[LTom]

I’m getting really fed up with Google. Yet another time when they nudge me towards using a service, only to retire it a while later. A separate app for SMS again , just when I’m comfortable with centralizing it in Hangouts. And Allo and Hangouts aren’t compatible, right? Every time I jump on Google’s newest app bandwagon it seems to end up being another ephemeral thing.

[LyndsySimon]

This may be a little dramatic, but I feel like I have to say it.

Everything is ephemeral.

Google's problem is that they don't keep services around long enough nor do they plan a reasonable migration strategy for when they shutter them.

[pavel_lishin]

Ephemeral is okay.

But having three (four? I honestly don't know) competing services from a single provider and playing "guess which one's the evil twin" is shitty.

[LTom]

Yeah, there’s:

* Allo (text chat)

* Duo (video chat)

* Android Messages (SMS etc.)

(And Google Voice also does SMS iirc)

And of course Hangouts, which is able to do all of those currently, but is going to be split up into different business-oriented apps for some reason.

If Allo and Duo had just been another client for whatever protocol Hangouts uses these days, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But like it is now, I don’t feel like I can ‘rely’ on Google at all. Facebook Messenger has been a far more stable experience, even though I have some reservations about it.

[tiglionabbit]

I miss Google Hello.

[Markoff]

maybe learn a lesson and stop jumping to newest apps as good rule?