Google nailed e-mail with the 2004 introduction of
Gmail. Now it's the No. 1 form of electronic correspondence in
the United States.
But as traditional e-mail falls out of favour with a
growing sliver of the population, Google has struggled to make its
messaging tools relevant or introduce new ones that resonate with
younger users.
Now Google is trying again with a new video chat
application called Duo. The app works with mobile devices
running Google's Android operating system and Apple's iOS. It runs
on Wi-Fi and cellular networks, automatically switching between
different types and speeds of connection and adjusting video
quality.
Duo also uses phone numbers, rather than a Google
account or Gmail address, making it easier to call friends, family
and other people already stored on smartphone contact lists.
The company's existing video calling and messaging app,
Hangouts, requires a Google account which limited adoption,
especially in emerging markets. Facebook's WhatsApp and Messenger,
Skype - now owned by Microsoft Corp. - and Apple's FaceTime
used phone numbers to grow faster.
A confusing array of communication options has held
Google back. It has two e-mail services - Gmail, which is the
top e- mail service in the US based on unique visitors, according
to ComScore, and Inbox; three text offerings, Hangouts, Messenger
and the upcoming Allo; and now two video chat services, Duo and
Hangouts (which offers texting and video calls).
This scattershot approach, and Google's late start, is
becoming more costly for the Alphabet Inc. division as messaging
evolves from a simple way to communicate quickly into one of the
next big technology platforms supporting digital commerce,
advertising and new services powered by
artificial-intelligence.
"Google missed it because of the requirement that you
needed a Google ID to communicate with others," said Mr Ankit Jain,
a former Googler and executive at SimilarWeb, which measures
website and mobile app usage.
Hangouts ranked 84th among Android apps in the US in
July, based on installs and usage, according to SimilarWeb. That
lagged Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Snapchat.
Mr Nick Fox, a 13-year Google veteran, was
tasked by Google chief executive Sundar Pichai 18 months ago
with fixing the sprawl. Soon after, his new team formulated a
strategy and started building Duo and Allo.
"Google sees communication as this essential human
need, whether that's through text, a picture, calling someone or
doing a video call," Mr Fox said in a recent interview.
This insight is a decade old and has guided Facebook's
strategy since its creation in 2004. Asian companies, like Tencent
Holdings' WeChat and Line, have grown into tech powerhouses by
connecting people through communication apps and offering related
services on top of their networks. Skype, founded in 2003, became a
leading video chat app on a similar foundation.
So how is Mr Fox going to catch up? Job number one is
clearing up the bloated smorgasbord of Google communications
services.
Hangouts will be a workplace service, offering group
video conferencing mostly via desktop computers and office laptops,
Mr Fox said. It will be integrated more with Google's work
software, such as Docs, Sheets and Slides, which will be easier to
share.
Duo is a mobile app and only allows one-to-one video
calling, limiting it as a consumer offering. Allo, a messaging
service coming out later this year, will also target consumers, Fox
said. Google's Messenger is a basic text system, part of a group of
services provided to wireless carriers that work closely with
Android.
The second tactic: Bringing what Mr Fox says is better
technology to the new services to catch up with rivals. Duo
constantly performs "bandwidth estimation" to understand how much
video can be delivered.
If Wi-Fi weakens, it switches to a phone's cellular
network. If a cellular signal drops as low as 2G, Duo will
automatically cut video and maintain audio.
Allo will use Google's expertise in AI to
automatically understand texts and provide useful suggestions.
Google will also let third-party developers create chatbots that
will interact with Allo users through messages. That's already
being tried by other companies such as Facebook and Microsoft, but
Google has been working hard on AI for about a decade, so it may be
more advanced.
"First build a great product," Mr Fox said, repeating a
common Google mantra. "Once you get people to love it, they will
share it with friends and co-workers and it grows."
Google was late in other technology and caught up, Mr
Fox noted. Gmail started in 2004, more than six years after Yahoo
Mail, but Google's offer of mountains of free storage won over
hundreds of millions of users. Google's Chrome emerged in 2008 -
over a decade after Microsoft's Internet Explorer - and is now the
most popular web browser partly because of speed and frequent
updates.
Beyond Tech Better technology may not be enough to
catch up, Mr Jain said. WhatsApp and Snapchat offered something
useful enough to persuade many people to switch away from their
existing communication service where all their friends already
were.
Duo's promise of video calling for everyone on Android
and iOS is something that Hangouts already offers, but that didn't
move the needle enough, he noted.
"It's worth another shot, but having better tech can't
be the only thing," Mr Jain said.
ST