Google has had a bad history of trying to solve it's own battle with messaging apps for over a decade now. Yet reports suggests that it is now working on a RCS service known as "Chat" to take a shot on the Apple's iMessage that has ruled this field upto today.
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A brief and very incomplete history of Android’s Messaging Mess
- August 2005: Google Talk (aka Google Chat)
- October 2008: Android launches with support for Google Talk & SMS
- June 2011: Google+ launches, distracting everybody. It includes Huddleand Hangouts Video Chat
- August 2011: Facebook Messenger launches as a standalone app
- October 2011: iMessage launches. WhatsApp reports 1 billion messages per day
- May 2013: Google+ Hangouts launches, merging other Google messaging and video chat apps
- September 2014: Google Voiceintegrated into Hangouts
- April 2015: Project Fi launches, also integrating with Hangouts
- January 2016: Google Messengerbecomes the preferred SMS app on Android, deprecating Hangouts for texting.
- May 2016: Google launches Allo, a texting app, and Duo, a video chat app
- June 2016: Google Talk for Android and Google Chat in Gmail discontinued
- February 2017: Messenger is renamed Android Messages, announced it will be the default RCS app
- March 2017: Google announces Hangouts is becoming Hangouts Chat, focused on enterprise use
- April 2018: Google is “pausing investment” in Allo, focusing instead on Chat, a new standard to replace SMS
ANYTHING NEW ?
Chat rather than being an android app will be new set of features that will be automatically enabled in the upcoming phone's and their Android Messages SMS app.
“Chat” is the consumer-friendly name for Rich Communication Services (RCS). More importantly Chat is a carrier based service not a Google service. Chat will be enabled for most of the users in near future but time may vary according to the OEMs and Operators.
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THE COST
Whenever the user sends a message, the message will be sent using Data Plan rather than the SMS plan. Thus it'll be different from traditional SMS and a bit iMessage like. If you are texting somebody who doesn’t have Chat enabled or is not an Android user, your messages will revert back to SMS — much in the same way that an iMessage does.
MORE TO COME
Introduction of chat may seem quite a big news but Google ain't holding right there. Chat will also be accompanied with the launch of Android Messages Web client much like What's App Web. The initial reports suggests that the users will be able to use the much anticipated "Smart Reply" feature soon.
With all these major developments in Messaging on Android, its clear that Google is now starting to collect the fragments of all the previous failed products and has decided to consolidate it's already existing apps with new features coming soon.
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“Chat” is the consumer-friendly name for Rich Communication Services (RCS). More importantly Chat is a carrier based service not a Google service. Chat will be enabled for most of the users in near future but time may vary according to the OEMs and Operators.
THE COST
Whenever the user sends a message, the message will be sent using Data Plan rather than the SMS plan. Thus it'll be different from traditional SMS and a bit iMessage like. If you are texting somebody who doesn’t have Chat enabled or is not an Android user, your messages will revert back to SMS — much in the same way that an iMessage does.
MORE TO COME
Introduction of chat may seem quite a big news but Google ain't holding right there. Chat will also be accompanied with the launch of Android Messages Web client much like What's App Web. The initial reports suggests that the users will be able to use the much anticipated "Smart Reply" feature soon.
With all these major developments in Messaging on Android, its clear that Google is now starting to collect the fragments of all the previous failed products and has decided to consolidate it's already existing apps with new features coming soon.
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