Google Has a Messaging App Problem
January 24 2017 - 9:43AM
Dow Jones News
By Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Google's love of messaging apps is getting out of control. For
the first time in five years, Alphabet Inc.'s search giant rolled
out a major update to its Google Voice service across its web and
mobile apps. Google Voice, which routes phone calls and text
messages to specific phone numbers, now has a modern look and new
features, like the ability to group text.
Google Voice is now a fully functional chat app -- Google's
fifth such app. While these apps compete with popular messaging
options from Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others,
they also face off in various ways against each other. The end
result? Confusion.
Here's a guide to Google's five messaging apps, and what each is
best for.
Google Voice
Google Voice is built for people who juggle multiple phones, but
only want to give out one number.
When starting a free Google Voice account, you pick a phone
number. You can choose a new number or port over one issued by a
telephone service provider. The redesigned app and website gives
you a central place to send text messages, share photos or place
phone calls.
In the past, the only way Google Voice users could send group
texts and share photos was to log into Google's Hangouts app with
their phone number.
Despite the new features, Google Voice is still mainly about
phone calls. They are free within the U.S. and Canada, and
international calling starts at one cent a minute. Assuming anyone
out there still picks up the phone.
Google Hangouts
Hangouts remains Google's most popular messaging service. The
reason? It is convenient and it can be used across phones and
PCs.
Hangouts can be found inside Google's widely used Gmail website.
There are also Hangouts apps for Google's Android and Apple's iOS.
In any iteration, you can send text, photos and videos, and place
voice and video calls by phone number or Gmail address.
Google has said it plans to make Hangouts better for business
users. While businesses do use it, it faces stiff competition there
from the likes of Slack and Microsoft's Skype.
Google Allo
Allo is one of a pair of apps released last year geared to
Android and iOS smartphones. A texting app like Apple's iMessage,
it also includes a special perk: the ability to chat with the
Google Assistant. Google's artificial-intelligence software scours
the web for movie show times, sports scores, trivia answers and
weather reports. Allo is the only way to communicate with Google
Assistant via text chat, though you can talk to it with a Google
Home speaker.
Aside from chatting with an AI, this app lets you send text and
photo messages to friends -- provided you know their number:
Although so many people have Gmail accounts, Allo is tied only to
phone numbers.
Google Duo
Google Duo is Allo's sibling, also only for iPhones and Android
smartphones. The app does one thing: one-to-one video chats. Like
Allo, Duo is tied to phone numbers.
Messenger
And the fifth? Google's Android-only app for SMS and MMS
messaging. You can't place a call or initiate a video chat -- you
just text individuals or groups. It also relies on phone numbers to
work.
Even though most cell plans now include unlimited text
messaging, this app feels arcane compared with the others out
there, Google's and everyone else's.
Write to Nathan Olivarez-Giles at
Nathan.Olivarez-giles@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 24, 2017 09:28 ET (14:28 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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