Official line
Transition to Google Chat and Meet.
Google · Messaging · Product
Google Hangouts
Discontinued
2013–2022 · 9 years in market
Launched
May 15, 2013
Discontinued
Nov 1, 2022
Cause of death
Replaced by successor
Evidence
Unsourced
What was it?
The unified chat that replaced Talk, then was itself split into Chat, Meet, and Messages. A case study in comms fragmentation.
Why it died
Editorial reading
Enterprise (Chat/Meet) and consumer (Messages) strategies collided. Hangouts was the compromise that pleased neither.
Founder takeaway
Do not run four messengers. Pick a protocol, pick an audience, and stop renaming the app every two years.
Sources
Unsourced — editorial reading
No primary source is attached yet. Treat the interpretation as editorial, not a citation.
What replaced it
Google
Google Chat
The Workspace descendant.
Salesforce
Slack
Won the workplace Hangouts never owned.
Related graves
Same company, category, or cause of death.
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Google Trips
2016–2019 · 3 yrs
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Maps & Local/Replaced by successor+37
Feature
RIP
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RIP
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2018–2024 · 6 yrs
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Media & Publishing/Replaced by successor+35