RIP Google Hangouts, Google’s last, best chance to compete with iMessage

Re:RIP Google Hangouts, Google’s last, best chance to compet... by dekhn on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @10:36AM (#33421780)

Its funny, I was at the TGIF where Hangouts was originally announced, by Chee Chew (who had run messaging at google for a while). Apparently Gchat was not growing while competitors with emojis and other features were. So gchat had to die to make room for hangouts. Many googlers explained taht gchat was not a competitor to those chat systems, but it still lead to the evisceration of classic gchat. Chew got his promo and continued to miss things up for years before finally leaving.

The leaders never realyl understood that gchat was for professionals working in gmail, not teenagers in japan.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:RIP Google Hangouts, Google’s last, best chance to compet... by thiht on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @12:03PM (#33423106)

> TGIF

What’s that? Besides « thanks god it’s Friday »?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:RIP Google Hangouts, Google’s last, best chance to compet... by dekhn on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @12:06PM (#33423149)

Google had a weekly meeting where the executives would explain their latest crazy ideas and accomplishments. It's held on Thursday, because Sundar wanted to make people in Japan happier about attending.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:RIP Google Hangouts, Google’s last, best chance to compet... by mishac on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @01:06PM (#33424024)

Due to timezones? or is there something in Japanese culture that makes friday meetings disliked?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:RIP Google Hangouts, Google’s last, best chance to compet... by dekhn on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @01:13PM (#33424108)

Yes, they wanted to find a time that worked for the major 3 locations- Asia, EU, and US. If they held it on Friday, that was Saturday in Japan. So it was moved from Friday early evening to Thursday early evening.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:RIP Google Hangouts, Google’s last, best chance to compet... by systemicdanna on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @07:00PM (#33428929)

I never understood this argument.

> Apparently Gchat was not growing while competitors with emojis and other features were.

So... add emojis and other features to Gchat, not create a new messaging app.

Seems like every time there was a hot new messaging app with a new paradigm/ feature-set, Google's reaction was to build another competitor and sunset its previous efforts, disappointing everyone internally and externally.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:RIP Google Hangouts, Google’s last, best chance to compet... by fragmede on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @07:21PM (#33429166)

I'm sure the product manager involved had a long design doc justifying the decision but at the end of the day, the obviously right move was to keep the name, swap out the backend, and not try to create a new brand doing the same thing. whatever has to change behind the scenes to make that happen is what needs to happen. If that person reads this I'm sure you're thinking I don't know all the details but the point is it doesn't matter. the right move is the right move.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:RIP Google Hangouts, Google’s last, best chance to compet... by __derek__ on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @07:19PM (#33429142)

> Chew got his promo and continued to miss things up for years before finally leaving.

To go to Amazon, where one of my managers worked under him in Personalization and would later rave about him. It's interesting to read a balancing review now.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:RIP Google Hangouts, Google’s last, best chance to compet... by dekhn on Wednesday November 02, 2022 @06:00PM (#33443501)

Yeah, he lasted a few years at amazon then went to twilio and now works at mParticle... who!? I think he probably peaked a while ago.

[ Parent | on HN ]