Google buys messaging client Emu, should help make Hangouts “smarter”
Emu is probably the best messaging client you never heard of. Billed as “texting with a built-in assistant” the company announced today via their site that they’ve officially packed their bags for Mountain View and starting August 25th, they’d be shutting down the app (which has since already been removed from the Google Play Store). Sounds so sudden especially considering other Google acquisitions remain alive and kicking many, many months after they’ve been absorbed into the company.
So what exactly does Google have planned? We’re guessing Google will use the talented team at Emu to supercharge Hangouts with new and exciting features. Exactly what? Well, how about Emu’s smart assistant feature for starters. Emu was a unique messaging app in that it understood the context of messages sent/received (not as scary as it sounds).
This meant Emu was able to offer helpful little links appended to messages with everything from sharing locations, scheduling appointments, to showing available movies, to snoozing message reminders for later. The app would even auto notify users when/if the other user was driving, this way everyone is safe and the other party isn’t left in the dark in the event you take too long to reply back. Awesome.
Honestly, we’re only upset we didn’t know about Emu sooner. Seemed like a great cross platform messaging client that could mop the floor with rival services like Kik. With the power of Google Now and Emu, expect your phone to become a whole lot more automated in the coming months. Here’s to a brighter future at Google. We can’t wait to see what comes out of the new partnership.