Earlier today Google launched Duo. The app is one of two apps that Google showed off at I/O 2016 several months ago, and for those unfamiliar, it is basically Google’s take on Apple’s FaceTime. However with apps like Duo and Allo, both of which appear to offer up similar capabilities of Hangouts, what will become to the platform?Google reassured users back in May that Hangouts will not be going anywhere. In fact the company stated that they will be continuing to invest in the platform, and recently in an interview with Engadget, Google’s VP of communications products Nick Fox shed some more light on the future of Hangouts.
According to Fox, he stated that Hangouts will now be aimed more towards Google’s business users, while apps like Duo and Allo are expected to be the company’s consumer-focused apps. Fox claims that this is because Hangouts is deeply integrated with Google’s other products, like the Apps suite, as well as having various collaborative features.
“Because Hangouts is built on a Google account, because it’s deeply integrated with Google apps, the Apps suite [things like Drive, Docs, etc.], Gmail, Calendar and so on, it’s seen much more success in the enterprise. It will increasingly focus on that kind of group collaboration enterprise productivity space.”
Hangouts will continue to exist moving forward, and if you’re not a business user there’s no reason why you can’t keep using the app, but as far as going mobile is concerned, it would seem that Google is hoping Allo and Duo will take care of those needs for you.