Google launches iMessage rival Chat

Alan Partridge-themed 'Chat' will require mobile carrier opt-in

Google has launched a new RCS-based messaging service intended to bridge the gap between online chat apps and traditional SMS.

It's carrier-based, however, which means that it will require networks to opt in, but it's understood that Google has already worked with 50 carriers on creating its new standard, so it's likely that yours is probably included.

We should add, at this stage, there's no indication which carriers have signed up, although that should be revealed during the year. The first tranche is expected to be revealed at the Google I/O developer event in in three weeks.

Eventually, the idea is that Google Chat will pull SMS messages over from a texting plan into your data plan, putting to an end the long and ridiculous cost of individual out-of-bundle SMS once and for all, although its hard to believe that mobile network operators will really like that.

Indeed, it has been estimated that, per megabyte, it's cheaper to download data from the Hubble telescope than send a text.

There will also be a Chrome browser extension so users will be able to send messages from the desktop as if it were their phone.

At the same time, though, Google's moribund Allo service has been suspended. The two-year-old chat platform was intended as a replacement for Hangouts for personal users, but most have either stuck with Hangouts, or migrated to Whatsapp, Telegram and other more popular services.

As such, resources have been pulled from Allo to work on Chat. The service will remain online, but no new features will be added.

Theoretically, this is all great news but there are a couple of alarm bells ringing. First, for some reason, there won't be end-to-end encryption.

Second, with Allo, Hangouts and Duo all still running, will we see them all accessible from Chat, with cross-compatibility? Because without that it will likely represent yet another barely used Google service.