Google set to ditch hangout platform by 2020

Search engine giant Google is set to ditch its Hangout platform and reports say it may cease to exist by 2020.

According to an unnamed source familiar with the product’s internal roadmap, next year will be the last year Google Hangouts will be available to consumers.

While it may be sad for some who began using the service when it launched in 2013, Hangouts has actually lost key features in recent years, such as SMS messaging, and the company stopped updating the app.

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It technically will still be available as part of the G Suite’s Hangouts Chat for workplaces, it seems.

But the 2020 end-date has been assigned for consumers, and it’s given rise to speculation there will be a replacement in the form of the RCS chat feature in Android Messages that Google debuted in April.

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