[ucaetano]

Why stop there? Gmail is communications as well, so include email too. And snail mail too, so add Fedex/UPS service into it. And fax, we can't forget about fax.

But hey, connectivity is just a section of productivity, and docs, slides, sheets, drive is all productivity, so add it all to the same app, as well as google plus. You also use the app store to get your company's apps, so add the play store as well.

Finding the destination for a business meeting is also productivity, so add maps inside it as well, and translate, since you might be running meetings and emails in different languages, plus keep for note-taking, calendar, my business, contacts, forms, groups, etc.

Congrats, you just designed Lotus Notes.

Or Android.

[AstralStorm]

Lotus Notes didn't have video, and sound or real-time chat functionality. It does integrate a spreadsheet, decent word processor, calendar and task list. Google Docs with its Calendar and Gmail integration is close enough.

Integrating different use cases is different from interoperability. For example, make it easy to share a file on drive via email and chat does not require drive to be integrated. Likewise meet (new contacts, social net) vs chat (known contacts, rooms) might be a good split if they interact nicely together.

Splitting chat from email is a stretch, much like with voice from text or from video. Or simple images.

What Google is doing is create apps that do not work together with each other.

[ucaetano]

Lotus Notes did have chat. And voice. And IPTV. And fax services. And databases. HR tools. Expense tools. Business process tools and whatever else you can think of.

And the apps do work together, apparently. From the announcement they're integrated with Drive and the entire permission system. I'd guess there are far more integrations to come.

[r00fus]

I think you're being a bit hyperbolic - everyone seems to see snail mail / fax as quite different from electronic communication methods.

I've found most people tend to see email as the "slow/deliberate" electronic communication, and IM/Messages/SMS as the "fast/extemporaneous", so even conflating GMail doesn't really make sense (why do you think Wave failed?).

[laughfactory]

Oh come on, this is a ridiculous argument. He's asking for what most of us want: a unified SMS and video calling app for our phones. I too would prefer they just fixed and refined Hangouts, rather than muddy the picture with a host of new options. This is what we call fragmentation. I just want some ubiquitous communications app which allows me to text and video call my friends and family no matter if they're on iPhone or Android. Hangouts was going to do this, but apparently now they've pivoted...But I'm not going to go through the hassle of getting all my friends and family to switch to some new app. So I'm disgruntled too.

We don't want one app which does literally everything, just one app for all our mobile communications: primarily SMS and video calling these days.

[ucaetano]

He's asking for what most of us want: a unified SMS and video calling app for our phones.

Is that what you want or what most people want? I like WhatsApp more than Allo/Duo, especially for the desktop integration and a few other features, but I'm a dinosaur who uses desktop. Nobody uses desktop anymore, but until Google launches a desktop client, my hate of typing on a smartphone keyboard will keep me away from those apps. If they launch, I'd guess that my existing network on WhatsApp will keep me away from them as well.

"They're not addressing my own usage profile" != "They are not addressing a large % of the potential users".