Google stops SMS for hangouts, may merge Google voice features into Hangouts.
Google has discontinued SMS for Google Hangouts feature for Web from July 2. The feature was available in India, Israel, Pakistan, Turkey, Ukraine and many countries in Africa.
The service was launched by Google last year in developing countries and allowed users to add phone numbers to receive text messages to any mobile if they had enabled SMS for Hangouts without an internet connection.
The service page states, "This service will be discontinued. It will continue to be available until 2 July 2014." In other regions, the service page reads, "We're sorry, the feature you are looking for is currently only available in a limited number of countries."
The SMS feature from the Hangouts app for Android which was launched in October last year will still remain available to users. The SMS for Hangouts feature allows users to receive Hangouts messages as text messages and lets them reply by the same.
Google may also be planning to integrate Voice with Hangouts. Reddit has discovered a pop-up in Hangouts that reads, "Receive voicemail and send texts messages in Hangouts " and has "Not now" and "Turn it on!" features suggesting that the it may be optional for users. The feature is not Live yet and Google may have added the feature in a recent update to activate in the future.
Nikhyl Singhal, a product manager in the Google+ team, hinted at integration nearly an year ago. He stated in a Google+ post that his team was working to support both outbound and inbound calls in Hangouts.
"Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice, and making/receiving phone calls is just the beginning," Singhal wrote. "Future versions of Hangouts will integrate Google Voice more seamlessly."
When contacted a Google spokesperson said, "We have nothing to announce at this time."
Source: Droid Life, Reddit
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Silky Malhotra
Silky Malhotra loves learning about new technology, gadgets, and more. When she isn’t writing, she is usually found reading, watching Netflix, gardening, travelling, or trying out new cuisines. View Full Profile
