After Facebook had announced that they were acquiring WhatsApp, new rumors surfaced which seemed to suggest that Google, at one point in time, had attempted to acquire the company. This was later denied but it’s an interesting idea and it would not be completely out of the question.
After all if Google had acquired WhatsApp, imagine WhatsApp coming preloaded on Android devices, or maybe even made exclusive! Anyway given that Facebook has now been given approval from both the US and EU regulators, we guess that’s out of the question now. However according to a new report, it seems that Google has plans of launching a similar service of their own.
The reports have stated that Google had sent their product manager Nikhyl Singhal to India to scope out the messaging app ecosystem in India. Sources have revealed that Google is in the early development stages of creating their own messaging app and that they have planned for a release in 2015. Naturally Google has declined to comment on the matter.
While Google does have their own messenger system in the form of Hangouts, it seems that Singhal’s tour of Southeast Asia has suggested that this upcoming app could be designed for emerging markets in mind. It will be free to use unlike WhatsApp which has an annual subscription, and will most likely be localized to support the Indian language. Take it with a grain of salt for now, but given Google’s interest in emerging markets with the launch of Android One handsets, this rumor doesn’t really seem like that much of a stretch.