android, just that there would be literally 0 support from Apple for such a use case.
- enos_feedler 6y agoThe whole Hangouts, Google Voice, Google Fi, Messages app is all a mess to me. As someone with various activity in all of these services I just have no idea what is happening. I wish there was a diagram explaining how everything breaks down alongside Google account / identity. There is some issue with RCS compatibility and using Messages for Google Fi. I just want the future to be here and tell me what I can/can't use and how.
- suff 6y agoAnd the log of abandonment of Google's support for its products gets yet another entry.
- hn_throwaway_99 6y agoWith all of Google's various messaging platforms throughout the years, I don't even remember WTF "classic" Hangouts is anymore.
- whalesalad 6y agoGoogle has gone so far off the deep end with messaging products that they don't know the answer to this question either.
- iooi 6y agoThe other day Slack was down and someone proposed we use Google Chat[1], had no idea they built a Slack competitor. [1] https://chat.google.com/ https://chat.google.com/
- bpodgursky 6y agoI opened this up, and there's a new concept called rooms... but there's no way for me to create a room, as far as I can tell? And I don't have access to any others? Weird.
- lima 6y agoThere's a plus sign at the top of the rooms list (assuming you're logged in with a GSuite account).
- bpodgursky 6y agoIt's my personal gmail. Why make this page available if it doesn't work for normal gmail?
- terinjokes 6y agoThey're in the process of opening it up to individuals, but it hasn't formally been announced as generally available.
- tomrod 6y agoHangouts is the only thing I've used for years. I will miss it.
- cordite 6y agoWill this include texting?
- SQueeeeeL 6y agoBased on an email I received from Google Fi, yes...
- rottencupcakes 6y agoI seem to remember just about 4 years ago when I logged into Google Voice and it said that Google Voice was moving into Google Hangouts. https://images.techhive.com/images/article/2014/09/google-voice-hangouts-100413765-large.jpg https://images.techhive.com/images/article/2014/09/google-vo... Why does it feel like no other software company has these sort of branding issues?
- JumpCrisscross 6y agoI’ve been staying clear of Google Meets for this reason. Zero desire to trust them with something as critical as messaging.
- swiley 6y agoIt's a shame webrtc uses it's own protocol. Otherwise there would probably be dozens of self hostable alternatives.
- polynomial 6y agowebrtc uses its own protocol?
- fidelramos 6y agoIt's not dozens, but Jitsi is a very decent open-source self-hostable alternative to Google Meet or Zoom.
- nikisweeting 6y agoWebRTC is an open standard, you can absolutely self-host a WebRTC video chat site, and there are many implementations available like Jitsi.
- polynomial 6y agoGoogle arguably had first mover advantage in the video space which was the promised land even before Covid blessed it. And yet by the time it hit this year, Zoom took the prize. I think this represents a much bigger fail on Google's part than I have seen being mentioned.
- AdmiralAsshat 6y agoWell, that blows. When I lived in a basement, cellular signal was nonexistent, and the only way I could reliably call anyone was by getting a Google Voice number and using the Hangouts Dialer app on my android phone to make the call over WiFi. These days I've got most of my family using Signal, which can also call over WiFi.
- eslaught 6y agoThe Google Voice app still exists and is able to make WiFi calls (I've used it). As confusing as this is, I think it's just the integration. Google Voice has had all of this functionality in a standalone form for years, and that's not going away.
- ebg13 6y agoThe voice app has its own dialer.
- MaKey 6y agoNowadays there is also Wi-Fi calling which is great for me because right now I'm also living in the basement where cell phone reception is poor.
- TedDoesntTalk 6y agowifi calling has been around a long time. It suffers from lag, at least for me. Too much lag.
- matt_heimer 6y agoThe Google Voice app works fine and supports calling and texting over Wi-Fi.
- pitzips 6y agoForcing me to sign into "messages" for voice calling is bad for my personal security. Some sites still only provide 2 factor via SMS. I don't want to be forced to receive them on my computer, when my phone is the 2 factor device. Don't like this change one bit.
- eslaught 6y agoWhat's forcing you to use your computer? Google Voice has a fully functioning mobile app.
- pitzips 6y agoI'm a Google Fi user. To be able to make and receive voice calls from my desktop I'll have to sign into 'messages' which forces the sms part as well. I prefer to not receive sms on desktop but love voice calls.
- codecamper 6y agoDoesn't this just mean that calls are done from the Google Voice app?
