One of the apps they broke off, Allo, literally used phone numbers as IM identifiers but didn't support Google Voice integration and they simultaneously launched a second app, Duo, for video calls instead of just putting it in Allo. How could someone higher up not say "this is the dumbest thing ever, merge the teams or reassign one to something else"???
I was farther in the future of converged communication in 2015 than now.
I still have a soft spot for Google Talk, that was such a simple name.
Which is pretty ironic now that I think about it because were talking about apps they likely used internally for COMMUNICATION
Seriously! Executives at Google surely must be aware of the memes by now. Are they so delusional they don't believe them? They don't care? When they chat with each other, which app do they use? Steve Yegg's platform rant still rings true: Google's dogfood is all snouts and hooves.
They tried that. The person who was put in charge of the merged teams picked one and killed off all the other services without a migration path.
I remember my Nexus 5 came with at least two Google messaging apps at the same time.
The problem isn't just churn, it's lack of focus. I wonder how many different teams have been tasked with solving messaging, some at the same time, over the years.