There were recent fears that the release of Google Allo and Duo could bring an end to Google Hangouts and even the famous Google Messenger.
However, things cooled off when a Google official seemed to reassure users of the popular Hangouts that the application will, in fact, focus more on the business aspects of communication and leave the personal side of communication to the rest of the party. Google Allo offers messaging services while Google Duo is meant for video calling services.
The two, alongside Hangouts and Messenger, mean that Google now has four messaging apps for use on mobile devices. Even though some experts see this as a more complicated setup from Google, Alphabet Chief Eric Schmidt has other ideas. Apparently, Schmidt is adamant that at some point, one app could possibly get the better of the rest in terms of usage and popularity and in the end, the triumphant app could easily cannibalize the rest. But is this really a great plan from a company of Google’s caliber?
The fact that Google Allo brings AI and machine learning to the fold means that users of the app get to enjoy the best of messaging services on their phones. But is there any point of having four messaging apps that basically work to divide the user base that would have been taken up by a single app?
In an interview, Schmidt was adamant that Google Allo is the best messaging app on the planet. Rather than criticize the fact that Google has numerous apps in the IM market, the Alphabet chief urges people to try it out before coming out to criticize the app. But the question still arises of why Google hasn’t done away with the likes of Hangouts and Messenger if it indeed feels that Google Allo is better than any other app in the current market?
Ever heard of the saying curiosity killed the cat? Well, Google has had this problem for quite some time now. In fact, the company seems to have grown accustomed to failure that it has forgotten how to fully trust in any of its products. The company has been rolling out numerous apps, but some of them never get to the final stages – because of the lack of belief in their products, perhaps. The fact that Google hasn’t done away with Hangouts and Messenger and it has also added another alongside Google Allo could mean the company is not yet decided on which app to fully direct its efforts.
Now, why would Google think that users will swiftly download and install Allo hoping that it is indeed the best app in the market right now when the search engine giant itself doesn’t have the guts to do so? Apparently, Schmidt has a weird solution in mind – that if Google Allo picks up and trounces the rest, the company could integrate the rest of the messaging apps into the winning product.
In short, Google is working on an assumption that one of its four messaging apps will outshine the rest and in the end, the company will bring the other services together with the winning app, in this case, Google Allo. Will this come to live? Well, it is very unlikely that it will happen, unless the company first unifies all of these services into a single app.
It would have made a lot of sense to have Google Allo and Duo as a single app, but Google claims that people like using different apps for different tasks, hence their separate nature. Do you agree with Google?