Goodbye Gtalk! It's Time For Hangouts Now!

Google's nine year old instant messaging service GTalk is officially discontinued now. The service will be replaced by Google Hangouts, launched in 2013. The two messaging platforms have co-existed ever since Hangouts came into being.

Google had announced the retirement of GTalk earlier this month via a blog post by Google's product manager for Voice and Hangouts, Mayur Kamat. Google has put an end to the service but for all those who think old habits die hard, GTalk can be accessed via third-party applications including Jitsi, Psi, Instantbird, Miranda IM and many others.

Announcing the retirement of the service, Google has sent out an email to users saying, "Please bear in mind that these aren't Google products, so exercise caution when signing in with your Google account."

One of the prominent features of GTalk was its invisibility mode, which is not available in Hangouts. Also file sharing was much easier in GTalk as compared to the Hangouts.

Google is positioning Hangouts as its important tool against popular messaging apps like WhatsApp. However, Hangouts offer a more consistent user experience as compared to GTalk. Hangouts offer a browser extension, mobile app and Gmail integration. Yet another impressive feature of Hangouts is that it integrates the Internet-based messages with text messages, along with GTalk features like voice and video calling.

Here's what Google wrote to its GTalk users:

Hi User,

We noticed that you recently tried using the Google Talk app for Windows. We wanted to let you know that this was discontinued on 23 February 2015. We recommend giving Hangouts a try so that you can chat with all of your Google contacts. Hangouts supports people's favourite features from Google Talk, including text chat, presence, contact lists and status messages. In addition, Hangouts lets you have group video chats, make phone calls, express yourself with emojis and keep your conversations going across Android, iOS and your computer.

If messaging right from your desktop is important to you, try the Hangouts Chrome app or Hangouts in Gmail. If you're not ready to make the switch to Hangouts quite yet, you can continue using Google Talk on Windows with a range of compatible third-party chat apps. (Please bear in mind that these aren't Google products, so exercise caution when signing in with your Google account.)

As a loyal Google Talk user, we thank you for your support and we hope that you give us the opportunity to provide an even better communications experience with Google Hangouts.

If this sign-in attempt was not made by you, please check details on your Devices and Activity page

Sincerely, The Google Talk and Hangouts team

Courtesy:- EFYTIMES News Network