

The New Messenger App from Google - ddispaltro
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging

======
r0h1n
Google is going crazy with this unbundling/rebundling nonsense.

There was once Google Voice, Google Chat, Google Talk, Google Hangouts and now
Google Messenger! This is crazy.

Yesterday I opened a Google Drive spreadsheet via the Android "Drive" (which
was earlier "Docs") app yesterday but when I tried to edit a cell was told I
need to install "Sheets" to do so! I'm waiting for Google Save, Google
Forward, Google Share, Google Delete. Sorry, scratch that last one cos we know
Delete ain't gonna happpen at Google.

~~~
oneeyedpigeon
Google Delete happens. Just ask Google Reader.

~~~
digi_owl
Did they also delete peoples reading history? Now thats the puzzler.

------
bithush
I am amazed it is the end of 2014 and Google (and Microsoft) still have not
figured out messaging yet. iMessage is far from perfect but it is a hell of a
lot nicer experience than anything else.

This is even more true for Microsoft IMHO as they could (should!) have had an
integrated messaging app between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 to allow for
transparent SMS/Skype/MSN/WhateverTheyWantToUseNow messaging the same way
iMessage does and have everything synced between devices.

~~~
higherpurpose
Maybe the "messenger" app should be somehow like that Blackberry 10 OS "hub"
for multiple messaging apps. I don't know. But other than that, I don't think
SMS should be deeply integrated into any data-based chat application.

SMS is a legacy system that has no encryption (or very weak one if you count
A5/1) and we should let it die. If people focus on data-based chat apps only
such as Whatsapp, at least we have a chance to kill SMS and use better
encryption for our chats. SMS is also very expensive for what it really costs.

~~~
spacemanmatt
SMS continues to be the lowest common denominator because a) not everyone has
a smartphone but everyone has SMS, and b) SMS is standard across carriers. We
need common carrier protocols for more than just voice and SMS, IMO.

------
buro9
This is nice, and I prefer it to the combined hangouts app as I tend to
receive a lot of hangouts and few SMS and yet the SMS are sometimes important
and effectively this filtered view (by using two apps) makes it easier and
quicker to find a specific SMS.

I also like that it's now a little clearer how to block a number. They were
under similar interfaces in the hangouts app but because it was combined it
wasn't as clear.

It would be good for the times that I do get SMS spam if Google partnered with
the telcos in such a way that Google reported back spam and offered a "Report
Spam" button in addition to the block option.

The material design really does make the Hangouts app look dated and clunky by
comparison.

~~~
StavrosK
I agree, but why switch to hangouts for SMS at all? I just kept the stock app
as default for SMS. I really hate going into hangouts at all, I don't know
what I'll do when they disable the XMPP bridge. My main medium of
communication with my friends is Hangouts on Pidgin for the desktop, and I'm
not looking forward to moving to some chrome app.

------
BrandonSmith
My conspiracy theory is that this app will eventually replace the Hangouts
app.

Notes:

1) This is not AOSP. It is closed source. And since it can be updated through
Play, Google can ship new features independent of Android releases. Some say
good (I do). Some might label it as a trojan horse... for Hangouts.

2) For Lollipop, carriers choose between the classic AOSP Messaging app and
this one, Messenger.

3) Hangouts suspiciously has not received the Material Design treatment.

4) Google is holding Material Design hostage to get Messenger onto the phone
as the default SMS/MMS app, possibly to deliver an even more integrated
Hangouts later.

5) Wonder if Messenger is part of the Google app preload required to get the
Play Store on the device?

~~~
ChrisArchitect
Hangouts looks pretty 'Material' to me, and has got its updated look quite
early before lollipop.

Hangouts can be downloaded on its own from the Play Store too can't it - not
sure what the angle is for Messenger...other than no Google Account....
strange

------
davidw
Didn't we just get done transitioning to hangouts for everything?! Jeez...

~~~
jdoliner
Yeah I'm really starting to get annoyed with this.

The most painful part is thinking back to when I signed up for my Google Voice
number. The promise seemed so great. A single number that Google would control
and allow me to forward to any phone. At the time I thought Google were the
guys who get it, the guys I'd want to have controlling my number for years to
come. And they'd let me text using my browser too!! A hugely useful feature.

And YET here we are. hangouts is the most dysfunctional chat experience I've
ever seen. It's like a normal chat client crossed with Bonzi Buddy. But I have
to use it to get GV texts on my browser.

I think the saddest part is that my number hasn't actually changed once since
I got GV.

:(

~~~
georgemcbay
"But I have to use it to get GV texts on my browser"

Not sure if I'm misunderstanding what you mean but you should still be able to
see your Google Voice texts via browser at voice.google.com (the pre-Hangouts
interface).

I'm not a big fan of the crossover of Hangouts and voice either, I still use
the older UIs (voice.google.com via browser and the old Google Voice app on
android) and both still work for me so far.

~~~
jdoliner
It's true I could do this. I'm pretty reluctant to because I really want to
use hangouts for both on my phone. It remembers which number I've texted
someone from previously which is pretty indispensable.

------
losvedir
Gyah, my android messaging experience is so confused! Has anyone else managed
to get a nice experience with Google Voice? What's your set up? Last I
checked, hangouts still _sends_ SMS under your real phone number, not the GV
one. Is that still the case?

I also tried tossing in TextSecure at one point, and now sometimes I get texts
there, sometimes Hangouts, sometimes neither.... Sigh.

