While some people still think that Google Hangouts is getting shut down, others are saying that it’s only going to be accessible to G-Suite members who choose to pay to use Google Hangouts. However, Google has said that they are going to be launching a new messaging app, Hangouts Chat. As of right now, Google has made it so only G-Suite members can access Hangouts Chat right now, and Classic Hangouts is still available for the public’s use. The process of shutting down began October 2019. Google says that by April 2020, Classic Hangouts and Hangouts Chat will be able to message back and forth individually, but not in group chats. Key features like “chatting with users from outside the domain” and “Google voice integration” will bring the app a bit closer to a consumer product. If the Hangouts shutdown sounds like an extremely complicated mess—it is! The shutdown affects many of Google’s most long-time users and all of the friends and family the company has convinced to switch. Google’s “transition plan” is worrying. Hangouts Chat isn’t even a good Slack clone yet. Throwing a totally different use case at it, and giving the Chat team only 10 months to make the transition. Hangouts Chat doesn’t sound like it has a high probability of success right now with only 10 months of transitioning.