With Apple’s RCS for iPhone announcement, Google is undoubtedly moving full steam ahead on Messages and RCS as its consumer messaging app. It is inherently aligned with Android, which bodes well for continued development, and consistently gets a slew of new features.
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However, the company does have a whole other messaging service, though the boundaries between the two are clear. Google Chat is very much an enterprise Slack and Microsoft Teams competitor that benefits from Drive/Docs/Meet integration and other third-party tools.
That said, it is entirely free to use for anybody with a personal Gmail Account and checks all the boxes for 1:1 and group messaging before getting into larger Spaces.
Chat is about to add a slew of features, including the new icon that signals its Google nature and homescreen to streamline navigation. On the enterprise AI front, Duet will be able to summarize missed conversations, but having that apply for personal threads should be more than possible down the road.
In theory, an email address-based identity system for instant messaging is more portable than the phone number that most other services are based on. It can also provide an increased sense of anonymity.
Like Google Talk in the late 2000s to early 2010s, Google Chat’s key advantage should be how it is built into Gmail on the web and (more recently) mobile. All you need is the Gmail app/website that most people already have installed/open for email to start messaging and receiving notifications. If you want a more…
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