Google Hangouts gets hung out to dry in 2020, report says

Google will reportedly kill off its Hangouts chat app in 2020.

The reported move may not surprise many because the company has shifted its focus to other communication platforms. Last year, Google said it was "evolving" Hangouts to focus on two new services: Hangouts Meet, a video conferencing feature, and Hangouts Chat, a messaging platform and Slack competitor. Google removed SMS functionality in the classic Hangouts app last year. 

In April, the company began focusing on Chat, an Android alternative to Apple's iMessage. Google also put its Allo messaging app on hold two years after its introduction.

The original Hangouts app will shut down sometime in 2020, a person familiar with the matter told 9to5Google.

Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat are both currently available for G Suite customers, and will eventually become available for consumer users, too, a Google representative said. 

"We have not announced an official timeline for transitioning users from classic Hangouts to Chat and Meet," the representative said. "We are fully committed to supporting classic Hangouts users until everyone is successfully migrated to Chat and Meet."

First published Nov. 30 at 1:28 p.m. PT.
Update, Dec. 3 at 2:15 p.m. PT: Adds comment from Google.