Google unifies messenger teams, plans “more coherent vision”
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
Uh, huh. At this point Google can unify their messaging line in the same way Medusa can braid her hair. Might do, but it's going to take some real concentration, focus, and an unholy ability to wrangle some snakes.
Upvote
303
(303
/
0)
Considering all the flailing they've done in this space, even if they do create another unified communications app, will anyone trust them enough to use it?
Upvote
197
(199
/
-2)
Google has created enough messaging apps that they well could create an app solely devoted to passing messages between messaging apps.
Upvote
258
(259
/
-1)
Fancy Internet Person
Ars Praefectus
Next year's story: Google unveils a new initiative to unify their 7 existing messaging apps.
Upvote
208
(209
/
-1)
OrangeCream
Ars Legatus Legionis
It also provides SMS text messaging and forwarding to email, so on the back end it might be redundantly similar to Android SMS as well.
I hope this means the headline next year will be: One person is now in charge of Google's five messaging apps
Upvote
48
(49
/
-1)
Well duh. Of course this being Google & messaging this'll probably just add a 7th team (even though it's supposed to be 'unified') & app.
Upvote
20
(23
/
-3)
Honestly at this point, they need to kill off a bunch of the messaging services and just bring it down to one that does voice, one that does sms, and one that does everything over data. And make the announcement at once so there's no confusion about going forward.
That's all that's needed.
And then the tough part, not expand beyond that again.
That's all that's needed.
And then the tough part, not expand beyond that again.
Upvote
60
(67
/
-7)
Part of the reason it has been such a disaster is that every new app has a new name. There are like 10 different messaging apps that they pushed for 5 minutes each. If they are going to kill one app and replace it with another that does the same thing they could easily keep the name and just push a software update to everyone.
Upvote
98
(98
/
0)
as someone who foolishly went in on allo and got burned by its abrupt end, the latter bolded part makes complete sense to me.
Upvote
44
(45
/
-1)
Google products: The perfect gift for family members with terminally short attention spans. Along with half a piece of candy.
Upvote
25
(27
/
-2)
Not just "keep the name," keep the userbase. If Hangouts had problems, the solution was to fix those problems but let people use the same contact lists and chat histories they already had. You can't reboot your chat ecosystem every two years and expect people to move over en masse every time.
Upvote
181
(181
/
0)
Someone should take that XKCD comic and replace standards with Google Messaging apps.
Upvote
132
(132
/
0)
What is Google thinking when they kill useful services like Google Print, but they can have six separate messaging apps?
Upvote
93
(94
/
-1)
OptimusP83
Ars Praefectus
I think its both hilarious and sorta sad that 1) this needs to be announced, and 2) its taken them this freaking long.
I mean, I work at a LARGE company so I get the inter-org politics, but at a certain point, it becomes detrimental. When you have, esssentially, six competing products all made by the same company, thats just embarrassing...
I mean, I work at a LARGE company so I get the inter-org politics, but at a certain point, it becomes detrimental. When you have, esssentially, six competing products all made by the same company, thats just embarrassing...
Upvote
52
(54
/
-2)
I just one to have one app with a unified login that does SMS, MMS, text chat, video chat, voice chat, group chats, has clients for phone/tablet/PC (web is okay), a single history across all my devices, end-to-end encryption, and that all my friends are on.
Is that too much to ask?
Is that too much to ask?
Upvote
57
(59
/
-2)
Consolidating all of it under one banner will make it easier to cancel. Smart move.
Upvote
65
(69
/
-4)
Exactly. Moving everyone is a GIGANTIC pain. Messages get lost, people get lost, it sucks on absolutely every level. And if another example is needed, just look at how Microsoft did in the smartphone space by following the same "dump the userbase" approach that Google took in messaging.
Upvote
46
(46
/
0)
I'm assuming that tomorrow's news is "Google announces new messenger app, will perform same functions as 4 of Google's existing apps" Of course, none of the old apps will be discontinued.
Upvote
16
(17
/
-1)
...So they can replace it with a brand-new collection of messaging apps! Brilliant!
Upvote
11
(12
/
-1)
Upvote
55
(62
/
-7)
Dark Pumpkin
Ars Scholae Palatinae
There should be a disclaimer on that title.
*Until they get bored doing it that way and they make 10 new separate messaging app teams.
*Until they get bored doing it that way and they make 10 new separate messaging app teams.
Upvote
11
(12
/
-1)
Not too much to ask, and it used to be Hangouts, until Google lost their minds.
Except for the end-to-end encryption, which is still a niche market IMHO. But it should be encrypted.
BTW No one start a flame war on end-to-end encryption, please. The vast majority of people just need good encryption.
Upvote
24
(26
/
-2)
The unified Hangouts app was utopia? I remember it differently. The way it combined Gchat and SMS into a single stream was really bad. I can't count how many times someone sent me a text and I replied to their Gchat, sometimes not realizing it until months later.
The Messages app was such a relief.
The Messages app was such a relief.
Upvote
13
(20
/
-7)
Upvote
10
(15
/
-5)
I've been trying to come up with something useful and non-snarky to say about this, but it's too hard for a Friday.
I'm going to go with this: just make a choice. Create one app with one name and make it a required default on anything Android going forward. Discontinue everything else.
That's pretty much all I can come up with. Inflict the pain of change on your user base once and get it over with.
I'm going to go with this: just make a choice. Create one app with one name and make it a required default on anything Android going forward. Discontinue everything else.
That's pretty much all I can come up with. Inflict the pain of change on your user base once and get it over with.
Upvote
25
(26
/
-1)
OptimusP83
Ars Praefectus
Haha!
Though to be fair, theres no Apple Facetime/Messages app for Android/Win.
Upvote
34
(34
/
0)
Hangouts was, at times, a bit glitchy on MMS, but instead of Google fixing that, they came up with multiple products.
Upvote
45
(45
/
0)
Fancy Internet Person
Ars Praefectus
They are thinking that their rival, Facebook, has several successful messaging apps and if they lose that user data to Facebook, they will be worse off in selling ads.
Upvote
15
(16
/
-1)
Upvote
8
(9
/
-1)
Upvote
14
(15
/
-1)
Duo, Meet, and Chat. That's all we need. Please do not combine them further than that. We don't need a bloated mess, and we don't need half-a-dozen apps that all do the same things differently.
Upvote
-12
(4
/
-16)
This lack of cohesion in the past and Google's flakiness with projects were the main reasons I ended up in Apple's camp in the first place, and why I'll likely end up staying. They just seem to be undependable, and I don't need that in my tech.
Upvote
19
(21
/
-2)
You got my upvote, but I can't select Agree, Interesting, Funny, and Adds to Story all at once.
I get a sense that Microsoft may come up the surprise here. Teams for Consumers may turn out to be a train wreck, but there's a small chance that they'll put in the needed hooks to let people use it from different angles. I've had to explain to work that Teams is kinda like Slack, but that's only one part of it, in that it's part of an ecosystem that allows people to approach their work from different angles. If they can come up with a way to allow arbitrary groups not tied to a single tenant--which would seem to be a requirement of a consumer version of Teams--they could undermine Google before this effort can even start to have results.
Upvote
16
(17
/
-1)