Google’s Chatbot-based messaging app to challenge Facebook dominance

Google has still not decided the name of the app or the launch date, but a team has already started working on the new app under Google veteran Nick Fox since past one year.

The details are still light on this. The platform provided users an SMS-based search in which they were allowed to text in a question to a phone number and receive an answer in return.

The popularity of Google’s two messaging services – Google Hangouts and Messenger – trail Facebook’s WhatsApp, which in Q3 had 900 million monthly active users, and Messenger, which has 700 million monthly active users.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Users will be able to talk to their friends by exchanging messages or talk to a chatbot which will scour the internet and direct them to the website they need. It’s a mixture of Facebook, Twitter and other networks, hoping to draw in more people into Google’s web of services via their mobile device. The good news is after this they will be ahead of the other messaging services. By integrating contextual data directly and actively into a messaging service, Google can show users the power of these tools more often and with less required interaction from the user. WSJ also notes that Google tried to buy a similar service called 200 Labs, which has developed such chatbots for messaging app Telegram, but that deal didn’t go through. However, word has it that the search engine giant might be working on a combination of Google Now and the Hangouts app into one app. It’ll be interesting what Google does this time around and hopefully learns from its past mistakes.

It also sounds similar to Facebook’s M, a virtual assistant that lives inside Messenger to help you carry out searches, make dinner plans and more.

To develop this service, Google is reportedly building on its experience with “Google Now”.