- jfengel 6y agoSo if I read this correctly, it's just losing the idea of placing plain phone calls via Google Hangouts. Google Hangouts also has a video chat feature, and presumably that's still enabled?
- eslaught 6y agoAn example: you will no longer be able to make and receive phone calls from your gmail.com tab. You'll have to open voice.google.com to do that (though once you do the functionality is equivalent).
- jfengel 6y agoThanks.
- pcthrowaway 6y agoAnd voice.google.com doesn't work for Canadians unfortunately. Correct me if I'm wrong though, and I hope I am
- izacus 6y agoHangouts is effectively dead. Its functionality has now been split between Voice, Duo, Meet, Messages and Chat. Simple, isn't it? :D
- echelon 6y agoGoogle is dysfunctional. Their promo incentives favor short-term thinking. The original founders are gone. The only reason they're alive is their ad/search moat. It's a walking IBM/Oracle, otherwise. Don't forget when it leaked a year or so ago that even Google Cloud Platform is on their chopping block if they don't meet targets. I wouldn't trust this company with anything. Photos, music, youtube videos, mail. They do not care.
- 1-6 6y agoIt's fun to ride on tidal waves like reorgs though!
- dvfjsdhgfv 6y agoUnless you depend on Google's services, yes.
- josephg 6y agoOr simply want to chat with your friends on their platform without nervously keeping a finger on the pulse. Chat in gmail, or hangouts? Oh that’s google plus now, wait it isn’t plus. Google voice? Google duo? Is that still a thing? Is Google meet the same as hangouts? All my friends churned away from google’s IM solutions and I doubt we’re ever coming back. Who’s got time for all that?
- cma 6y agoThey moved chat from gmail for a while exclusively to Google+ to promote it, killing off their chat advantage and end the end they also failed to make Google+ take off.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- aclindsa 6y agoI've grown accustomed to being able to text people from my computer with weechat/bitlbee/libpurple. Is anyone aware of any ways to continue doing this type of thing when the google voice/hangouts integration stops working? I specifically like being able to access my messages in a terminal/ncurses-style gui, and being able to log them locally.
- jefftk 6y agoYou should be able to do this today at https://voice.google.com https://voice.google.com (Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself)
- vpzom 6y agothat's a website, not a TUI
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y agoAnd it's a Google website, which is to say painfully slow - I assumed that this was because I use Firefox right up until I used it on a chromebook and discovered that it still crawled.
- aclindsa 6y agoYeah, I know I can do it through the website - I'm specifically interested in being able to do it through a terminal-based program. Partially because it suits my workflow better, and partially because I enjoy being able to have logs of my conversations that I control.
- nichos 6y agoIf you can convince your circle to move to signal, they have a CLI tool.
- coding123 6y agoI thought that already happened about a year ago. When I used to dial from voice.google.com it would open a hangouts window. About a year ago they streamlined this to staying within Google Voice, so this announcement seems surprising.
- jonbaer 6y agoTechnically it's already gone, inside the hangout tab it just says, "Call phones feature is not available." with a link to https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/3205646 https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/3205646
- loosescrews 6y agoWhile it is true that Google Voice now has a built-in dialer, I have found that the call quality is significantly worse than with Hangouts. Has anyone else noticed this?
- JoshMandel 6y agoYes, I experience this too. Poor quality and latency in the Google Voice app (in a totally not subtle way) when calls initiated in Google Hangouts Dialer work fine.
- jedberg 6y agoI use Google voice as my primary number, and have done so for many years. A few years ago they pushed me hard to "transition" to Hangouts. It was a one way transition, ie. I couldn't undo it if I didn't like it. I got lazy and never did it. Now I'm glad I didn't, because apparently I'd be moving back anyway! But the GVoice app and experience is still awful on iPhone. The only reason I'm still on it is for the spam protection, but even that isn't so good anymore and apparently the built in iPhone one is pretty good now.
- 0xCMP 6y agoSame, at least the app has recently been updated a little bit. It used to be untouched for years and I think the hangouts transition made them cripple once they finally started to update it to encourage switching
- tech234a 6y agoI did transition to Hangouts, and it was originally a one-way transition. But about a year or two ago it did get easier to transition back because all of my texting logs from Hangouts started to automatically be imported into regular Google Voice.
- post_break 6y agoBeen with Google Voice since it was Grand Central. It's been a wild ride and I'm waiting for Google to kill it entirely. Hangouts was so close. Had SMS and everything. Was only a few features away from becoming a pseudo iMessage for android, then in typical fashion they have gone and done all of this.
