How many chat programs and protocols have they had so far? Mainstream ones.
GTalk (the XMPP one)
Google+ Messenger (SMS?)
Hangouts (the chat part, specifically)
Google Chat (succeeded Hangouts Chat, and was integrated into Workspace)
Google Allo (remember that one? It lived for a hot second)
Google Duo, which had a chat feature separate from Allo
Google Voice (SMS, part deux)
Google Messages (SMS & RCS)
All of these are “mainstream” in that they were each at one point the official messaging platform for Google. Many were installed by default on Google phones. At least two were part of the Google commercial workspace offering.
Google has a bad habit of launching services and then killing them, but its thrashing around with chat has been especially bad. Apple gets the criticism for the “green box” for Android messages, but I honestly don’t blame them. I wouldn’t
spend money trying to keep up with Google’s chat-de-jeur either.
How many chat programs and protocols have they had so far? Mainstream ones.
All of these are “mainstream” in that they were each at one point the official messaging platform for Google. Many were installed by default on Google phones. At least two were part of the Google commercial workspace offering.
Google has a bad habit of launching services and then killing them, but its thrashing around with chat has been especially bad. Apple gets the criticism for the “green box” for Android messages, but I honestly don’t blame them. I wouldn’t spend money trying to keep up with Google’s chat-de-jeur either.