Products · Product
Google Chat
Raised as a usability problem by 64 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2012–2026), in 48 threads.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Too many overlapping Chat apps make the experience confusingUnreviewed
20122026- Replacement chat app is unusable compared to the old GChat2023-04-13
- Widget got less handy and intuitive; user can't tell difference between Google chat apps2022-03-20
- Keeps switching chat apps and killing products, so user must relearn the new way to chat2022-01-11
Group chats are unusable for organizations with many usersUnreviewed
20122026- Chat is clunky and awkward to use, hard to recommend as a Slack or Teams alternative2026-01-19
- Can't start a group video call from the group chat anymore; individual and group chats are split into separate tabs2023-04-13
- Group chat is a disaster; hard to manage conversations there2022-10-18
Search results drop you mid-conversation, forcing endless scrolling to find messagesUnreviewed
20122026- Scrolling up loads messages in tiny batches, making old messages hard to reach2025-05-16
- Shows week-old conversations, slow loads, and fails to scroll to new messages2023-01-20
- Search results drop you mid-conversation, forcing endless scrolling to find messages2016-05-29
Can't find how to make Chat show up in GmailUnreviewed
20122026- Google pushes users to chat from Gmail instead of the standalone app2022-03-20
- Can't find how to make Chat show up in Gmail2020-11-20
- Chats are grouped under a label the Gmail Android app doesn't show2017-03-09
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Code execution requires prompts to pass a classification step, making the chat badly designed2026-09-27
- Typed text like :) gets replaced by emoji, forcing an Esc press before sending2026-04-30
- Whole company gets notifications for chats in meetings they weren't in2026-02-16
- Message editor doesn't support nested bulleted lists2026-02-15
- Basic expected actions like inviting outside collaborators or converting DMs to channels don't work2026-02-15
- Can't organize the contact list; algorithm picks who appears, so no muscle memory2026-02-15
- Chat is clunky and awkward to use, hard to recommend as a Slack or Teams alternative2026-01-19
- Chat tab was hidden and had to be unhidden; notifications stopped so new messages went unnoticed2026-01-19
- Can't handle the un-threaded flood of messages; chat is hard to follow2025-12-30
- New message notifications don't reliably appear, and chat search behaves strangely2025-12-22
- Scrolling up loads messages in tiny batches, making old messages hard to reach2025-05-16
- Markdown-style italics produce bold, forcing users to learn different syntax2024-08-01
- Pasted links show page titles hiding the real URL behind a security scan2023-05-13
- Can't start a group video call from the group chat anymore; individual and group chats are split into separate tabs2023-04-13
- Replacement chat app is unusable compared to the old GChat2023-04-13
- Search doesn't work properly, missing basic functionality users expect2023-02-13
- Shows week-old conversations, slow loads, and fails to scroll to new messages2023-01-20
- Messages go missing and notifications arrive a day late2022-11-02
- Group chat is a disaster; hard to manage conversations there2022-10-18
- Code blocks break when copy-pasting text that has bold or color formatting2022-10-18
- Markdown-based text formatting is unintuitive and poorly documented2022-09-22
- Emoji picker shows a loading spinner, making a simple action feel slow2022-08-10
- Can't send multiple images at once or share directly to a contact2022-08-05
- Had to run three apps, each sending a notification for every message2022-07-18
- Interface is buggy, laggy, and terrible to use2022-07-17
- Cannot sort user list or fold groups; chats hide only by forced leaving2022-06-12
- Links always open in built-in Chrome instead of the user's default browser2022-04-24
- Google pushes users to chat from Gmail instead of the standalone app2022-03-20
- Widget got less handy and intuitive; user can't tell difference between Google chat apps2022-03-20
- Can't ring the other person; must create a meeting for each call, so elderly parents miss calls2022-03-20
- Works very slowly and weirdly when sending or receiving messages2022-02-22
- Keeps switching chat apps and killing products, so user must relearn the new way to chat2022-01-11
- Interface is a disaster and freezes up, stopping working constantly2021-11-14
- Switching between conversations shows a noticeable delay with a spinner, hampering the experience2021-08-26
- Cannot reply to specific messages, making discussions a mess2021-08-26
- Multiple picture sharing behaves weirdly and is buggy2021-06-22
- Can't tell what Chat is or where it lives across Google apps2021-06-15
- Group chats are unusable for organizations with many users2021-06-14
- New users post into the latest thread instead of starting a new one2021-05-14
- Google Chat is so slow on an old MacBook that macro timing is unreliable2020-12-02
- User can't tell which Google chat app to use on iPhone or Android2020-11-20
- Can't find how to make Chat show up in Gmail2020-11-20
- No way to navigate back or revise survey answers; mis-clicks can't be undone2020-11-20
- Google's messaging products are a muddled, tangled mess confusing to navigate2020-10-23
- Can't mark conversations unread or find rooms where tagged after missing notification2020-07-11
- Users miss the new thread button, so replies pile into one thread2020-07-11
- Can't find which thread mentioned you; threads reorder confusingly and UI is slow2020-07-11
- Early Google products like Chat and Groups were badly designed and inconsistent2020-06-24
- Interface is so harsh to switch to from a dark terminal that it hurts the eyes2020-04-22
- Can't search for people or channels when starting a conversation or sharing2019-12-17