7d ago

A long long time ago...

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I was there when it was invite only, child. They used to have an IM chat too.
- Google still has a chat embedded in Gmail, but because Google is grotesquely incompetent they've never succeeded in making a good messaging service. I think they've had like 15, but they are too fucked up to just make one work.
  https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/a-decade-and-a-half-of-instability-the-history-of-google-messaging-apps/
  One of the things I bring up if someone says "we should run the government like a business"
  
  The hangouts app was actually sick. You could connect to Google voice and your actual phone number allowing you to:
  place phone calls from voice on your computer or phone
  place phone calls from your actual number on your phone
  send text messages from voice on your computer or phone
  send text messages from your actual number on your phone (and possibly computer)
  send ims from your computer or phone
  It was available within gmail or on its own dedicated site, and it automatically collated conversations regardless of send medium.
  It made communication free and easy regardless of what device I was using--then they rebranded it and made it IM only--then they killed it.
  
  It's still IM only but not dead. Hangouts became Chat and all your old Hangouts IMs should still be there. I use it all the time.
  
  Man I completely forgot Gmail chat existed, and I used it for a while quite regularly.
- Oh shit yeah! I remember begging a friend who got one to send me an invite. Didnt you only get like 3 invites to begin with or something?
  
  I wanna say it was more than that, I don't remember the number but I remember saying "damn that's a lot." I wanna say it was maybe like 10?
  
  It was 10 yep.
  
  Fair enough i thought they started at 3 and then bumped it up later

176 comments