Google is infamous for killing beloved projects. It has Google Reader to thank for this reputation, which was many people’s preferred RSS feed reader all these years ago until the company killed it out of nowhere. Google went on with discontinuing other beloved projects, like its innovative Gmail client Inbox or its social network Google Plus, which garnered a small but loyal following over the years. In 2022, the company kept at it, killing a bunch of famous and a few not so well-known services, just like last year.
You would probably think that Stadia should be the headliner of this list, but technically, the service is still alive and kicking until January 18, 2023. It’s true that you can’t sign up for the game streaming platform anymore and that you can’t get new games, but you can still enjoy a few more rounds with the games that you already have.
With this out of the way, be sure to check out the list we’ve accumulated, or head over to the famous Killed by Google website that gives you a full overview of all the 280 services recorded by it that were killed over the existence of Google.
December 31: YouTube Originals
2016-2022
YouTube Originals is the last Google project killed in 2022. It might not even affect you or your YouTube experience much, since YouTube Originals was more of a studio meant to take Netflix head on, created in 2016. However, the original productions never really caught on with the YouTube audience, and it certainly did not help that most of the shows were behind the YouTube Premium paywall before it really caught on. YouTube Originals were on live support for a long while and partially sold off to competitors. And in 2022, they were finally put out of their misery.
December 19: Threadit
2021-2022
You may not have heard of Threadit at all, Google’s short-lived asynchronous video collaboration service. The Area 120 project was created with remote work in mind when everyone switched to working from home during the pandemic, and it tried to merge the best of video conferencing and messaging into one. Rather than having to set up appointments, co-workers could just send each other video clips and respond whenever they have time. After the shutdown, the Area 120 team behind the service is switching to the Google Meet team.
December 1: Duplex on the Web
2019-2022
Don’t worry — the regular Duplex service Google Assistant provides isn’t going anywhere. You can still ask Google Assistant to make reservations for you rather than calling places yourself. Only Duplex for the Web was sunset in 2022. The reasoning here is clear: Duplex on the Web was basically just a slightly prettier version of Google Chrome’s autofill options, making it possible to book tickets and make reservations on a select few sites with a dedicated Google Assistant interface and workflow.
November 30: Hangouts
2013-2022
You’d be forgiven if you thought that Hangouts was long dead, but the cross-device messaging and video chatting service clung to life for quite a while. The service is essentially the predecessor of Google Chat and Meet, and it was on the way out even before these two saw the light of day. It was supposed to be replaced by Allo and Duo, services it both outlived as a zombie. A year before its 10th anniversary, Google Hangouts is fully discontinued as of November 30, 2022, and now replaced by Google Chat.
We can only wonder where Google would be today if it clung to Hangouts and made it the proper chat service it was always meant to be. It certainly wouldn’t be fighting with Apple over RCS compatibility, the latest technology Google decided to champion.
November 1: Google Surveys
2012-2022
Let’s talk business: Google Surveys was an enterprise-focused Google product that allowed businesses to run market research. A few of these surveys even used to show up in the Google Rewards app, which, according to Google, is here to stay. However, businesses will have to look elsewhere to do their market research in the future.
August 9: YouTube Go
2017-2022
Android Go is Google’s low-power alternative for entry-level phones. The company also offers a few specialized apps for it that are supposed to take up fewer resources, and YouTube Go was one of them. However, Google is slowly moving away from this approach and wants to make its main apps less power-hungry and more adaptable to low-end devices. That’s why YouTube Go has to go the way of the dodo. It is replaced by the full YouTube app.
July 31: The Google My Business app
2018-2022
The Google My Business app was a handy tool for shop and business owners to manage their data on Google services. However, Google decided that Google Maps and Google Search were just as good as one centralized place to manage things, and so the company is now diverting business owners to Maps and Search to update their opening hours, contact data, and more.
June 30: Chrome apps
2010-2022
Long before web apps got as powerful as they are now, Google offered Chrome apps. These were extension-like services that had some extra powers compared to websites, like offline capabilities. Over time, regular websites gained more popularity and more features than Chrome apps, so Google decided it was time to discontinue Chrome apps in 2022.
June 21: Android Auto for phones
2016-2022
When Android Auto was first launched in 2014, it was only available on select cars with compatible head units. In 2016, Google also brought this driving-optimized screen to Android phones, which allows drivers to remain more focused when they use their phones for navigation, audio entertainment, and more. However, the company quickly made clear that this was a stopgap solution, and after agonizing long years of keeping the service around half-dead, it was finally fully shut down in 2022. There is no full-fledged replacement, though, as Google Assistant Driving Mode is also on the way out, with Google folding it into its Maps service instead.
June 1: Duo
*2016
Duo is arguably not dead, because it lives on within Google Meet. You can now use the Google Meet app or website to call your friends and family, with the same effects and end-to-end encryption you know from Meet. In that sense, Duo folding into Meet is more of a rebranding than a shutdown. It’s also one of the better transitions, with Google taking its time to change the app icon on your home screen and explaining the change within the app. With Google often offering the same product with different branding, this change just makes sense.
April 13: Google Assistant Snapshot
2018-2022
Do you remember Google Now? Years ago, when you would pull up the Assistant, you would get an overview of helpful information at a glance, like the weather, current driving conditions, relevant package tracking, and so much more. Google discontinued this helpful but not monetizable experience for the Discover feed, and it hasn’t really returned in full since. The closest we got was the Google Assistant Snapshot, but it was rather difficult to discover and apparently people did not really use it enough. Hence, it is now no more, and was shut down in April 2022.
February 17: Cameos on Google
2018-2022
Did you know that celebrities could send video messages to Google Search in order to answer often-asked questions about themselves? Well, now they can’t anymore. Google Cameos was supposed to give you a more personal feeling search experience when you look up your favorite stars, but neither celebrities nor users seemed too interested in the service. As such, Google did away with Cameos in February 2022.
Stadia is going away in January 2023
As we mentioned earlier, Google announced that it will shut down its game streaming service Stadia in early 2023, which is going to be the next big cut for the company. Stay tuned for our coverage on it early next year, and we will be back with another Google graveyard episode next year around this time.
