
Google launches Meet, an enterprise-friendly version of Hangouts - webmaven
https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/28/google-quietly-launches-meet-an-enterprise-friendly-version-of-hangouts/
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ClassyJacket
If I was in charge of communication at an enterprise I would stay the hell
away from this. Google has probably abandoned this project _already_. I'm
being semi serious - based on their history it might never get an update, or
be dropped in a matter of months.

I'm not sure how Google expects anyone to invest in any of their minor
platforms when they're so unfocussed and so notorious for abandoning and
shutting down their services. Haven't they launched something like an average
one new chat app every two months over the last six?

Enterprise apps are the very type that need long term confidence the most. Why
are we to expect this would be any different to the multitudes of platforms
they've abandoned and fragmented already?

~~~
zellyn
We have Google Hangouts equipment in all our meeting rooms at Square, and use
them for many (most?) meetings. They generally work great.

~~~
atonse
What do you mean by hangouts equipment? (genuine question, I didn't know they
had hardware)

Update: Never mind, I googled it :) very cool. So it's reliable? I'd love to
suggest something like this for my organization. We waste the first 10 minutes
of every. single. meeting. just getting situated. It's very frustrating.

~~~
tedmiston
I've had good experiences with the $1k Hangouts boxes [1][2]. At first they
felt unnecessary vs just dedicating one person's laptop to a hangout in each
meeting, but the 5-10 minutes here and there that they save, the
professionalism they bring to team meetings, and the improved audio quality
from the dedicated mic makes them worthwhile.

I think $1k is a bit steep for what they are hardware-wise, but they're still
worth it.

[1]:
[https://chromebusinessdevices.withgoogle.com/products/2911/a...](https://chromebusinessdevices.withgoogle.com/products/2911/acer-
chromebox-for-meetings-dt-z0jaa-001-black)

[2]:
[https://chromebusinessdevices.withgoogle.com/products/1706/a...](https://chromebusinessdevices.withgoogle.com/products/1706/asus-
chromebox2-g015u-iron-grey)

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stinky613
In case anyone is having trouble keeping track of the state of Google's
communication apps, I made a handy visual guide:

[http://imgur.com/a/BgAuc](http://imgur.com/a/BgAuc)

~~~
onestone
You missed Spaces (which was also recently discontinued).

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ungzd
\- [https://meet.google.com/](https://meet.google.com/)

\- [https://hangouts.google.com/](https://hangouts.google.com/)

\- [https://duo.google.com/](https://duo.google.com/)

\- [https://allo.google.com/](https://allo.google.com/)

~~~
nathancahill
\- [https://voice.google.com/](https://voice.google.com/)

~~~
post_break
Android Messenger on android phones too lol

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ominous
trying to go to meet.google.com yields:

    
    
        Your browser doesn't support Hangouts Meet
    
        To join this meeting, install the latest version of Google Chrome
    

Thank you, Google. I do have Chrome installed. I have other browsers
installed. I also have my gym clothes at home, graduated sunglasses and
contact lenses. But right now I am dressing casual, with regular glasses and
using firefox. So you are out of luck.

Everything but "an enterprise-friendly version of Hangouts". Hangouts is
multiplatform application that connects gmail addresses through chat. Meet is
just a chrome app?

~~~
howfun
I wonder what so new technology they use that is bundled in the chrome that
they need it that bad?!

~~~
Infinitesimus
The cynic in me things this is a case of "We use chrome so we developed for
chrome - we'll fix other browsers later" (Yes I'm bitter about the state of
the cross-browser development sometimes)

~~~
taneq
That's nowhere near as cynical as "the more things are exclusive to Chrome,
the more market share Chrome gets through lock-in and so the more data we can
harvest." Which is what I'd guess is the real reason.

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jon-wood
Is there some sort of internal competition at Google where each team releases
a chat service and they see what does best?

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uiri
Yes, actually there is. Internal promotions at Alphabet are based on
"launching". So these teams launch their products and then Google culls the
ones that don't do well in the market.

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Entangled
I have a MacBook Air 2011 with Lion and Safari 6. Today Google released Meet
and I can't even know what's that about, their web page won't even show me a
welcome page showcasing the features with some cool pics or something, instead
I get a blank page saying I am not welcome.

Sadly that same experience has been happening lately in every major website I
visit, like Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Medium. Sometimes I go to the Develop
menu and change my user agent to Safari 7 and now they let me in, WTF? Am I
welcome or not?

Some people would say I should upgrade my OS, and even if I would like to do
that, my laptop only has 2GB RAM so it would be almost impossible to even open
notepad without making it crawl to a halt, while right now from start up to
the web it takes less than five seconds. So no, that's not an option, much
less buying a new computer.

I am not saying the world should stop progress to accommodate our needs, or
that everybody should feel compassionate for poor, insane and plain dumb
people like me, I just say it is hard to accept that a perfectly fine computer
no longer has access to the modern internet.

We're being phased out, and that's definitely a sad feeling.

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contrahax
Quit using an outdated safari and install a different browser? Your computer
is fine.

