PSA: Hangouts v11 breaks SMS merging

Skripka

Skripka

[H]F Junkie
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Heads up fellas, Hangouts v11 eliminates the option of merging SMS and Hangouts chats threads. You can still SMS for now via Hangouts, however SMS and Hangouts threads are separated (YAY for MORE clutter!). Google's public stance is that merging SMS is too "confusing" to users, which given that it was always an option that by default was turned off is pretty much crap.


The good days where Hangouts was coming close to being an iMessage unified client are well....numbered. Between this breakage, and the "try Messenger for SMS!" warning, Google is back to wanting 6+ chat apps for different services.



Oh yea....but now you can send saved videos in Hangouts chats. Whoopty frickin do.
 
Maybe Google is trying to promote the new SMS/MMS standard RCS. It's just like iMessage. But a standard.

Jibe
 
CHANG3D said:
Maybe Google is trying to promote the new SMS/MMS standard RCS. It's just like iMessage. But a standard.

Jibe
Click to expand...

"Just like" except it doesn't yet exist....and AFAIK it doesn't allow you to text from any device be it wifi-only tablet or desktop (only Android). Other than all the salient ways it isn't at all like iMessage, it is exactly like iMessage as near as I can tell.
 
After Google literally made Hangouts tell you install Messenger to handle your SMS, I don't know why they're developing a new version of Hangouts at all. Hangouts, Messenger and Alo need to just be ONE app. The functionality is so small they could roll it into the gmail app and very few people would care.

Windows Phone made a lot of mistakes, but bringing all your messages together in one place was a briliant idea and I can't see why Google doesn't realize this. Having 3 apps where you need one is not a good way to lock people in to your platform and it's irritating to use.
 
They didn't "break" it. They intentionally removed it. They stated why in the change log.
 
There has to be a reason why they removed the jibe app from the play store. I think messenger will be the sms/mms/rcs client going forward.
 
I gave up waiting for Google to give a shit about messages. A lot of promises and just as many disappointments.
 
I was mad at them when you could no longer text from your GV number...
 
Farva said:
I was mad at them when you could no longer text from your GV number...
Click to expand...

I still text from my Google Voice number frequently, both through the Hangouts Android app as well as through the Gmail web interface.
 
It will all be fixed with the brand new TRIO to be unveiled at IO 2017, the king of all Messaging apps.
 
Google's messaging strategy is leaving me dumb founded. A messaging app that originally collapsed GTalk with SMS - a great first step....followed by the introduction of yet ANOTHER messaging app and the urging to switch your SMS back over to another separate app. I really don't get it.

I've been a Google Voice user since 2009. I've always loved being able to get SMS seamlessly synced to my laptop or any other device I happened to be using - saved me a lot of time and hassle from being glued to my phone all of the time. With the advent of Project Fi, I took it as a sign that google was reinvesting in the Google Voice concept - VOIP or texts from anywhere as well as redirection to legacy POTS lines under a new name. However, in recent months I've found the Google Voice app phone redirection to be severely delayed and the quality of my voice calls severely degraded. Many have told me that I am inaudible or have a difficult time hearing me; yet, when I turn off the GVoice redirection, there is a drastic improvement. Now with google yet again showing signs of having no idea where to take their messaging platform, it has left me seriously considering migrating my GVoice number to my carrier. Since all GVoice calls are redirected through Google's servers, you miss out on HD Voice calling that all carriers have started to offer.

Does anyone still use GVoice?
 
ComputerBox34 said:
Google's messaging strategy is leaving me dumb founded. A messaging app that originally collapsed GTalk with SMS - a great first step....followed by the introduction of yet ANOTHER messaging app and the urging to switch your SMS back over to another separate app. I really don't get it.

I've been a Google Voice user since 2009. I've always loved being able to get SMS seamlessly synced to my laptop or any other device I happened to be using - saved me a lot of time and hassle from being glued to my phone all of the time. With the advent of Project Fi, I took it as a sign that google was reinvesting in the Google Voice concept - VOIP or texts from anywhere as well as redirection to legacy POTS lines under a new name. However, in recent months I've found the Google Voice app phone redirection to be severely delayed and the quality of my voice calls severely degraded. Many have told me that I am inaudible or have a difficult time hearing me; yet, when I turn off the GVoice redirection, there is a drastic improvement. Now with google yet again showing signs of having no idea where to take their messaging platform, it has left me seriously considering migrating my GVoice number to my carrier. Since all GVoice calls are redirected through Google's servers, you miss out on HD Voice calling that all carriers have started to offer.

Does anyone still use GVoice?
Click to expand...

Always Google Voice.

Why?

Because carriers like Sprint don't allow use of their own voicemail app on Nexus devices.
 
Skripka said:
Always Google Voice.

Why?

Because carriers like Sprint don't allow use of their own voicemail app on Nexus devices.
Click to expand...
You can use GVoice for VMs without the need for Google to have control of your number. I know VZW allows it by dialing a special code that forwards all of your VMs to Google.
 
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