Andy Walker / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The Google Meet (original) app, formerly Google Hangouts Meet, has stopped working.
- Users relying on the service will now have to install the new Google Meet app, which initially debuted as Google Duo.
- Google initiated the transition over two years ago, but it has only now completely retired the original app.
Back in April 2020, Google rebranded its Hangouts Meet app to just Meet. A couple of years later, the company transformed its Duo app to Meet, too. To distinguish between the two Meets, Google added an (original) label to the former app’s name while it focused on developing the latter due to its larger user base. Now that users have had over two years to learn about and adapt to this transition, Google is killing the Meet (original) app and redirecting legacy users to install Meet instead.
According to a 9to5Google report, the original Google Meet app has stopped working on Android phones. When attempting to join a video conference using the mobile app, an error message appears on the screen. The popup instructs users to download the new Meet app to use the service and uninstall the original one. It also provides a handy button that redirects users to the newer app’s Google Play Store listing.
Speaking of listings, Google has also removed the Meet (original) app from the Play Store, preventing users from downloading it or viewing its details. Since the newer app has surpassed 5 billion downloads, retiring the older one is the logical move, as it has only been downloaded 500 million times. Google has similarly removed the original app’s listing from the Apple App Store and started displaying the same error message when using the iPhone app.
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