Google working on a brand new messaging app to take on Facebook Messenger
As reported on by The Wall Street Journal three days ago, citing “people familiar with the matter”, the Internet giant Google is working on a new messaging service for mobile that will take advantage of its AI and “so-called chatbot technology.”
From the description, the messaging service sounds similar to Facebook Messenger and M, which can find birthday gifts for your friends, transfer money and more using its powerful AI and human element factor.
Google is said to take advantage of a technology it developed in the summer that lets chatbots learn how to talk with humans by analyzing dialogue from movies.
The biggest problem Google faces is the undeniable fact that the company has never been successful in the messaging app market.
Aside from confusing users with multiple chat services it used to maintain, its two key messaging apps—Hangouts and Messenger—have failed to give the likes of Facebook and China-based Tencent a run for their money.
Besides, the barrier to entry may be too high. Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp platforms combined have nearly two billion users. Tencent-owned WeChat, the most popular messaging app in China, claims 650 million active users.
Viber recently passed 600 million active accounts, Skype has about 300 million users, Snapchat this summer passed hundred million daily active users while Kik Messenger’s user base counts about 250 million accounts.
It is unclear when Google plans on launching its new messaging service and what it will be called. Google’s current messaging platform, Hangouts, is not doing particularly well, but its failure is to be blamed on the company itself. The lack of frequent updates and any meaningful additions to Hangouts over the last year or two have made sure that even loyal Google users flock to other messaging services.
Source : The Wall Street Journal