Google has been working on messaging apps for well over a decade, and plenty of those have come since iMessage’s arrival in 2011. Google’s history of messaging apps since the debut of iMessage But still, it remains exclusive to Apple’s hardware products, despite repeated calls for it to expand to other platforms.

A year after its debut, the service came to the Mac, and in the time since it has added support for message reactions, apps, Apple Pay, and many, many more features. Over time, though, iMessage has evolved with more features. Another big perk was that it brought messaging to other iOS devices, including the iPad and iPod Touch. If iMessage wasn’t available, whether that meant you didn’t have a stable data connection or were texting someone without iMessage, the app would automatically fall back to SMS/MMS. The original selling point for iMessage was the ability to send messages without being charged, and higher quality when sending pictures and videos. IMessage came as a solution to that problem, offering messaging over Wi-Fi or data using the same old phone number. Those messages, too, came with charges from your carrier and complicated plans to manage the cost. At the time, SMS and MMS ruled the industry, with trillions of text messages sent every year in the US alone.

Google’s countless other messaging appsĪpple launched iMessage in 2011 alongside the debut of iOS 5.

Google’s history of messaging apps since the debut of iMessage.

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