Text, which can be used within Google’s Gmail or as a separate application, Google has announced that Google Hangouts, a video and voice chat service, will be shut down as of November 1.
Google Hangouts is one of Google’s services. It has been a major service for video and voice chatting and has been provided by Google since 2013. Then, in 2021, Google Chat was released as a new service, and since then, Hangouts has reduced its services and automatically switched from Hangouts to Chat for users in conjunction with Gmail. In July of this year, all Hangouts services, which are used with a separate application on Android and iOS, were again shut down. On November 1st, the remaining service will no longer be available as a web application, and all services will be closed.
Due to Google shutting down Hangouts, users from most countries in the world, including Myanmar, will not experience any significant changes. Gmail users in Myanmar used to use Hangouts to chat via text messages in the mail, but since 2021, they have automatically switched to Chat, so they will not experience data loss. There may only be some inconvenience for those who use Hangouts with a separate application in the US and Europe.
Google shuts down Hangouts messaging service
For those who have been using Hangouts until November 1st, Google has given them until the end of January 2023 to migrate and store their data. Contacts from Hangouts will be automatically transferred to Chat, but sent messages will not be automatically transferred to Chat or Gmail. The company said that if users want to save Hangouts conversations, they should use Google Takeout to download and save a copy of their data.
Since 2000, Google has been using GTalk as a standalone app for its messaging service. It was the first service to be offered in conjunction with Gmail and has been a huge success. Then, in 2013, GTalk was discontinued and the improved Hangouts was introduced, starting as a companion service to Google+ before Hangouts became a standalone app. Hangouts has reached five billion downloads on the Google Play Store.
Then, in 2021, it began preparing to retire Hangouts, and since then, new conversations within Gmail have shifted to Chat. The Chat service includes additional features for group conversations, as well as Google’s services such as Spaces, Docs, Slides, and Sheets, which have been upgraded to allow sharing and editing with other users within Chat.
