Newsletter 
If you’re anything like me you’re pretty invested in the Google ecosystem. Android users are in the ecosystem by default but I’m guessing that a lot of people don’t use the Google services to their full potential. But for me, and I’m sure most readers of Android Headlines, we take full advantage of everything the search giant has to offer. From Google Voice to Google Plus and Gmail to Google Talk, I use them all and use them all regularly. One thing has always irked me however and that’s the fact that while all these services are connected there isn’t just one place to view everything.
Take the Chrome browser for example. If I open Gmail, not only can I send and receive emails but I can also chat with Google Talk friends and make a call using my Google Voice number. However, if I want to send a text using that very same phone number I need to go into Google Voice on a completely separate page. The same goes for the Google Talk extension, I can chat and I can make a phone call but I need a different extension to text. What is so different between Google Talk and Voice that I can’t use the same extension for messaging? This isn’t even taking into account the Google Plus chat function which essentially doubles up what Google Talk already offers.
In Android it’s even worse. There is a total of four android apps that need to be installed (Talk, Mail, Voice, & +Messenger), when you could get by with three (has anyone even opened that +Messenger app?), and in reality at most you should only have two (give Gmail a standalone app and combine the rest). I’m sorry for that long rant but it needed to be said.
Anyway there appears to be a flicker of light at the end of the Google Services tunnel for anyone who feels the same way as I do. It comes via Developer Francois Beaufort, who earlier posted a screenshot in a (now deleted) Google Plus post that appeared to have all of these services combined in one window.
In this screenshot we see notifications in the style of Google Now cards, as well as an icon pinned to the task bar on the bottom that hints at an all in one messaging app. We see cards for messages, missed calls, and what look an awful lot like Google Plus notifications all in the same place.
Of course when Beaufort was asked in the comments of the post he stated that “he doesn’t know yet” with a winking smiley face afterwards. This was then followed by comments of people hoping for the same thing I’m looking for…Just one app for everything.
Well it looks like it’s coming to Chrome anyway and we can only hope that an Android version will be following. What do you guys think? Do you share my frustration with having so many apps? Is this the solution that you’ve been waiting for?