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Comment by finstell | Hacker News Reader

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finstell

- Google Hangouts

- Google Hangouts Meet

- Google Hangouts Chat

- Hangouts Chat

- Google Chat

- Google Talk

- Google Allo

- Google Due

- Google Voice

- Google Meet

- Android Messages

- Youtube Messages

Product management at its best. Half of the time I don't know which app I am using.

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I love that in Google Hangouts chat, default chat app on Android phone, there is no search capability.

I keep using it because I'm assuming they will add it eventually. I still find the Gmail+chat+hangout combo to be extremely robust and easy -- I just don't know why it isn't supported.

You didn't miss that it's about to get killed right? I've been an avid user of Google Hangouts. I wonder what will I use instead.

Wait, the chats are getting killed? Or the video? Or is it getting renamed?

Super confused.

I found out about it on https://killedbygoogle.com/ just now. However, after double-checking, apparently it's some G Suite Hangouts variant that's getting killed: https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/08/updates-to-hang...

You can export your Hangouts chat history on takeout.google.com. The resulting Hangsouts.json file is human-readable but not fun to read. I have a one-liner to convert it into something nicer, but it doesn't resolve user names and you need to figure out the conversation ID you want to export yourself.

    jq -c '.conversations[] | select(.conversation.conversation_id.id == "YOUNEEDTOFILLTHISINYOURSELF") | .events[] | [(.timestamp | tonumber / 1000000 + (9*3600)| strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S (%a)")), .sender_id.gaia_id, [.chat_message.message_content.segment[]?.text], .chat_message.message_content.attachment[]?.embed_item?.plus_photo?.url?]' Hangouts.json | sort > foo.log

When you open Hangouts.json, you'll see that every conversation has something like this at the beginning:

    "conversation_id": { "id": "BASE64-LIKE_STRING" }

This BASE64-LIKE_STRING belongs into the YOUNEEDTOFILLTHISINYOURSELF placeholder.

Hangouts conversations are archived in your gmail, you could search there.

The new version of Chat has a search functionality so you'll likely get it when the transition's done.

The is a chat-like client builtin to Photos now. It is actually pretty nice to easily send pictures to my mother with the ability to answer questions about them. Unlike other chats no need to download and reupload the pictures.

When that came out I was rather surprised it wasn't just an extension to Hangouts or one of their other chat apps.

Well, to be fair:

  - Google Chat = Hangouts Chat = Google Hangouts Chat
  - Google Hangouts Meet = Google Meet
  - Google Hangouts = Google Talk = soon to be dead
  - Google Allo = dead
  - Youtube Messages = is it even a separate product?

So by the end of 2020, the line-up should be like:

  - Google Meet (=Zoom)
  - Google Chat (=Slack)
  - Google Duo (=FaceTime)
  - Google Voice (=Phone call)
  - Android Messages (=SMS).

Not ideal, but not as bad as you described.

I think Meet == Hangouts Meet, now? And maybe Google Hangouts Chat == Hangouts Chat == Google Chat?

But yes, your underlying point about the total ridiculousness of this is good.

Hangouts was great when it came out and a bunch of people I know adopted it... and then it stopped getting meaningful updates - instead of growing and expanding hangouts, they decided to rename it, replace it, redo it. I'm pretty sure there's a team at google that's just renames products.

They've clearly learnt from Microsoft.

Is Hangouts even a thing? I still see people pop-up in the Hangout chat section of gmail, I occasionally message people but never get replies. So it's either broken or I'm being ignored :)

It's still a thing for people that started using it when it was the latest Google chat product. It may be surprising but people just want stable chat experience not chasing whatever next product Google releases or kills next year.

(I did migrate my family and friends to self hosted XMPP server as Hangouts doesn't have E2EE)

Make sure the one you choose doesn’t get discontinued tho

Duo as well?

thanks, added that one as well.

With a typo.

If they change the name fast enough maybe they escape from having to cancel it?

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