Just a few days before WhatsApp founders agreed to sell the company to Facebook, they were reportedly contacted by Google CEO Larry Page. According to a report on the Fortune website, Google had earlier offered $10 billion for WhatsApp but the deal did not materialize. This time Page told WhatsApp founders that they should remain independent and should not sell their company to Facebook. WhatsApp was doing great on its own, Page reportedly said.
But it is naive to think that what Page told WhatsApp was driven only by his wish to see WhatsApp prosper. While the jury is out on whether Facebook paid too much for the instant messaging service or not, there is no denying that WhatsApp is an impressive service with a big reach on mobile phones. Google and Facebook are fierce competitors and for Google it is definitely a matter of concern if Facebook owns WhatsApp.
Also read: Google was ready to pay more than $19 billion for WhatsApp: Report
But the bigger story here is not that Google missed buying WhatsApp. Vishal Tripathi, principal analyst with Gartner, says that despite owning the world's most widely used mobile operating system, the company has failed to come up with an instant messaging app that users can rely on.
"It looks like Google missed an opportunity here. Android is very popular and used by majority of smartphone users in the world. Blackberry was used by fewer people and yet the Canadian company managed to build BBM into a brand and kind of service that everyone wanted on their phone," he says.
It is not that Google is not aware of the important role that instant messaging app are playing on smartphones. The company had Google Talk app on Android since the beginning of the OS. Though basic, the app was noted for its fast and simple messaging interface.
The result, however, has not been pretty. Hangouts combined instant messaging with SMS and provided a unified interface. While in theory this sounds impressive, users found the interface on Hangouts confusing and bloated.
Srivatsa Sharma, a social media professional, used Google Talk to keep in touch with his colleagues until November last year. But then the Google Talk app on his phone got updated and was replaced with Hangouts. He found the new app confusing. "It is slow. Messages are delivered after a delay and there is no way to see who is online in my contact list and who is not. I ended up disabling it," he said.
Sharma and all of his colleagues then switched to WhatsApp. The app is not only simpler to use and is much faster but also allowed Sharma to create a specific group that he can use for group discussion with his colleague.
The irony here is that Hangouts app comes pre-installed on almost all new Android phones. But yet no one uses it. It lacks features that WhatsApp offers, especially those related to file sharing and group talks.
In the Android Play Store, Hangouts app has a rating of 3.7 points, which is bad for a Google app. Most of other popular chat apps have a rating of over 4 points. WhatsApp has a rating of 4.5 points while WeChat has a rating of 4.3 points. Even Facebook Messenger, which is not all that popular, has a rating of 4.2 points.
"It's confusing. I love Google apps but this (Hangouts) is really confusing. The Talk app was great! It showed properly who is online, it clearly distinguished between the Talk contacts and normal email addresses. In Hangouts, it says in my contact list that a general email is also my friend... SMS integration: it's bad, it's slow. Why is SMS looking for the internet and slowing down the process of opening the message," notes a review left by an Android user on Hangouts page.
This negative review is not unique. Thousands of Android users have given similar reviews and have left a 1 point rating, the lowest that an app can get in the Play Store, for Hangouts.
But it is naive to think that what Page told WhatsApp was driven only by his wish to see WhatsApp prosper. While the jury is out on whether Facebook paid too much for the instant messaging service or not, there is no denying that WhatsApp is an impressive service with a big reach on mobile phones. Google and Facebook are fierce competitors and for Google it is definitely a matter of concern if Facebook owns WhatsApp.
Also read: Google was ready to pay more than $19 billion for WhatsApp: Report
But the bigger story here is not that Google missed buying WhatsApp. Vishal Tripathi, principal analyst with Gartner, says that despite owning the world's most widely used mobile operating system, the company has failed to come up with an instant messaging app that users can rely on.
"It looks like Google missed an opportunity here. Android is very popular and used by majority of smartphone users in the world. Blackberry was used by fewer people and yet the Canadian company managed to build BBM into a brand and kind of service that everyone wanted on their phone," he says.
It is not that Google is not aware of the important role that instant messaging app are playing on smartphones. The company had Google Talk app on Android since the beginning of the OS. Though basic, the app was noted for its fast and simple messaging interface.
But in a bid to take on the likes of WhatsApp, Google replaced Talk with Hangouts in May 2013.
The result, however, has not been pretty. Hangouts combined instant messaging with SMS and provided a unified interface. While in theory this sounds impressive, users found the interface on Hangouts confusing and bloated.
Srivatsa Sharma, a social media professional, used Google Talk to keep in touch with his colleagues until November last year. But then the Google Talk app on his phone got updated and was replaced with Hangouts. He found the new app confusing. "It is slow. Messages are delivered after a delay and there is no way to see who is online in my contact list and who is not. I ended up disabling it," he said.
Sharma and all of his colleagues then switched to WhatsApp. The app is not only simpler to use and is much faster but also allowed Sharma to create a specific group that he can use for group discussion with his colleague.
The irony here is that Hangouts app comes pre-installed on almost all new Android phones. But yet no one uses it. It lacks features that WhatsApp offers, especially those related to file sharing and group talks.
In the Android Play Store, Hangouts app has a rating of 3.7 points, which is bad for a Google app. Most of other popular chat apps have a rating of over 4 points. WhatsApp has a rating of 4.5 points while WeChat has a rating of 4.3 points. Even Facebook Messenger, which is not all that popular, has a rating of 4.2 points.
"It's confusing. I love Google apps but this (Hangouts) is really confusing. The Talk app was great! It showed properly who is online, it clearly distinguished between the Talk contacts and normal email addresses. In Hangouts, it says in my contact list that a general email is also my friend... SMS integration: it's bad, it's slow. Why is SMS looking for the internet and slowing down the process of opening the message," notes a review left by an Android user on Hangouts page.
This negative review is not unique. Thousands of Android users have given similar reviews and have left a 1 point rating, the lowest that an app can get in the Play Store, for Hangouts.
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