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Despite the fact that Google will be phasing out Hangouts in favor of Allo and Duo, the company continues to keep Hangouts updated. The company just pushed Hangouts version 16 to Android owners, and provides an different way to find your contacts.
Previously, there was a Contacts tab in the navigation drawer, but with version 16, that is no longer there. However, in a previous update, Google had already made it easier to search and find contacts from the main screen. This move was expected to help fix any redundancies within the app.
There have also been changes made to the contact list when you are attempting to start a new conversation. Now when searching, you’ll see the “New Group” option at the top, with “On Hangouts”, “Your groups”, and “Other contacts” being listed below.
It’s not all that surprising that Google is continuing to update Hangouts as the company will be using the service for businesses in the future. So it’s a good thing to see that Hangouts isn’t completely dead for everyone, yet.
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