Google Officially Bids Adieu to Gchat

Google Talk, which you probably know better by its colloquial name "Gchat," is officially going away.

Google

Back in March, Google warned us that this would be happening, and on Monday finally made good on that promise by fully transitioning Talk to Hangouts. Google Talk first launched in 2005 as a simple chat experience for Gmail users, and over the years became somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, beloved by many. By 2013, Google began replacing Talk with Hangouts while still giving users the option to use the former. Now, you'll no longer have that option.

"Hangouts offers advanced improvements over Google Talk such as group video calling and integration with other Google products," Google wrote in its March blog post announcing the transition. "It is now time to say goodbye to Google Talk."

Google earlier this year started prompting Talk users to switch to Hangouts. Those who hadn't made the switch by Monday should have already been forced over to Hangouts by now. If you miss the look of Talk, head over to the settings in Hangouts and choose "Dense Roster," which will provide a similar experience to what you're used to.

Talk fans have taken to Twitter in recent days to reminisce about the service they once loved and lament its demise.

listen, seeing the gchat window blink green got me through more than one bad job in my 20s
it will be missedhttps://t.co/Wd5eO682Mq

— #rachelsyme (@rachsyme) June 26, 2017

Between ending Google Reader and Gchat, Google has destroyed the foundations of my debate career aka my high school years

— Danny Hensel (@dannyhensel) June 23, 2017

I forgot google killed gchat until I opened my gmail this morning. all is lost. pic.twitter.com/XgChcre9xB

— Cat Duffy (@catduffy) June 27, 2017

The transition comes after Google in March split Hangouts into two services: Meet and Chat. Meet lets you hold video conferences with up to 30 people while Chat is a lot like Slack, letting you bring teams together in virtual rooms.