Also...why not use Hangouts?
Same reason that I always thought that iMessage was a bad idea on the iPhone.
Vendor lock in.
I'm able to chat with anyone via Jabber, including Gmail accounts - until they close that in favor of their private protocol, and they've said they'll do it.
I can SMS anyone from my Desktop using AIM and have for years.
They can put all the lipstick they want on that Google+/Hangouts pig.
They can put it in an evening gown and top it with a tiara for all I care.
It's still not going to make it Miss Universe.
Show of hands - how many here have gotten calls from known contacts and the name did not show anyway?
And now they're going to fix that?
With an external resource that magically won't really use a lot of data and won't require me to walk around with location services turned on, like everything else they do.
And they won't gather personal analytics anonymously (Lmao liars that's unpossible) to give me a better advertising experience whenever a store returns my personal phone call.
And I really need a data connection now for calls so they can tell me who it is if it's not in my contacts.
When they already fail half the time when it's in my contacts.
The next sound I want to hear from my dialer is nom nom nom nom nom nom while they bite me some more.