Google now wants you to use its Hangout-replacing business collaboration Chat app to talk to friends and family, just like WhatsApp.
  • Nate@programming.devEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    Google fucked around too long for me to consider using any of their new services and I’m working on dropping the old. Got bit in the ass with Allo, Hangouts, GPM, Inbox, and latestly Domains, which I thought was safe.

          • Nate@programming.devEnglish
            1·
            2 years ago

            I just moved mine to namecheap & am using cloudflare dns instead of Google cloud dns. Had to setup my email forwarding and my ssl certificate renewal again but otherwise rather painless.

            Namecheap’s website loads pretty slow but their support is top notch. The chat button on the page will immediately connect you to somebody that actually knows the product which is nice.

    • zxcv@vlemmy.netEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Yeah getting dependent on any Google service is just a waiting game to handle catastrophe. That said I’ve yet to find a single semi-competent calendar widget in Android (month view most importantly) which keeps me. But as the legacy workspaces fiasco showed it’s only a matter of time until I’m forced to take action.

    • infinitevalence@discuss.onlineEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      From what I have read its simply not how Google works on the inside. They have all the best programmers developing new “products” which then get tested live. If a product wins great, put the best on something else. Maintaining existing products outside of the core search and ad’s is seen internally as a menial job, and managers focus on keeping maintenance costs low and quiet new ideas.

      But yes, Hangouts was amazing at its peak. I could group chat, video chat, send MMS like posts, connect it directly to my google voice and more. They should have kept working on it.

      • perezoso@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        I’ve heard that too, product launches = promotion so they keep churning them out.

        I got curious and installed it there, Hangouts chats from 2015 - 2018 all appeared. This isn’t as brand new as they’d make you believe.

  • hakunamafcukit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    Google’s inability to stick with something despite its flaws and working on making it better over time, but instead constantly scrapping and renaming services is why I don’t bother investing in any of their experimental projects. Why should anybody waste their time getting used to something if google is just gonna ditch it after a while.

  • Exilfranke@feddit.deEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Many have tried, many have failed.

    You simply need a killer feature to get people to change.

    • Virkkunen@kbin.social
      1·
      2 years ago

      It’s not a killer feature that they need, they need user base. There’s no reason for people to leave WhatsApp, as long as people can use it.

      Here in Brazil, the only surges in Telegram popularity and actual usage where when WhatsApp was blocked countrywide, and even then we had several people downloading the shadiest VPNs out there just to log in on WhatsApp

    • Quetzacoatl@feddit.deEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      whatsapp’s killer feature was “no killer features, just a messaging app with number-bound IDs and good UI that even my grandma can use with minimal setup”. for anything like that again I’d change, but the minute they think they need to add something like numberless IDs, or stickers, or a social media feature, or a payment system, they can fuck right off.

      • HidingCat@kbin.social
        1·
        2 years ago

        WhatsApp killer feature was “No paying for SMS ever, just your data bills”, which was much lower than SMS fees in many many countries, which also explains the popularity of WhatsApp outside of the USA and in many Asian countries.

        And it was tied to your phone number instead of a login ID, so anyone with a WhatsApp sign up could interact anyone else who had it, instead of having to find your contacts again like with a new IM service.