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A comment on Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS. Parent comment

Re:Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to A... by what_ever on Friday April 20, 2018 @01:54PM (#16886929)
Some of the people here are in a bubble. There are billions of people in the 3rd world countries who are now coming online and they will never have a GMail account in their life. But they will have a Facebook account and they will have Whatsapp. So many of my relatives started using internet after Jio made it so cheap and none of them use Hangouts, Allo, GMail to communicate. But everyone is on Whatsapp and everyone has a Facebook profile.

Disc: Googler, but this knowledge is my own as I grew up in India.

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Re:Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to A... by cthalupa on Friday April 20, 2018 @02:15PM (#16887146)
None of that disproves his point. Google Talk could have been WhatsApp, very easily. They were in a position to make it happen before WhatsApp had even started development - Google Talk had enjoyed a meteoric rise and dominance over the messaging market for 4 years before WhatsApp came out, and it took WhatsApp quite a bit of time past 2009 to gain the steam it did.

The fact that they failed to capitalize on it is what has allowed WhatsApp and others to become as big as they have. If Google hadn't messed it up, everyone would be using Google Talk, even in the 3rd world.

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Re:Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to A... by arbie on Friday April 20, 2018 @08:18PM (#16889290)
Exactly. GMail did not have to be the only way to access Talk. It could have allowed parallel identity schemes easily for phone-number based login.
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Re:Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to A... by rkuykendall-com on Friday April 20, 2018 @03:28PM (#16887788)
You live in a bubble, but your bubble is different from their bubble. Thank you for being kind enough to share what you leaned growing up. It helps us all see past our own bubbles.
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Re:Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to A... by balladeer on Saturday April 21, 2018 @04:04AM (#16890462)
I am from a rural part of India and everybody has a Jio phone and everybody is on WhatsApp and Facebook. Most of them don't even know what is email and I don't know anyone who uses email or any other chat service other maybe Hike in rare cases. I was surprised since they already have Facebook and it would have required an email.

I often get disapproving looks when they realise I am not on Facebook :)

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Re:Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to A... by worldexplorer on Sunday April 22, 2018 @12:38AM (#16894730)
Users can sign up on Facebook with phone number only. Most users in rural parts are signing up on Facebook through phone no. only.
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