For everyone saying:

For everyone saying:

"But, so-and-so-complaining-about-the-new-interface, you can still go back to the old version!"

Or...

"But, so-and-so-complaining-about-the-new-hangouts, you can still follow this funky link to get to the old, full-featured hangouts!"

--

The new UI is in preview mode. That's why you can switch back and forth. Chances are, some of the things that are bugging us will be fixed while we're in this preview stage, but don't expect large changes. Certain tasks have been made more difficult for a reason.

It won't always be in preview mode. It'll eventually be rolled out, and you'll no longer have the ability to go back. See virtually everything Google has ever rolled out for an example as to that.

While full-featured hangouts are currently available 'as-is', Google hasn't indicated they'll be doing any maintenance or updating it at all. In Googlespeak, that tends to mean they won't. They'll just quietly let it die until one day the tech debt is so high it no longer works, and has to be gotten rid of. This isn't a pot shot at Google, this is a pot shot at the entire software industry that does the exact same thing.

What's most distressing to me is that no one's addressed how this will affect hangouts on air, which at the moment use the old full-featured hangouts... and no one's talking about that, either.

It might be months or it might be years before full-featured hangouts stop working entirely and are completely unusable... but unless something changes, and Google actually addresses the problem, it's a pretty safe bet to assume full-featured hangouts are becoming unsupported dinosaurs.

So, just remember that before you try to make someone feel better about the new interface basically destroying everything they've ever used Google+ for.