That's not exactly true. 1. you can for example disable the google account synchronization happening, either for Hangouts specifically, or for the whole google

That's not exactly true. 1. you can for example disable the google account synchronization happening, either for Hangouts specifically, or for the whole google account and notice the difference. If you don't trust doing that, you can always install CyanogenMod on your phone, without any of Google's services, at which point you'll have no capability of synchronizing your Google account at all. And then notice the difference between that and simply not synchronizing your Google account. I did that btw, because as I've said, I'm a fanatic in regards to battery life. 2. I use and have used other messenger services regularly, like Facebook's Messenger. None of them have been so bad as Skype is.