Tech: Hangouts Takes Over as Google Talk Shuts Down

Google has officially shut down its Google Talk service which is more commonly known as GChat or GTalk. The tech giant had previous announced that it would be moving its Google Talk users to Google Hangouts and would begin streamlining the process from 2013.


However, Google which was offering both GTalk and Hangout options, has finally drawn the curtain over Google Talk and this is for good reason as Hangouts comes with better improvements. This is a departure from GTalk’s simplicity and personal tone. Hangouts, on the contrary, provides group chatting and video conferencing options. The interaction would take place on the basis of a list of conversation rather than a contact list. Moreover, it allows the users to share photos to a group of people.

Google Talk was quite popular back in the days when people used to primarily depend upon their computers rather than smartphones. Introduced in 2005, Google Talk has now been replaced by Hangouts which operates on both, Android and iOS other than Chrome. Moreover, it will integrate with other products from Google as well, including its business suite of office apps.

Google also has other products like Google Duo and Google Allo, which are basically built for mobile and compete with services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Telegram.