Google Unifies Its Messaging and Communication Apps Under a Single Team

Last October, Google hired Microsoft’s former corporate vice president for Cortana – Javier Soltero as VP for G Suite tools. The company has now reportedly unified its consumer and business-based messaging teams by placing Soltero in charge of Messages, Duo, and Android’s phone app.

“We are bringing all of Google’s collective communication products together under one leader and unified team that will be led by Javier Soltero, VP and GM of G Suite.”, a Google spokesperson told The Verge.

Soltero, however, will continue being a part of the Cloud team. “Javier will remain in Cloud, but will also join the leadership team under Hiroshi Lockheimer, SVP of Platforms and Ecosystems. Outside of this update, there are no other changes to the personnel and Hiroshi will continue to play a significant role in our ongoing partnership efforts.”, the spokesperson added.

As reported by The Verge, this move is part of Google’s “coherent vision” for messaging apps. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing that there are multiple communications applications if they’re for a different purpose. Part of what might be confusing, what we’ve done to confuse everyone, is our history around some of our communications products that have gone from one place or another place.”, Google’s SVP Hiroshi Lockheimer told The Verge.

The news comes merely a few weeks after the company rebranded Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat to Google Meet and Google Chat respectively. According to the report, Google has no immediate plans for changing or integrating existing Google apps. “We believe people make choices around the products that they use for specific purposes,” Soltero added.