- Google will soon be shutting down its smart messaging app, Google Allo.
- Back in April, Google product chief Anil Sabharwal confirmed that Google Allo had "not achieved the level of traction that we’d hoped for."
- The company also announced in April that it's working on Google Chat, which would create a new universal standard for text messaging known as rich communication services (or RCS).
- Allo will soon join the legacy of Google's failed messaging apps including Gchat, Google Buzz, and Google Wave.
Another Google messaging app is about to bite the dust — this time, it's Google Allo.
As first reported by 9to5Google, the search giant's "smart" messaging app — which came equipped with Google Assistant — will be shutting down soon.
Google confirmed that it would shut down Allo in a blog post on Wednesday, saying the app will continue to work through March 2019.
Allo was announced at the company's developer conference in May 2016, and after lackluster adoption, the company said in April 2018 it would be "pausing investment" on the app.
"The product as a whole has not achieved the level of traction that we’d hoped for,” Anil Sabharwal, vice president of product at Google, told The Verge at the time.
The decision to shutter Allo makes strategic sense, since the company announced — also in April 2018 — that it was working on an initiative known as Google Chat. Google Chat will be similar to SMS and Apple's iMessage, creating a new universal standard for text messaging for Android users known as rich communication services (or RCS).
Still, it's hard to ignore the difficulties Google has had launching a consumer messaging app throughout the history of the company. Once Google confirms the shutdown of Allo, it will join Google Buzz, Google Wave, and Gchat — technically called Google Talk — in the chat app graveyard.
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