Are you confused about what’s replacing Hangouts? Well, it is Google Duo. Allo may be the future of Google Messaging efforts, but it is Duo which replaces Hangouts as one of the pre-installed apps on the future Android phones.
In an email sent out to Google Mobile Service Partners on 5th October, the company explained that Hangouts is moving to optional status in the Google Apps package for Android beginning from 1st December. As per the message details, Google is dropping out Hangouts, and that may bundle for upcoming mobiles.
Google Duo is the Most Popular App in Google Play
“Today, we are announcing that Google Duo will replace Hangouts within the suite of core GMS apps, and Hangouts will become GMS Optional for telephony products. This change will take effect on December 1, 2016”.
It looks like Google is focusing towards other solutions. Allo and Hangouts are the core messaging apps while Duo used for video calling. It should be noted that Hangouts is not completely dead, but it is unbundled from mandatory Google apps package.
If you want to continue this application on your Android phone, you need to head to the PlayStore and download. Hangouts will be an optional pre-installed app. And this means users can ship it with their devices, but most probably, won’t.
Google Duo to Roll Out Audio-Only Calls Supports Soon
While the Duo application comes as a preinstalled app on every single Android device released after 1st December.
It is expected that at some point of time. Allo will also get similar treatment since the company faces stiff competition from the rival messaging apps like Facebook Messanger and Whatsapp. Therefore, Allo not a part of pre-installed apps list.
