The Google giveth...
...and The Google taketh away.
I understand that it have no obligations on keeping its tools or APIs alive, but hadn't this happened often enough? Orkut, Wave, Picasa, what else?
If you were working on an app using the Google+ Hangouts API, pour some coffee and purge the code, because Mountain View's killing it off as part of its strategy of nibbling the flesh from the Hangouts skeleton. The blog post announcing the change is dated last Wednesday, but it passed without notice because how often do …
Don't worry, there won't be any new Google products. They're at the consolidation/decline phase of business.
Expect all those spybot personal assistants to shut down in a year or so, as the inescapable decline of ad revenue makes even constant audio surveillance unprofitable.
"Expect all those spybot personal assistants to shut down in a year or so, as the inescapable decline of ad revenue makes even constant audio surveillance unprofitable."
I find that statement factually 100% false, yet I lie to myself and agree 100%. I fear spying on all citizens is now "too big to fail". FFS, they now want to watch you brush your hair!
"2) which services do you provide for free?"
Google service are only free until the take-up reaches critical mass such that once the adverts and data mining starts, those who leave are just a drop in the ocean. Although I suspect Hangouts never reached that critical mass. Nothing is ever free from Google. You pay in one way or another.
Google announced last year that Allo and Duo would be the new messaging platforms with Hangouts being reserved for enterprise, where it works really well and for which the relevant extensions will be kept around.
Note to self: one-sentence-per-paragraph articles are usually accompanied by whiny comments.
Don't Allo and Duo rely on using your mobile number for identification
like SMS/MMS, etc.? Probably to set up but I think this is a side-effect of the encryption system used. The phone + SIM model was chosen for GSM because it's good for security and also one of the reasons why, in Europe at least, the phone number belongs to the user and not the service provider.
If you want something multi-platform that isn't necessarily tied to a number then you can give BBM or Wire a look.