Google’s current enterprise communications strategy is centered around Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. A new report today reveals that Google Cloud is working on a unified messaging app for businesses.
According to the Information this afternoon, Google wants to bring “together the functions of several standalone apps.” This includes emails from Gmail, online storage through Google Drive, text with Hangouts Chat, and Hangouts Meet video calling. There is Google Calendar integration, but users apparently still need to open the standalone app.
This mobile app — with no current suggestion of an online counterpart — is already in testing within Google, and was detailed by Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian earlier this month. It’s unknown how this application will impact Google’s existing apps. For example, Google has announced that it plans to deprecate classic Hangouts with Hangouts Chat for enterprise customers, and eventually consumers.
Falling under the G Suite family of productivity tools, Google’s unified messaging app is primarily designed to combat competing solutions like Microsoft Teams and Slack. Google’s enterprise division is trying to attract more businesses, with one unified app offering an appealing and less confusing pitch.
The Information‘s report has an interesting anecdote about how the “G Suite team is almost exclusively working on products with enterprise customers in mind.” This is despite a large number of free customers using Google’s productivity tools.