Google has had a very busy day, among which was the release of their new Messenger communications app. Built to basically send and receive both SMS and MMS messages, Messenger also lets you participate in group chats and send audio messages.
In addition to the basic functionality, Messenger boasts a feature list that includes: faster sharing (taking and sending pictures, videos, and audio from directly within the app), easy search through contacts and conversation threads, purposeful and intuitive design, the ability to block SMS senders, emoji support, coloured text threads, and message archiving.
All things considered, it’s the same kinds of functionality that Apple has had with iMessage and Blackberry with BBM for quite some time, but it was a requisite ‘catch-up’ app that Google needed to add to their arsenal. That said, Google Hangouts has much of this same SMS functionality already –but perhaps they are concerned some users may be wary of using something integrated into social media when that isn’t the way it works on other platforms.
Want to see how Google imagines messaging? Download Messenger for your Android devices.
Jillian Koskie is an experienced software developer, content writer, project manager and usability design expert. With over 17 years in these roles, Jillian has enjoyed applying her skill-set to assist clients and users across a wide variety of sectors including: legal, health, and financial services. Combining these professional opportunities with a love of technology, Jillian is pleased to contribute articles, opinions, and advice to numerous news outlets, websites, and publications.
