• jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
    15·
    2 days ago

    Google still has a chat embedded in Gmail, but because Google is grotesquely incompetent they’ve never succeeded in making a good messaging service. I think they’ve had like 15, but they are too fucked up to just make one work.

    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/a-decade-and-a-half-of-instability-the-history-of-google-messaging-apps/

    One of the things I bring up if someone says “we should run the government like a business”

    • unmagical@lemmy.ml
      6·
      2 days ago

      The hangouts app was actually sick. You could connect to Google voice and your actual phone number allowing you to:

      • place phone calls from voice on your computer or phone
      • place phone calls from your actual number on your phone
      • send text messages from voice on your computer or phone
      • send text messages from your actual number on your phone (and possibly computer)
      • send ims from your computer or phone

      It was available within gmail or on its own dedicated site, and it automatically collated conversations regardless of send medium.

      It made communication free and easy regardless of what device I was using–then they rebranded it and made it IM only–then they killed it.

      • bradboimler@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        It’s still IM only but not dead. Hangouts became Chat and all your old Hangouts IMs should still be there. I use it all the time.