Google Hangouts has had one foot (and a bunch of other body parts) in the grave for a while. It managed to survive through the Google Allo days and it’s still alive while Google Chat is here. However, the service’s days are numbered; Google just announced that Hangouts will officially be shut down this fall.

Google has an interesting track record with messaging services. It’s gone through several failed attempts at making one that’s pretty much a joke at this point. Hangouts is one of those attempts, and it was the main service until Allo came into the picture in 2016.

Even then, people were pontificating about how long Hangouts had on this world. However, the service was able to survive until now.

But, Hangouts will be shut down in a few months

If Google Hangouts’ story sounds familiar, then you know about
Internet Explorer. That program was on death’s door for years, and Microsoft officially killed it. Now, it’s Hangouts’ turn.

Google just posted a blog post about the benefits of Google Chat. Basically, the post is aiming to push people who are still on Hangouts over to Chat. Later in the post, the company drops the bomb that the service will officially end in November this year. It didn’t give a definite date, but it’ll be sometime within the 30 days.

This means that there are still a few months for people to use the service. Users still have a full four months to switch before they lose contact.

Benefits of using Google Chat

There are always those who stick to older programs and services even though the successor is out. This goes for Google Hangouts. There are those individuals who still use this service despite the impending day of reckoning.

There are some benefits to switching up, especially if you’re an avid messenger. For starters, you’ll be able to use Google Chat side-by-side with other Google services. Google Chats is included in the new integrated view that Gmail has. It’ll make it a lot easier to see all of your conversations.

Google Chats also uses rich text formatting so you can use bold and italicized text, @mentions so you can tag other users, GIFs, and more features.

The beauty is that most of the time, all of your Hangouts chats will be ported right to Google Chat. This means that you’ll be able to pick up where you left off from Hangouts. You can download the Google Chats app, and you should find your chats already moved over.