The latest on Messages, Allo, Duo and Hangouts • Hacker News Board

Re: The latest on Messages, Allo, Duo and Hangouts

#201

Post by mikelward » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 6:34 AM UTC

fencepost wrote: post #169

woogiewonka wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google chat services have always been a big joke to me. I'd cringe any time someone said "can we Hangout" or "Google Hangout". It's like nobody at google knows what "hang out" means and how that does not apply to conversations. Is it just me or does Google basically throw a bunch of money at a bunch of things to see what sticks, scrap the failures and repeat the process over and over again - and in the process messin…

Could be worse. They could have named it "Chill"

Shhh! Don't give them ideas!

Re: The latest on Messages, Allo, Duo and Hangouts

#202

Post by ryan_j_naughton » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 6:34 AM UTC

JayNitram wrote: post #146

bane wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's basically Hangouts. I sms more from my computer than my phone but it's all synced everywhere. I'm even smsing with a co-worker from my tablet right now.

Agreed, and it was even better before they reduced a lot of the functionality for non Fi users.

What functionality did they reduce for non-fi users?

Re: The latest on Messages, Allo, Duo and Hangouts

#203

Post by secabeen » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 6:35 AM UTC

sorenjan wrote: post #94

paulryanrogers wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't a federated solution be better though? After all email and SMS are decentralized, albeit somewhat archaic.

If email and SMS was invented today, they wouldn't be open and decentralized. Everything is locked and centralized nowadays, since everything is tied to accounts at companies wanting to make money of of you. It's the current state of the Internet, a world wide open network with siloed incompatible services. I'm actually contemplating ICQ, it's still around and looks no worse than any other service. Matrix might be a…

Yep. 20 years ago, if you developed something cool, you open sourced it. Now, you turn it into a SAAS startup and monetize it to make your millions.

Re: The latest on Messages, Allo, Duo and Hangouts

#204

Post by koshak » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 6:36 AM UTC

Google has clearly got internal problems with their product management. It is a well-known fact that the fewer options you have the easier the choice. Once you have to choose between similar things with intersecting feature sets you find yourself in the center of uncomfortable mess. And there is no one to blame but those who make high level decisions in Google.

Re: The latest on Messages, Allo, Duo and Hangouts

#205

Post by ahartmetz » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 6:36 AM UTC

fencepost wrote: post #24

Someone at Google just wants to make sure that people know where they can go for a consistent and stable messaging experience. I'm just not quite sure if they intend that to be Skype, Facebook, Slack or maybe Discord.

IRC is the most consistent and stable, just saying ;)

Re: The latest on Messages, Allo, Duo and Hangouts

#206

Post by gordon_freeman » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 6:38 AM UTC

I don't understand why can't just Google copy iMessage exactly as it is. They can just tie up the chat app like Hangouts to the Gmail ID and just build SMS and Video functionality into it. And make it available by default. So when I want to SMS, Text, or Video I don't need to "think" which app to use. They can just get rid of their Messages, Allo, Duo, etc and just stick to one default messaging app.

Re: The latest on Messages, Allo, Duo and Hangouts

#207

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 6:41 AM UTC

ericabiz wrote: post #43

I count six different apps here: Allo Duo Messages Hangouts Hangouts Chat Hangouts Meet I’m technical and I follow news about Google, and I can still barely tell what app does what and for whom. How is the vast majority of the world supposed to keep up? This is ridiculous.

Don't forget the native Android SMS app.

Re: The latest on Messages, Allo, Duo and Hangouts

#208

Post by pookeh » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 6:43 AM UTC

grogenaut wrote: post #196

pookeh wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iMessages integrates really well with os x...

os x, ios, and nothing else. That's the thing I like about gchat, it works everywhere.

Sure but I am talking about the quality of product and the vision. There is coherence. Gchat works everywhere but is not well integrated with anything.

Disclaimer: there are no ios devices in my house and I am android guy all the way. But wow does messaging suck compared to ios world

Re: The latest on Messages, Allo, Duo and Hangouts

#209

Post by axaxs » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 6:46 AM UTC

shaklee3 wrote: post #112

cjtrowbridge wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You should add that no product from anyone else has this capability, even on iPhone.

This is what bugs me. It's not an overly complicated idea, and I feel many users would actually pay for it. Why has nobody tried? When I search for alternatives, I only find business offerings, with worse functionality.

I just want to use my provider for data. Lemme call and text via the web/app, keep my number safe, and my money is yours...

Re: The latest on Messages, Allo, Duo and Hangouts

#210

Post by CivBase » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 6:47 AM UTC

So... this?

           | Text     | Video
  Business | Chat     | Meet
  Personal | Messages | Duo

I guess that makes a lot more sense... I just wish I knew why four separate apps are needed in the first place.

Why can't text and audio/video be supported in the same app? Skype, Hangouts, HipChat (RIP) and many other messaging programs have been doing it for ages. It's simple and intuitive.

The Hangouts Chat/Meet split is particularly confusing. Aside from supporting more people in a call, I really don't understand what makes a Meet call better than the old Hangouts calls. My confusion is only compounded by Google's continued support for calls on the old Hangouts (now "Hangouts Chat"?).

Is there really such a big difference between an enterprise chat service and a personal one? Companies were turning to Hangouts long before Google announced it would become an enterprise-focused service.

HipChat (RIP) and Slack have obvious enterprise features that would seem out-of-place in a personal chat app... but Hangouts doesn't have any such features. It became popular without them. Why change your development focus all of the sudden? Why not continue marching towards a unified communications app and let the enterprise customers just do their thing?

I'm sure, given proper context and information, most of the decisions leading up to this point make sense in isolation. Still, Google really needs to sit down and figure out where they want all these apps to be in 5 years because - though I'm far from the first (or last) to say it - this is a mess.