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Glitch sends Google Hangouts and GTalk chats to wrong people

Google's instant messenger lost its bearings for a bit. The company has acknowledged an issue, but says things are on the mend.

Michael Lee
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Google's Hangouts/GTalk messaging system was hit by a glitch that saw messages being incorrectly delivered to unintended recipients.

Several users found that after around 4 p.m. Sydney time, messages sent over Google Hangouts and GTalk were sent erroneously to the wrong recipients.

There appeared to be no pattern to who was receiving the messages by mistake, or who the glitch was affecting.

ZDNet confirmed first-hand that the glitch was present within Google Apps for Business accounts, including those that have not yet switched over to Google's new Hangouts platform. Messages appeared to be visible on the mobile version of Hangouts. There was no indication that the messages were being received by a third party.

Google only recently issued an update to the mobile version of Hangouts, upgrading it to version 1.1.2.

When contacted earlier for comment, a Google spokesperson told ZDNet: "We're investigating reports of an issue with Google Talk. We're sorry for the inconvenience. For further updates please refer to the Apps Status Dashboard." 

Since that time, Google has updated that dashboard with a more promising note: "The issue has been resolved and all services are gradually returning to normal."

This story originally appeared at ZDNet under the headline "Google Hangouts/GTalk glitch sends chats to wrong recipients." It has been modified somewhat in this version.