- epage 6y agoSame. Been loving Google Voice / Grand Central for allowing me to both call and text from any device, even through all the rough patches (e.g. no MMS support, losing group texts). My wife cracked her screen and is looking at getting it fixed but the loss of her phone is making her hesitate. I'm tempted to get her on Google Voice but the roughness and concern over its future is why I hesitate. I'm going to miss Hangouts Integration. It was great accessing GV directly from GMail.
- cj 6y agoYou can still access Google Voice via gmail in the right sidebar. Unless it’s only a G Suite feature?
- panopticon 6y agoPretty sure that's G Suite/Workspace only. Also, doesn't that only handle voice features? I don't see SMS in that popout.
- dragonwriter 6y ago> Unless it’s only a G Suite feature? It's GSuite only currently, but I wouldn't be surprised if they brought it to consumer when they actually retire the Hangouts integration.
- youtube-dl2 6y agoEnable it in options.
- thallium205 6y ago
- jameslk 6y agoI wonder if/when they're going to shutdown Google Voice too? What business value does it bring them other than more data collection?
- monksy 6y ago> Google to shut down Google Voice Don't give me such of a freaking heartattack.
- joshstrange 6y agoI mean... I wouldn't put my eggs in that basket. It's a product that I doubt makes them much money at all and it has a small (relative) user base. I know here on HN there are probably plenty of users of GV but I don't think a single one of my non-tech friends could even tell you what Google Voice is. From my perspective it's been on a slow march to getting shut down for years now.
- cma 6y agoDon't they listen to your voicemails and calls to target ads at you? Their early tech adopter audience is probably a valuable demographic, but most people don't make lots of calls anymore.
- kls 6y agoMy conspiracy part of my brain pings and says, it gives the NSA convenient access to parsed voice calls which probably pays Google well. That being said the opposite could be just as true and they will just shut it down, this could very well be a consolidation to see if moving everything to voice is worth maintaining.
- ProAm 6y agoIt's what Skype did when MS bought them. P2P -> P2S2P
- suyash 6y agoIt may happen as it's only limited to US users now.
- ianmf 6y agoI have been using Google Voice since around 2014. I can make and receive calls and SMS for no cost to me. Bringing into consideration the recent changes to Google products regarding monetizing them, I expect some changes to Google Voice to come in the near future. I also have a grandfathered GSuite Basic, which I am wary that Google might cripple it or force me to pay for it.
- sdan 6y agoAt this point, I'm just waiting for Google Voice to be axed. I've used it for text/call verification stuff and anything where I don't think its necessary to give my primary number for. Might get a burner phone when they do in that case.
- comeonseriously 6y agoI really hope they don't. Having a GV number is very handy at times.
- parshimers 6y agoThe Google Voice dialer sucks. If you're not on Wi-Fi it won't call over data. Maybe this would have been a sensible restriction 10 years ago but now it's totally silly. I used the Hangouts dialer all the time when travelling internationally to avoid ludicrous international call fees.
- gitweb 6y agoI use it as a daily driver and have no issues like you mention. Hangouts dialer on the other hand would frequently have call quality issues for me.
- gegtik 6y agoToo bad, I used this on occasion
- asdfesfdd 6y agoNo!!!! This is how I operate as a human being when my phone gets stolen from my toddler!
- nmlnn 6y agoSomeone should teach Google management about the Lindy Effect, and how most people use it as a barometer for whether or not to take something seriously.
- rch 6y agoI was a little concerned when I saw this headline, since I still use Hangouts for SMS and I've been ignoring the notification that it's going away. But unless I'm missing something, it looks like my usage is covered by Meet and the newer messages app, which I'm hoping has better UX, particularly around search. Is anything really being lost here?
- m0zg 6y agoThis is dumb. Every time you do one of these migrations you lose a non-trivial percentage of your users. I legit no longer know which Google chat program I'm supposed to use on my iPhone anymore. It's even worse on Android. It'd cost them very little to "componentize" voice calling feature and reduce maintenance cost that way by simply using the same component in both programs. But, any large organization is doomed to ship its org chart, which is what I suspect is happening here. Again.
