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Google halts development of Allo to focus on RCS messaging

By Cookie Monster - on 23 Apr 2018, 3:00am

Google halts development of Allo to focus on RCS messaging

Google's Allo messaging app.

Google is rebooting its messaging app strategy by "pausing" development of the two-year-old Allo and refocusing all its resources into the Android Messages app.

The Android Messages app is not new, but Google plans to build a new system called "Chat" into the app so that it will have advancing messaging features similar or comparable to other modern messaging apps. Some of these advanced messaging features include high-resolution images and videos, read receipts, typing indicators and easy-to-manage chat groups. 

"Chat" is based on a standard called the "Universal Profile for Rich Communication Services (RCS)" and built on SMS, which means that it is backwards-compatible with the SMS/MMS system. RCS will use your mobile number as the profile identifier and if you send a message to someone who doesn't have RCS, it will come through as a regular SMS.

However, for RCS to work, Google requires the cooperation of telcos around the world to support it and sell phones that support it. As of April 2018, there are 55 telcos (including Singtel and M1), 11 OEMs (including ASUS, HTC, Huawei, LG and Samsung) and 2 OS providers (Microsoft and Google) that support RCS. 

It is important to note that "Chat" is a carrier-based service, not a Google service. It will be enabled for most users in the near future, but the timing is dictated by the respective telcos in the different countries. There are also certain things to take note of: 

  • "Chat" messages are sent with the data plan instead of your SMS plan.
  • "Chat" is not end-to-end encrypted, which means it is not as secure as iMessage or WhatsApp.

Let's just hope that Google succeed this time and finally fix Android's messaging mess. It has tried multiple times in the past few years with several apps such as Google Talk, Google Voice, Google+ Huddles, Hangouts, some of which are already discontinued or repackaged for enterprise use.

Source: The Verge via Android Central

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