Google Inbox

[LawBeefaroni]

Here's the article I saw about Hangouts possibly getting shut off in 2020.

The days of Google Hangouts for consumers may be coming to an end in 2020, according to a report from 9to5Google today. Hangouts has been suffering from an identity crisis since Google launched it as a replacement for Gchat in 2013, and it’s actually been losing features in recent years as the company stopped updating the app and took away SMS messaging. That change was part of Google’s new focus for Hangouts, which will stay safe for now as a workplace communication tool in the form of G Suite’s Hangouts Chat, as well as video conferencing platform Hangouts Meet.

I'm not sure they took away SMS messaging. I use it all the time for SMS on my phone and PC. In fact, my [Project Fi] phone keeps defaulting to Hangouts for SMS, even when I try to use Messages.

[Zaxxon]

Might be a Fi thing. I can't re-enable sms in Hangouts on my Pixel 3.

[LawBeefaroni]

Wow here's a full rundown:

It's only April, and 2019 has already been an absolutely brutal year for Google's product portfolio. The Chromecast Audio was discontinued January 11. YouTube annotations were removed and deleted January 15. Google Fiber packed up and left a Fiber city on February 8. Android Things dropped IoT support on February 13. Google's laptop and tablet division was reportedly slashed on March 12. Google Allo shut down on March 13. The "Spotlight Stories" VR studio closed its doors on March 14. The goo.gl URL shortener was cut off from new users on March 30. Gmail's IFTTT support stopped working March 31.

And today, April 2, we're having a Google Funeral double-header: both Google+ (for consumers) and Google Inbox are being laid to rest. Later this year, Google Hangouts "Classic" will start to wind down, and somehow also scheduled for 2019 is Google Music's "migration" to YouTube Music, with the Google service being put on death row sometime afterward.

[Zaxxon]

Ha, was just reading that article. Brutal, indeed.

[stessier]

I've found that author to be fairly biased against Google. ymmv.

Yes, they've shut down a lot of things, but I'm not sure how much that matters. The last big thing they shut down that got a lot of uproar was Google Reader. The rest of the announcements seem to be met with "meh, wasn't using it anyway."

[gbasden]

IMO, Hangouts is a pretty big deal, as is shutting down their laptop and tablet division. IoT is pretty huge.

[tjg_marantz]

They've moved most of the Inbox functionality into Gmail proper, but I will miss the cleaner look of Inbox.

Give spark a go. It's apparently been on iOS for a while but it is more available on Android. Very inbox feeling. Lots of customization too.

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[MonkeyFinger]

Thanks, I'll check out spark... got way too used to Inbox and do not like having to go back to Gmail, even if "most functionality" was ported over.

Googling for it turns up headlines like "Spark’s email app for Android could help ease the pain of Google Inbox’s death ".

[tjg_marantz]

Thanks, I'll check out spark... got way too used to Inbox and do not like having to go back to Gmail, even if "most functionality" was ported over.

Googling for it turns up headlines like "Spark’s email app for Android could help ease the pain of Google Inbox’s death ".

Sounds right lol

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