Area 120 – BIG

Google’s experimental Area 120 division will shut down its ‘Threadit‘ tool later this year.

Per a message posted on the Threadit website, the service will shut down on December 19th. Threadit will work until then, but after that date, it won’t be available, and all content will be deleted. The message urges users to download any videos they want to save before then.

Threadit, for those unfamiliar, was a video communication tool that focused on messages rather than live, real-time communication. For example, it enabled video communication between teams in different time zones — one person could record a video message and send it via Threadit, and the recipient could respond when they were ready.

Moreover, the Threadit team will move from Area 120 and join the Google Workspace team to “focus on building immersive, visual collaboration experiences across the platform.” It’s not clear exactly what the Threadit team will work on, but safe bets would be Google Meet or Spaces.

The Threadit shutdown comes after Google reduced funding for Area 120 and killed off several projects. That also came amid an ongoing hiring freeze and other changes, notably the shutdown of Google’s Pixelbook team.

In other Google news, the company is reportedly shifting focus to hardware in a bid to protect itself from regulators and competitors.

If you use Threadit and want to keep your data, you can head to the Threadit website > log in > click your profile image > select Account > click export videos.

Header image credit: Threadit (screenshot)

Source: Threadit Via: 9to5Google

Google’s experimental incubator, Area 120, got a funding cut and saw nearly half of its projects shuttered amid the company’s ongoing hiring freeze.

Area 120, for those unfamiliar, is an in-house incubator that developed experimental projects that sometimes went on to have wider impacts, or just fizzled out after. For example, there was the ‘Reply’ project that added automatic reply bubbles to notifications — Google killed the experiment in 2019, but it went on the become a staple feature in Android. There’s also Grasshopper, an app that teaches people how to code using short puzzles, which currently has over 5 million downloads on the Play Store.

On the other hand, projects that ‘fizzled’ include things like Shoploop, a TikTok-like app for shopping, Keen, an AI-powered Pinterest wannabe, video messaging app Uptime (of course it’s another messaging app), and more.

Per reports from Bloomberg and TechCrunch, Google cancelled or reorganized seven of the 14 ongoing projects at Area 120 and informed team members that they would need to find new roles within Google by January 2023. Those who don’t find new roles will be terminated, although the company’s recruiters will help relocate affected employees.

Terminated projects include Qaya, a service to help creators set up storefronts to sell goods and services.

A company spokesperson told Bloomberg that Area 120 “will be shifting its focus to projects that build on Google’s deep investment in AI and have the potential to solve important user problems. As a result, Area 120 is winding down several projects to make way for new work. Impacted team members will receive dedicated support as they explore new projects and opportunities at Google.”

In other words, Area 120 will keep trucking but with a new focus and, well, less funding. Google also recently shuttered its Pixelbook team, so I’d expect the company to continue cutting and reducing projects for the foreseeable future.

Source: Bloomberg, TechCrunch Via: Android Police