After a long time without any major updates, the company has announced a complete overhaul of its messaging app. In an effort to make Hangouts more business-friendly, Google is splitting the service into two separate apps: Hangouts Meet, a video conferencing app, and Hangouts Chat, a Slack-like app designed for teams.
Meet, which is now live, is a revamped version of Hangouts video calling, with a few new additions designed for businesses. Like the old Hangouts, it also supports video calls for up to 30 people, and participants can join via their computer or the app on phone . But with the new update, anyone can see the call. Google also says it has significantly improved the process for meetings, which it describes as the most important achievement of the new app.
For business subscribers, each meeting invitation also comes with a phone number so remote participants can join meetings while on the go.
While anyone with a Gmail account can use Meet, Hangouts Chat is only for Google's enterprise users. The service lets teams within organizations chat and supports bots and other productivity apps. Google also created its own bot for the app that will schedule meetings on your behalf.
So if Meet and Chat are built for businesses, what will happen to the consumer version of Hangouts? It's a bit confusing. In addition to Hangouts, the company has made the chat app Allo and the video calling app Duo, which launched last year.
The company's strategy appears to be this: reimagine Hangouts, which is closely tied to Gmail and other productivity apps used by the company's business users, into a more business-friendly experience, while positioning Allo, Duo for consumers.
