I had Google Voice before I had an Android phone. A big selling point of Android to me early on, especially stock Android phones like the Nexus One, was how, being a Google product, it would integrate with my SMS and phone apps, and provide a unified experience. Since then, they've released so many chat apps, most with SMS integration, that it's just frustratingly confusing and it makes me think less of the entire platform.

So I get they wanted to make a Slack competitor... why not make this new app FINALLY also double as the One True Google Chat App? Surely that would be good for adoption and stuff, plus it would finally solve their "too many chat apps" problem once and for all...