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Remember when Google basically merged all their messaging clients – Google Talk, Drive Chat, etc – into one client called Hangouts? Well, according to a rumour, they might be looking into developing a new one, but based on the WhatsApp model, where a Google sign-in would not be required.

The rumour which stems from the Economic Times of India, is based off a visit to India by Director of Hangouts, Photos, Google+ core & Platform, Nikhyl Singhal. According to the Times, Mr Singhal is apparently doing a tour of India, as well as other countries in the region looking at messaging habits of residents.

With the recent launch of Android One in India picking up speed, the rumour further speculates that any product developed would include Indian language support. Google focused on adding Indian language support to Google Maps in the lead-up to the Android One launch last month. Another feature included in the product would be Voice-to-Text messaging.

Unlike WhatsApp, which seemingly rules this space, but charges a US$0.99 per year fee (a fee which a number of people have never paid, despite using it for a number of years) Google’s product would be free to use.

It’s a little confusing after Google merged their products, but then not everyone wants to sign-up for a Google account to use their products, this would solve that issue. It’s still in rumour stage at the moment, so here’s a large grain of salt to take with it, we’ll as usual, just have to wait and see.

Would you use a Google made, WhatsApp style product?

Source: Economic Times of India.

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    Elliot Kotis

    Call it babel.

    jkl

    But if you use Android, you already have a Google account???

    Andrew

    Just kill off Hangouts and start from scratch. The fact that I have to choose whether I want my message to be sent as an SMS or Hangout message is just a total failure right away. Apple iMessage can figure out whether to send messages as an SMS or IM without the user having to screw around. Add to that Hangouts contacts pull them from multiple sources meaning you have multiple entries for the same contact, if they message you from multiple devices/different contact accounts then it’ll appear as multiple threads on Hangouts, the app is slow on anything that… Read more »