Apparently, Google is convinced that you can never have too many options in regards to mobile software. It makes sense if you consider the fact that people are always looking for better ways to communicate with each other. If the software is free, then it is even better!
If we take a look back, we will see the progression of different communication software for our PCs. Starting from AOL, ICQ, MSN, and Skype (which came later but quickly became dominant) to the applications that are used today (such as Viber, for example) we can see that we always had some means for communication. Nowadays, it seems like Google is aiming to compete with the industry leaders for their share of the market. It will, undoubtedly, have a difficult time with such powerful competitors as Viber and WhatsApp. Some of the published reports suggest that Google is developing their own chat software. This process is being supervised by Nikhil Singhal, an Indian man who is one of Google’s lead product managers. Apparently, he is also responsible for Google Hangouts and Google+ development.
Officially, there has been no confirmation of this from Google. However, various rumors indicate that there is something being developed and that something should be available to the general public in 2015. This is not surprising to anybody that keeps an eye out on the development of mobile chat platforms. It is a very fast growing and popular market and it makes sense that Google would want to have a piece of that market’s shares. Whatsapp has recently reported that it has over 600 million registered users. A recent acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook is considered to be one of the best business moves in history by many people. Together with their competition (such as Viber and others), WhatsApp has seen a steady grow ever since it started offering their users a cheap and effective way to communicate. This fact is, of course, very worrying to all of the Telecommunication companies who now finally started seeing these programs as a serious competitor. The fast and free communication that this software provides is a reasonable alternative to calls and text messaging.
Google chat software takes its roots form the Google talk system that no longer exists and has been replaced by the Hangout system- a Chrome extension that allows the user to communicate with his or her Google+ friends. It is available free for download from various resources on the internet. Those of you who have a Gmail and are registered in Google+ are already familiar with this piece of software, no doubt. It is, basically, a very simple, yet efficient messenger client that allows chatting between people who have a Google account. The new chat software will have a lot in common with this software, in my opinion. It will probably also be very lightweight and easy to use, while providing essential functionality like messaging, calling, option to make a friends list and so on.