Google pulling the plug on Messenger in Google+ mobile apps

When Google announced their new “Hangouts” service at their annual I/O conference back in May, our own Shawn Farner noted that Google was still using their old Messenger service – which existed completely separately from the new Hangouts service – inside their official Google+ applications. Well, it’s taken some time, but Google has now finally addressed Shawn’s complaint and has officially announced that they will be switching to Hangouts in their Google+ mobile applications for Android and iOS.

Up until now, Hangouts has been available for both Android and iOS users as a separate application from Google+. Google claims that they will be rolling out an updated Google+ app with Hangouts integrated today for Android users, though iOS users will have to wait just a little bit longer into the near future to get their update. The new update will also add several other new features to the mobile apps, including the ability to share images stored on a Google Drive application quickly and easily, better profile switching for those of us with more than one Google+ page to manage, and – at long last – pull to refresh.

Google has announced that users will be able to download a full archive of their entire Messenger chat history for those who would like to keep records of their past conversations through Google Takeout. Google had at the time claimed that chat histories would be moved over to Hangouts whenever this switch occurred, however the company is remaining quiet today as to whether or not they plan on moving through with that plan.