I think Google gave it a pretty good shot at competing with WhatsApp with Allo. The problem is that at the end of the day, the network effect is what matters with messaging. No matter how good the product, it doesn't matter if everyone I know doesn't use it as well. It's not an engineering question, it's a social one; a lot has to change to get people to switch from iMessage, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger today.
The theory says that you can get people to switch if you deliver a product that is x10 better than the competition, but really, how can you possibly improve messaging as it is today? It's not like people are going to go "Wow, this app sends my messages so much better than <current established app>, I'll go ahead and switch and tell everyone I know".
Is it that hard?, you force every android phone maker to install it as the default SMS client, and if someone else is using it you use allo network instead, and if the user's paying for sms say "sent with allo for free!"
The theory says that you can get people to switch if you deliver a product that is x10 better than the competition, but really, how can you possibly improve messaging as it is today? It's not like people are going to go "Wow, this app sends my messages so much better than <current established app>, I'll go ahead and switch and tell everyone I know".