Google's messaging mess continues: Chat app now wants to be the next WhatsApp
Google now wants you to use its Hangout-replacing business collaboration Chat app to talk to friends and family, just like WhatsApp.
Wait 6 months and Google will announce Chat is discontinued, as they integrate messaging functionality into a YouTube Music subscription!
Now you can hear music while you type messages and make mistakes because you were paying attention to the lyrics instead of the actual message!
You're hired!
This made me laugh then get very sad. I miss Google Play Music so much.
Stop giving them ideas goddammit
https://9to5google.com/2023/07/06/youtube-music-comments-now-playing/
Is there any better example of Google’s lack of long term vision than their chat apps?
I'm one of the morons who convinced my friends and family to switch to Allo. I'm gonna sit this one out.
Me and my ex thought Hangouts was going to be discontinued so we switched to Allo, and then back to Hangouts lmfao
And now they will never trust you to move to signal!
Too true haha, I have a few contacts on Signal and Telegram but I blew my shot and I can't blame the rest of my contacts for now wanting to switch again.
Ouch, I'm so sorry. I had already been bitten by the Google graveyard then so I actively avoided allo.
This is also me. After Allo's demise, I moved everyone to WhatsApp. Aside from being a Mera product now, it was a good choice.
Honestly, till date, the most amazing messaging app I have used. RIP!
I was trying to remember this sweet app that nobody used a decade ago
That had to be rough.
I don't get it. Are Google employees completely ignoring all the negative press their messaging apps get?
Everyone online agrees, that all these messaging apps that Google keeps pumping, just hurt each other.
Here is a list of every messaging app that Google has ever produced:
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Android SMS
Bump!
Cloud to Device Messaging
Chat (not the same as Google Chat)
Disco
Dodgeball
Firebase Cloud Messaging
Gizmo5
Gmail
GTalkService
Google+
Google+ Hangouts (not the same as Google Hangouts)
Google+ Messenger
Google.com/talk
Google Allo
Google Assistant (it really did once have its own text feature)
Google Assistant Messages (and then this but only in a family group)
Google Buzz
Google Chat
Google Cloud Messaging
Google Docs
Google Docs Editor Chat
Google Duo
Google Fi
Google Friend Connect
Google Groups
Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts Chat
Google Hangouts Meet
Google Helpouts
Google Huddle
Google Latitude
Google Maps Messages
Google Meet
Google Messenger SMS
Google Pay Messages
Google Phone Messaging
Google Photos Messages
Google Schemer
Google Spaces (this was basically Google's version of Instagram and it lasted less than a year)
Google Stadia Messages
Google Talk
Google Voice
Google Voice Legacy
Google Voice Third-party Apps
Google Voice for G Suite
Google Voice FXO VoIP Gateway (Obihai)
Google Wave
GrandCentral Communications
Jaiku
Jibe Mobile
Meebo
Messages
Orkut
Postini
Slide
Sparrow
YouTube Messages
Was Google Fi actually ever a messaging app? It's a phone service now
Apparently there was/is a messaging service somewhere hidden in the core Fi service. I just copy pasted this list from someone else tho. No idea how accurate this is.
Believe it or not, I have not actually used all these services on the list lol
I’m pretty sure the employees working on it don’t have a say on it. Someone at the top decided to do it and they just have to pretend they believe on it because they have to be “team players”.
I haven’t seen a company with as much as delirium as Google does.
I just realized that "Google Chat" and "Chat Messages" are to complete different things. Insane.
Seems they took a page out of Microsoft's book on naming products.
I used Chat the first time before they killed it, and then I switched to Hangouts which allowed SMS and chat which was very nice, and then I ignored Allo and Duo when they came out, and then Hangouts died and I went back to Messages and just stuck with RCS, and now what, Google wants me to go back to Chat?
Didn't Hangouts work? Couldn't we have just continued to improve on Hangouts? Oh, wait, that would require some actual commitment to this nightmare of an ecosystem.
Like those reviving of old car brands lol
This should just be preemptively added to https://killedbygoogle.com/
It blows my mind that Google still can’t get an iMessage equivalent to stick.. I just don’t get why they wouldn’t care about messaging/communication experience on phones, seems like they’ve been scrambling for over 10 years to get this right, over multiple apps.
A lot of people only use an iPhone because of iMessage, which is a lot more fun to use, and is exclusive to the ecosystem
I've always used a 3rd party app on my Android phones and it's so much better than any of the texting programs they have had come installed on the device. There are so many issues. You could get a different program depending on what mfg your phone is from, which could be great or utterly suck. Hangouts used to be a thing but as far as I know texts s weren't integrated into it so it was a secondary or additional app. Of course I don't know what exactly iMessages even is but based on your comment, it's better than that lol
I’m bored that’s like the thousand time Google does something, undo it and make it again. Wake me up when for once they make a successful product.
Ah, now it actually has been years since they had a new chat app
This one will surely stick!
Have not bothered with new Google products in years as I assume they will be shutdown by the end of the year.
Any other (competent) company would kill for the amount of users that Google has with their products like Android or Gmail. There needs to be a change at the top.
Given up on using Google messaging apps once hangouts was killed and allo rolled out. RCS isn't even as open as they say it is. No third party apps. Since moving back to the us trying to get everyone to switch to matrix (via beeper) or just using the bridges to talk to people on their default which usually is imessage unfortunately.
Use encrypted messaging instead.
But whyyyy