New details about Google Babel, Google's forthcoming unified messaging service, have emerged. According to a
report by Droid Life, the service will offer cross-platform conversation experiences, a new User Interface, photo sharing, quick access to live video chats, and on-the-record chat history viewing.
The report informs that the unified service will launch in Gmail and as Android, iOS, and Chrome apps, and that the iOS app would offer a "first class iOS experience."
Interestingly the report also includes a feature list which has some commentary by Google. However, we felt that the list kind of describes the service as a collaboration tools. So we'd not be surprised if it was part of a Google apps for business document.
Droid Life's sources have informed that Google Voice support would "eventually" be coming to Babel, but the service would initially integrate Talk, Hangouts, and Messenger.
The report adds that the service will feature notification syncing across devices and platforms. This means that if a user is signed on to the service on multiple devices, performing actions on one would reflect on all instantly. For example, if the user receives a chat notification, responding to it on one device would clear notifications on others.
The service would bring a new UI that focuses on conversations and will applied across all versions of Babel, as per the report. Users will be able to transfer photos, use 800+ emoticons, check on-the-record conversations from any device they're signed in from, and group chat via a hangout button from within the app.
The report also confirms the recent TechRadar
report that had screen grabs of the alleged service. Techradar had said that it had received the shots from someone who claims to be a Google employee.
Prior to that two different sets of alleged Google Babel mobile apps screen grabs had appeared online.
We had earlier
reported that Google was looking to unify its messaging platforms into one single service, expected to be christened Babble/Babel based on a Geek.com report. The website cited multiple sources to inform that the Babble service was being built from scratch to solve problems of Google's chat products not interacting with each other efficiently barring Google Talk for Gmail and Google+.
Image courtesy: TechRadar