Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#1

Post by 0xedb » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 4:11 AM UTC

Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline
theverge.com

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#2

Post by jaimex2 » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 4:37 AM UTC

Google as an inovative company with amazing things to try died almost a decade ago. Today its more or less IBM. Would you try IBMs new chat app?

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#3

Post by gerikson » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 4:51 AM UTC

jaimex2 wrote: post #2

Google as an inovative company with amazing things to try died almost a decade ago. Today its more or less IBM. Would you try IBMs new chat app?

I'd trust it to stick around more than a few years, that's for sure.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#4

Post by Scaevolus » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 4:55 AM UTC

They forgot about Inbox!

After following this nonsense product timeline for 16 years from the original Google Talk days, my last chat thread still using Hangouts moved to Facebook Messenger. chat.google.com is just aggressively worse in far too many ways, and will surely be killed circa 2024.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#5

Post by Osiris » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 5:05 AM UTC

Does anyone have any insight into Google's internal politics or processes that lead to this mess, and why is chat so much more fragmented at Google than other services?

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#6

Post by 0x0EB0DA10 » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 5:14 AM UTC

Scaevolus wrote: post #4

They forgot about Inbox! After following this nonsense product timeline for 16 years from the original Google Talk days, my last chat thread still using Hangouts moved to Facebook Messenger. chat.google.com is just aggressively worse in far too many ways, and will surely be killed circa 2024.

Isn't Inbox just an email client?

> chat.google.com is just aggressively worse in far too many ways, and will surely be killed circa 2024.

I doubt it. Google Chat is Google's enterprise product offering like Microsoft's skype.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#7

Post by COGlory » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 5:15 AM UTC

I tried so hard to integrate into the Google ecosystem. I had a Gmail account and Google Talk to start. Eventually an Android phone, on Project Fi, with Hangouts and SMS (so I could send SMS over the internet). I upgraded from Gmail to Inbox. Then when they ditched that for Allo and Duo I tried to switch to those. Then I lost SMS on my computer because it got removed from Hangouts. Then I tried to switch to Google voice after they redid that, but you couldn't have Google voice with Fi...I also uploaded all my music to Google music. All my RSS in Google reader. I had a Google+ account. Multiple Google pixels.

I really thought Google was going to be the answer for a completely integrated, non-Apple online life.

Anyways, long story short, after endless frustration trying to get everything to work seamlessly, I ditched Google entirely.

My email is now IMAP. I have multiple accounts in one app. My calendar and contacts are now WebDAV. Every other app I use on PC and mobile can integrate with them. My messaging is now Element/Matrix with bridges to whatever other services I need. My search is DuckDuckGo, browser is Firefox, etc.

Currently, everything is as integrated, or more integrated, than it was with Google, and worlds more stable. Somehow, despite being huge and having all the data and basically a monopoly, they still can't integrate to save their lives.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#8

Post by anonygler » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 5:18 AM UTC

They left out google groups. I’m sorry, groups team, the local baseball teams and HOAs see you.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#9

Post by fastball » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 5:21 AM UTC

COGlory wrote: post #7

I tried so hard to integrate into the Google ecosystem. I had a Gmail account and Google Talk to start. Eventually an Android phone, on Project Fi, with Hangouts and SMS (so I could send SMS over the internet). I upgraded from Gmail to Inbox. Then when they ditched that for Allo and Duo I tried to switch to those. Then I lost SMS on my computer because it got removed from Hangouts. Then I tried to switch to Google vo…

Which service do you use for CalDAV / CardDAV? I've been trying to migrate from a gmail account to my own personal domain, but my current provider doesn't support those so I want to move on to someone else.

The thing that annoys me most is that (as far as I can tell) only the big name providers have integrated mail/caldav/carddav, if you use a bring-your-own-domain solution they need to be added as 3 separate accounts (at least on iOS/macOS).

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#10

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 5:21 AM UTC

Osiris wrote: post #5

Does anyone have any insight into Google's internal politics or processes that lead to this mess, and why is chat so much more fragmented at Google than other services?

[deleted]