It's time for another chapter in the saga of Google's messaging mess. This latest news comes from The Verge, which reports that Google will be abandoning its most recent messaging app failure, Google Allo, in favor of a renewed push for the carrier-controlled RCS (Rich Communication Services) protocol.
Google Allo was Google's attempt at a WhatsApp clone, and it launched just a year-and-a-half ago with a laundry list of deficiencies. It used a phone-centric login system and didn't support using a Google account. It only worked on one device at a time and didn't have an interface for desktop or laptop computers. Distribution wasn't great either, as Allo wasn't one of the mandatory Google apps included in every Android phone. None of this really mattered since Allo didn't support sending SMS messages, so there was no one to talk to anyway. Google's other chat service, Google Hangouts, was better in nearly every way.
With such a half-baked launch, the real unknown for Google Allo was what kind of resources Google would throw at it. Like Android, which also entered a market late in the game, Allo needed a massive amount of resources to catch up to the competition. Instead, we were treated to an absolutely glacial development pace that mostly focused on new sticker packs. It took a full year before Allo addressed one of its biggest flaws—not working on a desktop—and even then, login was handled by a janky QR code pairing system that only worked on one extra device at a time. Google users expect a Google account-based login that works on all devices all the time, just like Hangouts.
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