~~~
fournm
If you want to make it explicit, you can set up Hangouts to move your actual
phone number to a separate "account" for only SMS, which leaves the only phone
number from your gmail as your GV number.

It's worked pretty well for me, at least on Android. The Hangouts replacement
for the web client is garbage, though.

------
rcarmo
Obligatory rant about too many IM apps:
[http://the.taoofmac.com/space/blog/2014/11/13/0830#the-
insta...](http://the.taoofmac.com/space/blog/2014/11/13/0830#the-instant-mess-
we-re-in)

~~~
privong
From that post: _Jabber and XMPP were full of promise, sure — if you bought
into the “let’s build decentralized, interoperable services” Kool-Aid._

I think that article makes a lot of good points, but I am not sure why the
author takes such a negative attitude towards that Jabber/XMPP "Kool-Aid". If
successful, essentially all the other issues they complain about would be
solved. You would not need to worry about iMessage grabbing your phone number
or WhatsApp selling your contacts' information. With Off-the-Record messaging,
you would have secure chats. The open standard would enable different clients
with different features, some of which would undoubtably be battery life and
data plan friendly.

~~~
maxerickson
I think they just mean that most people simply don't care about the
decentralized and interoperable check boxes. They use the apps their friends
use.

------
AlyssaRowan
Uh, nice I guess? Is it end-to-end encrypted like TextSecure? (Or WhatsApp,
now?)

Because if not, why would anyone want this? Is this just the moving of the SMS
app out of AOSP and submerging with Hangouts? Is TextSecure (and the upcoming
Signal) not clearly better?

~~~
msl09
I guess the main purpose is to update the UI of the default android messenger.

~~~
higherpurpose
While turning it from an open source app into a proprietary one.

------
johnm1019
As someone who does not have unlimited SMS and also communicates with many
international phone numbers, this is a step backwards. The unification of
hangouts and SMS allowed me to control which medium my messages took, which
saves me a lot of money and allows me to stay in touch wherever I am in the
world. Before, I had to straddle two apps to make this happen. With Hangouts,
it's all one interface and conversation threads are combined.

~~~
Haegin
I think you can still use Hangouts for SMS messages just fine. I've heard the
main reason Google made this app was to please US carriers who want to push a
standalone SMS app so people spend more sending SMS messages instead of saving
money when on wifi.

~~~
chinpokomon
Yup. Hangouts and any other SMS client can be set as default. This was done
for the carriers and I have no intention on using it.

------
jdalgetty
I'm not sure why they removed the ability to send your location via maps, as
you can do this with the hangouts version of sms messaging.

~~~
oneeyedpigeon
It's practically a killer feature for me - _so_ useful when meeting up with
someone, and en route. I'd like to see it go further: let me message a
temporary location tracker, so I can share my location with someone for, say,
an hour, without having to enable stalking-mode permanently.

~~~
ultrafez
While it's not built-in to Android, the app Glympse does exactly this.

------
emddudley
I like this app better than Google Hangouts but I can't seem to figure out how
to use it to send SMS from my Google Voice number. I can only send from my
carrier's number. I tried changing the "my number" setting but it didn't do
anything.

------
spinchange
I wonder if this works with Moto Assist for spoken SMS messages and responses
while driving. SMS for Hangouts does not and this doesn't seem to replace the
official Messaging app (...yet?)

------
shlokm
Why doesnt Google instead introduce 1) rich text editing in gmail app? 2)
better cut / copy / paste in all its apps on android?

~~~
jon-wood
Surely if you're on Hacker News you have some idea of how software development
works, and that Google doesn't have a single team working on all their Android
apps. Releasing something like this is unlikely to have diverted people away
from GMail.

Instaedit: Sorry, that had a really harsh tone to it. I was just surprised to
see that sort of post here, as opposed to Facebook where I can almost get that
people believe there's a few people doing absolutely everything, and any
thread is a valid dumping ground for the grievances.

~~~
slayed0
I think your apologetic edit actually managed to be more condescending than
the original comment.

------
10098
apparently someone realized that fusing hangouts with sms was not the right
idea...

------
igl
If the energy put into the creation of mobile apps nobody needs was spend
elsewhere, we would live in Utopia already.

~~~
icebraining
What about the energy spent writing HN comments criticizing others for making
useless things?

------
Cthulhu_
Yay, same name as the Messenger app from Facebook - that's gonna end up in a
lawsuit. Doesn't the Play store disallow apps with the same name by default?

~~~
icebraining
It's not the same name; the other is called "Facebook Messenger".

There's also Yahoo Messenger, WhatsApp Messenger, Tango Messenger, Smug
Messenger and a couple of plain "Messengers" already, so I doubt any lawsuits
will have a leg to stand on.

~~~
makomk
Nope, Facebook's messaging app is just called "Messenger", at least on
Android:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.o...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.orca)
I know because I was looking for it in the list of installed apps to uninstall
it just yesterday and had trouble finding it at first because its name didn't
start with Facebook.

(You may be thinking of the iOS version which is apparently called "Facebook
Messenger".)

~~~
icebraining
It actually shows as "Facebook Messenger" here. Might be a translation issue,
since my account is in Portuguese, though.

[http://i.imgur.com/SugMYnS.png](http://i.imgur.com/SugMYnS.png)

