Google will be shutting down its Google Helpouts service on April 20, ending the search giant’s experiment with connecting consumers with experts online.

A TechCrunch report indicated that Google Helpouts, which used Google Hangouts video to facilitate the connections, had disappeared from Google Play and iTunes. Helpouts had arrived in late 2013 and was designed to let consumers book video chat sessions with experts right from their smartphones, leverage Google identity tools, payment technologies, and its video service to provide both free and paid advice sessions on a wide range of subjects.

Although the Helpouts website is still operational and sessions are ongoing, Google found that this sort of advice is typically readily available on YouTube, which Google owns. Although they don’t connect users with a live expert, they can provide the answers that people are looking for — which is typically all they really want.

Helpouts also ran into trouble with regulations, which forced Google to shut down paid Helpouts sessions in the European Union due to changing tax laws. Providers in the UK and Ireland can only offer free Helpouts, and EU customers can only receive free Helpouts, which likely hindered Google’s ability to attract both providers and consumers.

The Helpouts app wasn’t a popular one, although it had a fairly strong showing at initial launch. It never ranked above #95 in iTunes’ lifestyle category, although it reached #29 on Google Play after its debut. However, it has since plummeted below #1,500 on any app store category, according to the report.

Google has attempted a foray into the advice-giving market before, experimenting with Google Answers, which involved paying researchers to answer inquiries. However, that service was shuttered in 2006 after four years in operation. The company then attempted to compete with Wikipedia with Knol, but that service was shut down in 2012. Helpouts was Google’s latest attempt.

Google later posted a message on the Helpouts site confirming that it planned to shut down the service. The company said that while the community “includes some engaged and loyal contributors,” it “hasn’t grown at the pace we had expected.”