Demise of Google Hangouts?

[Eugene Grosbein]

06.11.2019 5:49, Phil Smith III wrote:

> It’s been reported that Google is killing end-user Hangouts in 2020:
> 
> https://www.cnet.com/news/google-hangouts-gets-hung-out-to-dry-in-2020-report-says/
> 
>  
> 
> Some of us are irritated because we just moved off of AIM. I don’t care which service it is, I just need it to work—my wife is housebound and uses it a lot to communicate with me from her PC when I’m out and about. (Yes, text-to-email works, but then she has to keep checking for responses in email; Pidgin flashes/beeps). What else are people using that both Pidgin on Windows and Android phones support?

If you can't get with traditional public services (IRC etc.) there is also relatively new
"Telegram" instant service network with native Android app and addon for Pigdin.
Addon is somewhat limited: it sends/receives text just fine
but multimedia processing (pictures/voice messages) needs improvement.