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Google's chat plans: Kill Allo, upgrade Duo and invest in Messages
Confirming the latest rumors, Google has formally announced a shakeup in its increasingly-splintered messaging strategy. As we'd heard earlier today, Allo is done and will go away after March 2019 (users can export their conversation history until then). It launched a little over two years ago and incubated a number of messaging features with AI, but now it's focusing on its RCS-enabled Messages app, which has already absorbed Allo features like Smart Reply, GIFs and desktop support.
Google's redesigned Voice app is better at juggling your calls
Google recently added Voice to its enterprise G Suite, and the revamped app has now arrived for iOS users. As suggested by the redesigned icon (which strongly resembles the Hangouts Dialer icon), its main job is to give users calling features via standard telephony over and above what you'd expect on regular apps. As such, it can do things like email you about missed calls, transcribe messages, enable "do not disturb" based on your working hours and access contacts stored elsewhere in G Suite.
Google's Hangouts Meet video calls are now available on tablets
Google has extended support for video calling on Hangouts Meet, its enterprise version of the chat service, to iOS and Android tablets. This comes almost a year since the company split Hangouts between Chat, for casual users, and Meet, which is geared toward corporate videoconferencing.
Google is ready to take over your office chat with Hangouts
Google's work of transitioning Hangouts from being its default chat app to a more business focus is nearly complete. First up is the formally announced Hangouts Meet. Sound familiar? That's because it semi-officially arrived at the first of the month. Now Google is ready to take it wide. At its core, Meet is all about making video conferencing faster and easier. That comes down to not needing any special software or logins for video chat -- just a shared link. No WiFi? No problem because people can dial in with a dedicated phone number too. So long as their organization is a G Suite Enterprise customer, of course. Meet will support video calls with up to 30 people.
