Google seems to love creating messaging apps. We’ve seen the company dabble with all kinds of messaging platforms, such as Hangout, Allo, and the various incarnations of the texting apps that they bundled on Android. This is because unlike Apple, they do not have a unified platform in the form of iMessages, but that is expected to change.
In an exclusive report from The Verge, Google has announced their latest efforts in messaging called “Chat”. Now you might be rolling your eyes and think that this is just another texting app from Google, but that’s hardly the case. In fact it is not a new app. Instead “Chat” is based on the standard “Universal Profile for Rich Communication Services”, and Google’s plan is to make it so that using SMS to send messages won’t feel like an ancient form of technology, but rather one that is on par with modern messaging apps.
Google seems to be banking on “Chat” becoming the new standard of messaging, so much so that they are hitting the pause button on further work on Allo. This isn’t a slow down of development, but a complete halt as The Verge reports that Google will be transferring almost the entire team off Allo and focusing on Android Messages where Chat will be utilized.
Android Messages (which is the default messaging app on Android) will have the feature enabled by default and Google wants to make it clear that this isn’t a Google service, but a carrier-based service, just that Google helped to spearhead the efforts on its development. The company is hoping to push Chat out in the next 6-12 months and so far as it stands, there are 55 carriers who support it, 11 OEMs, and 2 OS providers (Microsoft and Google, Apple was not mentioned).