It looks like Google is gearing up to combine IM and SMS into a single app.
by Ron Amadeo
The SMS options in Google Hangouts.
Android Police has scored a set of screenshots from the next version of Google Hangouts, and it looks like Google is finally ready to integrate SMS messaging into the product. One screenshot shows messages displaying in the Hangouts app, marked as "xx mins via SMS." Another shows the settings screen with an option to "Turn on SMS" which will "Send and receive SMS with Hangouts." The report says the screenshots are from version 1.3 of Hangouts (the current version is 1.2) and that SMS delivery reports, MMS, and video sharing support are also included.
Android Police has a solid track record of getting access to early bits of Android, having acquired advanced copies of Android 4.2 and Android 4.0 in the past. (Full disclosure: I wrote those articles). While the site can't give a firm release date, chances are this is part of the coming wave of Android KitKat improvements.
Unifying the stock texting app and Google Hangouts is probably the Android community's most requested feature. It would bring Google's confusing mess of messaging apps down from three apps to two. There used to be four messaging apps (Google Talk, G+ Messenger, the stock texting app, and Google Voice), so this is an ongoing project for Google. If this change makes it into version 1.3, we'll be down to Google Voice and Google Hangouts.
That's right, there's still no Google Voice support. Hopefully that's next on the agenda.
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