If you are one of those guys who loved the simplicity of Gtalk compared with other chat or IM clients, here is some bad news for you. Google just killed its simplistic Gtalk with its new feature rich Hangouts which comes with loads of features like one-on-one and group conversations along with photos, emoji, and video calls for free connecting you with friends, colleagues  family members across computers, Android and Apple devices.

Hangouts

If you are using a desktop, the Hangouts comes in the form of a Chrome extension and when installed within chrome, it replaces the default gmail chat or gtalk chat within chrome and brings all the hangouts features within the chrome browser. You can use it for Group conversations, Video calls with up to 10 friends across all platforms or devices like Android or iOS.

The new Hangout app is already live for Android on Google Play Store and for iOS on Apple Appstore.

For Chrome on desktop, You can find the Hangout extension here.

No more “Invisible”

One small disadvantage here though, unlike Google Talk Hangouts does not support “invisible” status. I am not sure why Google has removed it, but its a necessary feature for many users like me.

Another problem at the moment with hangouts is, that I am unable to identify that who is online and who is offline unless I click  the contact to open a hangout with him.

Tighter Integration with Google+

If you look it at closely, this Hangouts is just another step forward to more and more, tighter integration of Google+ with all other Google services and is bound to raise some serious eyebrows. I just wanted my gmail contacts in my Gtalk list or the new Hangouts but I am filled with the contacts from my Google+ circles which I often have no use or a reason to start a conversation with them and that too on a IM cliet or a video call.

Gtalk almost killed

Old conventional Gtalk still works in Firefox or even chrome if you have not installed the hangouts chrome extension there, but I am sure Google will find a way to bring hangouts to every browser without the need to install a addon or extension.

First confirmation comes from Hangouts Android App change log at Play Store:

 Hangouts replaces Google Talk. Update now to bring your conversations to life.

If you try to get access to the Gtalk webpage, you will be redirected to new hangouts page almost confirming that your Gtalk is no more and you need to use hangouts for your daily conversations on Google services.