Google to shutter Gchat

Those of us still recovering from the Google Reader massacre might want to sit down to read this one. Starting in June, Google will kill off yet another of its most beloved products — this time, the instant messaging app Google Talk, better known as "Gchat," New York reports.

Gchat first launched in 2005 as a hip alternative to AOL Instant Messenger and it persisted due to its simplicity and ease of use. Google will still offer its other instant messaging platform called Hangouts, and Gchat users who haven't already transitioned will seamlessly be rolled over to the service when Gchat pings its last ping on June 26. Hangouts is actually not a new service; it has been around for about four years, and is a glitzier messaging app (you can doodle in it, for example).

As New York writes in its eulogy to the platform, "giving somebody your personal Gmail account to message was an offering of friendship, an invitation to gossip freely away from the potentially prying eyes of company-owned Slack channels and Campfire rooms. If somebody wanted to Gchat, you knew to expect some good dish about your boss, or your ex, or your boss' ex."

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RIP Gchat. You will live on in our hearts.