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Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

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Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#31

Post by busymom0 »

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…

> My email is now IMAP

> WebDAV

Can you explain how you implemented these too?

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#32

Post by filmor »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #13

I feel they missed out massively in not centralising the communications standards. Not sure if this was realistic or the new products were trying to create whole new tech that stopped this but when they saw different directions some core standards for interoperability would have helped. So if you had Hangouts and I had Allo we could still chat as least in the most standard was of voice/video/message. Proliferation wo…

They had this and aggressively rolled it back. Google Talk was XMPP-compatible and had federation enabled.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#33

Post by danuker »

gerash wrote: post #17
Gustomaximus wrote: post #13

I feel they missed out massively in not centralising the communications standards. Not sure if this was realistic or the new products were trying to create whole new tech that stopped this but when they saw different directions some core standards for interoperability would have helped. So if you had Hangouts and I had Allo we could still chat as least in the most standard was of voice/video/message. Proliferation wo…

Phone lines have this solved. You don't need to be on ATT to call someone on ATT. I don't get what's the deal with the messaging platforms. I hope some regulation forces interoperability.

Meanwhile you can move to Matrix; it breaks into quite some walled gardens:

https://matrix.org/bridges/

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#34

Post by Ndymium »

arvindamirtaa wrote: post #21
fastball wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 account…

+1 I've been looking for a sane calendar service that's not Google calendar and there's just nothing that's open-standards compatible.

I use mailbox.org that has CardDAV and CalDAV in addition to email. I use DAVx⁵ for syncing to my Android phone. Mailbox.org's web UI is clunky but I rarely use it for anything other than extending the subscription. The calendar/contact sync and email have worked well.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#35

Post by toastal »

Living abroad, I'm still very reliant on Google Voice for the 4-5 annual calls I need to make with say my bank or credit card because they will only do certain transactions by voice. Or other services demand a US telephone number without allowing a country code because of myopic design.

We really need to disconnect the need for phones for services that can be digital. People don't have landlines and there's a lot of people that would probably prefer a data-only plan since they don't make phone calls. Regular phone calls aren't normally encrypted either.

At least with Google Voice I've been able to circumvent having a 'real' US number -- giving the data brokers more data points. That is until I get locked out of services like PayPal who blocked Google Voice so I have no way to authenticate (not that they have a reason to need my phone number to bridge my already-verified bank with another service).

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#36

Post by danuker »

filmor wrote: post #32
Gustomaximus wrote: post #13

I feel they missed out massively in not centralising the communications standards. Not sure if this was realistic or the new products were trying to create whole new tech that stopped this but when they saw different directions some core standards for interoperability would have helped. So if you had Hangouts and I had Allo we could still chat as least in the most standard was of voice/video/message. Proliferation wo…

They had this and aggressively rolled it back. Google Talk was XMPP-compatible and had federation enabled.

And then proceeded to lose market share. And then Google Wave died. And then Google+ died.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#37

Post by busymom0 »

gonehome wrote: post #26
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…

I used Google Voice when they first acquired it - it was years early and really ahead of things back then. Texting from the web, voice transcription for messages, could ring multiple numbers. Then they did nothing with it for maybe seven years? MMS would silently fail so people inviting you to events via group chat or sending you a photo would just think you were ignoring them. Hangouts came and the mess with that an…

> At the same time Apple’s stuff has improved year over year. Out of all the large tech companies I’m most bearish about Google’s future - they seem aimless. Deepmind is cool, but Google better hope that ad money machine never stops printing.

As an iOS user, I feel the opposite in most areas except calling/messaging/facetime. I find Apple software to be severely limiting their own hardware. Their iPads are such excellent devices yet severely limited because of iOS. If iOS hadn't done calling/messaging/FaceTime right, I would have completely ditched them.

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#39

Post by gonehome »

busymom0 wrote: post #37
gonehome wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used Google Voice when they first acquired it - it was years early and really ahead of things back then. Texting from the web, voice transcription for messages, could ring multiple numbers. Then they did nothing with it for maybe seven years? MMS would silently fail so people inviting you to events via group chat or sending you a photo would just think you were ignoring them. Hangouts came and the mess with that an…

> At the same time Apple’s stuff has improved year over year. Out of all the large tech companies I’m most bearish about Google’s future - they seem aimless. Deepmind is cool, but Google better hope that ad money machine never stops printing. As an iOS user, I feel the opposite in most areas except calling/messaging/facetime. I find Apple software to be severely limiting their own hardware. Their iPads are such excel…

I agree there’s a lot more potential for iPad hardware UI, but also think they’ve improved year over year.

It’ll be interesting to see what they work out for iPad OS to make it more powerful. They’re obviously not willing to just slap a standard PC OS on there. I’d guess they’re going to come up with new stuff from first principles as best they can for it (even if that means limiting it in the short term).

Re: Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline

#40

Post by zmmmmm »

Amazingly Hangouts is still the most cross platform, generally usable and useful chat app I have ... it even still accepts XMPP connections.

And of course, they are trying to kill it. (at least that is what the message I got last night said) ... sigh.

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