‘Hangouts’ branding finally removed for G Suite users, name changed to Google Meets and Google Chat

Amidst the rising demand for videoconferencing apps, Google has finally updated the moniker of its Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat services to Google Meet and Google Chat. The search giant confirmed the removal of the 'Hangouts' branding from the G Suite offering to The Verge. It is worth noting that Google rebranded its Hangouts Meet to Google Meet on April 8 while the Hangouts Chat moniker was changed within the next few hours.

Google already announced the removal of the 'Hangouts' brand through its 'Upcoming G Suite releases' page where it didn't mention 'Hangouts' but did mention Google Chat and Google Meets multiple times.

While this is for G Suite users, for the consumer version 'Hangouts Chat' will continue to exist. "There will be no changes to the consumer (classic) version of Hangouts," confirmed a Google spokesperson the The Verge.

Also read: Working from home? Here are 5 video-conferencing apps you can use for meetings

Google's 'classic' Hangouts has been around since years and has held a prominent place in Gmail as well. The app has even received over a billion downloads on Android. With the introduction of Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet (which are now Google Chat and Meet) in 2017, Google said it will be retiring the 'classic' Hangouts. However, as mentioned above, the version will still be supported by the company for non-G Suite users.

This means that your web Gmail account, iOS or Android device will still show the consumer version of Hangouts like it does for now.

For those unaware, Google Meet is a video conferencing app that can feature as many as 30 people at once. Google Chat is the direct messaging app by the firm wherein you can share Google Docs, Calendars, files and reply easily in groups and individuals. One can think it as more of an alternative of Slack.