Google developing all-in-one messaging app for businesses

AppleInsider

Google has seeded select employees with an unreleased app that combines the functionality of Gmail, Hangouts Meet, Hangouts Chat and other services in what appears to be a play at competitors like Slack.

Google's new app might mean trouble for Slack

The app combines Google's document storage and messaging services to bring multiple productivity properties under one umbrella, according to a report from The Information that cites people familiar with the project. This simplification, and the already widespread nature of Google's products, could drive existing Google Business users to move away from Slack and Microsoft Teams.

By merging Gmail, Google Drive, Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat into a single mobile entity, the unnamed Google app would act as a one stop shop for small businesses and teams to collaborate and chat. As an added benefit, users would be able to access existing cloud storage options and use current email addresses. Google will reportedly offer the app as part of G Suite, the company's collection of online productivity apps and services.

With the new app offering, Google looks to take on market incumbents Microsoft and Slack, both of which are heavily used across many industries as an easy way to communicate. Microsoft's Office 365 suite, for example, offers business chat, VoIP calls, videoconferencing and other features in a single app called Microsoft Teams. Slack provides similar capabilities and integrations with third-party productivity tools in its standalone communications app.

If Google releases the app publicly, it could create real competition in the sector. However, Google is well known as a company that tests many apps, or even releases them, only to pull the plug soon after. And the search giant's track record is particularly poor when it comes to communications services.

indieshack

I used Slack on a dev project and wasn’t blown away - I assume Google will do it properly - good luck to them 

eric_wvgg

AppleInsider said:

Google's new app might mean trouble for Slack

oh goddamned horseshit

Google+ was a better product than Facebook. Facebook had a five-plus-year headstart.

Slack is awesome and it's entrenched. Slack has plenty of shortcomings and I'm sure that Google can make a better product. Too late.

macpro

And Google will parse all the information and monetize it somehow.  Leopards don't change their spots.  Who on earth in business with a brain would trust Google?

lordjohnwhorfin

How many times are they going to reheat Google Wave? Go home, Google. Nobody wants your crap.

chasm

Yes! Share your sensitive business conversations with Google! That won't have any negative repercussions! **LOL**

anantksundaram

What a Hangouts? Like, man?

prokip

I am 'forced' to use Google for some of the businesses I work with.  But would not touch ANYTHING they provide with a 10 foot pole otherwise.  I recently removed Chrome from my wife's machine as the only Google thing on our personal machines.  She was getting weird emails that 'knew' what sites she had visited.

Who in their right mind would engage with Google on anything that was important and sensitive to them.

It's like allowing some Chinese company to build you patented product (without absolute strict control over production which included hiding the "secret sauce" so it can't be copied).

strangedays

Another comms app? How many swings are they up to now? No thanks. 

lordjohnwhorfin

anantksundaram said:

What a Hangouts? Like, man?

It’s like eWorld, just less crowded.

cropr

In my company we've chosen for Slack as the internal communication platform and a paid G-suite for e-mail and video-conferencing. 

Slack works very smooth together with a lot of software tools we use internally (bitbucket, trello, ...), it has audio and video conferencing, but these features are perhaps the weakest points of Slack, that's why we use Google Meet. 

But as long as I am happy about Slack, I won't switch to Google

For those who assume that Google will collect data and abuse it, I can only tell there is a huge difference between the free consumer services like search and G-mail, and the paid G-suite services, where Google contractually says it does not collect the data..  Just to give a clue, on my personal (free) gmail account, there are around 300 spam messages per day, while on my paid professional G-suite email account, there a few spam messages per week. 

missnomer

indieshack said:

I used Slack on a dev project and wasn’t blown away - I assume Google will do it properly - good luck to them 

Your assumption may well be horribly misplaced given Google's track record.

Their communication app history is a bloody diabolical mess and littered with a history of shutting services down.

gatorguy

MacPro said:

And Google will parse all the information and monetize it somehow.  Leopards don't change their spots.  Who on earth in business with a brain would trust Google?

It's most likely part of a PAID service. Therefor no ad monetizing.

dewme

indieshack said:

I used Slack on a dev project and wasn’t blown away - I assume Google will do it properly - good luck to them 

I’ve used Slack for nearly 5 years and it’s been great for team collaboration. I’m not sure what you were expecting it to do, but the simple fact that it replaces what used to be a heinous process of trying to collaborate across teams using email threads, mailing lists, with an uncoordinated mix of instant messaging more than earns its keep. The integrations with a popular tools like Git are icing on the cake. What blows me away when it comes to tools are the ones that promise to fix a nasty problem, like email thread hell, and actually do it like Slack does, rather than tools that try to incorporate every feature under the sun and end up bloated up with hundreds of features I never use, which describes most every Microsoft product ever created, like Word. 

sree

Slack is anyway dying, slowly being killed by microsoft teams. Microsoft has overtaken them in 2 yrs flat. 

danvm

MacPro said:

And Google will parse all the information and monetize it somehow.  Leopards don't change their spots.  Who on earth in business with a brain would trust Google?

Looks like Apple trust Google enough receive from them between $9B and $12B to make Google Search the default search engine in Safari.  Based in your post, you don't think Apple have brains, right?

jcs2305

danvm said:

MacPro said:

And Google will parse all the information and monetize it somehow.  Leopards don't change their spots.  Who on earth in business with a brain would trust Google?

Looks like Apple trust Google enough receive from them between $9B and $12B to make Google Search the default search engine in Safari.  Based in your post, you don't think Apple have brains, right?

I somewhat agree.. but Google being the default search engine doesn't mean it's the only one available to use. I have used Duck Duck Go with Safari for years now on my personal IOS devices and Macs, as well as my woke supplied Windows machine using Firefox as the browser.

pscooter63

gatorguy said:
most likely
therefore

Those two don't really go together, no matter how much you want them to appear to.

gatorguy

pscooter63 said:

gatorguy said:
most likely
therefore

Those two don't really go together, no matter how much you want them to appear to.

Thanks. I've been out of school for a lot of years and the internet has poisoned my correct use of the written word just as it has most of us.  Thank goodness we have people like you willing to police and correct us as needed. 

EDIT: Therefore instead of therefor. Thanks. It should have ended in an E for it to be proper. I was not aware those were different words with different meanings.

edited January 2020

danvm

jcs2305 said:

danvm said:

MacPro said:

And Google will parse all the information and monetize it somehow.  Leopards don't change their spots.  Who on earth in business with a brain would trust Google?

Looks like Apple trust Google enough receive from them between $9B and $12B to make Google Search the default search engine in Safari.  Based in your post, you don't think Apple have brains, right?

I somewhat agree.. but Google being the default search engine doesn't mean it's the only one available to use. I have used Duck Duck Go with Safari for years now on my personal IOS devices and Macs, as well as my woke supplied Windows machine using Firefox as the browser.

We are not talking about changing the default search engine.  @MacPro asked who, with a brain, would trust Google.  Obviously Apple trust them, considering the huge amount of money they accept to make their search engine the default in Safari.  As you said, you can go with something with a better privacy reputation, like Duck Duck Go.  But, wouldn't be better if Apple made Duck Duck Go (and even invest or acquire them) their default search engine instead of making business with Google?

bigmike

Attention Businesses: Google wants you to share all of your sensitive business information as well. You can trust them no problem. 👍