The original Google Meet app, formerly Hangouts, is definitely dead and buried. Google decided to discontinue Hangouts two years ago.
Google Meet is no more. Not to worry, we are not talking about the business communication app within the Google Workspace offering, but the “original app. After Google came clean about its communications apps two years ago, two versions of Google Meet existed for a while.
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The spirit of Hangouts
In early 2020, Google reported that it was going to develop a unified communications app, and two years later it followed through on those plans. Child of the bill was Hangouts, Google Duo was renamed the current Google Meets. Yet the spirit of Hangouts continued to roam in the form of a Google Meet (original) app.
A different logo was supposed to distinguish the two versions. Google Meet was much more comprehensive, but the original version also just worked for video calls with a link. Google now decides to end the possible confusion of two Meet applications and grants the original version, and Hangouts, eternal rest.
Anyone who wants to open the application will get a notification that you can no longer use it. To be clear, Google Meet does continue to exist as usual, and Google regularly rolls out new features. Although Meet also fails to hoist itself alongside Zoom or Microsoft Teams for now.
Google cemetery
With the demise of the original Meet app, the Google graveyard has gained a gravestone. Google has been known to bring out the hatchet when certain services don’t have the desired impact, to the extent that even Killed by Google-lists can be found on the Internet. The latest victims in the Google graveyard are Chromecast, Jamboard and VPN One.