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Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

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Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#141

Post by ocdtrekkie »

Arnt wrote: post #10
Dawny33 wrote: post #4

Why isn't Google doubling down on marketing Allo on Android? They already have a huge ecosystem in Android, which no other company other than Apple has.

What has Google ever really marketed? Google's basic strategy seems to be to throw shit on the wall and see what sticks.

I can't watch TV without seeing either a "Make Google do it" ad for Google Assistant or an ad for the Google Pixel or Chromebook. Google runs a metric ----ton of ads for their products.

Now mind you, nobody buys those products. But they definitely market them.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#142

Post by azinman2 »

jimktrains2 wrote: post #100
exabrial wrote: post #87

The carriers are idiots. It's where innovation goes to die. We had to pull them kicking and screaming into the smart phone and data era. (Remember When AT&T sent a paper copy of every image you downloaded on your iPhone in a bill?) Quite frankly the core problem with Google's strategy is involving then at all. Instead, go the manufacturers and campaign against supporting sms at all . It's insecure, slow, unreliable,…

> Quite frankly the core problem with Google's strategy is involving then at all. Instead, go the manufacturers and campaign against supporting sms at all. It's insecure, slow, unreliable, monitored, among many other things. Push the manufacturers to an open Android messaging api that runs over TLS (or double ratchet) and bypasses the carriers completely, but the manufacturers can still rebrand. But it's universal. I…

iMessage is end-to-end encryption.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#143

Post by ocdtrekkie »

johnchristopher wrote: post #5

> Microsoft is among the OEM supporters, which raises the possibility it could bring support to Windows 10, but the company was non-committal when The Verge pressed it on that possibility. If windows phone is dead I suppose this would "just" enabled some kind of SMS messaging on a win10 desktop ?

Microsoft's been pushing Always Connected PCs, which, as far as I'm aware, have SMS/MMS capabilities. But the rumored Surface Phone is also still on the horizon with Windows on ARM, the whole foldable phone thing, etc.

Microsoft is not going to just give up on mobile, but they realized their existing strategy wasn't working. (I think abandoning the share they did have was a mistake, mind you, just like Google repeatedly dumping chat products.)

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#144

Post by Piskvorrr »

andybak wrote: post #56
dandare wrote: post #21

I don't see a single reason to invest myself into Google messaging product once again. I was adamant gtalk/hangout user but you can only fuck me over so many times.

I've actually just quietly gone on using hangouts and ignored whatever strategy statements they make. It's not perfect but it still works and I see no reason to stop.

...which is exactly why the service will get shut down. "We made something, but people wanted to use that! Kill it, kill it with fire!!!"

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#145

Post by untog »

Piskvorrr wrote: post #140
untog wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do they expect people to trust this statement Because they're using an open, industry-created standard. It certainly isn't in their interests to do so (unless Apple also adopts it, which... we'll see)

Right. Embracing the open standards - like they did previously (e.g. with GTalk), and then suddenly..."oh look, we've improved the standard, and we're not publishing our extended version. It's so much greater, but only works with this one client, made by us - what a coincidence." Gee, I wonder where I saw this pattern before...nope, it's not like they're going to exterminate their Official Blessed Client once they ti…

Surely with that attitude they're damned if they do and damned if they don't? If they make their own standard it's bad, but if they adopt an industry standard they're probably going to ruin it, so that's also bad?

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#146

Post by elvirs »

dx034 wrote: post #138
elvirs wrote: post #94

Its shocking how Google is embarrassing itself with these incompatible chat apps released one after another and abandoned right after the release. GTalk Gmail Chat Google Voice Hangouts Android Messages Allo Duo for fucks sake Google, just copy Whatsapp but make it stored on cloud, not on the device, like FB Messenger. Enable account recovery using email in addition to sms and enable usernames or email in addition ph…

I like the Whatsapp solution. Why does it have to be stored on cloud? Web interface with Whatsapp Web (via phone) works well.

you must have never tried migrating whatsapp from iphone to android, major pain in the axe

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#147

Post by jhasse »

throwaway899 wrote: post #28

I would really love that we all start using some open chat standard (Like XMPP) so WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. could talk to each other. Or something like email, you could have foo@whatsapp.com or foo@telegram.org and that would be your 'chat address' and all clients could talk to each other

so ... XMPP?

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#149

Post by 49bc »

> Unlike Apple, RCS is designed to work with carriers who can develop their own messaging apps that work with the protocol

No no no please. We should be doing everything we can to relegate carriers to “dumb” data providers. They don’t have he skills or expertise to provide anything beyond this, which they’ve demonstrated time and again.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#150

Post by megaman22 »

bb88 wrote: post #12
tallanvor wrote: post #6

Can anyone explain why I should be interested in RCS, though? It seems like it's more designed to let carriers try and stem the flow of customers switching to other options, and I don't really see what benefits it offers me.

Years ago 1998ish(?), there was a fight to open up chat applications AIM, ICQ, YIM, etc. We had to have 20 apps to chat with each other. Fast forward 20 years, and here we are again, FB Messenger, Kik, WhatsApp, Allo, Signal, Telegram, SMS, Slack, etc. At least this appears to be a "standard" that everyone can use again.

The thing that actually worked was a multi-protocol messaging client, like Pidgin.

Which I still use all the time, because most of the chat clients I have to develop against have introduced asinine restrictions that force their official clients to run in single-instance mode, so your other alternative is spinning up entire VMs in order to have two accounts signed in to talk back and forth on the same machine.

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