androidheadlines :Google Hangouts No Longer Required to Be Pre-Installed

Google Hangouts No Longer Required to Be Pre-Installed

Google Hangouts No Longer Required to Be Pre-InstalledGoogle has an agreement with all of their partners that have Google Mobile Services (or GMS) installed on their smartphones and other Android devices.This agreement states that they have to have certain Google apps pre-installed, as well as having the Play Store on the first home screen of the device, and a few other requirements.On October 5th, an email was sent to GMS partners that Hangouts is no longer required to be pre-installed on "telephony-enabled" devices.

Google Hangouts Demoted To Optional In Apps Package

It looks like Google is moving its focus away from Hangouts and toward other solutions.Although not unexpected, the company today started sending emails to Mobile Service partners saying that Hangouts would be removed from the core Android apps package.What that means is that hardware manufacturers will no longer have to bundle Hangout with their new hardware, a change that will take effect starting on December 1, according to a report from Android Police.

Google Will No Longer Require Hangouts to be Bundled on New Hardware

According to an email from Google to Google Mobile Services partners, reported by Android Police, Hangouts is getting a gentle kick out of the door.Set to begin this December 1, Google will no longer require Hangouts to be preinstalled on new hardware from OEMs, which is part of something typically referred to as the package of "gapps." This package also contains apps like Gmail, Drive, Maps, and a few others.Replacing Hangouts will be Duo, not Allo, which should now come preinstalled on all new Android hardware in 2017 and beyond.

Google is demoting Hangouts to "optional" in the Google Apps package for Android, to be replaced by Duo

In an email sent to Google Mobile Services partners on October 5th, Google outlined a significant change to the core GMS package (AKA gapps) for telephony-enabled Android devices (basically, smartphones).As of December 1st, Google will no longer requires Hangouts to be bundled with new hardware.An excerpt of that email follows.