> The only remaining question marks are around what happens with classic Hangouts, and what additional features is Chat going to get that make it more consumer-oriented before it replaces Hangouts in Gmail.
Google is killing off Hangouts slowly and surely. Over time it will start showing its age so bad, that people will move on.
I loved the Hangouts Dialer integration. Had to replace it with Voice.
I loved the Hangouts/Voice - GMail integration where I could send/receive texts from within GMail. Had to replace it with Voice.
Before I could do most tasks from within GMail. Now I HAVE to use atleast 3 different apps that don't talk to each other.
The competition on the other hand is going the opposite direction with great integrations in place.
> For one thing, you can't purchase Meet by itself -- it's an entitlement within G Suite
Have been using Meet ever since it came out.
Free/personal tier users could always join a Meet (not create one).
Before this announcement, Meet could only be hosted by a G Suite customer
> the Meet announcement this week explaining availability for "all users", you should see it as a side-effect of the business product's maturity, not as a consumer-first offering.
It's a knee jerk reaction to Zoom.
Everyone on this planet has a GMail account and if Google understood what customers want, Meet would have had Zoom for lunch.
Today, anyone who works remotely and is not tied into Teams, have heard of Zoom.
