There has been some news recently that Google seems to be prepping up for a messaging app, to catch some lost ground with Whatsapp. Isn't that what they planned to do with Hangouts in the first place ? When I tried out Hangouts it seemed like a nice idea to use a single app for SMS and Instant Messaging. I was used to the idea from using a Windows Phone (You could switch between SMS and Facebook Messenger). But after using it for a day or two, reality caught up.
Hangouts didn't perform well and it was confusing to say the least. Sometimes, it didn't make sense to have SMS as a fall-back as Hangouts also allowed contacts from your Google plus circles ( and Gtalk contacts ) to message you. Not just folks on your circles, but just about anyone on Google+ ( unless you turned it off ).
Another major reason I found Hangouts uncomfortable was the fact that I was also using my official account on Hangouts. This made me feel Hangouts was more of an official tool than a casual messaging tool. Also, I was mentally tuned to not share anything fun on Hangouts for the same reason. No fun content will eventually die out soon. Now I use hangouts purely for staying on top of office work.
Coming back to WhatsApp and what (I think) google needs to challenge WhatsApp - Well , there are a couple of things at which WhatsApp is lagging in. Fixing those would be a great start.
I just made a list of what I feel are the key change areas, but this could also be seen as what Google needs to do to be on top of the messaging game :
1) Privacy
Currently anyone with my number can message me on WhatsApp. This seems a little too irritating when random people can reach you if they know your number. Total strangers could be stalking you. I would like some more control over this. Not every number on my phone book is a friend and not everyone who has my number is my friend. Hike seems to have done something about this.
2) E2E Encryption
This is more of a room for improvement rather than a necessity. Some of us are paranoid about who might be snooping in on our data. We could carelessly share details about ourselves over a chat that someone with malicious intent could be listening on. So, an end to end encryption might give us peace of mind that only intended parties can read the messages sent. But having said that, P2P chat might have the same complexities as Bleep for setting up a simple chat, but I am OK with the cumbersome nature if security is guaranteed . However, I don't see this happening as Google is known to make their services easy to use for people.
3) Better delivery status
The Last seen status on WhatsApp is not an accurate way to say if a person has seen your message. Facebook messenger has done it right with the seen status for each message. This can be too much detail for some, but is appreciated by others. So , such a feature with an option to opt out might be good to have. Hangouts always has trouble sending messages often going into retry mode. This should be handled better.
4) GIF support
If a picture speaks a 1000 words, a GIF speaks a thousand fun filled words that carve out a story. If a messaging app can support GIFs as picture messages, it would be awesome. And I don’t just mean animated Emojis. We should be able to send any GIF we want. And of course stickers .It is 2014 and Emojis and stickers are just taken for granted for any messaging application.
5) Connect with Email option
Ability to add people by email is also needed. Sometimes you don’t want to share your phone number, but instead an email might be fine for acquaintances. Many might not agree for a need for such an option, but I think it would be useful during travel, or to contact support.
6) API/Framework for Extension
An API ( Application Programming Interface) for building extensions to the chat would be great. Hooks for intervening messages or callbacks for messages to do some processing would give rise to a lot of interesting apps that can be built on top of the message. A better way to do this would be to provide a framework for writing apps that can live within Google's server so that the data is securely processed by sandboxed instances dedicated to that particular user or app. This will be an awesome ecosystem. Some uses I can think of for this are as follows - mood graph, who among your contacts messages most / least, data stats per user/group, filter out images & videos on some groups, save images automatically to drive or dropbox, etc.
7) Firefox OS Support
One huge factor for WhatsApp's success was Symbian support. It had Symbian support early on and still is supported on some Asha phones. This made adoption of the Whatsapp more easier for people who couldn't afford smartphones. It was also the main reason why many people got smartphones, since they liked what was possible with WhatsApp on their feature phones. This may not be true for today's scenario but it still matters. Android one is a good program , but for true success they will need to support cheaper platforms such as Firefox OS and Nokia's Asha OS.
8) Official Accounts for Organizations
Imagine being able to reach to for support for your issues for an App over a quick chat. Or check for some info by chatting with a bot. Or check in to your flight with a simple message. Organizations can have official accounts on the messaging ecosystem so that users can reach out to them right through the messaging app. This coupled with a good API creates endless possibilities .
Let me know if you have more ideas or feedback about this in the comments .
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