Everyone called it GChat, and the ~5 people I still communicate with on it still do.

Doesn't matter what the official name was, what everyone called it was GChat or Google Chat.

The official name matters when trying to distinguish between Google Talk and Google Chat.

I'd argue the official name de facto doesn't matter when there's been 5+ names for it in the last decade and nobody can keep track of it. Vast majority use it via their phones or in-browser GMail, I suspect.

(On topic: I use it with pidgin still though for the one-on-one chats with a few people!)

What about the precursor to Google talk? You know, chat integrated into Gmail before it was branded Google Talk.

I thought it was Google Chat.

It was released as a standalone app in 2006 (after having a labs beta period prior) as Google Talk, and integrated into Gmail in 2007. While the widget in Gmail (which was only removed very recently to replace it with a Meet widget!) was labelled Chats, the service itself never was.

I think they're actually referring to Google Hangouts Chat

> chat integrated into Gmail before it was branded Google Talk.

Hangouts chat came wayyyy after Google Talk or even its integration into gmail (I know, it's hard to keep track of the chronology of these Google services, they release 2 new ones a year)

Ugh, you're right. I failed. I was used to using the slang "GChat" back in the day.