Hangouts has slowly been replaced by Chat over the last few months. The Chrome extension now redirects to Chat, and Hangouts has no presence in Gmail anymore. Likewise, the mobile app doesn’t work anymore. The final remaining place where Hangouts was accessible, though, was on the web version. Now, the web version is also being killed off on November 1st, when the website will begin redirecting to Chat.
The ultimate demise of Hangouts has been slow, carrying over for years. Google has been trying to kill it since 2016, when Google Allo was first introduced. Allo died before Hangouts, and Google tried it again with Chat. Now, it looks like Google was finally successful in killing Hangouts.
Google has committed mistake after mistake when it comes to messaging over the last years. With Hangouts finally being retired, though, the company can, at least, close one of its longest-running chapters.
Source: Google
