The latest on Messages, Allo, Duo and Hangouts

Post by keerthiko » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:13 AM UTC

tehlike wrote: post #121

Eridrus wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like Duo is working out. It has more than 500m installs, and isn't installed by default, so it's numbers aren't padded the same way Hangouts' are. Allo, despite being shut down got to about the same size as Signal.

Is hangouts installed by default (i don't know), seem to have a billion installs, which looked a bit too high for both default-install, and non-default install.

Post by newmanships » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:15 AM UTC

cjtrowbridge wrote: post #87

killjoywashere wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hangouts is... something special. Would you, please, elaborate?

Hangouts integrates your Google Voice and Google Fi texts right into web pages like GMail, contacts, etc. And this works even if your phone is off, lost, broken, or has no service. Hangouts also works on any device with an internet connection if you log in. You can text and call from your number on literally any device just by signing into hangouts. None of the multitude of other redundant Google messaging products d…

Post by jhanschoo » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:16 AM UTC

tehlike wrote: post #8

The text of the blog post is very confusing at best. I consistently got the feeling we have no idea how to do messaging, and we are throwing many things to see which one sticks. In other words, the blog post felt like it was a post about telling how we have no idea what we are doing using some thousand words. Messages app is very primitive. I like hangouts way more. I can hop from text message to video chat with fami…

Post by wpietri » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:19 AM UTC

briandear wrote: post #82

Eridrus wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signal and Allo actually have a similar number of installs, they're both in the 10-50m installs bucket in the Play store. I use Signal, but it's fine at best, but it's not really going to break out of it's niche.

That doesn’t count all of the iOS people that also use Signal. I use Signal and Apple Messages and didn’t even know Allo existed. I have a perhaps irrational fear of using messaging from Google or Facebook because they have lost my trust. Why would anyone invest in a Google messaging system when Google is prone to kill it off randomly?

Post by 013a » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:20 AM UTC

brendanmc6 wrote: post #84

mrkstu wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the brilliance of iMessage where it gets critical mass- fallback to SMS but pushing the iMessage identity tied to an account that follows you to new phones/devices. I think that iMessage network effect is a big reason for the steady market share growth of iPhone in the US- none of the competitive apps have cross-generational appeal, just iMessage.

I agree with you, but a hardware specific messaging app is just stupid. As you can tell by the length of my last post, thinking about this situation has got me upset. So upset, that right now I've decided to launch a non-profit, open collective organization called OOMA. Only One Messaging App. OOMA will be comprised of the millions of people who are annoyed and upset at the result of tech companies competing for our…