You would think Google is done with messaging with its Hangouts app, right? Think again; according to the Economic Times report, the search giant would like to launch something better, something people would use on a daily basis. Yes, that would be something like WhatsApp, which as we all know, has been bought by Facebook for astonishing $19 billion.
Alas, making a popular messaging app isn’t easy and takes time. For one thing, Google would have to make sure any future app can work across platforms and devices. As I’m writing this, that’s not the case with Hangouts. So perhaps they just launch that app for other mobile platforms. Or perhaps they start from the clean sheet of paper.
It is said that in order to make its messaging app super-popular, Google is willing to allow everyone to chip-in, even without requiring a Google/Gmail account. That by itself would be a major shift, and could help the Mountain View-based company get more users on board.
The way I see things, Google’s best bet is to acquire some other app like Hike. Google doesn’t necessarily need technology — they can make it in-house — but they could benefit from the existing customer base, which takes time to build.
What’s more, in order to be popular, any future Google messaging app will need localized features to appeal to the fast-growing markets of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
With all the smart people Google is employing, we’re pretty confident they’ll make a great product. However, sometimes that’s just not enough. Sometimes people just keep using the tool they’ve been relying on for years. So it’s not like the messaging market is up for Google to grab… We’ll see where this goes…
[Via: Reuters]