New Delhi: The much-used Google Talk application for Windows (also referred to as GTalk or GChat), that had been ignored by Google for quite some time now, is finally shutting shop. Google had been alerting users that the Google Talk app for Windows will stop working on February 16, 2014. Google urges users to instead use its Hangouts Chrome app.
The Google Talk Windows app was a standalone software, while Hangouts would require users to install the Chrome Web browser, if they don't already have that.
The Google Talk service is however still available through Gmail.
In May 2013, Google announced that Google Plus Hangouts was replacing the Google Talk app on Android devices and in October last year Google announced that it will stop the GTalk Windows app.
While Google is touting the many advantages Hangouts has over Google Talk, some users continued using their old Google Talk clients just for the sake of file sharing or being invisible or if they for some reason didn't want to use Google Chrome.
The GTalk Windows app shutdown also means that Google Talk support in third-party apps such as Pidgin and Adium will also end, as Hangouts doesn't support the necessary protocol (XMPP).
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