Hangouts’ Missed Opportunity

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Generally speaking I really like the Google Hangouts application. It’s a great way to chat and even make calls between parties. The update for Kit Kat is even stronger with SMS integration making it a universal messaging app. One app to rule them all!

The one thing I was really hoping would arrive along with the update was a universal conduit for multiple SMS addresses. Running hangouts across devices works great and my perhaps optimistic hope was that SMS would also be relayed. Today I tested things using the leaked version of Hangouts and whole things might be slightly different with an updated OS I didn’t see any SMS connectivity across phones. I realize I’m an edge case here but having one base for messages across multiple phones would be a huge win. Apparently just not now.

Is Google about to offer sync’d SMS?

googlehangoutssms

I’m a multi-phone user. I carry two active phones (business / personal) and it’s difficult to manage the flow of messages via SMS across the two particularly if I leave my personal device on silent at the office or only take one for a particular time (like on my bike). A bigger issue is iMessage which was active on my (dormant) iPhone and until I deactivated it was the main channel for my family to text. Since I’m working multiple Androids currently iMessage is out and there’s no method to forward SMS effectively. Sure there are plenty of OTT services like WhatsApp, Line and countless others. I’ve been successful with a few people on Facebook and a few more on Hangouts, but if the screenshot above is accurate it seems Google might be looking to route SMS via Hangouts which would instantly solve this problem.

I know I’m not alone in looking for what seems like an edge case solution … there’s even an international code for forwarding SMS, but no carrier seems to use it. This cannot arrive soon enough!

via gigaom.