- getpost 6y ago>Next year, Chat will become available as a free service—both in the integrated experience in Gmail and the Chat standalone app. It was great when Chat [EDIT: This was Google Talk, I think.] was integrated within gmail, both as a ui, and the fact that chat messages were mixed-in with your regular emails, and available for searching. I don't remember when this was removed, but I haven't used it 10+ years. Somehow I doubt the new Chat will work the way it used to, but I hope so. EDIT 2 (off topic): I tried to look at Google Chat, but first Google wanted me to answer some survey questions, so I agreed to. There's no (apparent) way to navigate the survey questions or revise your replies. I clicked through one question accidentally without answering it. For another question, I mistakenly answered the opposite of what I meant to. Garbage-in, garbage-out. EDIT 3: After clicking "Get Started" in Google Chat, it appears this is only for groups a la Slack. Why can't I just IM other people with gmail addresses in my address book?
- cj 6y ago> Why can't I just IM other people with gmail addresses in my address book? If you have G Suite, you can. I suspect the experience rolled out to G Suite will eventually make its way to the consumer edition.
- mbo 6y ago> Somehow I doubt the new Chat will work the way it used to, but I hope so. This is how the new Chat works. New messages get interleaved in between emails.
- taf2 6y agoThe feature in google hangouts I like the most that for a long time was really only a feature I could get in google hangouts is anyone or everyone in a hangout can share their screen. Only recently and I'm not sure exactly how in zoom you can do this too or so i've been told... but this really was the big feature in hangouts... also I must be an unusual person but I just keep my work email (gmail ) in a pinned tab always and it's just an easy place to chat with co-workers and also place test phone calls while hacking on twilio... makes me sad this might be going away :)
- paul7986 6y agoWill not be happy if they ever shut down Google Voice. It's my spam and online dating phone number. Like if we didnt work out you are like spam to me.. to be deleted/ignored lol
- tsjq 6y agoWill integrate this with their yet another new messaging platform Yallo !
- sneak 6y agoThis headline wraps on mobile after Voice, and my heart skipped a beat. I still have a fair number of physical business cards left. It’s only a matter of time before the Google cancel machine renders them useless. Hopefully I run out before then. My personal card, in contrast, doesn’t have a phone number on it at all, just email.
- comeonseriously 6y agoI wish they would integrate GV with Google Messages so that I could text from just Google Messages no matter if I'm using GV or my carrier number.
- altspace 6y agoGoogle Voice android app doesn't work without giving the permission to "make and manage phone calls". I've used hangouts Voice integration for years and it never needed that permission. I wonder what changed?
- spicyramen 6y agoGoogle products are a mess for a very simple reason. People that launches new products get promoted.
- mrtimo 6y agoNet result of this action for most people: When traveling internationally, I would use this feature to call family in the US - for free (it only uses data). Now I can't do this anymore, as it will default to using cell networks (not data). >New telecommunications regulations are being introduced in the EU and U.S. beginning in 2021. To comply with these new regulations, we need to remove the call phones feature in Hangouts. [1] It appears that the change is due to new regulations? [1]: https://blog.google/products/workspace/latest-google-hangouts-and-upgrade-google-chat/#jump-content:~:text=Changes%20to%20Hangouts%20with%20Google%20Voice https://blog.google/products/workspace/latest-google-hangout...
- the-angry-dome 6y agoI have literally zero idea what app I'm supposed to use for texts/calls, and I'm on Google Fi... Is Fi about to be axed?
- richardles 6y agoNo. Google message has a web app already that you can use. You can now login to google message with your google account (no need to do the awkward qr code thing) and call/text from there. https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/10/23/new-messages-for-web-features-are-rolling-out-to-google-fi-users/?amp https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/10/23/new-messages-for-we...
- KerrickStaley 6y agoFrom what I understand, this change affects me personally in a negative way; it will prevent me from making Google Voice calls on my phone. I use Google Voice with a US-based number that I registered while I lived in the US. I've since moved temporarily to Taiwan and switched to a Taiwanese SIM. Recently, my Google Voice prompted me to re-verify my US-based number (which I no longer have access to) and eventually disassociated it with my account when I didn't do so. So now I do not have a "real" US mobile phone number associated with my account. I cannot associate my Taiwanese number because the country code must match my Google Voice number. The Google Voice app does not let you make phone calls if you do not have a real phone number registered in your account. I've been using the Hangouts Dialer app to make calls, which doesn't have this requirement. But, per this announcement, it is going away. So after this I'll have no economical way to make calls to the US on my phone (calling via the Taiwanese SIM is expensive). I think I'll work around the problem by associating one of my parents' numbers with my account (any number will do, it's mainly an anti-fraud measure), but it would be great if I didn't have to jump through that hoop.
- BMSmnqXAE4yfe1 6y agoTextNow worked well for me ... it's $39 a year and all my banks (and the IRS) accept it as my US phone number.