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The closest experience to a dedicated Windows 10 app is the Google Chat PWA. This allows the application to run in its own window, separate from your browser tabs.
Since there is no longer a "Hangouts" app, you can use Google Chat on your Windows 10 PC through these methods: hangouts windows 10
Google Hangouts was officially , and is no longer available as a standalone service for Windows 10 or any other platform. All users and their conversations have been migrated to Google Chat , which serves as the direct replacement. Accessing the Replacement (Google Chat) on Windows 10 The closest experience to a dedicated Windows 10
When Windows 10 launched in 2015, Google Hangouts was already in a state of transition. Originally born from the ashes of Google Talk and Google+ Messenger, Hangouts was Google’s ambitious answer to Skype and Apple’s iMessage. For the Windows 10 user, the experience was defined by what it was not . Unlike macOS, where Hangouts could integrate tightly with native notifications, or Android, where it was baked into the OS, Windows 10 had no official Hangouts client in the Microsoft Store. Users were forced into the browser—Chrome, ironically, being the optimal choice. This reliance on the web browser created a distinct Windows 10 experience: Hangouts lived as a pinned tab or a Chrome app, consuming RAM while offering inconsistent desktop notifications. All users and their conversations have been migrated
The technical friction was notable. Windows 10’s hallmark features—Action Center, Live Tiles, and deep Cortana integration—remained largely inaccessible to Hangouts. While third-party developers created “wrappers” (Electron-based applications that turned the website into a pseudo-desktop app), Google itself offered no official solution. This forced Windows 10 power users to choose between efficiency and functionality. For a time, the Chrome browser’s “Create shortcut” feature allowed Hangouts to run in its own window, mimicking a native app, but it was a digital prosthetic—functional but never seamless.
By 2020, with the forced migration from Hangouts to Google Chat and Meet, the Windows 10 experience became a case study in platform neglect. Users were directed to install multiple PWA (Progressive Web Apps) or use separate browser tabs for Chat and Meet—a downgrade from Hangouts’ unified interface. Microsoft, sensing the gap, optimized its own Teams app for Windows 10, offering the native integration that Google never would.
Google Hangouts on Windows 10: Transitioning to the New Era of Google Chat