What you need to know
- Google has officially shut down Google Talk today.
- The legacy instant messaging service has stopped supporting third-party apps, including Pidgin and Gajim.
- Google began retiring Talk in 2013 and transitioning users to its other messaging services.
Google has completely pulled the plug on Talk, a legacy messaging service that you probably haven't used in a very long time. Google Talk has remained operational for quite some time, even after it was retired a few years ago, but that officially ends today.
First spotted by Android Police, Google said in a post on Talk's support page that it has discontinued support for third-party XMPP apps, including Pidgin and Gajim. These services allowed users to continue using the platform even after the company transitioned Talk users to Google Hangouts in 2017.
Users who attempt to sign in to Chat after June 16 will receive an error message, according to Google. If you want to keep chatting with your contacts, the company recommends Google Chat.
"You can more easily plan with others, share and collaborate on files, and assign tasks with Chat's enhanced Spaces feature," Google stated. "You also have the same strong phishing protections we build in Gmail and accessibility features like screen reader support."
Google Talk debuted in 2005 as a chat platform for Gmail users. Google began migrating users from Talk to Hangouts in 2013, although they were able to continue using the former in the years that followed.
In 2017, the search giant announced that it would transition Talk to Hangouts, although the classic Hangouts version won't be around for long. Earlier this year, Google announced that it would migrate Workspace accounts from Hangouts to Chat.
While Hangouts' web portal remains accessible to users after the migration, that will not be the case for much longer.
