Google is on a roll on the Apple App Store. Shortly after it released the revamped ‘Google Search‘ iPhone app, the search giant has now launched Disco Messenger – a group-texting service that allows one to send group text messages to friends from a mobile phone or Web interface. Group messaging is currently the “in-thing” on Apple App [...]
Google is on a roll on the Apple App Store. Shortly after it released the revamped ‘Google Search‘ iPhone app, the search giant has now launched Disco Messenger – a group-texting service that allows one to send group text messages to friends from a mobile phone or Web interface. Group messaging is currently the “in-thing” on Apple App Store and Google will be up against competitors such as GroupMe, Beluga, Fast Society, Kik and several others. I was disappointed to know that Disco Messenger is currently available only in the United States.
None the less, it’s an interesting experiment from Google as it plans to tap a keenly contested segment. Read on to know more about Disco Messenger.
Last year, Google scooped up Slide, a Web 2.0 company focused on texting and photo sharing software for social networking services such as MySpace and Facebook, for $182 million. Ever since then, speculation has been rife that Google is secretly building a group messaging app.
The idea is simple – you sign up for the service via Disco.com and create an account with your mobile phone number. The Disco service sends a confirmation SMS for verification and you are good to set up your first group for mass-texting. You can setup groups and include anyone with a mobile phone number – irrespective of whether they use Disco or not. The Disco service notifies your friends that they’ve been added in a mass-texting group along with assigned nickname.
Once the setup is done, you can use either the web interface or the iPhone app to start a group text session. You can respond to a group conversation by texting the phone number that Disco assigns to each group you create. To be honest, the Disco iPhone app is a proof of concept at the moment. It provides the capability to send and receive group text messages plus a few additional administrative capabilities as compared to the website but it’s no match for some of the more feature rich group texting apps like GroupMe, Beluga and others.
Facebook recently acquired Beluga so I’ve no doubt Google needs to drastically improve Disco to stand a chance in this high-stake battle for group texting supremacy.
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