So, while Project Starline looks awesome, we fear there’s a good chance the general public never sees it. To get to this streamlined situation, it has killed, rebranded, or otherwise discontinued: Google Talk or GChat, Google+ Messenger, SMS on Android, Google Voice, Google Messenger (a different app again), YouTube Messages, Google Allo, Google Duo, and Google Hangouts. The situation is so ridiculous that we had to write a full explainer last year.īut in short, Google currently has three communications apps: Google Chat, Google Meet, and Messages. Google has a long history of releasing messaging apps before merging them, pivoting them, killing them, and reusing the name. YouTube Originals was finally discontinued in late 2022. Though it wasn’t all bad: Cobra Kai, a sequel to The Karate Kid, got two seasons as a YouTube Original before moving to Netflix. Already big YouTubers like PewDiePie were given large budgets to make poorly received shows. Launched in 2016, YouTube Originals was a somewhat misguided attempt to compete with Netflix and justify the $12/month Google was asking for YouTube Premium (at the time called YouTube Red). While it’s hard to argue that Jacquard ever really took off, Google officially killed it earlier this year. It featured a touch-sensitive strip of fabric on your wrist so you could play and pause music and answer phone calls. ![]() ![]() Somehow, the two companies made two generations of a smart jacket-one in 2017 and another in 2019. One of Google’s wildest ideas, Jacquard was a collaboration between Google and Levi’s, the clothing brand. Unfortunately, despite some dedicated fans and a lot of hype from Google, the company never delivered the one thing a games console needs: great games. As long as you had a fast enough internet connection, it would effectively turn your smartphone, TV, or under-powered PC into a games console. The idea was that you could stream games that actually played on Google’s server. Google Stadia was a cloud gaming service that ran through Chrome, a Chromecast, or a mobile app. Now, with some of the big names out of the way, here are some products you might have forgotten Google even launched. Despite cramming Google+ features into YouTube, Gmail, and every other Google app, it was faded off in 2019. Not many people were sad to see it go, though if rumors are to be believed, we might be gearing up for the next AR goggle hype-cycle.Īnd perhaps most famously, Google+ was an attempt to build a Facebook-style social network that failed spectacularly. Its official demise was announced earlier this year. Less bitterly, Google Glass was discontinued for consumers in 2015 and the Glass OS version of Android was discontinued a few years later in 2017. Apps like Notion, Slack, and even Google Docs owe a lot to the trend-setting app, which was shut down in 2012. However, most of its features, like snoozing emails and smart replies, were added to Gmail.Īnother groundbreaking Google app was Google Wave: A real-time editing and collaborative document tool. Inbox by Gmail, an innovative mobile-first email app, was pulled in 2019. Another similar service, Google Go Links, that allowed you to make your own custom URL shortener was also discontinued in 2021. The Google URL Shortener was a handy free alternative to bit.ly and other similar services. It’s still missed by a lot of tech writers. The beloved RSS reader app was unceremoniously axed, possibly in an attempt to drive people to Google+. Google Reader is, perhaps, the biggest victim here. Over the past two decades, Google has killed off a lot of products-and some of them were pretty popular, or at least had diehard fans. ![]() Google Glass, Wave, Reader, and the other ones people are still bitter about Let’s have a look at some of the high and low lights from Google’s product graveyard. But, it has also announced countless products with great fanfare, failed to support them, then quietly killed them. The company has undeniably revolutionized search and advertising, and products like Gmail and Docs are incredibly popular. While all very fun and exciting, Google’s flashy new project announcements are usually met with some degree of trepidation by the tech press. It even showcased an updated version of Project Starline, the 3D video-calling booth it announced back in 2021. Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images SHAREĪt Google’s annual I/O developer’s conference, the tech giant announced a whole heap of AI-powered features that will be coming soon to its core apps, like Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Photos, and Meet.
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