Google ditches Hangouts in favour of Duo as a required Android app

Starting in December, smartphone manufacturers will no longer be required to install Hangouts on their handsets. Instead, phone makers will need to provide users with the recently-launched Duo.

This is not to say that Hangouts is being killed off -- not yet, at least. But Duo, complete with end-to-end encryption, will replace the app as part of the core Google Mobile Services package.

The announcement came in an email from Google to developers which says: "Today, we are announcing that Google Duo will replace Hangouts within the suite of core GMS apps, and Hangouts will become GMS Optional for telephony products. This change will take effect on December 1, 2016."

Google will continue to support Hangouts, but questions will certainly be raised about just how long the company can maintain its growing collection of messaging tools. Hangouts has been joined by not only Duo, but also Allo, and it can surely only be a matter of time before one or more of them are consigned to history.

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