Google merges text, chat messages in Hangouts

Google has finally combined text and chat messages in Hangouts following repeated complaints by users.

According to The Verge, while users can pick between Hangouts and SMS when sending a given message, there's no option to use Hangouts with SMS as a fallback option, which is the approach Apple takes with iMessage.

The company says that different message types will be easy to tell apart in the conversation.

Meanwhile, users who prefer the earlier Hangouts set-up can go back to using it the same way as before.