Google Talk

Main article: Instant Messenger (IM)

2022: Service closure

On June 14, 2022, Google announced its readiness to completely disable its Talk service. The project is among the very first Google services - at the end of August 2022, it could celebrate its 23rd anniversary. Talk will be discontinued on June 16, 2022.

Google Talk

As reported, Google Talk is a cross-platform instant messaging service. If modern messengers are limited to three to five supported OSs, then Talk has learned to work in 11 systems over the years of its existence. In addition to standard Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, the list includes Chrome OS, Windows Mobile, webOS, Maemo, Blackberry 10 and BlackBerry OS.

Google Talk is based on XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), formerly known as Jabber. This is an open protocol created to send text messages, as well as information about the user's presence online, plus it allows you to send messages to those who are not connected to the Internet at the time of sending. Thanks to the use of XMPP, over time, third-party applications began to appear that could work on the Google Talk network and replace standard software.

The active phase of Talk's development fell on the first seven years of the service's existence. Google regularly integrated various functions into it, expanding the possibilities of online communication.

In May 2022, it became known that Google was going to disable this, which would finally transfer Talk to the list of inoperable services. It should be noted that in May 2022 this did not come as a surprise.

2017: Closing Android app and Talk plugin for Gmail email service

In March 2017, the corporation announced the upcoming closure of the Talk app for Android and the Talk plugin for the Gmail email service. They stopped working at the end of June 2017.

Google first announced its intentions back in March 2017, but then did not name the exact date of the curtailment of support.

Throughout the period of gradual killing of Talk, only one function continued to work properly and was not attacked by the developers. In this case, we are talking about supporting third-party customers, including Pidgin and Gajim, and the XMPP protocol itself.

2015: Disabling the branded service application for Windows

The next stage in the complete destruction of Talk was to disable the proprietary service application for Windows. Google announced it in late October 2014.

The plan was implemented on February 23, 2015, but users could use the utility for another five days. After this period, when trying to connect to the servers, the program began to issue a message about an incorrect login/password.

2013: As part of the Google + Hangouts service

In mid-May 2013, Google representatives announced that Talk would exist along with Messenger as part of the Google + Hangouts service.

2012: Plans to destroy Talk as a separate messenger

The process of gradually killing the messenger began in late April 2012. During this period, Google announced a complete cessation of work on improving the Talk mobile web application, which is part of the messenger ecosystem. At the same time, it was decided to finally close this application.

In June 2012, Google revealed its plans to destroy Talk as a separate messenger. At that time, she already had several messaging services, which she developed in parallel.

Talk was destined for fate to merge with Hangouts and Google Messenger. Thus, Google tried to reduce the confusion and fragmentation of its own.

2011: Google Talk Guru

Google launched in March 2011 a service called Google Talk Guru, a chatbot that allows users to make searches and get search results through the Google Talk instant messaging service.

By adding a Google Talk Guru bot to their contacts in Google Talk, the user can send him requests and commands, receiving various information.

So the service supports requests for the results of sports competitions (format "score arsenal"), weather forecast ("weather Nairobi"), calculations ("123 * 45"), currency conversion ("120 KES to USD"), definition ("define laptop"), translation, search for sites and tips on various topics.

Google Talk allows you to communicate using voice chat and text messages. A feature of Google Talk is close integration with the mail service Gmail (for example, new messages are notified via Google Talk). You must have a Gmail account to use Google Talk.

Third-party applications such as Psi, Miranda IM, IChat and others can be used as a client. Google Talk users can communicate with users of other XMPP servers according to the general XMPP protocol architecture.

2005: Talk's Appearance

Talk appeared a little more than six months after YouTube, which has been operating since mid-February 2005^[1]

Notes