[edly]

I think it's a fair assessment to say that Google does not have a strategy. They're at their best when they were making something that hadn't been made before. Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Docs were/are in a league of their own in terms of offering, especially when they initially released, but now that Google is effectively trying to play catch-up and won't commit to anything that doesn't catch lightning in a bottle, I feel like confidence is remarkably low.

It's not so bad trying something new every once in a while, but a strategy of assuming everyone will immediately jump ship from an old product that worked just fine to a new product that does less and sucks more is self-assured destruction. You can apply this to a lot of Google products, such as Google Play Music > YouTube Music, not just their messaging blunders.