Leave a Review Google Chat
The Worst!!
Google should be positively ashamed of themselves! This is the worst chat app I have ever used. They took away hangouts and gave us chat which has significantly less functionality. You can’t even attach multiple photos at one time! What year is this, 2010!? Trying to get to attach anything or any other feature requires hitting small little icons that are easy to mess and layers deep. Trying to use the text box and move your cursor around inevitably ends up hitting the emoji icon and bringing up that screen. There is no distinction in terms of who is talking so trying to look through the conversation becomes quite challenging and hard on the eyes. There is no excuse at this point in time for a chat app to be this bad compared to all others. I have been using Hangouts since it started 15 or so years ago and now they lost me.Show lessLorifun
Why google, why.
Google hangouts was such a good app. The only problem was the scammers and suspicious accounts. Hangouts was easy to use, you didn’t have to send a “meeting link” (copying zoom much?), you could see when people are active, when they were LAST active, and you could see if they had seen your messages or not (for some reason the chat section of the gmail app has this, the app does not. Sloppy organization.) Google chat has none of these. It also does not have stickers. Furthermore, the design of the app is boring and meaningless. It’s basically just a black and white screen with slots for people. The notification sound is boring and not even close to comparing with the iconic hangouts sounds. This app is bad in design and function. It’s like hangout’s incompetent second cousin that everyone hates. Google, I’m disappointed. If you have any intelligence left, bring hangouts back.Show lesspaihAsbrEad
WHO is writing these reviews that give this GARBAGE more than 2 stars?
Google is HISTORICALLY inept at chat, and they've done it again. They had a pretty decent chat app (Hangouts) and killed it, to be replaced with a gangrenous "chat function" sewed onto their new Frankenstein (Google Workplace) that wants to be Slack but isn't, wants to be Zoom but isn't, wants to be an office suite but isnt Microsoft 365.
Google, WHY? You're a RICH company. Surely your top hundred developers are among the top 500 in the world. Why are your best developers NEVER in charge of a project? Because you don't know WHICH of your developers are the GOOD ones?
Using the Chat function is so obtuse, that it reminds me of those "helpful" electric window buttons that insist on rolling all the way UP, or rolling all the way DOWN. Getting it to stop where you want it requires a miracle. My God this is an ugly duckling of a chat app. Hangouts wasn't actually very good (because it was abandoned before it got a change to mature), but at least it wasn't a ToFurkey or a TurDucken, and it didn't make the user ANGRY.
Chat ONLY works well, and cleanly, when EVERYTHING that isn't chat-oriented, ISN'T THERE. That means that all of its UI design elements will be chosen without ANY regard to Google Workspace functions. Make a chat into a CHAT.Show lessOrwellianWorld
Liked Hangouts Better
The function of the app is fine, but I found the chat layout of Hangouts to be much better than what this currently has. (At least make it match the way chats currently appear on desktop.)
There’s no immediate obvious visual differentiation between messages you send and messages you receive, which I find annoying and visually clunky. Other messaging apps like iMessage and Telegram distinguish your sent messages by putting them on the right of the screen and tinting them a different color. This app doesn’t do that. It also separates each message you send by your name, which is mildly irritating if you’re sending a series of pictures.
I would love to see an update of the app’s appearance to bring it up to speed with other messaging apps, including the legacy Hangouts app.Show lessDrakatzen
An insult to anyone naive enough to download this app.
It is frankly astonishing how bad this app is. In general, it is worse in every way compared to the competition.... but specifically on iPad it reaches a new level of horrendous. It *literally* is worse than Hangouts was on iPad, and Hangouts on iPad was already abysmal. There is not only no slide-over support, nor side-by-side support, but the interface itself is just the blown up phone interface. It is honestly incredible anyone at Google even allowed something like this to be released ever, let alone while they are constantly badgering their user base to switch to it. Congrats are in order to the Google Chat team. You have made me switch chat platforms away from google for the first time since the _original_ "GChat" from like 2006. Well done on finding new lows on what I already thought was a rock-bottom of user interface design.Show lessdwbush
Worse overall, better in some areas
Google’s “chat” replacement for hangouts seems to fix some critical issues. First off, it has so far eliminated the “phantom” issue with hangouts showing someone as reading a text only to refresh and find they haven’t opened the app in hours. It also seems to be snappier. However, the app is uglier, it’s harder to see when someone has read a message and it’s impossible to know if they’re typing or not, and light mode doesn’t work. So in my opinion, they’re removing features instead of fixing them. Not like the hangouts app was much better, but still an unwelcome “upgrade”.Show lessMatthew92007
Google’s latest way to let spam hit you for their ad revenue
Installed this to try to block the random chat spam that shows up in my inbox.
Looks like it’s impossible. If you have a google email address, you’re going to get spam from random strangers, who will be out phishing or trying to scam you.
Once again, Google makes the Internet a worse place, with lousy products whose security is deliberately and intrinsically compromised to force you into using their ecosystem of ill-considered, high-churn abandonware in the aid of their psychometric data gathering.Show lessStopHasslingMe
I don’t really like it
Hello, I wasn’t too happy to see that I would be having to switch apps but I had no other choice. My friend and I used google hangouts as one of our only ways to communicate with each other due to certain circumstances she’s in. When I switched to google chat I thought it was very confusing. The messages are all on the same side. The feature I hate the most is the fact it won’t let me call anybody..? For some reason the option to call someone is disabled and I have no idea how to fix it, I think its very inconvenient. Im a mobile user so I have no idea if it’s different on computer but I do not have access to a computer and I feel that is not fair to have certain limitations on mobile. I also find it annoying that the messages they send are also linked to my gmail. So when they send a message, I also get a notification that pops up every time from my gmail inbox, I think there should be a feature that allows you to disconnect the notifications from your inbox. (or connect whenever you choose).Show lessdowpjrnfmOs
Developer Response
Hi there. Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback. We're sorry to hear that. We'll pass this along to the team so they can review and make the Chat app even better. Thank you!Lifelong Google Chatter is fed up - Backwards move
I’ve been using Google Messaging apps for most of my entire life, much to the defiance (and laughter) of my friend groups - Gchat & Hangouts were good tools, I chose them over more popular ones like WhatsApp & FB messenger. This new “Google Chat” is a slap & spit (simultaneously) to the face of those - Google has gone BACKWARDS with this new useless iteration of its messaging app. The interface is more complicated, I can’t tell if my message has been clearly read or if I even sent it (all msgs are on the same side), pictures & videos take much longer to send, and I do NOT need a section for “Files & Tasks” - who asked for this app? Absolutely nobody… For the first time I will be not using this Google app - bring back Hangouts or significantly change this, look at all the negative recent 1-star reviews 🚮Show lessPrakTheBoi
Hangouts was better
This app feels less streamlined and straightforward than hangouts. It always takes 2-3 taps to switch between messages or perform any action which used to feel smooth and immediate in the hangouts app.
Multitasking between accounts, spaces, and messages is a chore.
Hangouts was great. I was able to get my tech illiterate 76 year old mother to use hangouts for video calling and it worked great. After we were forced to switch to this app, she found video calling "rooms" concept incomprehensible. I got her on Facebook messenger instead, which is far more straightforward to use and it works much better for our simple use case. I'm not really sure whose needs the Google app is designed to fulfill but it seems like a step backwards in usability.Show lesscredence NJ
