Despite really struggling when I read it for the first time (a long time ago with limited English skills), it’s still Tolkien’s Silmarillion. Nothing I’ve read since managed to feel quite as “real”, and I still tear up a bit when reading the last paragraph.
This is basically my recollection, too (I had honestly started to doubt my memory during the last couple of days).
Barely anyone was using Gtalk in the first place, so Google shutting it down was maybe a disappointment but had little effect on the wider messenger ecosystem.