Update: Google has confirmed in a blog post that it will shut down Allo by March 2019. The company has shifted focus to Messages for texting, Duo for video calls, and Hangouts Chat and Meet for G Suite customers.
Original story follows:
Google Allo will soon see the end of its short life, according to 9 to 5 Google who has received a tip from a source familiar with the matter.
Allo was designed as the next big thing in Android messaging apps, though it never lived up to its potential. As the original article notes, there has been no activity from Google to update the platform or address a myriad of user problems, and the developer lead has left Google and moved on to Facebook.
Allo is the latest in a series of cross-platform messaging apps from Google to compete with the likes of Whats App and Facebook Messenger and offered consumer-facing features like stickers and encryption. Despite its promise, the app never gained traction and seeing it shuttered would be unsurprising.
Thankfully, we've found out that Verizon has decided to embrace the RCS universal profile standard and will be seeing a test-run of RCS messaging on Pixel 3 devices starting December 6. RCS provides many of the same features and benefits of a data-driven messaging app using a carriers SMS and data network. Seeing Verizon adoption means other carriers should soon follow suit and a rich messaging solution — sans encryption — will be available using the same SMS app you already use.
Verizon is launching RCS Chat on the Pixel 3/3XL starting Dec. 6
In the meantime, don't get attached to any messaging app on Android as you never know what its future will be.
