Google will support only five messaging apps (killing hangouts jepordizes free phone calls & SMS on tablets)

[arlen holder]

Google will support only five messaging apps in the future:
<https://www.blog.google/products/messages/latest-messages-allo-duo-and-hangouts/>

Killing hangouts may jeopardize free "real" phone calls & SMS on tablets.

What Google will support:
o Messages
o GoogleVoice
O Google Duo
o Hangouts Chat
o Hangouts Meet

*The problem is _Hangouts_ which is unique in the power it provides users.*

What Google will drop for support:
o Hangouts (with over a billion installs on Android devices alone)
o Google Allo

Google Graveyard:
o Google Talk
o Google Spaces
o Google Wave
o Google+ Messenger
o Google Buzz

Hangouts was the best way to make/receive free POTS calls on mobile devices
(even turning a tablet such as my iPad into a bona-fide fully capable free
speakerphone for "real" phone calls to and from all USA telephones).

*The power of free voice calls to & from USA POTS lines may be at stake.*

Hangouts is "the only Google messaging service that supports
instant messaging, SMS, video calls, and voice calls, with clients on
Android, iOS, the Web, inside gmail.com, and on desktop via a
Chrome extension"
<https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/12/google-promises-to-shut-down-two-of-its-seven-messaging-apps/>

If you know of another way to make & receive free voice calls to/from _any_
USA phone (which includes POTS) on a tablet, your knowledge would be
helpful to all mobile device owners!