Google has officially announced plans to shut down its chat app, Allo. That said, the news shouldn’t come as a surprise given the fact that Google stopped investing in the app since April. Back then, Google revealed that Allo couldn’t garner the level of popularity the company thought it would.
Google has always struggled to create a chat app to rival the likes of WhatsApp or Messenger, despite owning Android, the world’s most adopted smartphone OS.
Allo was launched nearly two years ago with much fanfare. Though, Google has now announced plans to retire the chat app, adding that Allo will continue to work only till March next year, and users will be able to download or export their conversations until then.
Google will now put its focus on creating ‘Messages’, another chat app the company is prepping for Android phones. The company announced earlier this year that it has joined hands with mobile carriers on the new RCS (Rich Communication Services) standard. It’s essentially an upgrade to old-school SMS texting, which according to Google, should make messaging and group chats more seamless across Android devices.
The company has also announced its plans to kill off ‘Hangouts Classic, which will be replaced by two enterprise-focussed apps, Hangouts Chat and Meet. Both of them will launch for all consumers next year, as right now, Chat and Meet are only available to G Suite users.
Well, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard Google deciding to shut down its chat apps. The serach engine giant has become rather infamous for killing off several chat apps and social networks. In the past, the company has axed multiple apps such as the original GChat, Google Plus, Buzz, as well as Wave.
