They should have just stuck with Hangouts. They had name recognition, the name itself was appropriate for the service and it worked with the existing services structure.
There was no reason to depreciate it and abandon it.
There was no reason to depreciate it and abandon it.
At this point, I'll not use another Google messenger. They've made it clear enough it either won't be updated (hangouts), or will be killed off in 2 years(allo).