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Google Shutting Down Allo; Now will Experiment with Rich Communication Services

A few days ago, the news regarding the shutting down of Google Hangouts was circulating all over the internet, that later Google had denied completely. Now, again there is news that Google will soon shut down its two years old messaging app Allo.

allo
Image source: arstechnica.net

Allo is a Google Assistant empowered app, that was launched as a competitor for Apple’s iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and other chat applications. The device is built for both Android and iOS devices, enabled with end-to-end encryption. Google had launched Allo two years ago, as its another messaging app experiment, that too failed.

The vice president of Chrome, Comms, and Photos (at Google), Anil Sabharwal, said in a statement, “Google noted that Allo as a whole has not achieved the level of traction we’d hoped for.”

The app was facing some problems with its functionalities, so in April month this year, Google stopped investing over Allo and put a pause on its development and marketing work. The company now is entirely focusing on the Android Messages instead, and the Allo team has also been implanted to work on the same.

On the other hand, Verizon has come with its new messaging app RCS (Rich Communication Services), a combination of the best features of Facebook Messenger, iMessage, and WhatsApp, as one platform. Verizon has initially launched the app on the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. The company is planning to replace the ages-old SMS (Short Message Service) by its new RCS app. Google has worked hard to get its own android chat, but it seems that now it is going to work with its competitor’s app, i.e. RCS.

And for Allo, it is already down for many users and will be discontinued by the March month next year.