Friday, May 22, 2015

SMS Relay with Hangouts

Ron Amadeo has done a fantastic in depth write up on the announcements that we might see at Google IO 2015 by analyzing various leaks and start up purchases Google has done this year.

While I was planning to do a wish list of items that I wanted to see ( I still might at a later point), I wanted to hit on one item quickly and that is Hangouts.  While id like to see some of the smart features pointed out in the article, the game changer for me would be SMS relay over Hangouts to all my devices that support Hangouts. Yes I know you can do that already with Google Voice, but I havent used that in ages and have stuck with my carrier number since a lot of people have that with them.

Id like the ability to use my carrier number and have text messages sent to my phone, show up everywhere Hangouts is. The implementation wouldn't be too different from existing applications where your phone receives/sends the text messages and then syncs across various devices. The ability to send an SMS from a browser or tablet would definitely help in the adoption of hangouts as well. Why this hasnt been introduced in the app from day one is still a mystery.

The last big updates to Hangouts alluded to infrastructure changes for some cool changes ahead and Im hoping SMS relay is one of them

PS :- Also please add the ability to send videos over hangouts