From The Verge: If you’ve been using Google’s messaging app, Allo, it’s probably a good time to start thinking about switching to something else. The app isn’t getting dropped in a Google-style “Spring Cleaning,” but development on the app is being “paused.” Specifically, the new head of the communications group at Google, Anil Sabharwal, has made the decision to “pause investment” in Allo and move that team over to focus on Android Messages.
As we explain in our exclusive feature, the move is necessary because Google is going all in on Rich Communication Services, or RCS. The service will be branded “Chat” once carriers launch it, and Google wants to apply as many resources as possible to make sure that this time, finally, Android has a successful messaging app.
Basically, not enough people downloaded and used Allo, so it doesn’t make sense to continue to try to make it a viable competitor to Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. Here’s how Sabharwal characterizes the decision:
"The product as a whole has not achieved the level of traction we’d hoped for. [...] We set out to build this thing, that it [would be] a product that we would get hundreds of millions of people to get excited about and use. And where we are, we’re not feeling like we’re on that trajectory."
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