To compete with Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp as well as Apple’s iMessages, Google is looking for bold new ideas. They have had a number of failures in this area, having tried Talk, Hangouts and Allo! But for an American company, there’s no such thing as failure – there’s just the gaining of experience.
Looking forward, Google will focus on delivering their new calling and messaging system called “Chat.”
Chat aims to replace SMS, and uses the RCS protocol (Rich Communication Service) to achieve its goals. With Chat, users no longer need to download an application and keep that application updated, and the open-source nature of the RCS protocol will make this platform accessible to developers.
According to The Verge media publication, more than 60 companies all over the world, including developers and operators such as Orange, Samsung and Asus have already committed to supporting Chat. For its part, Google promises that this system will be very easy to use, and will allow participants to create conversation groups and send audio messages and media files. And, of course, Chat will be compatible with iOS and Android.
For now, however, there has been no announcement of an official launch date. Perhaps we’ll get more details during the Google I/O conference that will be held between May 8th and 11th. We will keep you posted….
