I disagree. I know a lot of "non-techies" that switched to using iPhones just for iMessage because Google's messaging ecosystem is confusing and seems to change every 12 months. I also know a lot of non-techies that use Google Play Music to upload and manage their own music libraries. It's rumored that Play Music is going to be killed in the next few months as Google pushes YouTube music subscriptions instead. The problem is, just like with Inbox and Gmail, Google rarely ever makes good on promises to port features from old products to new ones. I highly doubt the Play Music users that specifically use it because they can upload 50,000 of their own songs are going to opt into a worse version of Spotify when it's killed off.
I know you're joking. That said, they're planning to use RCS, a successor of SMS. I guess the users will be expected to pay for each message or to buy a package. I also don't expect to be able to send from a web site, unless my phone is active and the message can be sent through it.
Non-technical people on Android definitely do because they either come preinstalled on the phone or they're heavily promoted/advertised. Even in my relatively small city I saw huge billboards and posters advertising Allo and Duo when they were released.
Hangouts and Gchat before it certainly have been used by a lot of people. In my experience, it has gotten less popular since the Gchat days but I’ve never chatted to anyone on WhatsApp...
I'm dying to know more information about Google Music. I'm one of the people who uploaded their entire library up there, and while it vaguely exists as a backup of a 20XX version on a hard drive somewhere, losing access to it would be pretty crippling to my every-day listening.
I'm absolutely not interested in a Spotify-like subscription to a revolving library that I don't control; Google no longer letting me listen to music I upload will probably mean that I'm going to have to switch to something otherwise god-awful that prioritizes syncing my own library.
Can't wait to enjoy the iTunes experience of manually syncing music, except from someone even worse than Apple at writing that sort of software. Anyone got any recommendations?
> In the transition from physical to digital media, something has been lost. We have more convenience than ever, but no feeling of excitement or engagement.
> What you get is a searchable, surfable magazine about your music.
I don't want excitement or engagement, or a magazine. I want to listen to music on my phone.
