Friday in CE: Google's Reworked Chat Strategy is Promising Start for an Otherwise Rocky Past

The timeline of Google's attempts to make a cohesive chat client is at best confusing, at worst hostile to its userbase.

The problem with Google has always been the ambiguity of which app they want people to send messages on. It starts in 2005 with the introduction of Google Talk, which gathered support for SMS in 2008. Google+ launches in 2011 with Huddle and Hangouts Video, offering two new ways to begin messaging people. Google + Hangouts, a different version than Hangouts Video, launches and mergers the other video and messaging apps.

Then in 2016, Google launches another text and video app, in the form of Allo and Duo respectively. While Allo was ambitious, it has ultimately been paused in conjunction with the new stock Android chat move.