Google’s Hangouts chat service found itself the subject of numerous missteps down the years, and now, with Hangouts slowly being supplanted by Google’s new Allo and Duo services, Google has announced that they are sunsetting the Hangouts API for third party developers. For those who use Google’s own Hangouts client, there will be no change for the time being. While speculation has run wild for some time now that Google is looking to close the book on Hangouts for good, such a move has yet to be announced. This API closure likely seems like a step in that direction, though Google says that the real purpose is a shift toward the enterprise world. A decent number of third party apps that used the Hangouts API as a backend for their own services, however, will find themselves out in the cold as of April 25th.
While many may have only known Hangouts as the thing that they used to chat with Google+ acquaintances, or perhaps something to use for work, the service not only had its fans, but also developers who used Google’s distributed Hangouts API in order to have Google’s at times flailing chat service do the heavy lifting for them in regards to chat, video chat, and other backend functions. These developers received an email from Google about the change, which is now reflected on the FAQ page for Hangouts; Google did not make any sort of big deal out of this change as there was no official announcement about it in a blog post.
One of the mobile space’s first big video chat modification APIs is shutting down to find a new home in the enterprise space, but there are a few small exceptions that Google will be leaving alive. The ability to dial into a Hangouts call in progress will be left intact, as seen in the DialPad and RingCentral apps. Integrations with enterprise platforms will be left alone as well, likely giving enterprise customers more time to adjust due to the potential for large-scale operations being dependent on the Hangouts API. Finally, callbacks to Google’s own Hangouts On Air suite, such as Toolbox, Control Room, and Cameraman will be left to their own devices for now.