Google Allo released in 2016 also gave us the first glimpse at the App Preview Messaging feature. Later that year, Google also started an early access program to bring more developers on board. Fast-forward to 2020, and Google has no other choice but to permanently kill the App Preview Messaging feature.
There were no reports of any third-party developers implementing this feature in their apps in all these years. However, Google has enabled the App Preview Messaging in Google Allo, Duo, and Photos. While Google has already shut down Allo in March 2019, it might soon replace the Duo with Google Meet.
Google’s App Preview Messaging gets permanently disabled
As far as the users are concerned, the feature always felt more annoying than useful. According to Google, the App Preview Messaging is now officially deprecated. The company announced that the program is complete as of Q3 2020, and users can no longer send messages via App Preview Messaging.
Even though the official announcement just came out, the feature may have been removed a long time back. Furthermore, the settings related to this feature will be removed from smartphones in future updates. In addition, the company suggested that developers opt for Business Messages to add messaging capabilities to their apps.
The notifications always felt like spam
The App Preview Messaging basically allows Android users to send a message to their contacts using an Android smartphone. It works even if the recipient doesn’t have that particular app installed on their smartphone. The feature implemented through built-in Google Play Services on Android smartphones.
It sort-of brought cross-compatibility to the messaging apps on the platform. For apps like Google Duo and Google Photos, a notification pushed to signup for the service. For example, Android users can start a Duo video call with any contact from their smartphones.
The recipient will get a notification to install the app in order to start the video call with that specific user. Even with messages, users can’t do more than just responding to notifications. In order to manage or store messages, the user has to download the respective app.
Many Android users probably felt these notifications were spam. Without the app, the user has to go to the “Data & Messaging” sub-menu in the Google section within the Settings app for any task. For now, Google is pushing RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging to offer iMessage-like service on through default messages app on Android.