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Google Meet video conferencing now available for free for everybody
Google's video conference platform, Google Meet, is no longer limited to G Suite and now available to all users for free.
Hangouts is among the few Google apps that remained elusive of Google's impulse to kill apps. For quite a few years now, Google has been signaling its desire to shut down Hangouts but instead of an abrupt end, the tech giant is simply rebranding Hangouts and giving it a corporate tough by splitting it into Meet and Chat for video conferences and conversations, respectively. As one of the final (intended and metaphorical) nails into Hangouts coffin, though, Google recently dropped the Hangouts branding and instead named the two apps Google Meet and Google Chat.
[Update: Confirmed] Google may rebrand Hangouts Meet to simply "Google Meet"
Google will rename its current video conferencing platform Hangouts Meet as Google Meet for a cleaner and more appealing branding.
Google has a reputation for killing its apps tastelessly. Hangouts, however, has survived the ax despite Google's deliberation of shutting it down – or replacing it with apps named after it – for over three years now. Since then, it has been talking about "upgrading" users from the classic Hangouts app to Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. Last year, Google pushed the deadline for making users switch over to the new platforms but it may have finally started getting rid of the previous lineage. A new report suggests that Hangouts Meet may be rebranded to simply Google Meet as we move closer to the migration date.
[Update: Postponed for G Suite] Google will transition "classic" Hangouts users to Chat and Meet later this year
Google has posted an update on the transition for G Suite users from "classic" Hangouts to Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet.
One of the biggest Google stories of 2018 was the downfall of Hangouts. The platform had long been seemingly abandoned, but we finally got some news about its future. In December, we learned that Hangouts users will eventually be transitioned to Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. There was no timeline given at the time, but now we have a little more of an idea.
Hangouts Meet is replacing classic Hangouts video in May for G Suite users
Hangouts Meet is a video chat platform that has existed independently from the old Hangouts video chat. That's about to change as Meet will officially replace the old Hangouts video chat in May for G Suite users.
About a year ago, Google split Hangouts into two separate apps for G Suite users. Hangouts Chat is a Slack-like communication platform for teams. Hangouts Meet is a video chat platform that has existed independently from the old Hangouts video chat that everyone knows. That's about to change as Meet will officially replace the old Hangouts video chat in May for G Suite users.
Hangouts Meet Gains Support for Android Tablets and iPads
Google's Hangouts Meet, its G Suite conferencing platform for enterprise, was updated to support Android tablets and Apple iPads.
Google took the wraps off Hangouts Meet, an enterprise-centric version of its Hangouts chat platform, in March 2017. It's chock full of nifty features like meeting reminders and Google Drive integration, but ever since launch, it's lacked tablet support. The search giant rectified that longstanding shortcoming with a tablet-forward update for the Hangouts Meet app. Starting today, it's officially supported on Apple iPads and Android tablets.
Google Pushes Hangouts in a more Corporate Direction with Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat
Google is giving Hangouts it corporate and enterprise direction that it promised last year, with the launch of Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. Read on!
If you ask anyone to sum up Google's messaging strategy, then you'll probably draw a blank stare. We've tried to come up with an answer ourselves, and have found that quite difficult. What started off with one app trying to provide a convenient messaging platform evolved into several different apps trying to compete for different (but often overlapping) sets of users, but then failing to deliver some key functionality that hinders their adoption.