Google and messaging services. Messaging services and Google. It’s been quite a stroke and we all know it at this point, right? There’s no need to try to make real sense of the nonsense that has been Google’s messaging ‘strategy’. Painfully, that lack of vision over the years has resulted in some really nice products being killed for no good reason and several other questionable movements along the way. How many times have we been warned about the tragic death of Hangouts, only to see it continue to limp without getting the attention it actually deserves?
In the midst of all this chaos, Google has done a few things that make me a little more hopeful about the future of its messaging plan. First, it turned it all off and went on RCS only through the Google Messages app. While that was not perfect, they did release RCS for most users who have installed the app and continue to add new features to the service. The primary problem is the fact that so few people have the app as an RCS-ready app that they actually use. Many more people have a Google Account and so, Google Hangouts is still running because – surprisingly – signing in with a Google Account makes apps more universal and easy to install.
In a similar way, Google also kept a few irons on fire around video calls. At one point, you could create a video call in Hangouts (consumer versions and G Suite) along with Google Hangouts Meet (G Suite only) and Google Duo. Finally, for G Suite, Hangouts Meet was the only option until the Google Meet was released not long ago. Consumers were left with Hangouts video calls and Duo calls, but then Google Meet had to join the bundle for free because the pandemic was raging again. While G Suite users keep things simple with Google Meet, consumers are left with the clutter of Hangout, Meet and Duo when they want to make a video call. It’s a little confusing to say the least.
Cleaning is underway
You may not know the name Javier Soltero, but you should. Google hired him and put him in service for all the messaging apps that Google has made a bit of a mess of in the past. Under his umbrella are Google Meet, Google Chat, Messages, Duo, and the Google Phone app. Taken over in October to unite all these things, you can already see what impact Soltero has. Remember the new, unified Gmail for G Suite users we talked about recently? Movements like this will clearly be the sign that Soltero will leave on Google.
Of the people on 9to5 Google, it seems to be the next big move to believe the union of Duo and Meet as sources. This transition will be a few years after a while and we will not magically make Duo disappear in the very future: but change is coming. There are clear features of Duo that Meet should adopt, such as end-to-end encryption, contacting users via phone number only, and some of the 3D AR effects that Duo users enjoy today.
There is also a chance that as this evolves, we could see a similar offering to what the G Suite Gmail experience adapts: a more unifying place for Google-centric messaging. In that setup, Gmail streams right into Meet directly in … Chat? Well, for people of G Suite this is what happens. Maybe along the way, this new, more unified Google will also bring Google Chat to its default users, giving Google one app / service for email, one for messaging, one for video and one for text / sms / mms / RCS. Transferring chats to consumers may be a step too far, but they have kept Hangouts afloat after multiple death threats, so perhaps a transition to Chat would not be so frustrating.
However, although I’m a big fan of Duo, I’m a bigger fan of Google that their messaging platforms are in order and in tune. There should be no different services for G Suite and standard users and there should not be two or three services that actually do the same thing. In my ideal world, Google Meet, Google Chat, and Gmail would be the only messaging apps I use and Chat would have all the necessary bits to embed MMS / SMS / RCS. No one really knows how all this will ultimately shake up in the end, but any move towards a simpler, more refined messaging strategy from Google is welcome in my book, even if it means killing a great service like Duo.
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