WASHINGTON — If you’re faithful to the classic Gchat, Google is dragging you Luddites to the future by ending Google Talk and replacing it with Hangouts.
But don’t be too surprised, Hangouts has been around since 2013 and you’ve probably gotten invitations to switch but ignored them. Classic Gchat users will again get notifications to switch, but after June 26, users will be automatically transitioned to Hangouts.
The most visible change may just be aesthetics, as chat will still be built into Gmail and contacts will move over.
If you use the Google Talk app on your phone, you will need to install Hangouts now, as the old Google Talk app will stop functioning. Android users who use Hangouts to access SMS or text messages will need to switch to Android Messages, if they want to continue the service.
Google has been touting Hangouts features, which include group video calling and integration with myriad Google products.
Google Talk, an instant messaging service, launched in 2005 and differed from AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger because it was built in Gmail. The built-in aspect meant that users could check email and chat at the same time, on the same screen. Google Talk had an off-the-record option, as well, which erased messages after you ended the chat. So, you could talk about that noisy co-worker to your other co-worker while answering work emails. Not to worry, though, you can still do that in Hangouts.
