Another app gets buried in Google's graveyard

Remember Google Meet? The OG Google Meet video calling app that some of us (raises hand sheepishly) might have used back in the pre-history of 2020? Well, get ready to say your goodbyes because it’s officially shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the ever-growing Google Graveyard.

Here’s the story: Google wanted to streamline its video calling offerings, so they took the much more popular Google Duo app, renamed it Meet, and showered it with fancy new features like emoji reactions and the ability to directly call other Meet users.

But there was this other, older Google Meet app hanging around – a relic from the days of Hangouts Meet. This “Meet (Original)” app, with its sad green icon, was what Google recommended to enterprise customers. For a while, it even hijacked your attempts to join calls through meet.google.com. Well, not anymore.

Today, that green icon finally bit the dust, joining the huge list of other killed by Google products and services. If you try to use it, you’ll be greeted with a tombstone message informing you that this version of Meet is officially dead. Fear not, for the new Meet awaits, promising a fresher UI, on-the-go audio mode (perfect for those commutes), and live captioning.

This latest burial in Google’s product graveyard adds to a growing list of recent casualties in the tech world, but it’s not alone. Google has been known for its willingness to discontinue products that don’t align with its long-term goals. For instance, Google Podcasts is gone and so are the likes of Facebook Messenger for Apple Watch, Microsoft’s Cortana for Windows, and even a bunch of popular Apple Watch faces following the update to watchOS 11.

So, the next time you open your phone and a familiar app feels like a dusty relic, don’t be surprised. The tech graveyard is ever-expanding, and who knows what app might be next?

These mass product shutdowns aren’t happening without reason. As the tech landscape evolves, companies constantly reassess their product portfolios, trimming features that don’t contribute to their larger vision or user base growth. Google, for instance, has killed products like Google Hangouts, Google+, and Inbox by Gmail in previous years — all services that started strong but eventually faltered.