Text-Messaging: Google Inc (GOOGL)’s ‘Messenger’ App Vs. Facebook Inc (FB)’s ‘Messenger’ App

By LARRY VALLI

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has come up with their new text-messaging app. The new text-messaging app ‘Messenger’ is expected to be introduced along with Google’s brand new mobile OS, Android 5.0 Lollipop. Does the name ‘Messenger’ ring a bell? Yes, it does, because it is the name of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s text-messaging app. Why should Google use this name for its new text messaging app? Detail of Google’s new text-messaging app was published in a ‘Business Insider’ article.

Before getting into details of why Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) use ‘Messenger’ name for its new text-messaging app, we need to understand why does Google need another text-messaging app? Google already has a messaging app ‘Hangout’, which is pretty good. ‘Hangout’ app can seamlessly transfer chats from gmail account on to the mobile and vice versa. Here is what Google said about it.

“Messenger and Hangouts offer users choice, each have their own benefits. Hangouts work great for cross platform (web, iOS, Android) and cross medium communications (video, voice, messaging, SMS). Messenger will be specially designed to be a quick and easy way to send and receive SMS and MMS messages on Android,” Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was quoted as talking to 9to5 Google blog

According to App Annie, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s ‘Messenger’ app is currently ranked as no.1 app based on downloads and Facebook’s acquisition ‘Whatsapp’ is positioned at third place. Google’s ‘Hangout’ did not make the top 10 in the list though. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s ‘Messenger’ is expected to gain more popularity, since the company’s new policy demands the user to install ‘Messenger’ for messaging, which many people were doing using the Facebook platform itself.

Is Google trying to gain more popularity by launching another text-messaging app, exclusively for SMS/MMS functions? Is Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) trying to confuse the users with the same name as Facebook’s messaging app and let more users install its app? Whatever may be the reason Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) might not be happy with the name that Google has used for its text-messaging app.