Google Due cannot be a replacement for Hangouts without a serious overhaul:

* Duo is linked via phones, not Google accounts * Duo is strictly peer-to-peer, not for groups * Duo is video/audio only, no chat/text

So, it could be a Duo-like replacement for Hangouts, maybe. But not a complete replacement. A merger of Allo + Duo (does anyone here know what Allo is?) could check some of these boxes. But one of the primary appeals of Duo is E2E encryption, and that is not in Google's interests in the long run.

There could be value in Google having an E2E encrypted messaging service if for no other reason than taking users from their competitors and keeping them in the Google ecosystem.

Google has actually been making improvements to their Google Voice client again, and it is looking descent. I'm thinking the issue is they don't have a Slack/MatterMost/Zulip/Discord/Matrix type of chat client and that is what is in style now. Truly Hangouts is not setup for Teams using ChatOps, nor managing multiple channels for Enterprises.

Though, to note, Google Voice is US-only.

There's a lot of non-coding work involved in launching in a given country. Years ago, not long after GrandCentral became GV, there was a project to launch in a second country, but the effort just stalled for a variety of reasons and got cancelled. It was going to work differently from the US one because it would have lived in other market realities altogether.

How long has Google Voice been around, more than a decade? Excuses are wearing very thin. Their failure to come to Europe is the whole reason Skype exists.

I doubt it will ever come, especially to Europe. I don't think any international expansion was ever promised. I haven't worked at Google in years, so I don't know anything about current and future plans. It would be a stunning, but welcome surprise.

That was launched in 2016. My question to the OP was about their product-launching abilities. They seem rather slow on the consumer software front, i.e. they don't seem to be launching new products (or even updating existing) at the same rate that they're retiring them.

Like the article says Google Hangouts Chat will replace Hangouts. Chat even has hangouts classic backwards compatibility.

If it's backward compatible, why would they kill Hangouts, instead of just upgrading everyone automatically and calling it version 2? Google makes no damned sense. With all of the confusing product names, I can't figure out what they even want me, a regular Hangouts user, to do.

Chat can support Hangouts features but not vice versa.

And Windows 10 can run programs written for Windows 7 and not vice versa... so as the above commenter said, why not just call it version 2 and upgrade everyone?

But yeah, I guesss Google's culture leads to a lot of dick waving competitions...

Google Chat is a horrible experience and I would advise anyone serious about communications at their company to seriously consider alternatives. I am currently forced to use it. I have documented multiple bugs in a blog post here and I have reported each one to Google multiple times without any fixes being made. We are a paying client for G Suites.

https://technex.us/2018/11/google_chat_is_the_worst_desktop_...