Google is streamlining its chat apps again


Google has a baffling array of chat apps and platforms out there at the moment, so the tech behemoth has decided to try and simplify its approach just a little bit: firstly it's phasing out Google Talk for good by June 26, the Hangouts precursor that really should've been shuttered a long time ago.

Secondly, SMS support is being pulled from Google Hangouts, an app that is now being positioned as more of a business-focused tool for your workplace group chat needs. However, ordinary, non-paying users will be able to carry on using Hangouts (minus the SMS feature) for the time being.

This isn't really a big surprise: messages inside Hangouts have been pushing users towards Android Messenger for SMS for more than a year now, and support for the vintage messaging format might even get added to the Allo app eventually. SMS options in Hangouts will disappear from May 22.
Leaving the labs

Thirdly, some of those weird and wonderful Labs experiments in Gmail are getting removed too, from April 24. Quick Links, which lets you bookmark certain pages in Gmail, and Smart Labels, where incoming emails are sorted automatically , are among those features getting the boot (a more advanced version of Smart Labels is now embedded in the main Gmail apps anyway).

Google says the changes will help it "focus and prioritize" on the features and apps it thinks are more important. While the note was written to users of the G Suite business set of apps , you can expect to see the same updates filter down to everyone.

Google's approach to messaging could certainly use some tidying up, with three Google-made messaging apps available on Android alone. Perhaps one day it will get around to rolling everything into one all-powerful tool, but that day is still a long way off.
Source: Techradar

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amazon Prime Day Sale Starts Today: Deals, Discounts, Cashbacks, and More to Look Forward to

Image
E-commerce site Amazon is set to kick off its first Amazon Prime Day Sale in India, along with 12 other countries worldwide. The Amazon sale will see some major price discounts, offers, and deals on varied smartphones, electronic products, and other items across many categories on July 11. The Amazon sale begins on Monday, July 10 at 6pm IST , while the main sale day is on Tuesday, July 11. A reminder that this sale is only applicable for Amazon Prime members and the yearly membership for Prime is at Rs. 499. Amazon sale deals on mobile phones, and other gadgets Talking about smartphones first, the Xiaomi Redmi 4 will be made available in an open sale at Rs. 6,999 starting at 5pm IST today. OnePlus is offering its 6GB RAM/64GB storage OnePlus 5 variant with an extra Rs. 2,000 off on exchange offer in the form of Amazon Pay balance; both variants of the smartphone will get the buyer a Rs. 250 discount on Marsboy portable speaker. Smartphones from Honor (Huawei’s Terminal brand)
Read more

Biggest "country" on Earth, Facebook hits 2 billion monthly users

Image
Social network giant Facebook has reached yet another milestone! The total number of monthly active Facebook users is now much more than the population of any country in the world! Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced, "Facebook community is now officially two billion people." Its colossal user base is roughly a quarter of the world's population, which is about 7.5 billion. Growth numbers: Facebook continues to grow steadily Critics, who said Facebook's growth would be slow as users are attracted to other social networks, have been proven wrong again. The internet giant has reached the major milestone of 2 billion monthly users only 13 years after being launched. In Oct'12, Facebook crossed one billion monthly users only two years after it announced that 500 million people monthly use it. Fact: Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his college dormitory room When Zuckerberg founded "The Facebook" in 2004, he was still at Harvard University.
Read more

Facebook overtakes US with 201 mn active users

Image
Facebook on Friday said India, with 201 million active users, continues to be its second largest user base after the US that has 214 million active users. Facebook on Friday said India, with 201 million active users, continues to be its second largest user base after the US that has 214 million active users. "India has 201 million active users and retains the second place after the US," a Facebook spokesperson told IANS on Friday. Earlier this year, when Facebook announced its earnings for the fourth quarter and full year 2016, it showed a steady growth in its revenue and user base. Facebook reported $8.8 billion in revenue, $3.56 billion in profit and said more than 1.23 billion people were using the social network every day and that 1.15 billion log in from mobile devices each day. Facebook earlier announced it now has more than two billion monthly users around the world. Source: ET Telecom
Read more