After Google has announced that Hangouts will be phased out this year and having the users moved to Meet and Chat (G Suite), Google has released a new blog post stating that the actual phasing out will slowly begin in April and the end of the transition will start at the end of 2020.
However, where Hangouts loses support, Voice gets new features such as VoIP calls (VoIP stands for ‘voice over IP’). Google Voice was redesigned a few years ago, and the VoIP support was tested in beta last year.
VoIP Feature Rolling Out “As We Speak”
It seems that Google Voice users will get this feature this week, according to the product leader for Google Voice, Scott Johnston. He tweeted that the feature is going live “as we speak” after a user who asked about Hangouts and the transitioning to G Suite tools. Johnston stated that the VoIP feature would be 100% available next week.
A report on 9to5Google said that not many users got the feature, but it should be available on the web and the app.
The feature will be an upgrade, since it does not need a mobile number to make a phone call, thus being convenient for those that used devices that do not have a Sim slot or that want to make a phone call from the web app.
G Suite customers will be transitioned to Chat by October 2019 when Google Hangouts will close. The shift starts on 16 April when G Suite administrators and users will be asked to move over on Chat or on Meet (Chat is the most recommended). The complete transition will start taking place at the end of next year.
As for Voice VoIP reaching users, we should give it some time as it is still slowly rolling out to users.
Nora Reynolds is a major in biology and a minor in Biological Basis of Behavior, writing about science in general. She also likes to try new gadgets and sports about the AI new era.
