Google To Update Messenger App With AI Chatbots

Google has not officially stated when they plan to release this new artificial intelligence technology for their messaging service.

The idea is that this new mobile messenger will tap on an artificial intelligence system and chatbot technology to become a more efficient app compared to its rivals. Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger and Tencent Holdings WeChat, the most popular messaging app in China all have significantly more users that both of Google apps combined. The company has been doing thorough research on AI and announced in June that it has developed chatbots, which learn through movie dialogues about human interaction. “Instead of typing a query into Google’s search engine, users will type questions as text messages, to which chatbots will respond”, the WSJ report stated.

Messaging and chat are important to Google in their own right, but the rise of chatbots is another potential threat to Google.

Google declined to comment on the report. Google’s strength is its ability to answer questions, whether it’s through a search engine or a virtual assistant, and flexing that muscle to popularize a messaging app would make sense for the company.

Even though Google is much more than a search company these days – and that’s especially true if you include Alphabet, the recently formed parent outfit that oversees many of Google’s side businesses and technologies – leveraging its expertise in search can help set its services apart.

It is understood that Google has appointed veteran Nick Fox to lead the team that is working on the new Google messaging and AI service.

This is not entirely new ground for Google. Several of the chat services are starting to add on other features to their basic messaging platform.

The service sounds like it’s meant to directly compete with Facebook M, a bot that Facebook is testing inside of Messenger.

“All users care about is a convenient way to find what they are looking for and if Google isn’t in front of the consumer that is a problem for them”, said Scott Stanford, co-founder of venture-capital firm Sherpa Capital, which has invested in another messaging start-up.

It would also make sense for Google to open this kind of service up to developers in hopes of encouraging a third-party ecosystem.

With the explosive rise in popularity of products like Slack and HipChat, it’s clear that messaging apps are becoming a staple in the enterprise.