Hangouts is Not Shutting Down-Google Clarifies

As per a report from 9to5Google, Google Hangouts for consumers would soon be shutting down in 2020. Their assumption was purely based on the idea that Google has halted development on the application for more than a year and also a source fully aware of the matter gave confirmation to this assumption.

But, Scott Johnston—the Google Product Head for Hangouts had since then confirmed that there are no such plans of shutting down Hangouts. He went further to say that the reporting by 9to5Google is sloppy and the site’s source is badly misinformed.

But he also clarified in his statement that Hangouts would eventually be converted into Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet, which are two different applications rather than a complete shutdown of Hangouts.

Also Read: Google Hangouts to Shut Down in 2020

As per a tweet to Stephen Hall—the Managing Director of 9to5Google Scott Johnson said that he could not comment on the sourcing of the website since there are not many details shared. The most annoying part about the reporting is that it leaves the reader to open-ended conclusions, as it is just half of the story and that the Hangouts users would be migrated to Chat and Meet.

Later, an official statement was also issued by Google which stated that in March 2017, they made an announcement of plans to transform the classic Hangouts to rely on 2 experiences that assist to bring the teams together—Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat. Both the applications are available for the G Suite customers and would roll out for the consumer users too. No official timeline has been announced for shifting users from classic Hangouts to Chat and Meet. Google is completely committed to providing support to the classic Hangouts users until all the consumers successfully migrate to Chat and Meet.

So, it is kind of proved that Google is not shutting down Hangouts rather it is upgrading it to two new versions. Chat is for messaging and collaboration for teams whereas Meet is for video conferencing.