According to the Information, Google is working on a new business messaging app that will unify a number of its services. The company wants to bring “together the functions of several standalone apps”.
Google plans to unify quite a few services with this business messaging app
The company is allegedly planning to include Gmail, Google Drive, Hangouts Chat, Hangouts Meet, and Google Calendar in this new business messaging app. It is noted that users still need to open a standalone Google Calendar app in order to access its functions, though.
Just to be clear, we’re talking about a mobile app here, a desktop alternative is not mentioned. If this app does make it to the market, a desktop alternative may follow, though. That would make all the sense in the world.
The Information notes that this application is already in testing. This application will, of course, be a part of Google’s G Suite family of productivity tools.
This app is meant to compete with Microsoft Teams & Slack
The app is meant to compete with Microsoft Teams and Slack, amongst others. This is probably Google’s way to attempt to attract more business. One application that unifies various services definitely makes sense from a business standpoint.
Businesses would gladly use a single app instead of five different ones in order to achieve what they want. In theory, this app sounds like a great solution, but we’ll see if that will be the case in practice.
Do note that only the business version of this app is mentioned. So, it will be a part of G Suite only. It will almost certainly not be focused on regular consumers in any way, you’ll still need to use all those apps separately.
This move by Google is not exactly surprising, it makes sense. The company does have a tendency of throwing ideas to the wall and see what sticks.
Unfortunately, though, Google is no stranger to killing services that people love, but are not attracting as many consumers as the company would like.
Inbox is a great example of this, and the same can be said for Google+. Google decided to drop quite a few such projects over the year, let’s hope the same will not happen with this app as well.
At this point, it sure seems like the app will make it to the market. It remains to be seen how long will it stay available, though.
The Information did not say when will this app become available, though, nor what will it be called. Considering that it’s already in testing, we’re expecting it to arrive really soon.