Google will reportedly shut down its smart messaging app, Google Allo

Google/Business Insider

• Google will soon be shutting
  down its smart messaging app, Google Allo, according to
  a report from 9to5Google.
• Back in April, Google product chief Anil Sabharwal confirmed
  that Google Allo had “not achieved the level of traction that
  we’d hoped for.” 
• The company also announced in April that it’s working on
  Google Chat, which would create a new universal standard for text
  messaging known as rich communication services (or RCS). 
• Allo will soon join the legacy of Google’s failed messaging
  apps including Gchat, Google Buzz, and Google Wave. 

Another Google messaging app is about to bite the dust — this
time, it’s Google Allo. 

According to a
report by 9to5Google, the search giant’s “smart” messaging
app — which came equipped with Google Assistant — will be
shutting down soon. 

Google did not immediately reply to Business Insider’s request
for comment on the report. 

Read more:


Google is surprisingly bad at building messaging apps, but there
are 4 reasons its plans to replace texting may work

Allo was announced at the company’s developer conference in
May 2016, and after lackluster adoption, the company said in
April 2018 it would be “pausing investment” on the app. 

“The product as a whole has not achieved the level of traction
that we’d hoped for,” Anil Sabharwal, vice president of product
at Google,
told The Verge at the time. 

The decision to shutter Allo makes strategic sense, since the
company announced — also in April 2018 — that it was working on

an initiative
known as Google Chat. Google Chat will be similar to SMS and
Apple’s iMessage, creating a new universal standard for text
messaging for Android users known as rich communication services
(or RCS). 

Still, it’s hard to ignore the difficulties Google has had
launching a consumer messaging app throughout the history of the
company. Once Google confirms the shutdown of Allo, it will join
Google Buzz, Google Wave, and Gchat — technically called Google Talk
— in the chat app graveyard. 

Get the latest Google stock price here.