~~~
ds2600
How about Firefox 51.0.1? Oh. Nope, that's not supported either.

~~~
Entangled
Firefox 48 says it can not update on my computer any longer.

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morsch
Because nothing says enterprise like a 2.6 MB photo of a lake.

~~~
neogodless
My first instinct was to agree with you. I mean "enterprise"? But... Google
Meet would likely be intended to enable remote work (possibly for an
enterprise), in which case, why not work next to a beautiful lake?

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sandGorgon
hangouts, voice, messages, allo, duo, meet

I'm curious to know the product thinking around so many chat apps. Does the
success of snapchat mean that there are deeply segmented messaging verticals ?

~~~
H4CK3RM4N
There were also the chat integrations in Gmail, Docs and Google Plus. I think
google is still trying to make something stick.

~~~
sandGorgon
which is fine - but why not one product. does every feature need a new
app/product?

~~~
TeMPOraL
Did anyone actually check if this isn't just the same codebase repeatedly
released as differently-named products, in hope that eventually one sticks?

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sreenadh
I still dont understand what Google was thinking when they killed Google Talk
when there was no replacement in place. Gtalk was an excellent app. The
desktop app for gtalk was very light.

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lowglow
Must be in reply to Amazon's Chime: [https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-
new/2017/02/announcin...](https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-
new/2017/02/announcing-amazon-chime-frustration-free-online-meetings-with-
exceptional-audio-and-video-quality/)

~~~
webmaven
Quite likely.

~~~
puzzle
Sounds more like what's been tested by early adopters for the past six months:
[https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2016/09/new-early-
adopt...](https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2016/09/new-early-adopter-
programs-team-drives.html)

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TACIXAT
I stopped using hangouts recently. Every link is wrapped in a Google redirect.
It is a horrible user experience on mobile. If I click an app specific link a
browser pops up, then the redirect happens and the app pops up. There is no
way to disable these redirects.

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amelius
Can't we just all converge on one message platform, like we also did with good
old telephony?

~~~
ungzd
It's called XMPP but everyone hates it because it's based on XML and XML is
not trendy.

~~~
amelius
HTML is based on XML, and most people seem to like it.

~~~
ungzd
HTML is the largest trouble of modern IT industry. All technical progress is
revolving around circumventing HTML. First came things like Rails where you
build HTML with pieces of strings separated by special syntax and your real
code is shielded from it. Fortunately, now this is almost solved by React,
which builds HTML for you automatically from JSON-like structure of lists and
associative arrays ("application state").

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redm
We are a Google Apps user, and since we went to a remote work system last
year, we heavily depend on Google Hangouts. I've found it to be pretty
terrible on a reliability, functional, and performance basis.

On the other hand, we also use Slack heavily and its video product has been
getting better and better. It won't be long until we can use slack for all our
video conferences and discard hangouts fully.

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ams6110
_Where Hangouts is limited to 10 people, Meet says it supports high-def video
meetings with up to 30 participants_

A bit of a tangent: What's the best solution for a voice and chat or video-
optional conference with 80-100 participants? Mostly presentation style but
need the ability to take some questions/discussion among participants. Bonus
points for a good mobile client.

~~~
mariojv
We use Vidyo: [https://www.vidyo.com/](https://www.vidyo.com/)

It has the ability to simultaneously screenshare (for a presentation) and have
a webcam on. There's a group chat feature for questions, too. The room admin
can mute participants if you want to hold "live" questions for the end.

I wasn't sure of the maximum number of participants but have routinely been in
calls with dozens of people with good performance, including in meetings with
folks from both US and Australia (and US/UK).

It's a bit hidden, but if you scroll to the bottom here under "2017 VidyoCloud
Service Description," the PDF there says limits are 100 participants for the
"Team Plan," and 200 for the "Enterprise Plan," with the ability to buy
extensions up to 500: [https://www.vidyo.com/cloud-video-conferencing-
service](https://www.vidyo.com/cloud-video-conferencing-service)

I haven't used the mobile client (iOS/Android) personally, but it's seemed to
work decently well for my coworkers.

Not sure of the cost of the different plans, but I've been quite satisfied
with it as a full-time remote dev.

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dep_b
If only Hangouts had a native client on Windows or Mac it would have been
enough already. It works like a charm on iOS devices.

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uladzislau
Laser focus - that's what Google desperately needs. It's too bad when company
releases multiple products competing with each other.

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StavrosK
> Google launches

Ctrl+W

~~~
TeMPOraL
Google launches a manned Mars mission.

(1.5 years later)

Google discontinues Mars Project; half a dozen users don't justify the costs
of keeping the infrastructure up.

~~~
teddyh
All Mars residents are given two weeks by Google to arrange their own
transportation back to Earth, after which the water, food and breathable air
infrastructure will be permanently shut down.

~~~
ClassyJacket
Google sunsets Waymo - passengers kicked out on freeway.

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Havoc
How about we get basics down first...like being able to send
snippets/screenshots with hangouts.

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owebmaster
I said it when they released allo (or was duo?) but this one is going to be a
huge success! /s

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thrillgore
Oh man, another Google product that does the exact same fucking thing another
Google product does.

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skdotdan
If only Google launched a messaging service...

