Item: Google Hangouts (Classic)
Rating: 5
Author: Matthew Gardner

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Used for 1-on-1 comms that are more personal than business. We previously used it for all business communication until Slack was introduced but now usage has fallen. It is still used because it is free but we know it will eventually be deprecated or charged for, and at that point we will retire it, as Slack is incredible.

Pros and Cons

Gifs.
One on one communication.
Push notifications.
Desktop UX.
Mobile app reliability.

Group communications.
Integrations.
History.
Search.

Return on Investment

Neutral. It works but isn't really providing any ROI.

Alternatives Considered

UberConference, Slack, Grasshopper and Zoom

Hangouts is inferior to any enterprise product. Video is worse than Zoom. Chat worse than Slack. Calls worse than Grasshopper.

Support Rating

It's not enterprise-facing so no support is really around.

Key Insights

Do you think Google Hangouts (Classic) delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Google Hangouts (Classic)'s feature set?

Did Google Hangouts (Classic) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Google Hangouts (Classic) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Google Hangouts (Classic) again?

Likelihood to Recommend

It's amazing for personal, one-to-one chats, but falls very flat compared to any enterprise messaging system. I would not waste time deploying it unless you need a free solution (but even then I would use a free Slack plan instead). It's past its prime and will be sunset by Google soon. Avoid besides for personal use.

Not enterprise-ready and can't compete with Slack and Zoom

Overall Satisfaction with Google Hangouts