Google Hangouts will drop support for SMS in May, suggests leaked email

Google Hangouts is an odd app in Google’s app stable. It’s one of those things you tend to use because it’s there rather than because you want to. Google itself appears to be confused about the app and have maintained it virtually unchanged for many years now. As a stock app found on most Android devices, Hangouts was always surprisingly limited in design and function. One can even make the argument that Apple’s Messages app offers more. With SMS a dying medium in today’s age, support for the service was just a legacy feature anyway. Also, Google’s own Android Messages app does a far better job at handling SMS than anything else in the Android marketplace. Google sent an email to administrators explaining that the feature will disabled on 22 May. The mail added that users will be informed that they need to switch to a new app well in advance. This email was leaked on Reddit and can be found in its entirety here. As The Verge points out, Google is intent on transforming Hangouts into something akin to Slack, a communication tool for teams and enterprises. If you’re looking for a new SMS app, simply download the aforementioned Android Messages. Allo and Duo are options if you want to try a Google-based messaging (not SMS) and VoIP type service, but of course, you’re already using WhatsApp anyway.